Badfinger (Max)

Rare Earth – I Just Want To Celebrate

I’m so thankful for a cousin who gave me and my sister a lot of singles. Cool singles, not the ones my sister had. I remember this single because of the artwork. The singles artwork really caught my attention, and when I think of this song, I think of the single spinning around. The groove in this song is hard to resist.

This band helped bridge the gap between Motown soul and straight-up rock and roll. This band was Motown’s attempt to be played on FM radio, and it worked. Rare Earth’s success was more than just a one-off hit; it marked a turning point for Motown. Before these Detroit rockers came along, Berry Gordy’s label was almost exclusively known for its soul and R&B greats: The Temptations, The Supremes, Marvin Gaye, and Stevie Wonder. But in 1969, Gordy decided to take a chance on the growing rock audience and launched Rare Earth Records, a Motown imprint named after the band itself. The idea worked while it showcased white rock groups who could carry that Motown groove into new territory. Berry took a chance and it paid off with this band.

Rare Earth was a blue-collar group of guys who could play as hard as Grand Funk but still had a Motown groove. The band had already made some noise with stretched-out covers like Get Ready, (I Know) I’m Losing You, but I Just Want to Celebrate was the one they will be remembered by the most.

This song peaked at #7 on the Billboard 100 and #10 in Canada in 1971. It was off their album One World. This was Rare Earth’s last top 10 single. The song was written by Dino Fekaris and Nick Zesses. This song has been covered by a span of artists, such as David Ruffin, rapper Foxy Brown, Metallica, and Marshall Crenshaw. How is that for different genres?

The song has had one of those second lives most bands only dream about. Decades after its release, the song kept finding new audiences, blasting out in movies like Tropic Thunder, Three Kings, and A Knight’s Tale, and even in TV spots for Ford, Nike, and Coca-Cola.

The song has been in countless commercials and movies. It is one of those songs that makes you feel good! It’s got soul, rock, and that Detroit groove, no overthinking, just joy. The band is still playing today, but with no original members.

I Just Want To Celebrate

One, two, three, four

I just want to celebrate another day of livin’
I just want to celebrate another day of life
I put my faith in the people
But the people let me down
So I turned the other way
And I carry on, anyhow

That’s why I’m telling you
I just want to celebrate, yeah, yeah
Another day of living, yeah
I just want to celebrate another day of life
Had my hand on the dollar bill
And the dollar bill flew away
But the sun is shining down on me
And it’s here to stay

That’s why I’m telling you
I just want to celebrate, yeah, yeah
Another day of living, yeah
I just want to celebrate another day of livin’
I just want to celebrate another day of life

Don’t let it all get you down, no, no
Don’t let it turn you around and around and around, no

Well, I can’t be bothered with sorrow
And I can’t be bothered with hate, no, no
I’m using up the time but feeling fine, every day
That’s why I’m telling you I just want to celebrate
Oh, yeah
I just want to celebrate another day
Oh, I just want to celebrate another day of livin’
I just want to celebrate another day of life

Don’t let it all get you down, no, no
Don’t let it turn you around and around, and around, and around
And around, and round, and round
Round, round, round, round
Round, round, round, round
Round, round, round, round
Don’t go round

I just want to celebrate
I just want to celebrate
Well, I just want to celebrate
Said I just want to celebrate (celebrate)
I just want to celebrate (I want to celebrate)
I just want to celebrate (I got to celebrate)
I just want to celebrate

Kolchak: The Night Stalker – Firefall

November 08, 1974 Season 1 Episode 6

If you want to see where we are…HERE is a list of the episodes.

This episode brought to mind the Twilight Zone episode, Mirror Image. A much more deadly version, though. The noir type of narration helps in this one because of the unusual story. Kolchak gets more involved in this one than most… he is in the center of it.

This one has a very different storyline from the others so far. By the time Kolchak: The Night Stalker aired this episode, the series had already established itself as a mix of noir and dark humor. This episode presents one of the show’s more psychologically complex stories. Instead of a vampire, werewolf, or zombie, this one focuses on a ghost-like “doppelganger,” a mysterious double that stalks its victim until it kills him. The result is a haunting-filled hour that shows just how flexible the Kolchak format could be.

The story begins when Kolchak investigates a series of spontaneous combustions connected to a famous symphony conductor, Ryder Bond. People around Bond are dying in fiery, unexplained accidents, and Kolchak quickly suspects something supernatural. But this isn’t your standard ghost story. What sets this one apart is its odd concept: a ghostly twin, born out of a near-death experience, who appears whenever the conductor falls asleep, a sleeping phantom trying to take his place in the world.

Director Don Weis uses shadows, flickering lights, and slow zooms to heighten the tension. Also, he makes the Chicago nights look especially moody here. Darren McGavin’s performance is typically sharp; his Kolchak is funny yet genuinely frightened. He balances humor with desperation as he realizes he’s chasing something that can’t be photographed or fought. The episode also benefits from a solid supporting cast, including Fred Beir as Bond and Madlyn Rhue as his wife.

It stands out more than the Alien episode because it dives heavily into psychological horror rather than pure monster-of-the-week thrills. It’s about the fear of losing yourself and being replaced by something that looks like you but isn’t. For a 1970s network TV show, that’s surprisingly territory. While it doesn’t have the flashy monster effects of “The Werewolf” or “The Zombie,” it lingers in your mind long after it’s over.

The COMPLETE EPISODE

Blasters – This Is It

It’s been a while since I posted a Blasters song (although I’ve posted performances by them), so I thought we would revisit them today on this fine Sunday. When I listen to the Blasters, I feel that I’m hearing every American sound that mattered. Rockabilly, R&B, gospel, blues, and the ghost of early rock ’n’ roll. This song is from their self-titled album, released in 1981.

I missed the Blasters when they were real-time, but I’m happy to be catching up with them now. They didn’t follow trends; instead, they stuck with what they knew best. 1950s energy reimagined through the early 1980s, without the trap of big production and high-gloss synths.

The Blasters album was the one that put them on the map. It caught the ear of critics, landed them an opening spot for Queen and The Cars, and even made them heroes of the early L.A. punk scene. But they didn’t fit neatly anywhere; they were too raw for pop radio, too traditional for punk, and too loud for nostalgia. They were their own being.

The Blasters never had mainstream success…but mainstream radio back in the ’80s would have been greatly improved by these guys. They were a rock and roll band formed in 1979 in Downey, California, by brothers Phil Alvin (vocals and guitar) and Dave Alvin (guitar), with bass guitarist John Bazz and drummer Bill Bateman.

You can hear the ghosts of Gene Vincent and Little Richard shouting approval. It’s pretty simple, just the sound of American rock ’n’ roll refusing to die. If you’re new to The Blasters, start here with this album because… This is it.

This Is It

This is it, now, baby
The moon, it sure looks fine
I can tell your future by looking
At the highway sign

It’s something we’ll never know
Unless we get up and go
This is it, now, baby
We’re gonna have a time tonight

This is it, this is it
This is it, now, baby
We’re gonna have a time tonight

This is it, now, baby
It’s something we can share
Don’t worry about the rules
Tonight i just don’t care

Our world’s just a little too grey
Tonight’s right for our getaway
This is it, now, baby
We’re gonna have a time tonight

This is it, now, baby
It ain’t no hanging crime
But when the sun comes up
Maybe you’ll change your mind

If you want to go home say when
But you’ll never come with me again
This is it, now, baby
We’re gonna have a time tonight

This is it, this is it
This is it, now, baby
We’re gonna have a time tonight

…

Rolling Stones – Monkey Man

Yeah, I’m a sack of broken eggs
I always have an unmade bed
Don’t you?

This song is a great album cut. The way I would describe the song? It is the actual sound of sleaze, and that is a compliment. It was used well in Goodfellas, the 1990 movie, in a scene where the gangsters are trafficking cocaine. One of my favorite Stone songs. I always liked the Stones album cuts more than their hits. This is when they had the perfect producer (Jimmy Miller), the perfect guitar player (Keith Richards), and the perfect sound. This is the Stones I love, their golden period.

What makes this song is Keith Richards’ riff, and it is menacing and on the prowl, practically alive in this song, stalking you outside your bedroom window. Only Keith could make a riff sound dangerous, and it builds up through the song. Richards laid down the main riff on a late-night jam, a hypnotic riff, with just enough space for Nicky Hopkins to work in his piano. Hopkins’ playing on this is greatness: melodic and sinister all at once. He reportedly improvised much of it, adding those runs that make the song snarl.

This song was on Let It Bleed, and it was recorded after Brian Jones was fired and before Mick Taylor replaced him. On Monkey Man, Keith Richards played electric and slide electric guitar, Bill Wyman played bass, and producer Jimmy Miller assisted drummer Charlie Watts on tambourine. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards wrote “Monkey Man” as a tribute to Italian pop artist Mario Schifano, whom they met on the set of his movie Umano Non Umano! (Human, Not Human!).

This song is the Let It Bleed track I always come back to when I want to feel the Stones at their most human and feral.

Monkey Man

I’m a fleabit peanut monkey
And all my friends are junkies
That’s not really true

I’m a cold Italian pizza
I could use a lemon squeezer
What you do?

But I’ve been bit and I’ve been tossed around
By every she-rat in this town
Have you babe?

But I am just a monkey man
I’m glad you are a monkey woman too

I was bitten by a boar
I was gouged and I was gored
But I pulled on through

Yeah, I’m a sack of broken eggs
I always have an unmade bed
Don’t you?

Well I hope we’re not too messianic
Or a trifle too satanic
But we love to play the blues

But well I am just a monkey man
I’m glad you are a monkey woman too
Monkey woman too babe

I’m a monkey man
I’m a monkey man
I’m a monkey man
I’m a monkey man
I’m a monkey
I’m a monkey
I’m a monkey
I’m a monkey
Monkey, monkey
Monkey

Monkey
I’m a monkey

Hollyood Fats Band – The Hollywood Fats Band …album review

This guy was mentioned in the comments last week (he was playing guitar with the Blasters in a video I posted), and I was listening. A blues band that swung like they were on a chandelier… what an incredible band this was. When I write posts, sometimes I think of the readers who would like them. Christian is the one I’m thinking of here…I’m not a blues aficionado, but when I hear something great, no matter what it is…I play it. Rarely would I review a blues album, but this one is certainly worth it. His guitar playing took me by surprise.

I loved how they recorded this. The band recorded the album in Los Angeles, using vintage tube gear, ribbon microphones, and a minimalist mic setup to capture the warmth and air of those old 1950s records. They wanted it raw, live, and most importantly, human. No overdubs, no studio tricks, just five musicians facing each other and playing to each other.

If you were hanging around the Los Angeles blues scene in the mid-1970s, you might’ve seen a big fedora-wearing guitar phenom named Michael “Hollywood Fats” Mann. For a few short years, he led a group that reminded the world that the West Coast had some great blues. The band had a deep Chicago and Texas blues sound. The Hollywood Fats Band didn’t last long, but they left their mark.

Michael Mann was just out of his teens when he was already playing alongside blues legends. He was born in Los Angeles in 1954. He sat in with the likes of Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, and Albert King when they hit town. He had a tone straight out of Chess Records. By the time he met harmonica player Al Blake and pianist Fred Kaplan in the mid-1970s, the idea of forming a blues revival band that really sounded like the old days began to take shape.

The lineup was a dream team for blues purists: Hollywood Fats on guitar, Al Blake on harp and vocals, Fred Kaplan on piano, Larry Taylor (formerly of Canned Heat) on upright bass, and Richard Innes on drums. They were in the middle of the disco era, but they stuck stubbornly to jump blues, and it swung. The chemistry was electric. Fats’ guitar lines just rip off those recordings I’ve been listening to, and the entire band was just fantastic.

Their lone studio album, The Hollywood Fats Band (recorded in 1979 and released in 1980), sounded like it had been transported from a Chess Records session with better fidelity. Sadly, it didn’t end well. Hollywood Fats struggled with addiction, and just as his reputation was spreading beyond the clubs of L.A., he died in 1986 at only 32. The band members carried on, but it was never the same.

There is not much film on the guy…this is not a great quality video, but you take what you can.

…

Rockpile – Teacher Teacher

Love this band, and thanks to Randy at mostlymusiccovers, who got me to look at this band more. What a fantastic duo Nick Lowe and Dave Edmunds were in the 70s and 80s.

Nick Lowe (lead vocals, bass), Dave Edmunds (lead vocals, guitar), Billy Bremner (backing vocals, guitar), and Terry Williams (drums) had been writing, recording, and playing live together for years before they released just one album, at least under the Rockpile name.

Before the band that recorded Seconds of Pleasure, the name “Rockpile” had already been used as the title of an album by Dave Edmunds that he released in 1970. Edmunds then toured as “Dave Edmunds and Rockpile,” with a band that included Williams on drums. But the group that became known as Rockpile didn’t form until Lowe and Edmunds began recording together in the mid-1970s.

In 1979, Edmunds and Lowe reached new heights of popularity with the release of Lowe’s Labour of Lust, including his hit Cruel to Be Kind, and Edmunds’ Repeat When Necessary, including his popular versions of Queen of Hearts and Elvis Costello’s Girls Talk. Both of those records were recorded by the members of Rockpile, but with the headliner singing all of the lead vocals on his album.

This song was written by Eddie Phillips and Kenny Pickett, both from the mod 1960s band The Creation (a band who patterned themselves on The Who). That makes sense because it has got that mid-’60s British melody, while the performance is pure pub-rock punch. Nick Lowe takes the vocal lead, while Edmunds’s production keeps everything crisp.

This song peaked at #51 on the Billboard 100 and #31 in Canada in 1980.

Teacher Teacher

Young love, teacher’s pet
Cheeks flushed, apple red
Ringing you every day
Begging for a word of praise
I’ve put aside my foolish games
I run and hide and callin’ names
School’s out, the bells’ll ring
Now’s the time to teach me everything

Teacher, teacher, teach me love
I can’t learn it fast enough
Teacher, teacher, teach me more
I’ve got to learn to love for sure

Lesson one, just begun
Growing up ain’t much fun
Grown up, out of school
Out of luck and out of rules
No one there to tell me how
A different world, teacher teach me now

Teacher, teacher, teach me love
I can’t learn it fast enough
Teacher, teacher, teach me more
I’ve got to learn to love for sure

Lesson two, nothing new
I can’t love, just passing through

Books I read don’t understand
What it means to be a man
I need a woman just like you
Teacher, teacher, teach me what to do

Teacher, teacher, teach me love
I can’t learn it fast enough
Teacher, teacher, teach me more
I’ve got to learn to love for sure

Teacher, teacher, teach me love
I can’t learn it fast enough

Joe South – Walk A Mile In My Shoes

When I hear this song, I think of Joe South delivering a Sunday sermon on Southern philosophy. It was on the AM radio growing up, and I remember it well. This one and Games People Play were the two South songs I heard the most.

This song is a little bit of everything with pop, gospel, country, and soul. Before his solo success, South had already built a reputation that most session players would love to have. He played guitar on Aretha Franklin’s Chain of Fools, wrote Billy Joe Royal’s Down in the Boondocks, and later wrote his own solo hit, Games People Play, which was a Grammy-winning anthem of its own. Joe South was Georgia guy who would write songs that people could relate to. His records were smart, soulful, and unafraid to say something.

Elvis Presley covered this song during his 1970 That’s the Way It Is concerts, giving it his full Vegas-gospel jumpsuit treatment, which helped carry Joe’s song to the mainstream. Everyone from Coldcut to Bryan Ferry to Otis Clay would later cover it, but none quite captured that mix of frustration and hope that Joe did on the original.

Joe South doesn’t get enough credit in the conversation about 60s/70s singer-songwriters. He wasn’t flashy, but was saying something worth hearing. The song peaked at #12 on the Billboard 100, #10 in Canada, #11 on the Canada Country Charts, and #56 on the Billboard Country Charts in 1970.

Joe South is personal to me because of his connection to my family. He recorded some in my uncle’s studio. This is from 1964.

Walk A Mile In My Shoes

If I could be you, if you could be meFor just one hourIf we could find a wayTo get inside each other’s mind

If you could see you through my eyesInstead of your egoI believe you’d beSurprised to seeThat you’ve been blind

Walk a mile in my shoesWalk a mile in my shoesAnd before you abuse, criticize and accuseWalk a mile in my shoes

Now, your whole worldYou see around youIs just a reflectionAnd the law of KarmaSays you gonna reapJust what you sow, yes you will

So unless you’ve lived a lifeOf total perfectionYou better be careful of every stoneThat you should throw, yeah

And yet we spend the day throwing stonesAt one another‘Cause I don’t think or wear my hairThe same way you do

Well, I may be common peopleBut I’m your brotherAnd when you strike out and try to hurt meIt’s hurtin’ you, Lord have mercy

Walk a mile in my shoesWalk a mile in my shoesHey, before you abuse, criticize and accuseWalk a mile in my shoes

There are people on reservationsAnd out in the ghettosAnd brother, thereBut for the grace of GodGo you and I, yeah, yeah

And if I only had the wingsOf a little angel, yeahDon’t you know I’d flyTo the top of the mountainAnd then I’d cry, hey

Walk a mile in my shoesWalk a mile in my shoesHey, before you abuse, criticize and accuseBetter walk a mile in my shoes

Walk a mile in my shoesWalk a mile in my shoesOh, before you abuse, criticize and accuseWalk a mile in my shoes, yeah…

Kolchak: The Night Stalker – The Werewolf

November 01, 1974 Season 1 Episode 5

If you want to see where we are…HERE is a list of the episodes.

I’m loving going through these episodes. Like the X-Files, this show has a monster and humor. Sometimes serious and sometimes camp. There is something for everyone. With Star Trek and Twilight Zone, I tried to hide what the monster or whatever was, but with the titles to this series, not much cause for that.

This is one of the great atmospheric episodes in the series. This time, our ever-skeptical reporter Carl Kolchak (played with perfect disheveled energy by Darren McGavin) finds himself aboard a cruise ship bound for New York, covering what should have been a puff piece about fun on the high seas. Naturally, things go sideways when passengers start turning up brutally mauled, and the only clues are shredded clothing and what look like animal bites. Kolchak’s sense for the bizarre kicks in, and soon he suspects that a werewolf might be loose on the ship, a premise that turns an already claustrophobic voyage into pure nightmare.

The episode cleverly uses its limited setting to heighten suspense. The cruise ship’s narrow hallways and locked cabins create a sense of entrapment — there’s nowhere to run when the full moon rises. The story also dips into old-school monster-movie tradition: silver bullets, cursed bites, and the doomed man who becomes the beast. The makeup effects, while modest by today’s standards, deliver a creepy punch, a classic, snarling wolf-man straight out of a Universal horror movie. Kolchak, armed only with his typewriter wit and some makeshift silver, must find a way to stop the creature before the ship reaches port.

This episode is a good example of the show’s formula: horror meets journalism, with humor and cynicism woven through. The episode’s director, Allen Baron, keeps the pacing tight, and the contrast between McGavin’s wisecracking performance and the grim killings maintains that strange Kolchak balance between camp and dread. It also helped solidify the series’s reputation for finding horror in everyday or unexpected places, in this case, a pleasure cruise turned into a deathtrap.

This episode feels like a monster-of-the-week done with a touch of humor and melancholy. This one has the feel of a late-night drive-in flick, half spooky and half funny, and it remains a fan favorite…per IMDB. Two standout guest stars were Nita Talbot as Kolchak’s cohort, Paula Griffin. She was no one’s fool and quite a match for Kolchak. Also, Eric Braeden as Bernhardt Stieglitz who plays the title role of the show.

The FULL EPISODE! The reason I don’t embed the video is that Dailymotion just keeps playing every time you pull up my site. It gets on your nerves and mine as well.

Them – Gloria

Please pardon the personal story…but, you should be used to it by now, by the way I go on. I hope I haven’t told this story before, but if I have…I apologize. This is just one of the songs we played.

This song belongs right beside Louie Louie and Wild Thing as a staple of garage band rock. Three chords… E D A, and you are off to the races. A beginner guitar player can emulate this song rather well. When I was in high school, the band I was in… played this song. We would play more challenging songs, of course, but this one always got a good response and participation from the crowd with the call-and-answer lyrics.

When I was a senior, we played in the “fall frolics” (rock bands, singers) in our high school gym, and I had a couple of friends who were curious/envious and wanted to know how it felt to play in front of people. We had been playing at parties and a bar (shhhh yea we were underage) by this time. What I did was show one of them this song on bass…it’s that easy… and the other one we handed a tambourine and told him to participate in the chorus.

For that one song, we called them up and they got to know how it felt. I ran into one of them a few years back, and he thanked me again. He said it was one of the scariest but best moments he ever had in high school.

Sorry for the detour… This song was by “Them,” which featured no other than Van the Man Morrison (who also wrote the song). It peaked at #93 in the Billboard 100 in 1965 and #71 in 1966.

Morrison wrote this song while fronting Them at the Maritime Hotel in Belfast, often using it as their closer, a song that could stretch to ten minutes or more depending on the crowd and Van’s mood. Recorded at Decca Studios in London, it was originally the B-side to Baby, Please Don’t Go. Ironically, this song would outlive its A-side by miles, becoming a rock ’n’ roll rite of passage for any band that could play an A, D, and E chord. Well…their version of Baby, Please Don’t Go is my definite version of the song.

The song charted higher for The Shadows of Knight in 1966 at #10 on the Billboard 100, but this is the version I listen to. Finding Them at 18 led me to Van Morrison, which I have followed ever since. The first thing I did was order an album from the UK, which I still have with many of their hits.

At this stage in their career, sometimes, some session musicians played on Them’s records instead of the actual band, although Van Morrison did the real singing. One of these session players was Jimmy Page, who played guitar on this song.

In the video below…is that a donkey they flash to?

Gloria

Like to tell you ’bout my baby
You know she comes around
Just ’bout five feet-four
A-from her head to the ground
You know she comes around here
At just about midnight
She make me feel so good, Lord
She make me feel all right

And her name is G-L-O-R-I
G-L-O-R-I-A
Gloria!
G-L-O-R-I-A
Gloria!
I’m gonna shout it all night
Gloria!
I’m gonna shout it every day
Gloria!
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

She comes around here
Just about midnight
She make me feel so good, Lord
I want to say she make me feel all right
Comes a-walkin’ down my street
Then she comes up to my house
She knock upon my door
And then she comes to my room
Yeah, and she make me feel all right

G-L-O-R-I-A
Gloria!
G-L-O-R-I-A
Gloria!
I’m gonna shout it all night
Gloria!
I’m gonna shout it every day
Gloria!
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
So good
Gloria!
All right
Feels so good
Gloria!
All right, yeah

Big Wreck – That Song

I first discovered this band through deKe on his blog, The Distortion Den. After that, someone brought up a song, and I knew I knew the band from somewhere. deKe always surprises me with something. I never know if it’s going to be heavy metal, power pop (Sloan), hard rock, or just rock.

When people talk about great Canadian rock bands of the late ’90s and beyond, Big Wreck is right there. They were a thinking person’s hard-rock band, and it all started with a chance meeting at Berklee College of Music.

In the early ’90s, guitarist-vocalist Ian Thornley, a Toronto native with a passion for Jeff Beck, Soundgarden, and Zeppelin, enrolled at Boston’s Berklee College of Music. There, he met guitarist Brian Doherty, bassist Dave Henning, and drummer Forrest Williams. The four clicked immediately, bonding over odd time signatures, vintage amps, and songs. They called themselves Big Wreck, a tongue-in-cheek nod to the chaos of their early practice sessions. They soon began gigging around Boston.

They have been a highly successful band in their history. They have released 8 albums, and 5 have been in the Canadian top ten. This song was on their debut album, released in 1997, called In Loving Memory Of. The album peaked at #48 in Canada and #31 on the US Heatseekers Chart. That Song peaked at #31 in Canada, #7 on Canadian Alt Rock charts, and #32 on the US Mainstream Rock charts.

After listening to them, I can see why they were at Berklee. They are very talented, and it shows in their songs. However, they don’t sound too polished, and they keep some of the raw edges. They seem genuine, and many talented bands tend to show off rather than concentrate on songs, and Big Wreck does.

That Song

So I always get nostalgic with that song
But in my room it’s forced
It has to be in some car across the street
And I always catch the back of your head in a crowd
Just don’t turn around
It’s never you and you ruin those memories
And those photos are great if I catch them with the side of my eye
But if I stare, it just turns into you and me
We’re just standing there

And now its over
Would you hear me
Scream at the top of my lungs
And when you go there
Would you hear me
Scream at the top of my lungs

So I always fool my friends and we head down there
You think that we are en route
We just drove past your old house and you weren’t there
And I’m always great when I’m hanging with your buds and they lie
They think that I’m just fine
Its always been that way, just a pocketbook Brando

And when you hold him
Would you hear me
Scream at the top of my lungs
You love my whisper
But did you hear me
Scream at the top of my lungs

So you crank that song
And it might sound doom
So just leave the room
While I sit and stare
Cause this is rare
I really love that tune
Man, I love that song
I really love that song
I love that song

So when you go there
Would you hear me
Scream at the top of my lungs
And when you’re hated
Would you hear me
Scream at the top of my lungs

So you crank that song
And it might sound doom
So just leave the room
While I sit and stare
Cause yeah, that’s rare
I really love that tune
Man, I love that song
I love that song
I love that song

…

Lee Allen – Walking With Mr. Lee

I’m sitting here with my headphones on and listening to this instrumental, Walking With Mr. Lee. This one makes me feel like I’m walking down a street in the 1950s, flushed with money. Not every classic needs a big chorus or a star singer; sometimes it’s a great musician taking a walk and inviting us all to follow…and follow I will.

Allen grew up in Denver after being born in Pittsburg, Kansas, and headed to New Orleans on a combined athletics and music scholarship to Xavier University in the mid-1940s. He fell straight into the city’s music scene, working alongside Dave Bartholomew’s crew with Red Tyler, Earl Palmer, and company. He worked with the best, and that included Fats Domino (Allen played on many of his records), Lloyd Price, Huey “Piano” Smith, Professor Longhair, The Blasters, The Stray Cats, Allen Toussaint, The Rolling Stones, and, crucially, Little Richard’s 1955-1956 Specialty singles that were full of Allen’s saxophone.

So Mr. Allen wasn’t a guy who came out of nowhere. He rarely showed off; he guided the band, nudging Fats Domino forward, egging Little Richard on, and making every garage band probably think, “we need a sax.” As Chuck Berry’s guitar was so important to the 1950s, Lee Allen’s sax was in the thick of it as well.

I found a 1991 video featuring Lee Allen, Boots Randolph, Sil Austin, Hans & Candy Dulfer, and it’s definitely worth watching. Walking With Mr. Lee did become a minor hit, and it was played on American Bandstand constantly. The song passes my smile test…because when I hear it, I’m happy.

Lee Allen on sax with the Blaster.

No lyrics needed…just put some headphones on and enjoy.

…

J.J. Cale – Crazy Mama

The thing that I’ve found about Cale is that his music isn’t in your face. It really sneaks up on you while you listen. I remember this getting played on AM radio when I was a kid, and this song introduced me to J.J. Cale. Yes I may have heard some of his songs that were covered by others, but I knew this by Cale and no one else.

Oklahoma blues guitarist and songwriter J.J. Cale is best known for a number of songs that became radio favorites when covered by other artists. These include both After Midnight and Cocaine, which were written and recorded by Cale before Eric Clapton cut his versions. Also, Cale’s track Call Me The Breeze has been covered by numerous acts, most notably by Lynyrd Skynyrd.

The record feels loose, almost casual, like you just stumbled across him jamming in a Tulsa roadhouse. Yet the track is locked in tight, every note exactly where it needs to be. Musicians took notice; countless guitarists, from Mark Knopfler to Neil Young, would later cite Cale’s minimalism as an influence.

He made this hit song without raising his voice or speeding up this song. Remember this was the era of bombast, arena rock, prog, and wall-to-wall sound. Cale proved that restraint could be just as powerful. It’s no surprise that Clapton and others gravitated to his songs; Cale had a way of making music that felt timeless and genuine. This song may have been his only chart hit, but it wasn’t his only masterpiece.

Crazy Mama is a song from Cale’s debut album, Naturally, and was his only Top 40 hit in the US. Naturally peaked at #51

This song peaked at #22 on the Billboard 100 in 1971.

Crazy Mama

Crazy mama, where you been so long?
Crazy mama, where you been so long?
You’ve been hiding out, I know that’s true
Crazy mama, I sure need you
Crazy mama, where you been so long?

Standing on the corner, looking for you, babe
Standing on the corner, looking for you, babe
Lord have mercy, can I see,
that crazy mama coming back to me?
Crazy mama, where you been so long?

Big Star – Third/Sister Lovers …album review

This was written for Dave’s Tuntable Series. The topic is Going out on a High Note. We all have seen artists who stick around long after they should have exited gracefully. For this round, pick a musical artist who you think ended their career on a high note, a great final album, or a triumphant concert tour before they grew stale.

I could have picked The Beatles, probably one of the best examples of going out on top with Abbey Road, but as usual, I wanted to go down the path less travelled. I wanted to feature Big Star’s last album, recorded in 1974. Parts of the band did release an album in 2005 under the Big Star name, but I’m not counting that one. This album was on Rolling Stone Magazine’s 500 Greatest Albums list at #285.

If there’s an album that feels like the final curtain was lowered, it’s Big Star’s Third/Sister Lovers album. Recorded in late 1974, it dribbled out years later in different forms; the record doesn’t just mark the end of Big Star, it feels like the end of Alex Chilton’s patience with power pop itself. This album had test pressings in 1975, but didn’t get officially released until 1978

Unlike #1 Record and Radio City, which had power-pop perfection, Third/Sister Lovers is messy and sometimes unsettling. It sounds less like a polished album and more like a band trying everything while the tape keeps rolling. Jim Dickinson’s production at Ardent Studios only added to the loose, haunted feel, he let Chilton and whoever else showed up throw down takes that feel unfinished and unfiltered.

Songs like Kizza Me, Jesus Christ, and Thank You Friends have some of Big Star’s old jangle, but the edges are jagged. Then you get Holocaust and Kanga Roo, two of the most desolate tracks they ever did. Holocaust is not something you hum; it’s something that stays with you afterward.

Part of the mythology of this album is that no one really knows the “real” tracklist. Different labels sequenced it differently when it trickled out in the late 70s and early 80s. By the time Rykodisc issued it on CD in the 90s and Omnivore Recordings gave us the expanded Complete Third box, it was clear… this wasn’t one neatly tidy album, it was choppy, uneven, and brilliant.

For all its chaos, this album became a blueprint for generations of indie and alternative bands. You hear its fingerprints in REM., Replacements, and Wilco, artists who weren’t afraid to experiment with pop and let it stand on its own. For a band that never could catch a break, Big Star ended with an album that was seldom properly released, yet somehow became arguably their most influential. That’s Big Star in a nutshell: tragedy, beauty, and magic all together.

Thank You Friends

Thank you, friendsWouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for youI’m so grateful for all the things you helped me do.

All the ladies and gentlemenWho made this all so probable

Thank you, friendsI rejoice to the skiesDear ones like you do the best I doAs far as can see my eyes

All the ladies and gentlemenWho made this all so probable

Without my friends I got chaosI’m often a bead of light.Without my friends I’d be swept up high by the wind

do, do…

All the ladies and gentlemen (I said all)All the ladies and gentlemen (I said all)All the ladies and gentlemenWho made this all so probable

Thank you friends (thank you again)Thank you friends (thank you again)Dear, dear friends (thank you again)Thank you friends (thank you again)And again, and again…Never too late to start

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Kolchak: The Night Stalker – The Vampire

October 04, 1974 Season 1 Episode 4

If you want to see where we are…HERE is a list of the episodes.

This show acted as a direct sequel to the original TV movie The Night Stalker. It’s a really good episode! This story has Kolchak chasing down Janos Skorzeny’s (the original vampire in the movie) “offspring,” a female vampire who rises in Los Angeles after a series of mysterious murders. Where the original movie thrived on Darren McGavin’s tense battles with a powerful vampire in Las Vegas, this time Kolchak is once again the only man connecting the dots as bodies begin piling up with familiar fang marks and drained blood.

We can always rely on Carl Kolchak to stubbornly pursue the strange stories even when under orders to pursue something decidedly more mundane. Carl is sent to Los Angeles to interview a young guru and instead becomes intrigued by a series of killings involving the draining of blood, first told to him by an old acquaintance named “Swede” (guest star Larry Storch). Kolchak is once again quick to jump to the most extravagant conclusion, and of course, he’s right: the culprit is a sexy female vampire unearthed from her slumber by a highway crew outside Las Vegas.

The climax is classic Kolchak. Armed with a cross, hammer, and stake, he hunts the vampire into her lair beneath the city. The episode builds tension with along the way with lighting, camera work, and McGavin’s energy as he fends off a supernatural predator. Unlike many horror shows of the era that shied away from violence, Kolchak goes into the dread of facing a creature of legend. The confrontation with the vampire feels unsettling, reminding viewers that Kolchak isn’t a superhero; he’s just a reporter willing to risk his life for the truth.

Watching McGavin shuffle around Los Angeles in his seersucker suit, trying to convince hardened cops that a vampire is on the loose, is both hilarious and chilling. For me, this one stands out because it proves Kolchak never gets an easy win, and he doesn’t even get peace of mind. But what he does get is the truth, and he’ll drive a stake through anything, or anyone, that tries to bury it.

The change of setting also works well for the episode, allowing Kolchak to comment on the nature of L.A. and demonstrating some ingenuity in the end when it comes to dispatching his unearthly foe; there’s some good imagery there.

Here is the COMPLETE EPISODE!

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Doug Sahm – Groover’s Paradise

A groove you can drive a truck through
wider than a Texas mile

I’ve been waiting until I could start listening to the former lead singer of the Sir Douglas Quintet. The time has arrived, and I knew it would be some quality music, and I’ve enjoyed dipping my toe in the Doug Sahm waters. I’d heard his music from the ’60s and ’90s, but didn’t know much about the 1970s; it didn’t disappoint.

Texan Doug Sahm was an exceptional talent. By the time most kids were still figuring out how to play Little League, Sahm was already on stage. At age 11, he played steel guitar at the Skyline Club in Austin, sharing the bill with Hank Williams on what was one of Hank’s final performances on December 19, 1952.

Why choose one genre when you can play ‘em all? He could play country, blues, Tex-Mex, rock ‘n’ roll, R&B, and anything else that came his way. He was one of those musicians who seemed to be a walking jukebox.

This song is very country-rock and has a San Francisco hippie feel to it. He was basically Americana before Americana was a popular word. He didn’t chase trends at all; he did what made him happy, and that is why his music sounds so genuine. He hung out in San Francisco for a while in the early seventies. Among his friends were Bob Dylan, Dr. John, Willie Nelson, and the Grateful Dead. But he always went back to Texas.

This song is the title track from his 1974 album. It was produced by none other than Doug Clifford and Stu Cook of Creedence Clearwater Revival; the album has a loose, laid-back feel, and Clifford played drums. This song is a tribute to Austin, celebrating the unique blend of hippies, cowboys, and soul that defined the city in the mid-1970s.

For me, he was like a bridge between genres and generations. He could play an accordion song, a honky-tonk ballad, then rip into a garage rock, all in the same set.

Here is one of his sons, Shandon Sahm, playing this song.

An entire concert, but I have it starting on Groover’s Paradise.

Groover’s Paradise

Go out on the highway
I thumbed myself a ride
Too long in New York City
My mind is taking a ride

I want to go back to Texas
Cosmic cowgirls playin’
I want to have some fun
in a good ole Texas way
Down in Groover’s Paradise
Groover’s Paradise, Groover’s Paradise

Told you one or two times
Ain’t gonna tell you no more
Too long in Detroit city
I can’t hardly breathe no more

I need a whole lot of cold Pearl beer
and a little Texas smile
A groove you can drive a truck through
wider than a Texas mile
Down in Groover’s Paradise
Groover’s Paradise, Groover’s Paradise

Groover’s Paradise!

Well the guacamole queen is there
Man she’ll really curl your hair
Enchiladas and Bar B Que
Come on baby what you gonna do?

Come on over here beside me
Tell me how you’ve been
When I get done layin’ it on you
Then you’ll know I am back again
Back in Groover’s Paradise
Groover’s Paradise, Groover’s Paradise