Keith Richards is 64 today. That's like 128 for you and me. Let's celebrate with a few collaborations he's done over the years outside of his main gig.
I walked out of Southpaw here in Brooklyn last week after the dB's show and snapped this photograph. Immediately I said to my friend Laura "Isn't there a song about trucking trees for Christmas?" She, being married to a well known authority on truck driving songs, confirmed that indeed there is. So here you have it....
Ike Turner's dead. He was a lot of things. Among them, he was a badass guitar player, piano player, producer, arranger, bandleader, songwriter, and a talent scout for Sam Phillips at Sun. He was also a bad motherfucker. Unfortunately, he'll probably be best remembered as a wife beating substance abuser. He probably wasn't a "nice guy," but his contributions to American music are vast and deep. I remember reading an interview with him in an early issue of Spin, where when asked about Tina's suicide attempt, he tried to make light of the matter by saying (and I'll paraphrase this from memory) "There's something you gotta understand about black folks, Tina tried to kill herself by jumping out of a first story window." Ike did eventually serve time in jail, get clean, and make a Grammy nominated comeback record.
Download: "It's Gonna Work Out Fine" mp3 by Ike and Tina Turner, 1960. (and as pointed out in the comments that's Mickey Baker not Ike answering Tina) available on Golden Classics
And from the Club Imperial in St.Louis hear but not see Ike Turner & The Kings of Rhythm playing for some jitterbuggers on local TV....
For the entire show, go to Bedazzled HERE It's quite amazing. In between smoking performances by the Kings of Rhythm, fans of late night St. Louis television can get a glimpse of Steve Mizerany selling Norge refrigerators before the toupee, roller skates and gorilla suits.
I'm pretty familiar with the Dave Edmunds catalog, but I had no idea of the existence of this record until I walked into House of Oldies on Carmine Street asking for an Earl King 45, and walked away with this. I had no intention of buying any Christmas records, but must have been an easy mark since I reached into my pocket and bought the record without any hesitation when the proprietor suggested it instead.
Download: GONE mp3 by Dave Edmunds, 1982. available onParty PartyOST
And finally, Keith's Christmas single from 1978. Here he is joined by Ronnie Wood and Sly and Robbie. The b-side, a Jimmy Cliff classic, is not a holiday number but is too great not to include. In it, he recreates his four note"Sympathy For The Devil" solo at about a quarter of the speed and all of the soul.
Download GONE mp3 by Keith Richards, 1978. non scratchy version available @ itunes store.
Below we have eight records that are in some way associated with my people. Bookended by a record by a nice Jewish boy from Brooklyn singing about a gospel tent show, and a noted disturbed and not Jewish anti-semite backed by Yo La Tengo, who celebrate the eight nights of Hanukkah in Hoboken almost every year with a star-studded Festival of Lights. In between we get noted Yids: The Lovin' Spoonful, The Clash (singer Mick Jones); The Strangeloves, who pretended to be Australian brothers, but were in fact the songwriting team of Feldman, Goldstein and Gottehrer; Joey Ramone AKA Jeffrey Hyman singing a song co-written and produced by psycho-Jew Phil Spector, Leslie West (nee Weinstein) fronting Mountain in a guilty pleasure of mine as well as my second favorite cowbell song; and a semi-rare B-side by Mr. Zimmerman himself.
One of the cooler things I picked up at the WFMU Record Fair last month was a pretty common record. The Stones' 1972 US single of "Tumbling Dice." What is extraordinary about it is that they issued it in Mono. The B-Side, "Sweet Black Angel" is stereo. To do this in 1972, was probably not a self-conscious retro pose, as much as the realization that the record should be mixed to be heard through the speaker of a Delco radio on the dashboard of a Pontiac. FM radio was still optional in those days. So, aside from any geeky discussion of Mono vs. Stereo, this is in my opinion the Stones finest moment. Originally kicked around in 1969 sessions for Sticky Fingers as "Good Time Women," it was recorded and remained unfinished until the riff and the groove coalesced into "Tumbling Dice" in the sweaty basement of Keith's Chateau Villa Nellcote on the French Riviera during the sessions for Exile on Main Street. What is great about this record is pretty simple: there's the groove, the riff, and great lyrics from Jagger when he was still a credible voice. Mick is on rhythm, Keith takes the solo and Mick Taylor plays bass. The Mono mix has a more lively drum sound and more subdued background vocals.
Dig it...
Download:
"Tumbling Dice" mp3 mono mix by The Rolling Stones, 1972. Single RS-19103
In case you haven't noticed, guitar players have a special place here in Fluvile. James Burton holds an esteemed distinction among guitarists. Not only is he the quintessential sideman, but he has played with both Elvis'.
Hum Susie-Q for a bit.
It's the riff you're humming, right? James Burton wrote that. He was already a veteran of the Louisiana Hayride when he recorded it with Dale Hawkins at the ripe age of 15, before migrating to Bob Luman's band and then being snatched up by Ricky Nelson who was recording next door. Burton then went on to play on hundreds of records, mostly uncredited. We'll get to those in another post.
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