Obligatory Yuletide Offering

Here's some stuff.
Don't say we never gave you anything.

Merry Christmas and Season's Greetings
from the Fluville Chamber of Commerce.

Drive Safely.

***********************************

Download:

"White Christmas" mp3
by Bob Marley and The Wailers, 1963.
available on Destiny: Rare Ska Sides From Studio 1

"Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" mp3
by Darlene Love, 1963.
available on A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector

"If Christmas Can't Bring You Home" mp3
by the Reigning Sound, 2005.
available on Home for Orphans

"Christmas Eve Can Kill You" mp3
by The Everly Brothers, 1972.
available on Stories We Could Tell

"Santa Claus Go Straight To The Ghetto" mp3
by James Brown, 1968.
available on Funky Christmas

"Merry Christmas, I Love You" mp3
by James Brown, 1966.
available on Funky Christmas

"Let's Make Christmas Mean Something This Year" mp3
by James Brown, 1966.
available on Funky Christmas



"All I Want For Christmas" mp3
by Solomon Burke, 1972.
Pride 45-1022
out of print

"Christmas Must Be Tonight (Alternate)" mp3
by The Band, 1975.
available on Northern Lights Southern Cross

"Christmas Wish" mp3
by NRBQ, 1979.
available on Peek-A-Boo: Best of 1969-89

"My Mom and Santa Claus" mp3
by George Jones, 1968.
available on A Good Year For The Roses:
The Complete Musicor Recordings 1965-1971 (Part 2)

"Rock & Roll Santa Claus" mp3
by Huey "Piano" Smith and the Clowns, 1962.
available on Twas the Night Before Christmas

"'Twas The Night Before Christmas" mp3
by Huey "Piano" Smith and the Clowns, 1962.
available on Twas the Night Before Christmas

"Doing The Santa Claus" mp3
by Huey "Piano" Smith and the Clowns, 1962.
available on Twas the Night Before Christmas

"Christmas In Prison" mp3
by John Prine, 1973.
available on Sweet Revenge

"Jesus Christ" mp3
by Alex Chilton, 1975
from Radio Broadcast WLXY Memphis

"The Christmas Song" mp3
by Dexter Gordon, 1970.
available on The Panther!

More Christmas music can be found:
HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE.

top photo: © Ted Barron, 2010.

West Texas Sound

A few years back, I was talking to a friend of mine about Neil Young's guitar playing, and he said: "You've gotta be really good to play that badly." I knew exactly what he meant. The same can be said for singers who scream-- the best ones are great singers to begin with. Look no further than James Brown. In my opinion, there's no greater screamer in American music of recent years than Greg Cartwright, who happens to be a great singer as well.

By the photograph and title of this post, you may have thought you were gonna get some of Marty Robbins' Gunfighter Ballads & Trail Songs. Sorry, that's not the case. Cartwright, a veteran of several seminal Memphis punk bands, was fronting the Reigning Sound (with whom he has since relocated to Asheville NC), when the Toronto band The Deadly Snakes came through town and asked him to produce their second record, I'm Not Your Soldier Anymore. Cartwright, not only produced it, but played and sang with the band, most notably on a track called "West Texas Sound." I'm not exactly sure what this song is about, but I get, and it's riveting, forceful, and driving punk rock. Below, is the said track, as well as some other excellent examples of Cartwright's vocal prowess, including two versions of "If You Can't Give Me Everything," screamed and then sung.

photos: by Ted Barron © 2010.
top: Near El Paso, 1987.
below: Reigning Sound, Brooklyn, NY, 2006.



Download:

"West Texas Sound" mp3
by The Deadly Snakes, 2001.
available on I'm Not Your Soldier Anymore

"Talk To Me" mp3
by the Oblivians, 1995.
available on The Best of the Worst: 93-97

"Stop & Think It Over" mp3
by the Compulsive Gamblers, 2000.
available on Crystal Gazing Luck Amazing

"Straight Shooter" mp3
by the Reigning Sound, 2002.
available on Time Bomb High School

"If You Can't Give Me Everything" mp3
by the Reigning Sound, 2004.
available on Too Much Guitar

"If You Can't Give Me Everything" mp3
by the Reigning Sound, 2005.
available on Home for Orphans

Christmas Eve Can Kill You

What the hell, one more Christmas post.

Download:

GONE mp3
by The Everly Brothers, 1972.
available on Stories We Could Tell

GONE mp3
by John Cale, 1973.
available on Paris 1919

GONE (alternate) mp3
by The Band, 1975.
available on Northern Lights-Southern Cross

GONE mp3
by The Reigning Sound, 2005.
available on Home for Orphans

GONE mp3
by Big Star, 1974.
available on Third/Sister Lovers


Merry Christmas to you and yours.

Waiting

Sam Phillips had slapback at Sun, and Capitol Records built large reverb rooms into the basement of their Hollywood studios, which can be heard to great effect by Speedy West, who joins Hank Thompson on "Waiting In The Lobby Of Your Heart." In this song Hank describes the painful wait that sometimes a man must endure, not knowing whether he's here nor there, or where he should be - suffering an existential mind-fuck, or maybe just lost in space.




















Download: "Waiting In The Lobby Of Your Heart" mp3
by Hank Thompson and His Brazos Valley Boys, 1952.
available on All-Time Greatest Hits

Also:

"I'm Waiting For The Day" mp3
by The Reigning Sound, 2001.
available on Break Up Break Down

"Tired of Waiting For You" mp3
by The Kinks, 1965.
available on BBC Sessions 1964-1977

"Crying, Hoping, Waiting," mp3
by Buddy Holly, 1959.
available on The Buddy Holly Collection

"Waiting In Vain" mp3.
by Bob Marley and the Wailers, 1977.
available on Exodus.

Photo: Butte, Montana 1994. © Ted Barron