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.

The Velvet Touch

"Ginsberg is both tragic and dynamic, a lyrical genius, con man extraordinaire, and probably the single greatest influence on American poetical voice since Whitman." -Bob Dylan

"Pot is Fun" -Allen Ginsberg

"I'm not a Hippie!" -Jonathan Richman

At the end of "See You Later, Allen Ginsberg," you can hear Bob Dylan start to say, "Let's erase..." (that!) or something to that effect. This track has most of what's great about the lighter tracks on the The Basement Tapes: humor, spontaneity, cannabis, and illicitness (it is a bootleg) and maybe we shouldn't be listening to it, or maybe it should have been erased as Dylan starts to suggest. Thankfully, it was not.

A few years later, Dylan heard Ginsberg at a reading, improvising poetry to some music and called him to talk about it. A week later they were in the studio recording with an assembled cast of characters including Anne Waldman and Happy Traum. They recorded several tracks for what eventually became Ginsberg's record First Blues, including "Put Your Money Down," which is the traditional sea shanty "Pay Me Your Money Down" and "For You, Oh Babe For You," which to my ears sounds more like late period Velvet Underground than anything else.

So, with that in mind I've assembled a sprawling little playlist here, that follows a tagent beginning with Dylan and moving on to some live Velvets from 1969; The Modern Lovers, who used to the Velvets' sound as a starting point; Wilco who nailed it on at least one track and another performance of Ginsberg from 1982 with The Clash.


Download:

"See You Later, Allen Ginsberg"
by Bob Dylan & The Band, 1967.
available on The Genuine Basement Tapes

"Put My Money Down"
"For You, Oh Babe For You"
By Bob Dylan & Allen Ginsberg, 1971.
available on Fourth Time Around: Genuine Bootleg Series Vol. 4

"Sweet Bonnie Brown/It's Just Too Much"
"Over You"
by The Velvet Underground, 1969.
available on 1969: Velvet Underground Live, Vol. 2

"Summer Teeth"
by Wilco, 1999.
available on Summerteeth

"Roadrunner" alternate version
by The Modern Lovers, 1972.
available on The Modern Lovers

"Velvet Underground"
by Jonathan Richman, 1992.
available on I, Jonathan

"Ghetto Defendant"
by The Clash with Allen Ginsberg, 1982.
available on Combat Rock



















this photograph:
Allen Ginsberg with Joe Strummer and Mick Jones
New York City, 1982. © Hank O'Neal

top photograph:
Bob Dylan and Allen Ginsberg at Jack Kerouac's Grave
Lowell Massachusetts, 1975. © Ken Regan

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.

The Hawks

Enough doom and gloom already.



















Download:

"Farther Up The Road" mp3
by Bobby "Blue" Bland, 1957.
available on The Anthology

"Further On Up The Road" mp3
by The Hawks, 1961.
available on A Musical History



















Download:

"She's Nineteen Years Old" mp3
by Muddy Waters, 1958.
available on The Anthology: 1947-1972

"She's Nineteen Years Old" mp3
by The Hawks, 1961.
available on A Musical History



















Download:

"I'm Gonna Play The Honky Tonks" mp3
by Marie Adams, 1952.
available on
Men Are Like Street Cars: Women Blues Singers 1928-1969

"Honky Tonk" mp3
by Levon and The Hawks, 1964.
available on A Musical History

******************************************
************ BONUS **********************
******************************************

"What A Party" mp3
by The Hawks, 1961.
available on Crossing The Great Divide

"You Don't Know Me" (live in Texas) mp3
by Levon and The Hawks, 1964.
available on Crossing The Great Divide

"The Stones That I Throw" (sketch) mp3
by Richard Manuel and Robbie Robertson, 1965.
available on A Musical History

"The Stones That I Throw" mp3
by Levon and The Hawks, Atco Single 1965.
available on A Musical History

"Tell Me, Momma" (live in Liverpool) mp3
by Bob Dylan and The Hawks, 1966.
available on A Musical History