George Jones on Musicor

Will the real George Jones please stand up?

Alright, well we heard a young and most likely drunk George Jones doing his best Elvis impersonation in the last post. The things that a young artist must do for a few bucks are sometimes a little degrading. Anyway, George Jones is arguably the greatest country singer of all time. His voice is as unique and soulful as Al Green or Van Morrison. He has many imitators himself, but "Possum" is the real deal. There are hundreds of CD's available by him and few box sets, but my favorite period of George's is not as well represented as others. After cutting rockabilly and honky tonk sides for Starday, Mercury, and United Artists in the fifties and early sixties, and before he moved to Epic to record his signature overblown masterpieces of hurt with Billy Sherrill, George recorded for a label called Musicor (1965-1971), which was partially owned by his longtime manager and producer "Pappy" Daily. These are, I think, his best recordings and have yet to see a proper comprehensive collection. The first of todays mp3s come from an out of print Rounder LP from 1983. My favorite song, "Burn The Honky Tonk Down," written by his guitar player Wayne Kemp, has never been released on any CD. It's a killer 3/4 tale with sawing fiddles about a guy who works in a sawmill cutting timber to " build another honky-tonk wall", while his wife spends his his money in town carousing with the customers between those very honky tonk walls. This is the kind of song that George Jones sings better than anyone. Also, a few more tracks where that came from, a couple of my favorite Musicor singles, and some cover versions of these songs.

Please enjoy...




Download:

"Burn The Honky Tonk Down" mp3

"Where Grass Won't Grow" mp3

"Your Angel Steps Out Of Heaven" mp3

"Feeling Single-Seeing Double" mp3

From Burn The Honky Tonk Down, Rounder Records, 1983.
Out of Print





Download: "Heartaches And Hangovers" mp3























Download: "Ship Of Love" mp3


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

"Your Angel Steps Out Of Heaven" mp3
by The Flying Burrito Brothers, 1970.
available on Sleepless Nights

"Burn The Honky Tonk Down" mp3
by The Meat Puppets, 1986.
available on Out My Way

"Feeling Single Seeing Double" mp3
by Emmylou Harris And The Hot Band, 1975
live recording not commercially available

Buy George Jones music at Amazon
or at your local independently owned record store.

George Jones photograph by Lee Friedlander
from American Musicians, D.A.P. © 1998.

Who Are The Mystery Guests?

Warning: this post requires audience participation

Below are two tracks released on the Tops record label. Tops was a budget label that recorded sound-a-likes of hit songs. They sold their merchandise in drugstores and Woolworths to undiscerning record buyers. Here we have an artist known as Hank Smith singing Elvis' then current hit, "Heartbreak Hotel," and another artist known as "Scat" Benny doing the one thousand and oneth version of "Rock Island Line." These are not the real names of these singers and both are well known on their own. Tops attached the name Hank Smith to various releases of country and rockabilly records, all featuring different singers. (The version of "Blue Suede Shoes" on this record is by a different Hank Smith than on "Heartbreak Hotel" and not as interesting, so I'm not including an mp3 of it.

Can you guess who are the mystery guests?

Use the comments to submit your answer.
Humor me... please.

Googlers need not apply.














Download: "Rock Island Line" mp3 by "Scat" Benny















Download: "Heartbreak Hotel" mp3 by Hank Smith

Pete "Guitar" Lewis

I've been wanting to do a Johnny Otis post here since I started this thing. However, I've concluded it's just too daunting a task. Among being a bandleader, DJ, civil rights activist, dad to Shuggie Otis, nightclub owner and A&R guy, Johnny Otis has been influential in nearly every kind of music posted here at the Flu. Well, maybe not the hillbilly stuff, but he did write "Crazy Country Hop."

Instead, today we'll focus on one of his many great sidemen, Pete "Guitar" Lewis, a little celebrated but great guitar player who made way too few recordings, and most of them are as a member of Johnny Otis' band. Lewis was Otis' guitar player from 1948 to 1957. Below we have one of his solo recordings on Federal (the b-side of this record is by Pete "Harmonica" Lewis, where he displays his formidable talent on another instrument), A couple of sides with the Johnny Otis Orchestra, and one with the same band backing "Big Mama" Thornton. You can also hear PGL on the original version of "Hound Dog" at this post.

Dig it...















Download: "Shake It" 1952, mp3














Download: "I Smell A Rat" 1952, mp3.














Download: "Freight Train Boogie" 1950, mp3.















Download: "Raggedy Blues" 1952, mp3.

Buy music by Pete "Guitar" Lewis, "Big Mama Thornton", and Johnny Otis
at Amazon or your local independently owned record store.

Get 'em while you can...

Hey folks, I've been doing this for six months now. Unlike other blogs, there are a full six months of active mp3 links available here. Soon, I'll need to start removing some of the older links to make room for other stuff. So, if there's anything in the archives that you think you may want to download, do it soon. I'll return with some more music later this week. In the meantime, dig the archives. The January archive mp3s will be gone by the end of the month, and then February, and then...

Seven

Today is 07/07/07.

Here are seven seven songs.

Numerology will cease in Fluville until further notice.

"The Magnificient Seven" by The Clash
from Sandinista, 1980.

"7 and 7 Is" by Love
from Da Capo, 1966.

"Seven Days" by Ron Wood
from Gimme Some Neck, 1979.

"Seven Lonely Days" by Patsy Cline
from The Patsy Cline Story, 1961.

"Seven Curses" by Bob Dylan
the Witmark Years, 1963.

"Seven Year Ache" by Golden Smog featuring Rosanne Cash
from Until You Came Along, 1995

"The Seventh Son" by Mose Allison
from Mose Allison Sings, 1959.

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

"Seven" by Bob Dylan
from Theme Time Radio Hour 33 Countdown, 2006.

"Stereo Sanctity" by Sonic Youth
from Sister. 1987.

"(I'm Your) Hoochie Coochie Man" by Muddy Waters
from His Best: 1947-1955, 1955.

Louis Armstrong & His Hot Seven

Here's a pair of hot sides from Pops himself, who celebrated his birthday today, July 4th. His actual birthday was on August 4th, but he didn't know it and it wasn't discovered until years after his death when his actual birth certificate surfaced. I like the idea of celebrating his birthday on the on the same day as the U.S.A.'s. Check out Johnny St. Cyr's guitar break on "Willie The Weeper."

Here you go...















Download: "Willie The Weeper" mp3















Download: "Weary Blues" mp3

Buy music by Louis Armstrong & His Hot Seven at Amazon
or at your local independently owned record store.

Almost Independence Day

However you may feel about it in a time war, it is almost Independence Day. I love watching the fireworks, despite whatever connotations they may carry. Also, I love these songs. I may be taking a break from the antiquities here at the flu, or at least sprinkling them with some slightly more contemporary selections, although these are hardly current. Below, we have Van Morrison's prelude to the holiday; an outtake from my favorite summertime LP: The Wild, The Innocent and the E Street Shuffle; and two versions of "The 4th of July" - one by its composer Dave Alvin, and a demo version by X.

Fire up the bar-b-q and some bottle rockets too...

Download:

"Almost Independence Day" mp3 by Van Morrison
available on Saint Dominick's Preview, 1972.

"4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy) Alternate Take" mp3
by Bruce Springsteen
available on The Wild, The Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle, 1973.

"Fourth of July" mp3 by Dave Alvin
available on Romeo's Escape, 1987.

"4th of July" demo version mp3 by X
available on Beyond And Back: The X Anthology, 1986.


Photograph: © Robert Frank, Parade, Hoboken, New Jersey 1955.

Mule Skinner

Download: "Mule Skinner Blues" mp3


Then I heard this horrible crazy sound. And I felt this insane mad feeling. Neither of which was I in any manner acquainted. It was the bluesiest and most obnoxious thing I had ever heard. It was an attack of revolutionary terrorism on my nervous system through aesthetics.
It was blacker than the blackest black record I had ever heard. It reached out and grabbed and it has never let go of me.

I went limp. I almost fell off the sofa. My mouth fell open. My eyes widened and expanded. I found myself hyperventilating. When it was over I tried to get up and go and get a paper bag to restore the correct balance of power between oxygen and carbon monoxide. I screamed for help but nobody was around and nobody came. I was drenched with sweat. It was like I had woken up to a new and thrilling exciting horror movie.

Nothing has ever been the same since then.

You see, I had gone insane.

And I didn't even know about it.

Wow.

I had to hear that record again. It was madness and I knew it would get me in trouble and it did get me in trouble but I couldn't help it I was out of control.

So I went to the record store in Silver Spring, Maryland, the name of which I forgot. It was at the intersection of Georgia Avenue, and Colesville Road.

Right around the corner from the Silver Theatre.

I asked the man behind the counter about that record. He was a "nice guy." He looked it up in some great big yellow catalogue and actually found it.

But, it was out of print. And there wasn't one on the shelf.

"Sorry, kid, I don't have one and I can't get you one."

"But, I've got to hear it again. I've got to."

"Listen kid" he went on. "that record is no good. In fact it is evil. It caused a lot of trouble while it was around. Women left their husbands. Husbands left their wives. Children ran away from home and were never seen again. There were sunspots on the moon. Revolutions started, massacres happened, suicides and alcoholism went sky high, wars started, monsters were seen on the Edge, it was bad kid. Maybe it would be better for you if you didn't hear it again. I mean I just feel I gotta' tell ya' that kid. It's dangerous for anybody your age to get interested in things like that."

"I don't care," I said, "it must be fate."

"Fate schmate. I gave you a warning. But if ya' don't take it the only thing I can do is tell ya' this. You gotta' find a record collector. Chances are a record collector would know about it."

"You know any of those guys you are talking about?" I asked.

"No, I don't hang out with weirdos like that. But they're around. And I'll pray for ya' kid. I'll pray for ya."

"Thanks a hell of a lot. I may need it."

"Oh, you're gonna need it alright."

From How Bluegrass Music Destroyed My Life by John Fahey
Drag City © 2000

Locust St. is at it again. If you haven't checked out Chris' exhaustive posts on 7 Means of Movement, do yourself a favor. This post is an addendum to his Interlude 2: Asses and Mules. While it feels to me a little cheap to riff of of his painstakingly epic work, I couldn't
resist posting this Bill Monroe track which I've been wanting to put up for a while. The "horrible crazy sound" that John Fahey so passionately describes in the above excerpt from his book, actually refers to the other side of the original issue of this record. My copy, however is a DJ Promo backed with a godawful track by Elton Britt. Both of these songs come from Jimmie Rodgers.

Here's the flip:

Download: "Blue Yodel No. 7 (Anniversary Yodel) " mp3
by Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys, 1939.

Buy music by Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys at Amazon
or at your local independently owned record store.

The Stanley Brothers

Shifting gears again. While it may seem to some of you that these rapid genre shifts here in Fluville are extreme, they are indeed not. Basically, most everything here is 20th century American music, which means to say it is all in some way derivative of the blues. So, with that being said, it doesn't really matter if it's Benny Carter or Carter Stanley - as long as it is good. Today, it's The Stanley Brothers, from 1953. This music is so good it hurts. Ralph Stanley is playing tonite at the Prospect Park Bandshell in Brooklyn.














Download: "(Say) Won't You Be Mine" mp3














Download: "Our Last Goodbye" mp3

Stanley Brothers Photograph by John Cohen, 1961.
from There Is No Eye, Powerhouse Books, © 2000.

Buy music by The Stanley Brothers at Venerable Music

The Glory of Love

"And the hits just keep on coming..."

The Sopranos is over, and I must say I'm relieved. Never have I been so caught up in a show about people I cared so little about. Like Scorsese before him, David Chase used music to create a mood or distraction from what was happening on the screen. In one of the early seasons of the show, Tony is seen listening to CBS-FM. For those of you who don't live in the tri-state area, CBS-FM was the greatest oldies station in the country, with celebrity DJ's like Cousin Brucie, and more relevantly, Don K. Reed with his Sunday night extravaganza, Don K. Reed's Doo Wop Shop. So, getting back to the musical distraction to violence and homicide. I was talking last week with my friend Mike DeCapite, author of Through The Windshield, about these great songs and how Scorsese in particular has used them in his films, when Mike with his usual quick wit responded by saying, "I can't hear that stuff anymore without seeing four guys in sharkskin suits stomping on someone's head." While I don't know if that's applicable to today's selections, it is a jarring image. Below, we have a fine sampling from the golden age of vocal groups. Try not to imagine the violence. Instead, open the windows, let the warm summer wind drift in, listen to to sound of the city outside, turn off the lights, lie down and float away.














Download: "The Glory Of Love" mp3














Download: "In My Lonely Room" mp3














Download: "Deep Sea Blues" mp3















Download: "Stranded In The Jungle" mp3














Download: "Hey Senorita" mp3














Download: "Don't You Think I Ought To Know" mp3

Doo Wop lives on New York Radio every Saturday Night with
Dan Romanello and the Group Harmony Review on WFUV.

Buy these records at Amazon
or at your local independently owned record store.

Moistworks has more versions of "Stranded In The Jungle" Here.

Chuck Berry

Say what you will about Chuck Berry, but he is Chuck Berry: the single most important figure in the development of what we call Rock 'n Roll, and its first guitar playing singer-songwriter. Chuck Berry is a national treasure, and vastly under-appreciated in his and my hometown, St. Louis. You are more than likely to hear someone discuss his run-ins with the law than his genius songwriting. Sure, Chuck is difficult. Anyone who has seen Hail, Hail, Rock 'N Roll will remember his bitchfight with Keith Richards. Chuck does a regular monthly gig in St. Louis at Blueberry Hill, which can be either fabulous or an excruciating trainwreck. It depends what night you catch him. I learned pretty much everything I know about guitar playing from playing along with The Great Twenty-Eight. Below, is his second single on Chess from 1955, the follow-up to "Maybellene." Check out the guitar solo. This not something to be taken lightly. He invented this stuff. The B-side was his first stab at writing a Nat King Cole style ballad. It's a little rough around the edges. Starts off like Bo Diddley, and then he croons.

Tell Tchaikovsky the news...














Download: "Thirty Days" mp3














Download: "Together" mp3

Buy Chuck Berry music at Amazon
or at your local independently owned record store.

Ray Price

Okay, back to the shellac. Here's a couple of early Ray Price records. The first one is a Hank Williamsesque hardcore honky tonk number, "You Always Get By," from 1953. Hank helped Ray Price early in his career, sharing his band on the road and giving him "Weary Blues (From Waiting) to record, as well as getting him onto the Opry.

A few weeks ago Chris at Locust St. published another epic post. This one on Walking. As great as it is, it didn't feature my favorite song about the powerlessness of a man being tugged back to a woman by an inanimate object despite his own best intentions, "My Shoes Keep Walking Back to You," written by Bob Wills, and presented here by Ray Price.














Download: "You Always Get By" 1953. mp3














Download: "My Shoes Keep Walking Back To You" 1957. mp3
Buy Ray Price Music at Amazon

Wilbert Harrison

Sorry if things have been quiet here in Fluville. Between trying to make a living, being a dad and coaching a little league team, my posts have fallen by the wayside. I do hope you all understand. First up today, it's Wilbert Harrison with the first hit recording of Leiber and Stoller's "Kansas City," and it's B-Side, both featuring the searing guitar stylings of "Wild" Jimmy Spruill. Then, Harrison's own composition "Let's Stick Together," a plea to the "very sacred" institution of marriage. Perhaps Wilbert found this wasn't exactly the case, or maybe he just felt the need to revise it to "Let's Work Together (Pts. 1 & 2)." Either way they are both great records with one note harmonica parts slightly reminiscent of Slim Harpo.

Please enjoy...














Download: "Kansas City" 1959 .














Download: "Listen, My Darling" 1959.























Download: "Let's Stick Together" 1962.























Download: "Let's Work Together (Part 1)" 1969.























Download: "Lets Work Together (Part 2)" 1969.


****************** Bonus *************************

Download: "Let's Stick Together" by Bryan Ferry
Available on Let's Stick Together, 1976.

Download: "Let's Stick Together" by Bob Dylan
Available on Down In The Groove, 1988.

Download: "Let's Work Together" by Canned Heat
Available on Future Blues, 1970.

Download: "Let's Work Together" by Dwight Yoakum
Available on If There Was A Way, 1990.

Buy Wilbert Harrison music at Amazon
or at your local independently owned record store.

Happy Birthday Bob

Today is Bob Dylan's birthday, so let's listen to some rarities and non-LP tracks. Below we have Bob's tribute via satellite to Johnny Cash; a duet with Dr. Ralph Stanley; tributes to Hank Williams, Jimmie Rodgers, and my personal favorite Warren Smith; some outtakes from Oh Mercy; a version of "Hazel" from the afternoon rehearsals for his MTV Unplugged gig; the original "Tombstone Blues," with backing vocals by The Chambers Brothers; and a moment of inspired giddiness between the Bob and Richard Manuel from The Basement Tapes.

Please Enjoy:

"Train of Love" mp3
From Tribute to Johnny Cash TV Special, 1999.

"The Lonesome River" mp3
From Oxford American Southern Music Sampler, 2001.

"I Can't Get You Off Of My Mind" mp3
From Timeless: Hank Williams Tribute, 2001.

"My Blue Eyed Jane" mp3
From The Songs of Jimmie Rodgers: A Tribute, 1996.

"Red Cadillac And A Black Mustache" mp3
From Good Rockin' Tonight: The Legacy of Sun Records, 2001.

"Shooting Star" mp3
"God Knows" mp3
"Born In Time" mp3
"Dignity" mp3
Outtakes from Oh Mercy, 1989.

"Hazel" mp3
From MTV Unplugged Afternoon Rehearsals, 1995.

"Tombstone Blues" mp3
Alternate version from Highway 61 Revisited, 1965.

"I'm Your Teenage Prayer" mp3
From The Basement Tapes, 1967

Buy Bob Dylan Music Here.

The Nick Lucas Connection

In 1922, Nick Lucas recorded the first solo jazz guitar record, for Pathe. Here it is re-recorded a year later for Brunswick. His guitar style transcends jazz, and probably influenced many country and blues players as well. Known as "The Crooning Troubadour," he brought guitar to the forefront of the orchestra, replacing the banjo as a rhythm instrument, as well as being the first singing guitar player. He was also the first person to have a signature Gibson guitar named after him. It was designed with a deep body for extra volume. Bob Dylan used this model in the mid 60's, and below you can hear a sample of what it sounded like. Lucas' biggest hit, "Tip-Toe Thru The Tulips" was from the 1929 musical Gold Diggers of Broadway, and was revived by Tiny Tim in the late 60's. Dylan crossed paths with Tiny Tim on more than one occasion. In Chronicles: Volume One, he writes (in reference to the scene at Cafe Wha?)

At about eight o'clock, the whole daytime menagerie would come to a halt... Everyone who had been there during the day would pack up. One of the guys who played in the afternoons was the falsetto-speaking Tiny Tim. He played ukulele and sang like a girl -- old standard songs from the '20s. I got to talking to him a few times and asked him what other kinds of places there were to work around here and he told me that sometimes he played at a place in Times Square called Hubert's Flea Circus Museum. I'd find out about that place later.

Tiny Tim stopped by Big Pink in 1967, to record four tracks with The Band, also featured below and yet another chapter of The Basement Tapes. A few of these songs were featured in the film You Are What You Eat, including a fabulous duet with his girlfriend Eleanor Baruchian on "I Got You Babe." He later married another girl, known as Miss Vicki on The Tonight Show, in what was one of the highest rated television broadcasts at the time. I used to see him walking around on the upper-west side, in the 1980's, looking like a sad, dejected clown. He apparently had an apartment at The Dakota. Tiny Tim died in 1996, while performing "Tip-Toe Thru The Tulips" in Minneapolis.













Download: "Pickin' The Guitar" mp3














Download: "Teasing The Frets" mp3














Download: "Somebody Like You" mp3














Download: "Tip-Toe Thru The Tulips" mp3

More on Nick Lucas: HERE and HERE

Nick Lucas on YouTube, 1929.




















Download: "You Don't Have To Do That" mp3























Download: Tiny Tim and The Band

"Be My Baby" mp3
"I Got You Babe" (with Eleanor Baruchian) mp3
"Sonny Boy" mp3
"Memphis, Tennesee" mp3

Tiny Tim on Laugh-In via YouTube


Buy Tiny Tim music at Amazon
Buy Nick Lucas music at Venerable Music
or at your local independently owned record store.