Sunday, May 31, 2009

A.I.T.A. Hall Of Fame: Little Bob Story











Photobucket

"France's Little Bob Story played a spectacular blend of R&B, rock'n'roll and blues, mixing up well-chosen classics and credible originals (all in English) for a hot'n'sweaty Stones-influenced good time. Although plainly tradition-minded, they somehow became involved in the London punk scene just as it was getting underway in 1976, cutting singles and a 1977 album for Chiswick, the first British indie label." (Trouser Press)

- Essential Discography -
High Time LP (Arcane, '76)
I'm Crying EP (Chiswick, '76)
Off The Rails LP (Chiswick, '77)
All Or Nothing 45 (Mercury, '77)
Living In The Fast Line LP (Crypto, '77)
Self-Titled LP (Crypto, '77)
Live In London LP (Sony, '78)
Come On See Me LP (RCA, '78)

Download: "Little Big Boss"
Download: "Riot In Toulouse"
Download: "I'm Crying"
Download: "All Or Nothing"
Download: "Hot N' Sweaty"
Download: "Hightime" (live)
Buy: The Chiswick Story double-CD

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

As I Walked Out One Evening

As I walked out one evening,
   Walking down Bristol Street,
The crowds upon the pavement
   Were fields of harvest wheat.

And down by the brimming river
   I heard a lover sing
Under an arch of the railway:
   'Love has no ending.

'I'll love you, dear, I'll love you
   Till China and Africa meet,
And the river jumps over the mountain
   And the salmon sing in the street,

'I'll love you till the ocean
   Is folded and hung up to dry
And the seven stars go squawking
   Like geese about the sky.

'The years shall run like rabbits,
   For in my arms I hold
The Flower of the Ages,
   And the first love of the world.'

But all the clocks in the city
   Began to whirr and chime:
'O let not Time deceive you,
   You cannot conquer Time.

'In the burrows of the Nightmare
   Where Justice naked is,
Time watches from the shadow
   And coughs when you would kiss.

'In headaches and in worry
   Vaguely life leaks away,
And Time will have his fancy
   To-morrow or to-day.

'Into many a green valley
   Drifts the appalling snow;
Time breaks the threaded dances
   And the diver's brilliant bow.

'O plunge your hands in water,
   Plunge them in up to the wrist;
Stare, stare in the basin
   And wonder what you've missed.

'The glacier knocks in the cupboard,
   The desert sighs in the bed,
And the crack in the tea-cup opens
   A lane to the land of the dead.

'Where the beggars raffle the banknotes
   And the Giant is enchanting to Jack,
And the Lily-white Boy is a Roarer,
   And Jill goes down on her back.

'O look, look in the mirror,
   O look in your distress:
Life remains a blessing
   Although you cannot bless.

'O stand, stand at the window
   As the tears scald and start;
You shall love your crooked neighbour
   With your crooked heart.'

It was late, late in the evening,
   The lovers they were gone;
The clocks had ceased their chiming,
   And the deep river ran on.
-W. H. Auden

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Libido

How should I know? The enormous wheels of will
   Drove me cold-eyed on tired and sleepless feet.
Night was void arms and you a phantom still,
   And day your far light swaying down the street.
As never fool for love, I starved for you;
   My throat was dry and my eyes hot to see.
Your mouth so lying was most heaven in view,
   And your remembered smell most agony.

Love wakens love! I felt your hot wrist shiver
   And suddenly the mad victory I planned
   Flashed real, in your burning bending head....
My conqueror's blood was cool as a deep river
   In shadow; and my heart beneath your hand
      Quieter than a dead man on a bed.
-Rupert Brooke

Saturday, May 23, 2009

A Thousand Miles Behind



Mama, You Been On My Mind
Girl From The North Country
Don't Think Twice, It's All Right
One Too Many Mornings
Boots Of Spanish Leather
All I Really Want To Do
She Belongs To Me
I'll Keep It With Mine
One Of Us Must Know (Sooner Or Later)
Most Likely You Go Your Way And I'll Go Mine
She's Your Lover Now
I Threw It All Away
Nobody 'Cept You
Simple Twist Of Fate
Up To Me
Abandoned Love
Love Sick
Not Dark Yet

Download: "One Too Many Mornings/Sing A Happy Song"
(Medley by Doug Sahm/The Sir Douglas Quintet)

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

A.I.T.A. Hall Of Fame: The Pretty Things






Seeing as the entirety of The Pretty Things' recorded output is quite easy to come by -- and their story well-documented -- I've instead uploaded The Fairies' scorching 1965 take on "Get Yourself Home," a song that The Pretties also recorded but never released in their original incarnation. The Fairies cut a mere three singles, and their drummer John Alder (aka Twink) eventually played drums with The Pretty Things on their SF Sorrow LP, as well as providing the massive beat behind The In-Crowd, Tomorrow (whose sole LP is a must-own psychedelic masterpiece), the Pink Fairies, and on occasion, Hawkwind. Twink also fronted The Rings, who released an early UK punk single ("I Wanna Be Free" Chiswick, 1977), and featured future members of The Adverts.

- The Fairies Discography -
"Don't Think Twice It's Alright" 45 (Decca, 1964)
"Get Yourself Home" 45 (HMV, 1965)
"I Don't Mind" 45 (HMV, 1965)

Download: "Get Yourself Home"
Read: The Vintage Years liner-notes by Greg Shaw
Buy: Norton Records' Pretty Things vinyl reissues
Buy: The Pretty Things/Philippe Debarge LP/CD

Monday, May 18, 2009

Quote Of The Week

"Man is never honestly the fatalist, nor even the stoic. He fights his fate, often desperately. He is forever entering bold exceptions to the rulings of the bench of gods. This fighting, no doubt, makes for human progress, for it favors the strong and the brave. It also makes for beauty, for lesser men try to escape from a hopeless and intolerable world by creating a more lovely one of their own." -H. L. Mencken

Saturday, May 16, 2009

What, Me Worry?


"Is there a formula -- some mix of love, work, and psychological adaptation -- for a good life? For 72 years, researchers at Harvard have been examining this question, following 268 men who entered college in the late 1930s through war, career, marriage and divorce, parenthood and grandparenthood, and old age. Here, for the first time, a journalist gains access to the archive of one of the most comprehensive longitudinal studies in history. Its contents, as much literature as science, offer profound insight into the human condition -- and into the brilliant, complex mind of the study’s longtime director, George Vaillant." ... Story continues here: What Makes Us Happy? (The Atlantic)

The Return Of Kicks?


Miriam Linna of Kicks Magazine/Norton Records/A-Bones fame has taken the leap into the cyber world with her new blog, Kicksville 66! The first incredible entry documents Miriam's time beating the skins for The Cramps and is a wonderful snapshot of a long lost era in New York City, as well as pre-internet music fandom... Dig it!

Read: My First Band: The Cramps 1976 (Pt.1)

Friday, May 15, 2009

The Fly

Little fly,
Thy summer’s play
My thoughtless hand
Has brushed away.

Am not I
A fly like thee?
Or art not thou
A man like me?

For I dance
And drink and sing,
Till some blind hand
Shall brush my wing.

If thought is life
And strength and breath,
And the want
Of thought is death,

Then am I
A happy fly,
If I live,
Or if I die.
-William Blake

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Songs For Swinging Lovers... And Losers, Pt.3


THIS AIN'T MY TIME (VOLUME ONE)

"This Ain't My Time" by The Barracudas
"This Perfect Day" by The Saints
"Up All Night" by The Scott Richardson Case
"Dog Meat" by The Flamin' Groovies
"She's Like Heroin To Me" by Gun Club
"When You're Young" by The Jam
"Short Haired Rock And Roll" by Terrorways
"Shutdown 66" by Shutdown 66
"The Sound Of Confusion" by Spacemen 3
"Dug My Grave" by The Fall-Outs
"Left In The Dark" by Vertebrats
"Midnight To Six Man" by The Pretty Things
"Swampland" by The Scientists
"Johnny & Dee Dee" by The Eastern Dark
"Bad Situation" by The Strollers
"Frustration" by Purple Hearts
"Firing Squad" by Subhumans
"Better In Black" by The Prisoners
"Won't Get Fooled Again" by Tumbling Dice

Download: "Up All Night" by SRC
Download: "Short Haired Rock And Roll" by Terrorways
Download: "Won't Get Fooled Again" by Tumbling Dice

Beyond Here Lies Nothin'



Monday, May 11, 2009

Quote Of The Week

"...But the bravest man amongst us is afraid of himself. The mutilation of the savage has its tragic survival in the self-denial that mars our lives. We are punished for our refusals. Every impulse that we strive to strangle broods in the mind and poisons us. The body sins once, and has done with its sin, for action is a mode of purification. Nothing remains then but the recollection of a pleasure, or the luxury of a regret. The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself, with desire for what its monstrous laws have made monstrous and unlawful. It has been said that the great events of the world take place in the brain. It is in the brain, and the brain only, that the great sins of the world take place also." -Oscar Wilde

Saturday, May 9, 2009

The Enemy

My youth was nothing but a lowering storm
occasionally lanced by sudden suns;
torrential rains have done their work so well
that no fruit ripens in my garden now.

Already the autumn of ideas has come,
and I must dig and rake and dig again
if I am to reclaim the flooded soil
collapsing into holes the size of graves.

I dream of new flowers, but who can tell
if this eroded swamp of mine affords
the mystic nourishment on which they thrive...

Time consumes existence pain by pain,
and the hidden enemy that gnaws our heart
feeds on the blood we lose, and flourishes!
-Charles Baudelaire

Friday, May 8, 2009

Latter Day Soul Winners




While my interest in sweet soul music starts fading out by the late-'60s -- due pretty much to the coked-up, slick production and creeping disco-influence to come later -- there were a few stone cold gems released in the early '70s. The Chi-Lites' "Stoned Out Of My Mind" (1973) came to my attention via The Jam's take on the tune (the b-side of their "Beat Surrender" 45), and over the years has been used in more than a few movies and TV episodes. The Five Stairsteps' "Ooh Child" (1970) on the other hand, seems to have been part of my very fabric for as long as I can recall, and always raises the hairs on my arms... Grab 'em both below.

Download: "Stoned Out Of My Mind" by The Chi-Lites
Download: "Ooh Child" by The Five Stairsteps

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

The Heavens

"From mind to mind I am acquainted with the struggles of these stars. The very same chemistry wages itself minutely in my person. It is all one intolerable war. I don't care if we're fugitives, we are ceaselessly exalted, rising like the drowned out of our shirts..."

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Goodbye To Buddy Bizarre



1933 - 2009
Rest In Peace

"Brooklyn-born Dom DeLuise, the roly-poly movie foil to best buddy Burt Reynolds during a comedic career that spanned the last half-century, died Monday in Los Angeles. He was 75." ... Story continues here: Comedic Actor and cookbook author Dom DeLuise dies at 75 (Daily News)

Monday, May 4, 2009

Quote Of The Week

"Be not the slave of your own past. Plunge into the sublime seas, dive deep and swim far, so you shall come back with self-respect, with new power, with an advanced experience that shall explain and overlook the old." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Friday, May 1, 2009

Down And Out In New Orleans


THE A.I.T.A. PONDEROSA STOMP EXPERIENCE

- Day One -

The Condo Fucks
The A-Bones

@ One Eyed Jacks

1 - shrimp po' boy (half)
6 - raw oysters
3 - crabmeat stuffed jalapenos
6 - boiled crab claws
1 - rabbit and sausage jambalaya (cup)
2 - coffee
5 - Abita Amber
2 - Guinness
1 - Pimm's Cup
3 - Miller High Life


- Day Two -

The Secret History Of Louisiana Rock'N'Roll (exhibit)
Lady Bo, Marshall Chess, and Mike Hurtt (discussion)
The Remains: America’s Lost Band (film)

@ Louisiana State Museum

Alton Lott w/The Eccofonics
Johnny Powers w/The Eccofonics
Carl Mann w/The Eccofonics
Lil Greenwood
Dale Hawkins and James Burton w/The Eccofonics
The Remains
Howard Tate
Ray Sharpe w/The A-Bones
Kenny And The Kasuals
Lady Bo

@ House Of Blues (Ponderosa Stomp)

1 - eggs sunny side up, grits, biscuit, and sausage
6 - chargrilled oysters
1 - étouffée (bowl, half)
1 - boudin blanc w/creole marmalade (half)
1 - corned beef po' boy
2 - coffee
2 - Pimm's Cup
2 - Beefeater, rocks
5 - Abita Amber
1 - Maker's Mark, shot


- Day Three -

Jerry McCain
Lazy Lester and James Burton w/Lil Buck And The Top Cats
L.C. Ulmer
G.G. Shinn w/Lil Buck And The Top Cats
Dan Penn w/Bobby Emmons
Wanda Jackson and James Burton w/The Eccofonics
Roy Loney and Cyril Jordon w/The A-Bones

@ House Of Blues (Ponderosa Stomp)

1 - cajun omelette w/wheat toast and garlic butter potatoes
3 - raw oysters
1 - muffaletta (quarter)
2 - baked oysters w/spinich
2 - baked oysters w/saffron crab meat
2 - baked oysters w/spicy eggplant
1 - bleu cheese burger w/french fries
2 - coffee
1 - Abita Turbodog
2 - Red Stallion Ale (22 oz)
1 - Wild Turkey and cola
3 - Maker's Mark, rocks


- Day Four -

1 - beignet
1 - western omelette w/french bread and grits (half)
1 - shrimp creole (bowl)
2 - raw oysters
2 - chargrilled oysters
1 - smoked turkey BBQ sandwich
2 - coffee

•••

"'You’ll be back again,' sang Barry & the Remains, starting their headlining set on Tuesday night at the eighth annual Ponderosa Stomp. It’s a song about a straying girlfriend, but the Remains could have been singing about themselves and many of the four dozen acts -- rockabillies, bluesmen, R&B shouters, swamp-rockers, honky-tonkers, psychedelic bands -- playing the House of Blues here in the Stomp’s two nights of nine-hour shows." ... Story continues here: A Festival of One-Shots and Shoulda-Beens (The NY Times)

•••

View: Day One and Day Two Ponderosa Stomp photos (33 1/3 blog)