Well, now you have no excuse not to learn something new every day. "OCW is a free publication of course materials used at MIT". "OCW shares free lecture notes, exams, and other resources from more than 1700 courses spanning MIT's entire curriculum."
One of my favorite musical trails was found when I did some research on what that Love Is Strange song from the Dirty Dancing movie was, back in junior high.
Love Is Strange was recorded in 1957 by Mickey & Sylvia, a duo consisting of McHouston "Guitar" Baker, a guitar instructor and his pupil Sylvia Vanderpool who started out recording as Little Sylvia on Savoy records. The song was written by Bo Diddley, under the pseudonym Ethel Smith (his wife's name), with Jody Williams' credited to the unmistakable guitar riff in the song which he had recorded previously in a song called Billy's Blues for Billy Stewart.
Sylvia later went on to record on her own and had a solo gold record with the hit Pillow Talk where she did the gratuitous musical moaning even before Miss Diana Ross brought it on. Sylvia married Joe Robinson and together they formed Sugarhill Records and pulled together the members of The Sugarhill Gang, who released the first commercially successful rap single in 1979, Rapper's Delight.
(mp3s are for previewing purposes only, buy more music by the artists
you discover on this site! I spend TONS of money on music
via Amazon and ITunes, often from discovering new bands through other
mp3 blogs, and scouring record stores for obscure R&B, Soul,
Garage, and Pop. If you don't want an mp3 to be posted here, just let me
know. BUY VINYL!)
I over-analyze everything I do. One of the things I do is DJ. When I DJ, I watch people very closely. I read who walks in the door and try to find something that will grab their attention. I'll play something obvious that I know they like or I think they would know and like and then I follow it up with something more obscure that is much better (in my opinion, of course, but you wouldn't be reading this if you didn't agree that my opinion, when it comes to music, is better, or at least worth taking note of). Lately I have noticed the trend for people to dance to the bastardized modern versions of songs whose original recorded versions are much much better. The recent Quentin Tarantino film, Grindhouse, brought some of these tracks to the attention of people who follow modern music but have no clue about where it came from or that it has all happened before. Bitter? Self-righteous? Maybe. But you're here because you know I'm going to give you something. Keep reading.
April March's song Chick Habit is an English cover of France Gall's Laisse Tomber Les Filles. Everyone dances to the Chick Habit. They occasionally dance to Laisse Tomber Les Filles, until they realize it is in French and get confused because they can't lip synch while dancing. April also does a French version, and I have to say she does an amazing job recreating the original sound. But it is not new. All of a sudden people dance to it because it is familiar. Bah. But my point is - you like that, you might like some other stuff.
Try old some old Delmonas stuff. They also did 60s covers, but they did them in the 80s. Not new then, either, but more raw and real and in obvious ferocious admiration of the originals. Thee Headcoatees and really all of the reincarnations and sibling-groups of the Medway beat genius Billy Childish all cover obscure 60s garage and pop but often do it with more dirt and grime and raw emotion than the originals sound now. Instead of glossing it up, they strip it down. Back to the Delmonas. Check this video:
>
See Wild Billy back there on drums? Sweet.
The Delmonas started out as backup singers and girlfriends of The Milkshakes. If you want girls covering girl music from the 50s-60s, this is where to start. Dangerous Charms is the album for you. This blog posted a link to the album on rapidshare, so go check it out. Highlights for me include the Shirley Bassey cover of Kiss me, honey honey, kiss me. (I just scored the original 45 last year on eBay. Woop woop.) You can preview the Shirley Bassey version on emusic.com, it looks like. If you want to join emusic.com, click here, so I get free songs when you join. It's a good deal, I pay around $10/month and get 40 tracks (I'm old school, I think it is 30 tracks for 10 bucks now). He Tells Me He Loves Me and I'm The One For You are also excellent tracks on Dangerous Charms. You can also get one Delmonas track on this Childish comp.
This post wandered a bit. I'm busy with work and just writing a sentence or two in between working so apologies for the non-linear rambling, but you got some music ... so hush. For those of you who already have the Delmonas album, check this Lulu video out:
I was watching VH1's bands reunited featuring the English Beat today and, although I still throw out an English Beat song now and again when I DJ, hearing some of the songs featured in the show I had to immediately listen to a couple albums. Then I wondered, "Is there anyone who reads my blog that doesn't know of The English Beat? A travesty for sure!". I certainly hope not, but just in case, I wrote up a brief history and posted some sample mp3s - then you must buy one or two English Beat albums. For shame. FOR SHAME!
The English Beat was formed in Birmingham in 1978 consisting of six members: Dave Wakeling (vocals and guitar), Everett Morton (drums), Ranking Roger (vocals and
toasting), Saxa (saxophone - originally played with Prince Buster and Desmond Dekker), Andy
Cox (guitar), and David
Steele (bass). This multi generational multi racial lineup fused ska, pop, rock, punk, reggae, and soul influences into a unique danceable sound. Cool article here. The heyday of The English Beat's success was during what was known as the Two Tone or Second Wave of ska, which blended elements of the 60s Jamaican ska movement into the punk rock movement of the time (along with The Clash, The Specials, Selecter). The band's first album, I Just Can't Stop It (1980) is by far my favorite, their second album Wha'ppen (1981) kind of missed the mark for me, but they seemed to come back to their sound in Special Beat Service, although with a little more 80s cheese. Of course, "Mirror In The Bathroom" (YouTube)(mp3) is on that album, which is the song that most people are familiar with (it was also featured in 1997 John Cusack flick Grosse Pointe Blank), followed by "Save It For Later" (YouTube), and "Stand Down Margaret" (mp3).
The band (originally called The Beat) changed their name to The English Beat because of the existence of Paul Collin's Beat, to avoid confusion.
After the three albums mentioned above, the band split up basically due to Dave and Roger's desire to pursue a more financially lucrative gig, and a bunch of interesting groups were formed. First, Dave and Roger teamed up and formed General Public, along with an all-star 80s lineup featuring Mickey Billingham on keyboards (Dexy's Midnight
Runners), Horace Panter on
bass (The Specials), and
Mick Jones on guitar
(The Clash) and of course Saxa on saxophone. After they split again both pursued individual careers - David produced and recorded for soundtracks and humanitarian causes and Roger released some solo albums and worked with various groups including Mick Jones' group Big Audio Dynamite. Saxa and Everett Morton formed the International Beat, which really stayed true to The Beat's original sound along with some former members of Dexy's Midnight Runners (check out YouTube video below). And Andy Cox and David Steele joined with singer Roland Gift and formed the Fine Young Cannibals, who had several major hits.
Current Ranking Roger and Everett play with a reincarnation called The New English Beat in the UK (who are playing a St Patrick's Day show with The Specials in Dublin, Ireland - I'd be jealous but I'm going to see Holly Golightly that day so I'm not sad!), while Dave Wakeling based out of California has performed with a reincarnation of The English Beat with him as the only original member - performing Beat, General Public and newer songs. However, The English Beat will be touring this summer with the reincarnated version of INXS, and it is rumored that Rankin Roger and Everett and possibly others may join the English Beat for this tour. Stay posted on Dave Wakeling's website. The Beat UK website has some great videos, downloads of wallpapers, and lots of photos you should check out, too!
Buy my favorite English Beat Album:
Watch a video of a performance of my favorite English Beat song - Rankin' Full Stop and a promo video for The International Beat:
Ruth Brown, "Miss Rhythm", the rhythm-and-blues queen of the 1950s, died Friday from heart attack/stroke complications at the age of 78.
Ruth Brown had a huge impact on the early rock and roll recording industry, at Atlantic records, which at that time was a new label. She had a string of hits beginning in 1949 on Atlantic beginning with "So Long" and "Teardrops From My Eyes" through the early 50s with tunes like "5-10-15 Hours", "Mama He Treats Your Daughter Mean", and helped to propel the label to success. She remained on the R&B charts for 149 weeks from 1949-1955, with 16 top ten records, 5 of them hit number one. She was Atlantic's biggest success. So much so that they call Atlantic Records ... "The House That Ruth Built".
In the 60s, Ruth retired, raised a family, and worked a day job as a domestic worker. Unbelieveable. Eventually in the mid to late 70s she jumped back into the music business in TV sitcom roles, as DJ Motormouth Mabel in John Waters' 1985 film Hairspray, and then in 1989 she starred in a Broadway show, Black and Blue, from which she won a Tony Award! For years to come Ruth fought a legal battle to recoup royalties from Atlantic for those early hits and this battle led to the formation of the Rhythm and Blues Foundation, a non-profit organization that aids others in similar circumstances. Ruth also won a Grammy and is considered the queen of R&B, having set the standard for future R&B artists.
Check out one of my favorite Ruth Brown songs, This Little Girl's Gone Rockin' (mp3).
On YouTube:
Ruth Brown - Mama He Treats Your Daughter Mean
Ruth Brown as the record shop owner/DJ in Hairspray
Buy Ruth Brown albums/book:
If you dig Ruth Brown you should also check out Wynona Carr, and LaVern Baker - two more ladies of early R&B.
(***the
purpose of mp3 samples on this blog is to give you an idea of what an
artist sounds like so you purchase more music by this artist. mp3s
should be deleted from your computer after you listen to them. please
contact me if you would like an mp3 removed***)
via Soul Sides, I heard the news that Sugar Pie DeSanto recently lost her husband and home in a fire. An auction for a rare Sugar Pie LP has been set up on eBay to help donate to the fund that was set up for her. Please bid or donate if you can.
Clancy Eccles is one of my favorite lesser known ska artists. He was one of the originators of the ska sound, starting early on combining that boogie/R&B sound with the upbeat mento feel, eventually culminating in the unmistakable ska beat. In 1959 he got his start when he moved to Kingston and began recording for Coxsone Dodd. in 1961 one of those recordings, "Freedom" hit it big on the sound system circuit. The song was the first of many steps he would take in combinging politics with music. The song spoke about repatriation to Africa and it later on was used by the Jamaican Labour Party's Chief Minister of Jamaica at the time, Alexander Bustamante, who used it as a rallying song for his fight against the Federation of the West Indies in the early 60s. One of his other big songs in this early time period was the tune "River Jordan".
He began helping Coxone Dodd promote shows like the "Christmas Morning" show and later on various reggae/soul revues with some of the other bigname stars like The Wailers and The Clarendonians. In 1965 he quit the music biz for a while and worked as a tailor making stage costumes for some of the other reggae/ska artists of the time until 1967 when he returned to the music business, producing his own recordings along with others on various labels like Clansone and Clandisc in addition to helping out fellow artists start their own labels, like Lee Scratch Perry's Upsetter label. One of Clancy's classic tunes from this later time period is his 1968 song "Fattie, Fattie" which is a skinhead classic to this day. Eccles' songs can be found on a ton of the Trojan box sets and compilations.
A great Clancy Eccles discography can be found here.
An interesting article in the Jamaican Observer written in commemoration of Clancy Eccles after he passed on in the summer of 2005 can be found here.
Another great article about Clancy Eccles is here. "He has been credited with deriving the name "reggae" from "streggae" (Kingston street slang for a kind of good-time girl)".
Clancy remains one of my favorite early ska artists, not just because of his fantastic easy-going early ska sound that you can't help but move to, but because despite his own experiences getting screwed over by producers and labels, he remained a fair and honest man, supporting others music careers as much as his own, and lived a life that seems to have remained true to his beliefs. He seems to have truly been a man of honestly and integrity.
One of my favorite Clancy Eccles songs is Shu Be Du (mp3), a perfect example of that relaxed Jamaican beat. (***the purpose of mp3 samples on this blog is to give you an idea of what an artist sounds like so you purchase more music by this artist. mp3s should be deleted from your computer after you listen to them. please contact me if you would like an mp3 removed***)
This is one of those things I will look for until I find it, or until I die. I don't remember when, or from who, I got the scratchy rip for their track "What She Does To Me" (mp3), but it sparked a desire to spend the $233 for the copy of it I found on music stack. Alas, desire is not enough to justify that purchase right now. Damnit.
Anyway, The King Bees or Kingbees were a mid 60s garage band from New York, with just three 45s in their discography: 1965 "What She Does To Me" b/w "That Ain t Love" (RCA-Victor
8688) 1966 "On Your Way Down The Drain" b/w "R&B" (RCA-Victor
8787) 1966 "Lost In The Shuffle" b/w "Hardly (Part 3)" (RCA-Victor
8979)
The King Bees' single "Lost In The Shuffle" is also on the compilation, Mindrocker, a 13 disc garage psych comp set.
The lineup featured: Danny Kortchmar (Danny Kootch) on guitar, Joel O'Brien on drums, Dickie Frank on bass and John McDuffy on organ and vocals. This band is not to be confused with the King Bees of Davie Jones and The King Bees, an early David Bowie group who put out the single "Liza Jane". Nor is it the same as the modern blues band with the same name. Nor the King Bees who eventually turned into the band called Myddle Class. (this is a great read!)
A year after their third release, they appear to have disbanded and Danny and Joel went on to form The Flying Machine with James Taylor in 1967. Later on, Danny would go on to become a successful song writer and producer for Carole King's daughter, Louise Goffin, in 1979, co-writing and co-producing Don Henley (you know, like "The End Of Innocence" in 1989), and produced, wrote, or did session work for artists like Neil Young, Bon Jovi, Billy Joel, Bob Dylan, and Jackson Browne. My personal favorite project other than The King Bees that Danny worked on was co-writing with Jackson Browne the track on the Fast Times At Ridgemont High soundtrack, "Somebody's Baby" in 1982. Danny Kortchmar now has a new band called Midnight Eleven, more info on his website.
During my King Bees searching, I stumbled across this compilation CD on CDBaby.com: Various Artists: "High School Reunion, a tribute to those great 80s films!" that has indie artists (Like Frank Black, Matthew Sweet, Kristin Hersh) covering songs from 80s film soundtracks (like Pretty in
Pink, Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Say Anything, Valley Girl, Repo Man). Might be interesting.
The mp3s on this site are for educational and sampling purposes only. If you want a link or mp3 removed, just let me know.
Gotta share my new favorite bands with you all:
