|
|
So…this meme was making the rounds (again) on Facebook in recent weeks and I went back to check what the #1 song was during my birth week in 1972 and it was Gilbert O’Sullivan’s “Alone Again, Naturally.”
By sheer coincidence, I had just picked up a Spanish-language version of the song from Amoeba the other week (and believe me when I say: I very rarely find much by way of good used records from Amoeba). It’s on a 7″ EP of four songs, from a band that I think is Guatemalan in origin:
[...]
Continue reading OPUS 3: 72 TO 12
Sarah Vaughn: Bye Bye
From 7″ (Mercury, 1964)
James Royal: House of Jack
From 7″ (CBS Germany, 1969)
Mark Martin: In the Good Old Topless Time
From 7″ (TWR, 1968)
I previously wrote about “instrumentals-made-into-vocal” covers in 2010, and now have three more to add into the mix.
Sarah Vaughn’s “Bye Bye” obviously riffs on Mancini’s hugely famous “Peter Gunn Theme”. I’m on the fence with this one…you don’t really need to throw vocals on one of the best frickin’ t.v. themes of all time but then again: [...]
Continue reading VOCALIZED COVERS
Katunga: Oh Cherie
From Mira Para Arriba, Mira Para Abajo (RCA, 1973)
Katunga was a 1970s Latin funk/rock outfit out of either Peru or Argentina (I’m still not 100% certain if they were Peruvians who recorded/toured in Argentina or the other way around) with a few LPs to their name. “Oh Cherie” comes off of what is probably their “best-known” LP (to American heads), Mira Para Arriba, Mira Para Abajo (“look up, look down”) thanks to a number of b-boy break-type joints, especially “Palo Bonito.”
However, I keep coming back to “Oh [...]
Continue reading KATUNGA: OH CHERIE, AMOUR
It’s probably self-evident that people connect to songs on a personal basis (duh) but nowhere else are the stakes higher than choosing songs for a wedding. I don’t presume this is the case for every couple but for me, I know I’d probably agonize over what songs to choose for the processional, recessional, first dance, last dance, etc. 1
As such, I’m always curious to see what couples go with and very often, I learn something new along the way. For example, for DJ Phatrick’s wedding last summer, their processional was the “Suite for Ma Dukes” [...]
Continue reading LOVE, SONGS
Bob Azzam & The Great Expectations: Rain Rain Go Away
Berimbau
Tricky Soul
From S/T (Audio Fidelity, 1969)
Where in the world is Bob Azzam from? If you knew nothing about him and needle-dropped through the album, you could easily believe he’s from (take your pick): the U.S., the U.K., Brazil, or the Middle East. Azzam was actually born in MonacoCairo to a Lebanese family but his career really got started in France even though much of his best known work (to contemporary ears) was originally recorded in Sweden. You [...]
Continue reading AZZAM IS UNIVERSAL
Cold Duck: Cold Duck (On Ice)
Folk: A Helping Hand
L&M Jazz Quartet: Serenade to a Chicken Wing
The Profits: Fantasy of Love
All from Like People: The Sounds of Young Los Angeles (SOYLA, 197?)
I had been after this LP for a few years now, ever since first seeing at the Groove Merchant, back in the day. It was the cover art; there was something so enticing about how everyone was standing at the top of that canyon, combined with a flip on the old Motown slogan, “The [...]
Continue reading THE SOUNDS OF YOUNG LOS ANGELES
I wrote a piece for the LA TImes the other week about cumbia peruana and its use of surf guitar. Fun piece to research and write (big ups to Barney Hoskyns’s Waiting For the Sun), especially given my interest in 1) cumbia styles and 2) L.A. music.
Coincidentally, the day my piece came out, I was in NOLA and turned up a single by The Tornadoes, a pioneering surf band out of Redlands, CA. Their best known hit was probably “Bustin’ Surfboards” though this single was released under the name “The [...]
Continue reading THE TORNADOES + SEPTIMA REGION: THE LONG SURF
Back in January 2010, I posted a few songs from Harrington (WA)’s Emerson brothers – this family group whose private press album was a lovely, surprising mix of folk, soul, psych and funk. As it turns out, two years before their album, the Emersons released a 7″ with songs that never made the LP. 1
Don, Joe & Eldon: Take It
From 7″ (Enterprise & Co., 1977)
“Take It,” the better (IMO) of the two sides is more on the folksy tip as Donnie and Joe are joined by a third relative(?) [...]
Continue reading DON AND JOE EMERSON: THE EARLY YEARS
|
gigs No gigs currently scheduled. I am available for private parties such as weddings, et. al. |
chatter