This is one devastating month for the world of music. We lost some of the really great ones recently. Tommy Ramone is the most recent one, until now, the only remaining original Ramone, writer of Blitzkrieg Bop and producer of The Replacements Tim. His most recent musical effort was a bluegrass duet Uncle Monk, and one touching song which I recorded live in Cleveland from that era finishes our show. We also review some of my favorite Gerry Goffin and Carole King songs. Goffin passed away and left behind an incredible pioneering work in rock’n’roll lyricism. Bobby Womack, who was born in Cleveland OH by the way, also passed away last month. Rock’n’roll audience probably knows him the best as the author of the Rolling Stones first no.1 hit It’s All Over Now, but he was also a great singer in his own right. The we say goodbye to two great jazz bassists. Charlie Haden was definitely one of the greatest in the world. Incredible list of collaborators will never be surpassed. For instance, we check out his most recent album with Keith Jarrett called The Last Dance. It came just one month before the news came about Haden’s departure. MiÅ¡a Blam is the second bassist that passed away recently. He is not very well known outside of the borders of former Yugoslavia, but back home, he was regarded as the greatest one. And finally we also mention the passing of Paul Mazursky, definitely one of my favorite movie directors.
Laura Nyro – Up on the Roof;
Ramones – Mama’s Boy;
Ramones – Blitzkrieg Bop;
Ramones – I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend;
The Replacements – Left of the dial;
Redd Kross – Frostep Flake;
The Animals – Don’t Bring Me Down;
The Byrds – Goin’ Back;
Monkees – Pleasant Valley Sunday;
Little Eva – The Locomotion;
Elektricni Orgazam – Locomotion;
Zafir Hadzimanov – Stari cadjavi voz;
Albert King – The Hunter (Blues Alphabet);
Misa Blam – Insert 12;
Keith Jarrett and Charlie Haden – Dance of the Infidels;
Charlie Haden – Oh Shenandoah;
Bobby Womack – If You Don’t Want My Love;
The Valentinos – It’s All Over Now;
Rolling Stones – It’s All Over Now;
Faces – Maybe I’m Amazed;
Uncle Monk – Heaven (Live in CLE).
Today we open up with our good friends Cheap Wine from Pesaro in Italy, one of the best Americana band outside America. We also represent the new album from the Australian singer songwriter Paul Kelly. Sarah Borges joined forces with Los Straitjackets for a cover of The Rolling Stones Let’s Spend The Night Together. Buddy Miller joined forces with Jim Lauderdale for a new album together. And Trixie Whitley visited Cleveland with her band and totally rocked the house. We hear a portion of her snow in Beachland in our segment Live in Cleveland.
On July 12, 50 years ago, The Rolling Stones had their firs gig at the Marequee Club in London. It’s not news to say the Stones are one of the most influential rock’n’roll bands ever. So, in honor of their 50th anniversary, we will review some of the most interesting covers of The Rolling Sones songs. I think that the choice is not entirely obvious, so you may have fun staying with us.
Julian Cope continues with his steady concept of putting out double albums with songs obsessed by the middle east and politics. Listening to that stuff is a learning experience. The new record is called Psychedelic Revolution. We also have the new album for John Larson, who we know from the Marlowes. We used to play them few years ago when they were active. Larson now has a new record, also a concept album, all songs are about music. Free from the Rolling Stones baggage Bill Wyman plays standards with his new band Rhythm Kings and we check out their new live record Live Communication. The new names today are The Good And The Bad. Their concept is numerology. The new record is called 18 to 33 and all songs are numbered from 18 to 33. PG Six are also a new band, they hail from Brooklyn and they don’t have a particular concept, other than sticking pretty strictly to the retro psychedelic sound. Royal Baths come from the San Francisco garage punk scene, but they all relocated now to Brooklyn.
Folks, one of the weirdest episodes ever here at the Little Lighthouse… There is a whole bunch of reissues these days with live music. So, we started off with the new live reissues of Lou Reed, Rolling Stones and Giant Sand. Twilight Singers have a new live album out, so we check out that as well. Our good friend Damien Youth reissued his studio album Sunfield on vinyl. It’s a lovely double LP. And then we played the new band for Chris Eckman from Walkabouts, called The Frictions, which he put together over in Ljubljana where he lives these days. They played a cover of Suicide, so “naturally”, the rest of the songs were about suicide as an act, not as a band. So, very happy ending today… Check it out, but don’t do it.
May 8 marks hundred years of birth of the famous bluesman Robert Johnson. At least officially, as the exact date of his birth is unknown. But, the man’s influence on rock’n’roll and all other blues related music genres is impossible to measure. The majority of Johnson’s music was recorded between 1936 and 1937, long before rock’n’roll really had its name. But in 1961 his music was reissued on an LP and the young rockers embraced Johnson as a great precursor of their music. Black blues musicians of the 50s, like Howlin’ Wolf and Dinah Washington were a link, as they were playing Robert Johnson’s songs even before the 1961 LP. British rockers like Eric Clapton and The Rolling Stones followed and brought Johnson’s music to the masses. Still, two of my favorite Johnson’s rock’n’roll covers belong to the 80s underground era: Rainer Ptacek’s version of If I Had Possession Over The Judgment Day and Gun Club’s Preachin’ The Blues. But indisputable strength of Johnson’s quality as a songwriter and guitar player is not the only link to the rock’n’roll. His entire short life is filled with mysticism, charisma and myth that also became an essential fabric for a decent rock’n’roll biography. Today, we pay a tribute to that.
In out past seasons we had four shows where we featured songs that we identified as anthems of rock’n’roll. Those are the songs that bands keep turning to through the entire history of this music, tunes that define the very fabric of rock music. Previously we featured Louie Louie, I Fought The Law, Tobacco Road and Train Kept A-Rollin’. Today we have Money (That’s What I Want). The song originally came out in 1959. It is not completely clear who is the author. Around the same time, two nearly identical songs came out, one by John Lee Hooker and the other one by Barrett Strong, written by Berry Gordy and Janie Bradford. The latter version is definitely more famous and also it’s the earliest hit single on Tamla (which soon became Tamla Motown). It’s possible that song is neither Gordy/Bradford or Hooker’s, maybe it’s something that has traditional roots in early rhythm and blues. In any case, fantastic piano riff and material lyrics became one of the main inspirations and many various bands made covers, and it’s a rock standard that was covered both by Beatles and The Stones. Most recently, Peter Case reused this riff on his latest record and retooled it as I Ain’t Got No Dough. All in all, today we go through no less than 20 different versions of this fantastic songs that spans the entire history of rock.
Everybody already knows quite well that The Rolling Stones famous album Exile on Main Street has recently been reissued in a luxurious remastered new edition. It indeed sounds great, and much of today’s show is dedicated to this album. We also take some time to hear some new stuff. Super-trio Dirtmusic which consists of Chris Eckman, Hugo Race and Chris Brokaw has a second album called BKO. We also have a new name for the first time. His name is James Jackson Toth AKA Wooden Wand.
Mixed bag today, folks. Soul, blues, glam, power pop… and the stones. Yeah, the reissue of Exile On Main Street is scheduled for May, but as the record company decided to put out a special single out on the record store day with a song dug out from the Exile vaults called Plundered My Soul. When you think of that the Stones actually had so many good songs those days that they just threw out something like that… Another reissue for this year is Elvis Costello’s Live At The Hollywood High ep this time expanded to a full blown long playing CD reissue. Red Shoes sound particularly good on that one. We also check out new albums for the Black Keys and for Sharon Jones. Moaners are here again with some demos that they keep putting pretty much regularly on their myspace page.