Beginning his career as the guitar playing half of the 1950s rock duo, Don & Dewey, Don “Sugarcane” Harris, put down the guitar and picked up the violin after the lack of success for Don & Dewey. Recorded in 1962, and produced by Sonny Bono (yes, folks, that Bono), Frank Zappa has said that Don and Dewey‘s single “Soul Motion” (see clip above) on Rush Records was one of the all-time great R&B records.
Founded in 1996, the North Mississippi Allstars is a southern rock/jam band from Hernando, Mississippi, composed of brothers Luther Dickinson (guitar, vocals) and Cody Dickinson (drums, keyboards, electric washboard) and Chris Chew (electric bass guitar). Their song, “I’d Love to Be a Hippy” is from their sixth studio album, Hernando. In the above clip, the song is performed live “in studio” of WBBB (better known as 96rock, a radio station out of Raleigh, North Carolina).
Incredible how little time it took for a band to mythologize hippies. Perhaps this was what Frank was ultimately getting at when he composed “We’re Turning Again”?
Here’s one for KUR’s resident Eels Freak Extraordinaire, Sharleena:
Enjoy all 43 minutes!
Oh, and be sure to check out Eels’ latest album, Hombre Lobo.
Cruising With Ruben & The Jets is a Mothers of Invention album released in 1968, and controversially reissued in an alternate mix with newly recorded bass and percussion in 1984 by Frank Zappa (all post-1984 reissues of the album have featured this remix).
The following three clips from the 1968 vinyl version of the album (“Anything“, “Love of My Life“, and “I’m Not Satisfied“), with original bass and drum parts, which has not been officially rereleased on CD, is a real treat for those who have only known the 1984 remix, and never heard the original release:
In the clip above, Crystal Zevon discusses the off beat life of her late husband, Warren Zevon, his inspirations for songs like “Mohammed’s Radio” (below), as chronicled in her book about him “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead: The Dirty Life and Times of Warren Zevon“.
On March 9th, 2009, the Chicago Ate (or) The Utility Muffin Research Kitchen Employees’ Union Memorial Band (Chicago Chapter) presented “Joe’s Garage” at the ‘Martyr’s’ club in Chicago.
A tiny bit of studio-presence, that supposed to be a “talk show” – if they were normal people. I love John Cassavetes, by the way, my favorite director – check out his film “Husbands”, if you can. Or any of the others.
See the other parts: part 2 | 3 | 4
My favorite moment is at 7:48 in part 2.
As you may have noticed from visiting previous entries, I’ve implemented a plugin which allows easy “sharing” of any given post to Delicious, Digg, Facebook, Stumble Upon and Twitter. You should see something like this underneath each single entry:
If, by contrast, you’re seeing huge pixelated images, I suggest you refresh your browser window — that’ll do the trick.
Go ye and spread the word! 🙂
Rare footage of Jean-Luc Ponty from 1972. Performing his only original composition from his album King Kong: Jean-Luc Ponty Plays the Music of Frank Zappa. While the album version goes 7:12 in length, this version (it is surmised that this recording is from a German TV Archive – can anyone confirm this?) goes 10:13. Though recorded under the Ponty name, King Kong is largely considered a Zappa record by fans.
George Carlin talks about the famous “7 Dirty Words” Supreme Court case in this December 17th, 2007, 5th part of 7 interview by Jenni Matz and Henry Colman for the Archive of American Television. He talks about his HBO specials, the meaning of “success”, his feelings about the American political system, and his piece “The planet is fine, the people are fucked“.
