rhythm and blues – Kill Ugly Radio

Frank Zappa on KPFA-FM, Los Angeles, circa 1970

I recently came into possession of an audio clip of Frank Zappa as special guest on “The Johnny Otis Show” which ran on KPFA-FM, Los Angeles, circa 1970. During most of hour they spun old records, yet in this clip, a live-in-the-studio performance, Ray Agee is backed by Frank Zappa and Shuggie Otis on guitars. Frank tells a little story to start, then Johnny Otis urges Shuggie to lend Frank a guitar and they launch into an impromptu blues piece. A nice bit of audio history.

Leave Me Alone – Ray Agee, Frank Zappa, Shuggie Otis
[audio:http://www.killuglyradio.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/01-Leave-Me-Alone.mp3]

Boz Scaggs at Wolfgang’s Vault

Boz Scaggs‘ voice was a very big part in the soundtrack of the seventies, so it’s really not a big surprise that this artist’s music still resonates with me (myself, having come of age in the mid-seventies). For me, Scaggs was then, and still is now, the epitome of smooth blues (like aged dark rum in a shot glass, straight back). If you look past his well known hits like “Lido Shuffle”, “Lowdown”, “Look What You’ve Done To Me”, you quickly realize that Scaggs is one in a long line of great American bluesman (which, perhaps, answers why his music is still popular today while so many of his 70s contemporaries have long since faded away).
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Don “Sugarcane” Harris & Dewey Terry

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.

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