Greg Costikyan is an old school board game guy, author, and so forth who still posts thoughts about games, gaming and the like here. This morning he posted a wonderful essay about a play by mail (that’s snail mail kids) Diplomacy variant called Slobbovia. I remember reading a recap of a Slobbovia turn in a game zine I bought WAY back in the day (lets say ’83). This essay made me smile, made me reminisce about the old school games. The good and the bad about the way we *used* to do things. Magic.
This here is my favorite live song from the entire Nirvana catalog. Where Did You Sleep Last Night aka Black Girl aka In The Pines is widely attributed to Leadbelly, but pre-dates him. Wikipedia even pushes the original folk song back to the 1870s. Kurt makes the song scary and sad and lonely…just like it should be.
I can still remember the first time I heard the Blasters. I had borrowed a couple of cassettes from a friend at church who said they’d be “too country” for me. They weren’t. I love those early Blasters albums for the emerging song writing of Dave Alvin, the piano playing of Gene Taylor, and the blistering yodels of Phil Alvin. I suppose I was already prepped for something “too country” in a way. My parents had handed down a good hunk of Gordon Lightfoot to me in LP format. Now ol’ Gord is not “too country” but he does employ quite a few of the genre conventions in the service of his stately folk tunes.
So, from the time I got hooked on the Blasters I’ve had something of a conflicted relationship with the new country music. Or as it’s come to be called Alt-Country. Being the fucking horrible snob I am, I toss most country (but not western) music in three categories: old country (Johnny Cash, Hank the 1st, Merle), new country (the mind numbing wasteland of Travis Tritt, Kenny Chesney, and all of their tawdry 80′s pop rock compatriots), and alt-country (Justin Townes Earle, Hayes Carll, the Volebeats). I hold a special place in my heart for Lyle Lovett, who could have been the great great songwriter of our generation and can still make me cry. But looking at my collection the other day I did see quite a bit of country music, from Dwight to The Knitters to Hank III to Big Sandy. A younger version of myself would have been shocked and appalled. But, here we are. And as I listen to the Drive-By Truckers sing about the Church of Christ we come full circle.
Sometimes something with a twang is what I need. Sometimes I need the prophetic voice of thunder from John Cash, sometimes I need the savagery of the original Hank, and sometimes I need the comfort of Willie Nelson. I’m not embarrassed.
eMusic continues to be my source for delicious, DRM-free digital music. Now and then I’ll pick up an actual CD, or something from Amazon, but most of my needs are met by eMusic. Here is the stuff I’ve downloaded lately.
The Monks – Black Monk Time: The Monks were all GIs stationed in Germany in the early to mid 60′s. They began playing together in ’64 and by ’65 had been discharged. Black Monk Time is the only album they ever produced and it is a stone cold classic. Garage, underground, frighteningly original and ahead of it’s time, this won’t appeal to just anyone. Recently re-released this is pretty dang wonderful.
Wild Rumpus/Wild Rumpus feat. Beardyman – Purple Summersault and Rock the Joint: Juke joint swing re-mixed into funk electro? Sure. Dig that beat, baby.
The Mooney Suzuki – The Maximum Black EP: Good ol’ American Garage Rock. Check out Love Is A Gentle Whip.
The Dirtbombs – Ultraglide In Black: Detroit’s renowned punk/r&b live act.
The Oholics – Baby Blue Eyes: A delightful EP by some very very drunk Swedes. Delightful.
King Khan & The Shrines – The Supreme Genius of King Khan & the Shrines: A Berlin based garage/psych band. I listen to this all the dang time.
A couple of drinks into our Friday evening, and over some really nice goat cheese pizza, bin and I had a moment of intense, soul gazing connection. Some radio station or other was playing and for some reason chose to play Bread and Butter by The Newbeats. It’s a very odd song. Midway through the first bar bin looks at me and says “this is Bread and Butter” and then “I had this on Goofy Greats.”
Of course I, too, owned a copy of Goofy Greats when I was a child. Now K-Tel must’ve released about 20 different versions of this album. Some had two LPs, some only one. Some had Mr. Bass Man, and Leapy Lee, while mine did not.
As far as I can tell below is the track listing of the Goofy Greats I had:
Royal Guardsmen – Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron
Brian Hyland – Itsy-Bitsy, Teenie-Weenie, Yellow Polka-Dot Bikini
Newbeats – Bread And Butter
Fendermen – Mule Skinner Blues
Bobby Day – Rockin’ Robin
Hollywood Argyles – Alley-Oop
Johnny Thunder – Loop De Loop
Ohio Express – Yummy, Yummy, Yummy
George Baker Selection – Little Green Bag
Tokens – The Lion Sleeps Tonight
Trashmen – Surfin’ Bird
Ohio Express – Chewy, Chewy
Ray Stevens – Ahab The Arab
Shirley Ellis – The Name Game
Lemon Pipers – Green Tambourine
1910 Fruitgum Co. – Simon Says
Piero Umiliani – Mah-Na-Mah-Na
Bill Haley – See You Later, Alligator
Playmates – Beep, Beep
Jewel Akens – The Birds And The Bells
Lovin’ Spoonful – Nashville Cats
Larry Verne – Mr. Custer
Larry Williams – Bony Moronie
1910 Fruitgum Co. – 1-2-3, Redlight
You’ll notice a few important things here. This list contains the greatest rock and roll song of all time (Surfin’ Bird by the Trashmen), the greatest rock and roll song with the word bo-birley in it (The Name Game by Shirley Ellis), two amazingly non-pc classics (Ahab the Arab and Mr. Custer), the Ohio Express doing all of their “-y” catalog, and Rockin’ Robin. The fact that we both owned this record, both could identify Bread and Butter, and her name is Robin….that /has/ to be kismet right? I’ll be stoked about this for a long long time to come.
(and no…this is not the correct cover for the LP I had…)
The Black Keys doing Have Love Will Travel. The song was written by the legendary Richard Berry (who also wrote and first perfomed Louie, Louie). It’s most famous early incarnation was by The Sonics. The Black Keys, of course, give it a thorough going over. Genius.
