Must Be Friday Playlist

Today just a little end of the week enthusiasm, with an emphasis on appropriate songs from the Rhapsody Just Added list (the first two tracks). Yes, the time has come to drink some beer, rock out, and beat up some hippies.

Happy Friday, everyone!

Must Be Friday Playlist

Drinking Beer - Jimmy Witherspoon
Jamaica Collie - Lone Ranger
Up Against The Wall, Redneck Mother - Jerry Jeff Walker
Cities On Flame With Rock And Roll - Blue Oyster Cult
Over The Mountain - Ozzy Osbourne

Addendum: I finally saw the Minutemen documentary We Jam Econo a couple weeks ago, and have been listening to quite a bit of Blue Oyster Cult since (inspired by an acoustic version of "The Red And The Black" in the extras). One of the other extras from that fine document is perfect for today's theme, and a fine excuse to jump on the youtube-linking bandwagon.

Yes, it's Ronald Reagan vs. the Minutemen in the video for "This Ain't No Picnic"

King Harvest New Release Playlist

For the ears here at Ribaldry and Schmaltz, yesterday was probably the richest batch of new releases this year. New music from the Lemonheads, Robyn Hitchcock, Morrissey, and Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars. John Scofield teams back up with Medeski, Martin , and Wood nine years after A Go Go. Jerry Lee Lewis teams up with everybody else. A five-CD live retrospecticus from the Damned. What's not to like? And don't think we didn't take advantage of the addition of Drake's justly-trumpeted Lily Allen.

Most appropriate for this harvest season.

King Harvest New Releases Playlist

Pittsburgh - The Lemonheads
Couple More Years - Jerry Lee Lewis and Willie Nelson
The Authority Box - Robyn Hitchcock
Christian Dior - Morrissey
Tequila and Chocolate - Medeski, Scofield, Martin, and Wood
Disco Man - The Damned
Akera Ka Abonshor - Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars

Slightly Dreadful Fresh Catch Playlist

Today a fresh catch playlist of slightly dreadful proportions, drifting up from that island in the sun to tease us as the final days of summer fold away.

Slightly Dreadful Fresh Catch Playlist

Mrs. Brown - Jacob Miller
Rasta Shook Them Up - Peter Tosh
Hard Man Fe Dead - Prince Buster
One Draw - Rita Marley
It Is No Secret - Ras Michael and the Sons of Negus

Jack Jones Love Boat Theme Tuesday

I don't know much of anything about Jack Jones, though it turns out he's a singer of some history and renown, who continues to play internationally to this very day.

All we really need to know for today about Mister Jones is that he's the man behind the most astounding version of the Love Boat Theme available in Rhapsody so far.

Love Boat Theme - Jack Jones

Addendum: Yes, I really really don't know much at all. Mister Jones in fact sang the original version of the Love Boat Theme. I was thrown off because this linked version is so 'distinctive' the connection eluded me.

Old Country Buffet Out To Lunch Friday Playlist

Today out to lunch a genre-fusing country buffet of a playlist. Diverse flavors, but carefully paired to avoid indigestion (no sushi next to the prime rib here!). Of note, the whole album from Zimbabwe's the Green Arrows is a particularly tasty and interesting recent addition to the Rhapsody catalog.

Old Country Buffet Out To Lunch Friday Playlist

Goody Goody - Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers
Troglodyte (Cave Man) - Jimmy Castor Bunch
Los Dos Amantes - Graciela Beltran Con Banda
Dusted - Belly
Musango Mune Hangaiwa (Part Two - Waka Waka Selection) - The Green Arrows
Farther Along - Johnny Cash

TJ Kirk and Beyond Thursday Playlist

One of my first excursions as a Rhapsody blogonaut was creating source material playlists for the TJ Kirk records TJ Kirk and If Four Was One. Their three guitar and drums celebrations of the music of Thelonious Monk, James Brown, and Rahsaan Roland Kirk are perenially delectable, and my favorite context for 8-string guitar pontiff Charlie Hunter.

Well, those fine records still aren't in Rhapsody but yesterday I did discover that the Ropeadope-issued live recording Talking Only Makes It Worse slipped in at some point.

It's a well-recorded and welcome romp. But even better, while futzing around listening to it I came across this most surprising document from Ramon Lopez, Duets 2: Rahsaan Roland Kirk. The Spanish percussionist radically but compellingly reinterprets eight Roland Kirk songs and offers up an original inspiration to close things out.

Delicious.

TJ Kirk and Beyond Thursday

Get on The Good Foot/Rock Hard in a Funky Place - TJ Kirk
Why Don't They Know - Ramon Lopez
Clickety Clack - Ramon Lopez
Otroblues To Rahsoon - Ramon Lopez

Vaden Records Compilation Sampler

There's been alot of early rock 'n' roll and rockabilly creeping into Rhapsody recently. Here's a few gems from a compilation of the Arkansas early rock label Vaden Records.

Vaden Rock Story Sampler

Black Cadillac - Joyce Green
Country Girl - Johnny Moore
Pipeliner - Teddy Redell
Hi-O Silver - Bobby Lee Trammell
One Has My Name - Bill Duniven

Total Trash Friday

So I think I was at the refuse transfer station/recycling depot with Thurston Moore earlier today. A surreal twist to a Friday if ever there was one. It reminded me that soon it will be fully 18 years ago (half a lifetime in me years) that I first saw that gentleman rather successfully play a guitar with a half-full bottle of beer in one hand and a drum stick in the other. Halloween weekend 1988 at the now crumbling Lost Horizon in Syracuse with the Laughing Hyenas and Die Kreuzen.

Just look at us now!

In a related note, it looks like the Laughing Hyenas and Die Kreuzen were both on Touch & Go, so maybe there's a chance we could see those records creep in to Rhapsody as part of that anniversary celebration thing going on there? Eh? Huh?

Total Trash Friday

Total Trash - Sonic Youth
Halloween - Sonic Youth

American Song-Poem Celebration Playlist

Why is it that jazz is always trotted out as the pillar of uniquely American musical forms? I hereby declare that we have a national duty to do more to celebrate the genre that could only have its roots in the USA (or maybe Nigeria). I'm talking of course about the American Song-Poem.

Oh yes, the American Song-Poem. The divine musical progeny of capitalistic chicanery and populist creativity. Magazine ads common in the 1950's to 1970's offered Americans fame and fortune if they submitted their poems for possible recording as hit songs. In reality, all were offered the opportunity to record their creations, no matter how sublime, incoherent, or profane: for a fee.

A crack team of musicians found a way to turn all paid submissions into a recorded track in as short a time as possible. The results are illuminating, inspiring, and a rightful part of our national heritage. So move over Louis Armstrong, and step aside Mister Ellington. It's time to share the spotlight with another true American Sound.

Rhapsody has a small sampling of the American Song-Poem, which we celebrate in playlist form here. The WFMU Web site has a whole collection of classics in mp3 form in a retrospective page. A great page with more information about Rodd Keith, master of the form, is maintained by his son Ellery Eskelin.

American Song Poem Celebration Playlist

Blind Man's Penis (Peace And Love) - Ramsey Kearney
General Custer's Story Remains Legend - Rodd Keith
Human Breakdown of Absurdity - Norm Burns and Singers
Run Spook Run - Rodd Keith
Maker of Smooth Music - Dick Kent
How Long Are You Staying - Bill Joy
Jimmy Carter Says Yes - Gene Marshall
Ecstasy To Frenzy - Rodd Keith
I Am A Real American - Rodd Keith

China Record Corporation Just Added Playlist

Amongst the other gems added to Rhapsody recently was a huge number and variety of records from the China Record Corporation. In addition to dozens of records of opera from all parts of China, there were some real oddball treats like stand-up comedy and children's albums.

A whole series of albums highlight the comedy genre xiangshen, or "comedy crosstalk" (represented here by the track from Bai Quanfu and Chang Baoting). Apparently the tradition of the huckster and the straight man in China goes back almost as far as Chuang Tzu and Confucius.

Lastly in the playlist, a track from another one-of-a-kind album recently added, Mantras for Pregnancy by Dr. Shri Balaji Tambe.

And people wonder why anyone would pay $10 a month for a subscription music service...

China Record Corporation Just Added Playlist

Taking Sleeping Pills - Shi Shengjie
Alphabet Song - Zhao
Rat Drawing A Cat - Zeng Xiaoying
We Are Happily Taking A Shower - Zhan Jia
Unable To Talk Properly - Bai Quanfu and Chang Baoting
Garbha - Dr. Shri Balaji Tambe

Out To Lunch Friday Playlist

Today out to lunch, a short smorgasbord that probably won't get along too well in the stomach, but certainly tasted great on the way down.

Out To Lunch Friday Playlist

Three Little Maids From School - The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
The Sad Chicken - Leroy and The Drivers
Eastbound and Down - Jerry Reed
Corporate Deathburger - MDC