Little and Large #11 - A Guest Post from SWC

Just when you thought that this series was concluded along comes a guest post from SWC of The Sound of Being OK


He had been promising me something for a few weeks and I had pretty much given up on him but you and I know that he was merely holding out for his favourite number 11.
Over to SWC - with guitars

Littler -  Littler are a indie punk band from Philadelphia who specialise in making tracks that appeal to the angst ridden (I'm looking at you teenagers).  They make songs about the pain of being young, about having to grow up and finding yourself.  'Somewhere Else' is taken from their 'Of Wandering' album of a few years back and is all kinds of brilliant.

Big Deal - as well as being a terrible TV programme about the perils of gambling (featuring the bloke who voiced  Mr Benn as Robbie Box),  Big Deal were also a two piece band from London/California who had some minor success around five years ago with the angst ridden fables about lost love, teenage pain and misfortune.  Their song 'Talk' is perhaps their finest moment

Tune in next Wednesday for something completely different




Littler - Somewhere Else

Big Deal - Talk

A Country Love Song

C suggested that to conclude this series that I put all the song titles in this accidental series into the one post and to come up with a story so here goes.
I'm going to put them in the order they were posted.




A Country Love Song


Tex was once more propping up the Horseshoe bar with his gal.She was flirting with some of the regulars and he didn't like it.Yet again he thought  She's Acting Single and I'm Drinking Doubles.
She has been in the huff with him ever since he had reminded her that she was wanted by the police and that My Wife Thinks Your Dead.

She sidles up to him looking for change for the jukebox. Sadly he know what rubbish would be  going on and was busy thinking If I Can't Trust You with a Quarter How Can I Trust you with my Heart.
She was flirting again leading Tex to think that she's already put big old tears in his eyes Must You Through Dirt in My Face.


Tex could see the relationship coming  fairly swiftly to an end but hopefully not in the way his buddy’s had..
She took a Lot of Pills (and Died)  Slim wailed. Not only that he sobbed as he swigged his beer My Son Calls Another Man Daddy.

Tex was wondering how it came to this. Two weeks ago everything was relatively  normal  for Tombstone and then he found  himself Handcuffed to a Fence in Mississippi.
He shut his eyes and prayed for redemption.Dropkick me Jesus Through the Goalposts of Life he muttered.
He yearned for a  simple life with no more Drag Queens in Limousines, nuns in blue jeans and dreamers with big dreams.

That's it he said out loud. Tomorrow morning  I'm hitting the 87 Southbound and heading for Johnson City!

Wayne Hancock - 87 Southbound

Wayne Hancock - Johnson City



Somehow I don't think that our resident authors Rol and Martin have anything to worry about!

Holiday Celebrate Holiday Celebrate

We are off on our holidays today. A week in Skye and then a week in the Cairngorms where we will celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary.
I'm pretty tired and still recovering from my nasty bug so two weeks R&R is just what the doctor ordered.

There is a post scheduled for tomorrow and guest posts for the next two Wednesdays but other  than that nothing to see here until we return -I had neither the time nor the inclination to do the traditional Holiday Hiatus posts this time round

Here's Madge from her 1983 debut album on  Sire to wave us off..
Hopefully I will return with some goodies to share with you.



Madonna - Holiday

Madonna -Lucky Star

Disco Friday #10 -Save The Last Dance For Me

C'mon folks drink up -the carnival is over.
Have you got no homes to go to.?
And so the end is near and now we face the final curtain

Just time for the DJ to dim the lights and dip into the section marked smoochie.
I'll leave you in the capable hands of The Drifters

Save the last dance for me

George McCrae -Rock Your Baby

The Drifters - Save The Last Dance For Me

Chuck and Stephanie and Jesse

We are off to Cottiers Theatre in Glasgow's West End  tonight to see Chuck Prophet AND Jesse Malin.
Yet another show put on by the ever brilliant Fallen Angels Club

Chuck will be playing with his wife Stephanie Finch as an acoustic duo with Jesse providing support.


I've seen Chuck on a number of occasions , once as a member of Green on Red, a few times playing with Alejandro Escovedo and a couple of times as a solo artist including one time at King Tuts when he nearly electrocuted himself.
I've only seen Jesse Malin the once again at King Tuts.

It's probably over 10 years since I have  seen either of them so I am fair looking forward to it.



Chuck Prophet - Til You Came Along

Jesse Malin -Wendy

Little and Large #10

Two or three series which started on or around the same time are now  rapidly reaching their conclusions.

One of which is the Little and Large series. You know the drill by now. A band with Little and a band with Large or something similar in their name.


I think that I could probably just about have done this series by concentrating on Blues singers alone.
There is Little Walter, Little Richard, Big Bill Broonzy, Big Joe Turner and Big Maceo and many more including today's little artist Little Milton.
One of those acts who had one foot in the Blues camp and the other in the Soul camp.


In the large corner we have Canadian folk artists Great Lake Swimmers with a track from their 2007 album Ongiara.


I think that's me just about done for now

Little Milton - Can't Hold Back The Tears

Great Lake Swimmers -Where in the World Are You

Dead Flowers

Last week Walter featured Townes Van Zandt's cover of the Rolling Stones number  Dead Flowers which  is on the soundtrack of The Big Lebowski.
I mentioned that I had a live version by Steve Earle and the Dukes which I said I would look out.

It turns out that I've two live versions, one on their live album Shut Up and Die Like an Aviator  and one on the b-side of the 12 inch single of  The Other Kind (Back out on the Road Again)
I've gone for the latter  along with a live version of Guitar Town which were recorded in Calgary, Canada  way back in April 1989 around the time of his fourth studio album The Hard Way. Due to addiction issues and prison time it would be five years before his next record Train a Comin' saw the light of day.


Take me down little Susie, take me down

Steve Earle & the Dukes - Dead Flowers (live)

Steve Earle & the Dukes - Guitar Town (live)

It has just struck me that both Townes and Steve have pretty much lived this song which may well explain why they produced two excellent versions.

Beerjacket

After a hiatus of five years singer/songwriter Peter Kelly better known as Beerjacket has returned with a new single Cord on the ever wonderful Scottish Fiction record label.
It is a precursor to his most ambitious project to date Silver Cords which will be an album and a book with 12 short stories accompanying the 12 songs.
As Kelly writes at one point in the writing of Silver Cords I decided that the record would live in a book and that each song would be accompanied by a short story inspired by it's lyrics.

The accompanying story for Cord is Shoots of Life which focuses on that one connection in life that holds everything together.

It sounds like a fascinating project and the album/book is available to pre-order over at Bandcamp
There is a limited edition of 300 copies. Make that 299 as mine is already ordered.

Drag Queens in Limousines

A week or so ago Rol posted a feature on Rifles and Rosary Beads the new album by Mary Gauthier. It sounds like an interesting and worthy project and one that I should really check out in more detail.

The title track would make a worthy addition to this series but given the fact that I don't have it I'm going to plump for the title track of her second albums 1999's Drag Queens in Limousines.
I think that this song may well be autobiographical given that she ran away from her adopted parents and lapsed into a world of drugs and alcohol spending her 18th birthday in jail.
Thankfully she managed to turn her life around given that she has been sober from 1990. She wrote her first song at the age of 35.
If you like your country real and gritty (and yes Mrs CC sometimes depressing!) than Mary is someone who you should become acquainted with.

Drag queens in limousines
Nuns in blue jeans
Dreamers with big dreams
All took me in

Mary Gauthier -Drag Queens in Limousines

Mary Gauthier - Our Lady of the Shooting Stars

The Devil's Music

I've featured the Uncut compilation The Devil's Music -Keith Richard's compilation of Blues,Soul and R& B classics (December 2002) before but it merits being included again.


As I said the last time I'm a bit wary of such compilations - music that inspired A or the roots of B as I feel it gives an opportunity to churn out any old stuff most of which is now in the public domain.
This one is a little bit different as in my mind's eye I can see Keef sitting with a spliff nodding along to all the songs featured and maybe strumming gently along on his guitar.


Last time round you got Jackie Brenston and Billie Holiday, this time you are getting Amos Milburn, Jimmy Rogers and Leadbelly.In all honesty I could have featured any of the 25 tracks as they are all top quality.
Somebody knicked the riff from the Jimmy Rogers song and it is bugging me as to who it is.

A compilation worth tracking down if you don't already have it.

Amos Milburn - Down The Road Apiece

Jimmy Rogers - Goin' Away Baby

Leadbelly - The Midnight Special

Disco Friday # 9 - Good Times

The bar has well and truly been raised this week as Charity Chic presents quite possibly the best disco act of them all Chic.
Lead by the geniuses that are Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards Chic describe themselves as the rock band of the disco movement that made good on hippie peace, love and freedom.
That's good enough for me.

Not content with producing disco classics such as the three featured below they were the brains behind countless disco hits for the likes of Sister Sledge, Diana Ross and Sheila and B Devotion.
Carly Simon,  Debbie Harry and David Bowie also owe them a debt of gratitude as do all those bands who have sampled them or been inspired by them.

Aaahh freak out!

Le freak, see'est Chic

Chic - Everybody Dance

Chic - Le Freak

Chic - Good Times

Dogs Die in Hot Cars

The final recent charity shop purchase is Please Describe Yourself  the 2004 debut album by Dogs Die in Hot Cars.
A band from St Andrews in Fife formed when the majority of members where at school there and finalised following a move to the meteropolis that is Glasgow.
On the V2 label and produced by Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley and as I recall it was released with a fair degree of hype and I suspect with a fair degree of investment.

Mrs CC is hearing a bit of Dexys, I'm hearing a lot of Franz Ferdinand.
I must admit I'm not sure as to whether it is a keeper or not. Decent enough pop music but I can't see me playing it that often. I suspect it is geared to a younger demographic.

A band whose name may present a challenge to the Twitter sensation that is Bands F.C.

Dogs Die In Hot Cars - Lounger

Dogs Die in Hot Cars - Paul Newman's Eyes

This post was originally scheduled for Monday but was overtaken by events, then Tuesday and Wednesday with me forgetting there were series to be progressed. It finally sees the light of day on Thursday!

Little and Large # 9

Nearly there - only two weeks to go.

Two artists who have graced these pages on more than one occasion for you today but with songs which have not previously featured.

Richard Wayne Penniman is also known as The Georgia Peach but much more famously as Little Richard.  Good Golly Miss Molly, you can't have a series with the word Little in the title without featuring the Great Man.
Similarly, O My Soul, any series with the word Large and similar meaning words would certainly be incomplete without the inclusion of Big Star.

Stay tuned for a series finale next Wednesday .. probably.

Little Richard - Good Golly Miss Molly

Big Star -O My Soul

The Executioner's Last Songs Volume 3

The 3rd and final instalment of The Executioner's Last Songs trilogy for you today. If you recognise the picture that is because it also featured last week as Volumes 2 and 3 come together as a double CD.
45 songs over the 3 albums with 14 as part of Volume 3.

I have a good few versions of Long Black Veil a song first made famous by the great Lefty Frizzell.
Lefty's version has featured here before as has that by The Chieftains with Mick Jagger and one by former Mekon Sally Timms.
Sally is appearing again today along with Edith Frost.

As far as I am aware neither the splendidly named Gurf Morlix nor the song Hangin' Me Tonight have featured here before. They have now.

I very nearly forgot all about posting this. I wonder how many folk would have noticed!

The Pine Valley Cosmonauts (ft Sally Timms & Edith Frost) - Long Black Veil

The Pine Valley Cosmonauts (ft Gurf Morlix) - Hangin' Me Tonight

When Mrs CC Is Away ....

Mrs CC was away with her mum over the weekend. This meant that I had the house and the choice of music to myself.
On weekend mornings over breakfast Mrs CC usually requests that we play "something mellow"
On Sunday morning I decided it was time for something loud. I was heading for The Clash when I was momentarily distracted by two artist recently featured by a couple of my blogging comrades.

On the back of Swiss Adam's brilliant Iggy Pop ICA  The Swede featured the incendiary Raw Power by Iggy and the Stooges.
JC's Saturday Scottish Song over at The New Vinyl Villain was Heatseeker  by The Hedrons from their album One More Won't Kill Us. Described by JC as hard rock they are in my Punk section (there is no hard rock section on the shelves).

It seemed foolish not to give these two albums a spin prior to The Only Band That Matters.


Iggy and the Stooges - Search and Destroy

The Hedrons -Be My Friend

Dropkick Me Jesus Through The Goalposts of Life

The official title of the song by Bobby Bare is actually Dropkick Me Jesus which is worthy of an entry in this accidental series.
Add in the rest of the lyric line and it is an absolute shoe in.
Bobby has been performing since 1956 am I'm happy to report that he  is still going strong at the ripe old age of 83.
His son is an Americana artist appearing under the name Bare Jr. When aged 5 he appeared with his old man on an excruciating duet Daddy What If.

Obviously not in the same league as today's classic

Free from the earthly tempestion below

I've got the will Lord if you've got the toe

Bobby Bare - Dropkick Me Jesus

Bobby Bare & Skeeter Davis - Your Husband, My Wife

Us

I'm getting there slowly. After recent Woody Guthrie and R.E.M. posts I give you Us by Mull Historical Society as the third of four recent charity shop purchases for two quid.
From 2003 it is the second of three albums released by Mull born singer songwriter Colin MacIntyre under the Mull Historical Society nom de plume prior to two albums under his own name and then a further two by MHS.

The debut MHS album  Loss is already on the shelves along with Colin MacIntyre's Water. I don't know about you but I'm getting quite confused.
Pleasant melodic pop music which is easy on the ear. Described by the NME as a joyous slice of orchestral prozac.
Warner Brothers didn't necessarily think so as the dropped him/them shortly thereafter.

The songs are pretty much much of a muchness but the first song earns it's inclusion by dint of a snippet from the Shipping Forecast.Aspiring artists take note.

Mull Historical Society - The Final Arrears

Mull Historical Society - The Supermarket Strikes Back

Disco Friday #8 - Di the Disco Diva

Not Diana Ross! - see comments

In the comments section of last Friday's post Swiss Adam admitted surprising himself in quite liking Chain Reaction by Diana Ross after seeing an old TOTP  clip and felt that a younger version of him would have been less that impressed.
A number 1 in 1986 and a bit of a return to form after a couple of years in the wilderness.
I couldn't find it but took the trouble of sourcing it just for you Adam.

As an added bonus  you are also getting a number 2 and a number 13 from when she was in her disco prime back in 1980 taken from the cheesy compilation section of the shelves.
And, what the hell, I'll throw in the TOTP clip for good measure seeing as how it's Friday










A bit like Adam I never really appreciated these at the time but now find myself singing along.


More disco stompers next Friday



I want the world to know




Diana Ross - Chain Reaction

Diana Ross -Upside Down

Diana Ross -I'm Coming out

A Nice Pairing from the SWS Correspondent

You will all be familiar with SWC (The South West Correspondent) from the ever mighty The Sound of Being OK triumvirate.
Today I give you Dalveen  aka SWSC (The South West Scotland Correspondent).

Shortly after last weeks Disco Friday offering I received a lovely e-mail from him suggesting that I feature the version of Deniece Williams' hit Free as covered by BEF featuring Billy Mackenzie and he very kindly attached same.
He also suggested Aztec Camera's version of True Colors as another great Scottish cover of a US songstress in this case Cyndi Lauper. (They retained the US spelling!)

Happy to oblige Sir. Two top tunes and a nice pairing indeed

BEF featuring Billy Mackenzie - Free

Aztec Camera - True Colors

Little and Large # 8

1940's novelty Country and 1950's Rock'n'Roll for you today.

You don't get any more little than Little Jimmy Dickens who was only 150 cm or 4 feet 11 inches in old money.
He had a long career from 1936 to 1994, dying on the 2nd of January 1995 at the ripe old age of 94. Famous for his novelty songs of which this is one. Apologies.

Jiles Perry "JP" Richardson Jr sadly did not reach 94. Better known as The Big Bopper he died aged 28 on the 3rd of February 1959 in the plane crash that also took the lives of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the pilot Roger Peterson.
Commemorated by Don McLean as The Day the Music Died

Little Jimmy Dickens - Take An Old Cold 'Tater (And Wait)

The Big Bopper - Chantilly Lace




* Just noticed that this is my 2000th post.
Thanks to all of you who have dropped by and in particular those of you who have taken the time to comment.
That's what keeps me going


CC

The Executioner's Last Songs Volume 2

The second instalment of the Jon Langford and the Pine Valley Cosmonauts trilogy of The Executioner's Last Songs on the ever wonderful Bloodshot label.
For some background information on the rationale behind this series see last week's post

Two songs today that you will all be familiar with but not necessarily by today's featured artists.
Banks of the Ohio is a 19th Century murder ballad most famously recorded by Olivia Newton John.
Johnny Cash with the Carter Family, Pete Seeger and Dolly Parton and Porter Wagoner are among the many other artists to record it.
Today's version features soul legend Otis Clay who was Chicago based hence the Bloodshot connection.

Tom Jones is probably responsible for the best known version of Green, Green Grass of Home.
Porter Wagoner (again), Bobby Bare, Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley and Joan Baez among loads of others have also covered it. Dave Alvin also covers it on Volume 3
Here Bloodshot stalward Kelly Hogan, known round here as The Voice, does the honours.I would argue that no-one does it better.

Third leg of the trilogy next Tuesday

The Pine Valley Cosmonauts (feat. Otis Clay) - Banks of the Ohio

The Pine Valley Cosmonauts (feat. Kelly Hogan) - Green. Green Grass of Home

The R.E.M. Dilemma

Dear Readers,
I'm looking for advice about the R.E.M dilemma.
It is an undisputed fact that anything they released after New Adventures in Hi -Fi is generally rubbish.
However this means that they are readily available in charity shops leading me to pick up Up and Reveal cheaply.
Last week for 50p I picked up Around the Sun rated by the Robster ,the expert on all things R.E.M, as the worst of their 15 studio albums.
He has a point. It is pretty poor.
The dilemma is that as a completist do I hoover up these albums for the sake of completeness or should I should I leave them  gathering dust on the charity shop shelves?
I was tempted to post the song The Ascent of Man if only for the line I'm a cactus, trying to be a canoe but it is so awful that I couldn't bring myself to it.

R.E.M. - Electron Blue

R.E.M. -Aftermath

Handcuffed To a Fence in Mississippi

A man who released an album called Drill a Hole in the Substrate and Tell Me What You See is surely worthy of a place in the Most Country of Country Song Titles accidental series.

Today's offering , however, comes from the album before that No Such Place from 2001 and on the Luaka Bop label.
I've chosen the first track Handcuffed to a Fence in Mississippi but the other track below would be equally worthy of consideration. As would God Was Drunk When He Made Me which just failed to make the shortlist.

Things is always better than they seem

Jim White - Handcuffed to a Fence in Mississippi

Jim White -10 Miles to Go on a 9 Mile Road

Come Back Woody Guthrie

The other day I bought 4 CD's for 2 quid in a charity shop. I'm still swithering about some of them. One that is definitely a keeper is Ramblin' Round a 2 CD anthology on the work of Woody Guthrie. 
I wasn't sure if I already had such a thing but apparently not.

You should all be familiar with Woody. A wandering singer songwriter and folk singer who has influenced subsequent generations both musically and politically.
The main influence in Bob Dylan's career with Dylan  tracking him down to Greystone Psychiatric Hospital in New Jersey where he was dying from Huntington's Chorea. Described by Dylan as like seeing Socrates talking to a young Plato.

If you haven't read Woody's autobiography Bound for Glory you should do so at the earliest opportunity.
I think it would be safe to say that he would have little time for the Orange Toddler who when not playing golf or tweeting nonsense is making an excellent job of destroying America's credibility.

As Steve Earle wrote in Christmas in Washington:

Come back, Woody Guthrie,

come back to us now,

tear your eyes from paradise

and rise again somehow.

Woody Guthrie - Ramblin' Round

Woody Guthrie - Talking Dust Bowl Blues

Woody Guthrie -This Land Is Your Land