Song of the Week: The Stooges - Search And Destroy

[originally posted 9/13/2010]
We just read at the hep-cat blog, Nitro-Retro, that Stooges drummer Scott Asheton has died at 64. RIP. Here is an old post on The Stooges regurgitated for you to enjoy Scott's work today. 

Detroit is a rough and tumble town. Broken windows, broken concrete and broken noses abound in this city of a broken economy. That profile fits it's music too. In the late 60's Detroit birthed two of the most violent, ugly, out of time bands that ever committed noise to wax. One was the way cool MC5 (watch their way cool live vid here), and the other is the karate blow of a band, The Stooges, the band best known for thrusting Iggy Pop onto the world.

Today's SOTW, is Search and Destroy, the single from Iggy and The Stooges critically acclaimed third album, Raw Power and was recorded in the Fall of '72. I think the name of the song and the name of the album say everything that needs to be said. So sit back, and enjoy.

Under the Covers: R.I.P: I Pity The Fool by Bobby Bland and Davy Jones and the Mannish Boys

Two posts in as many hours. And for very good reason. We just learned that Bobby Bland has died. He was 83. Major bummer. Great, great, great voice.

To go with this week's theme of Under The Covers, we're presenting Bobby Bland performing his 1961 stunner on Duke Records, I Pity The Fool. It's, in my humble opinion, Bobby Bland's greatest recording of many great recordings he made in a career that started in Memphis, Tennessee way back in 1955. Not only does the song kick ass on it's own rights, but it inspired the catch phrase from brilliant actor, Mr. T! You can't go wrong with that.

Bobby Bland

We first came to this record from a very mediocre version performed by Davy Jones and the Mannish Boys. The blonde haired ace-face of a mod front and center on the sleeve would soon change his name to David Bowie and would go on to more original works.

The Manish Boys

We did a post on Bobby Bland's 1960 song, I've Been Wrong So Long way back in 2011. You can listen to that kick ass song here. 

R.I.P. Bobby Bland. We'll see you On The Flip-Side. 

Vinyl Frontier - Megan Fox

Ziggy Stardust getting a little love from Megan Fox

Video Diary: David Bowie - Space Oddity (1st version)

Song of the Week: Bobby Bland -- I've Been Wrong So Long/Cry, Cry, Cry

I've Been Wrong So Long

Cry, Cry, Cry

In my younger years I ran across a reprint of a Davey Jones and the Mannish Boys single. The A-Side was a decent enough song called I Pity The Fool. It grabbed my attention if for no other reason than mod kingpin, Davey Jones, would go on to fame as David Bowie, and, secondly, the song's title was the catch phrase of the criminally underrated actor, Mr T. Not long later I would find myself sifting through dusty record bins in Albany, California when I ran across the same song on a bitching looking orangey and purple label. The song was now being performed by the marketing disaster of a name, Bobby Bland. I figured it was worth the dollar being requested of me and I put it in my stack. Long story short, Bland's original kicked the butt of little Davey Jones' version of I Pity The Fool like Mr. T would kick the butts of evil South American strongmen every week on TV. I said to myself, "I pity the fool who tries to cover a Bobby Bland song, fool."

That introduction to Bobby "Blue" Bland set me to gathering his records whenever I ran across them. Soon enough I was picking up Turn On Your Love Light, which astute record collectors will recognize as a song from Them's second album. Then Stormy Monday Blues, while not the best version I had ever heard, it was clearly the version from which Them learned the staple song. Then I picked up Cry, Cry, Cry, a beautiful and nicely restrained song that showcased Bland's powerful and soulful voice as good as any song I had hear him do. But the flip-side, ahh, that flip-side, was a real head-scratcher. It was one of those songs that made me just stop and listen. It sounded so different.

The song is I've Been Wrong So Long and it is our SoTW. The cool opening guitar riff made me run to my bass and try to figure it out. But as soon as I got the bass in my hands, the song went into a very unpredictable direction. Suddenly I found myself listening to a German style polka or march. WTF just happened? Then, as I struggled to learn that, the song moved into a powerful soul ballad. Holy crow that was cool! I just love it when a song comes so far out of left field that the listener is hit with a sonic fist to the ear. That's what this song does for me.

Cry, Cry, Cry b/w I've Been Wrong So Long was recorded in Chicago on August 3, 1960 and was released on Duke Records #327.

I hope you enjoy. Until next time, We'll see you On The Flip-Side!

Song of the Week: Leadbelly and Nirvana - Where Did You Sleep Last Night?

Leadbelly

Nirvana

On November 18, 1993, Nirvana took the stage in New York for an intimate acoustic evening to be filmed for MTV. The band was in its last throws of life as Kurt Cobain would commit suicide just 5 short months later. The band was at the end of their US tour in support of the criminally underrated album, In Utero. I had seen them on one of the first dates of that tour. Front row, center in Denver, Colorado. They were amazing. Cobain stared down at the first few rows for the first half of the show. Then, about half way in to the show, as he stepped back from the microphone to take one of his famously spartan guitar leads he looked up at the entire audience. About 1500 people in all. I remember getting an odd feeling at that moment. He looked as if he was going to be sick as he nervously closed his eyes and exhaled a huge sigh. He stepped back to the mic and took another quick pensive glance at the whole room. The rest of the show he performed like a 13 year-old boy trying to work up courage to ask the girl in the blue dress at the other end of the gymnasium if she would like to dance with him. This was a man who was uncomfortable in his own skin. About the worst thing possible, I imagine. And on this night in New York, a few months later, he didn't look too much more comfortable. That night, Nirvana, as was their want, added a ton of songs they rarely if ever performed. Mostly covers of songs by the Meat Puppets, Bowie and The Vaselines. And the closer that night was a cover as well. A traditional American folk song called Where Did You Sleep Last Night (in the Pines). It was a highly impassioned performance that varied surprisingly little from the version by folk-blues artist, Leadbelly. It is the closing verse where Cobain shines with his raspy voice wailing away with sadness as he sings "I will shiver the whole night through". For most it would be the last time they would see Cobain perform and his final plea rings all the much more ghostly for it.

Leadbelly did not write the song (as Nirvana generously credited in their publication of the song), as the song probably dates back as far as the Civil War. But he did record the song as early as 1944 just a few short years before his own death. Unaccompanied (and by himself), Leadbelly plays Where Did You Sleep Last Night? with the scary precision of a man who, himself, knew of murder and life in prison. "My girl, my girl, don't you lie to me. Tell me where did you sleep last night?" Leadbelly's asides fit his cool demeanor perfectly. This is not, like Cobain's version, a man who is driven by emotion. This is the story of a cool level headed killer being interrogated: "My husband was a hard working man, 'till a mile and a half from here. {What happened to him?} His head was found in a driver wheel, but his body ever never be found."