RAY RYAN PRESENTS - "The Candy Johnson Show" (1964)

 

"Ray Ryan Presents The Candy Johnson Show Featuring Candy Johnson And Her Exciters" came out in 1964, and while it was mostly just a Las Vegas club act, Candy caught on with the surfer crowd with her hip shaking moves and wild outfits that set those moves off even more, and cool instrumentals like this!

We loved this record so much that we even did a cover of our favorite song, and here is the original!

Wind it up boys!!! 

THE CANDY JOHNSON SHOW- "The Hook" 

RASPUTINA - "How We Quit The Forest" (1998)

 

This is just an incredibly awesome song by Rasputina from their 1998 album titled "How We Quit The Forest."

Some of the music on this release is a little more difficult than this, but this song is just wild.

I actually even like the video on this one, it's short, sweet, and to the point! 

RASPUTINA - "Diamond Mind" 

List Songs, Part Three - Paul Simon

 

Rich here, continuing with the subject of songs whose lyrics are comprised of lists. 

 

Perhaps it's not surprising to discover that Paul Simon, one of the most lyrically adept and intellectually curious songwriters of the past 60-plus years, has written two songs that would qualify as "List Songs;" i.e., songs whose lyrics revolve around a list of some sort. 

 

The first List Song that Paul Simon wrote was "A Simple Desultory Philippic (Or How I Was Robert McNamara'd Into Submission)" from 1965, a point in which Paul Simon and his partner Art Garfunkel were at their folk-rock peak. The song is a satirical take on Bob Dylan and his often-obtuse hipster-infused lyrics. In Simon's case, his lyrics referenced then-current notable public cultural, political, and newsworthy individuals in a witty and dexterous manner. Many of the individuals named in "A Simple Desultory Philippic" will no longer resonate in the 21st Century, but many will. Two points for each name in this list that you recognize:

PAUL SIMON - "A Simple Desultory Philippic" 

 

Years later, after Garfunkel had been ditched and Simon seemed less inclined to inject intellectual pretentiousness into his lyrics, he wrote a much more fun type of List Song, this one listing all the street-lingo phrases you could use when breaking up with your lover.

PAUL SIMON - "50 Ways To Leave Your Lover"   

THE MERRY-GO-ROUND -"You're A Very Lovely Woman" (1967)

 

In 1967, an L.A. band called The Merry-Go-Round, led by a fellow named Emitt Rhodes, came onto the scene with this self-titled LP that ended up having a single on it that went to #94 on The Billboard Charts.

After the band disbanded in 1969 Emitt went on to have a fairly successful solo career. A multi-talented musician, he made four more albums, and on three of them, he played all the instruments. 

Emitt pased away in 2020, but at least he left us this very lovely tune.

THE MERRY-GO-ROUND -"You're A Very Lovely Woman" 

SYNDICATE OF SOUND - "Little Girl" (1966)

 

Syndicate Of Sound were from San Jose, California, and this album called "Little Girl" burst on the scene in 1966.

The single "Little Girl" is a classic no doubt, and hit #8 on the Billboard Charts.

They never made another album. 

Just in case you haven't heard it lately...... 

SYNDICATE OF SOUND - "Little Girl" 

THE RHYTHM KINGS - "Exotic" (1963)

 

The Rhythm Kings were the band that played at all the Friday night dances when I was in high school, and this is the kind of music that we were doing The Twist, The Mashed Potato, and The Watusi too.

I think it explains a lot about my taste in music! 

 

The Rhythm Kings unique sound became very popular with the surf crowd for a while as evidenced by this record when they were one of the winners of the "SURF BATTLE" in 1963.

 THE RHYTHM KINGS - "Exotic"  

KENNY WAYNE SHEPHERD BAND - "Live On" (1999)

 

I always thought this was a pretty cool song I'd like to have played at my funeral when the time comes, but in the meantime, let's go with the title of this release from The Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band from their 1999 release,

 "Live On!"

KENNY WAYNE SHEPHERD - "Last Goodbye" 

THE WALLABIES - "Up And Down Children" (1967)

 In 1967 Jim Dickinson was working as a record producer for Ardent Studios, and produced this song by The Wallabies, (Or was it The Wallabys?) but it wasn't released until 2008 when Big Beat Records in the UK put out a double CD titled "Thank You Friends: The Ardent Records Story."

Wikipedia calls this song "A marriage of garage rock and a twisted Merseybeat sound."

 

A commenter on youTube said "Jesus, was this recorded on aluminum foil???"

No doubt that Jim was already painting outside the lines.

THE WALLABIES - "Up And Down Children" 

THE JESTERS - "My Babe" (1966)

 

I'd like to talk about one of my musical heroes for a little bit, and that person is the late, but forever great, Jim Dickinson born in Little Rock, Arkansas. 

Jim Dickinson might not be a household name or in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but without him, music would have been a lot different over the years. 

Jim passed away back in 2009, but before that, he sang and played the piano with countless groups before becoming a record producer in 1966, and everything he laid his hands on was different from the way anybody else might have done it.

Here's a good place to start! 

Jim Dickinson was not even a member of the group known as The Jesters, but he 1966, he played piano and did the lead vocal on their Sun Records release titled "Cadillac Man." 

The flip side was this classic gem penned by Willie Dixon. 

THE JESTERS -  "My Babe"

 

"My Babe" was written specifically for Little Walter by Willie Dixon, and in 1955 it was #1 on the R&B Charts. It has since been covered by everyone from Elvis to Otis to The Righteous Brothers to Steve Miller, and hundreds of others.

LITTLE WALTER - "My Babe"

List Songs, Part Two -- "Route 66"

 

Rich here, continuing with the subject of songs whose lyrics are comprised of lists. 

 

One of the most covered List Songs of all pays tribute to America's most famous highway, "Route 66." When World War 2 got over, Americans got in their cars and drove westwards, including Bobby Troup, who drove cross-country from Pennsylvania toward the sunshine and beaches of California in 1946 in hopes of becoming a successful Hollywood songwriter. Picking up Route 66 in Chicago, he wrote a song that listed towns he passed through along the way until he finally arrived on the shores of the Pacific Ocean.

 

(An aside: Troup's listing of towns that dot Route 66 is so accurate that in the early 2000's, my son's 8th grade geography teacher assigned his class to memorize the lyrics to the song.)

 

Troup's "Route 66" soon caught the attention of jazz musician Nat "King Cole" and his trio, who released the first recorded version of the song, which was then quickly picked up by other jazz and R&B musicians, including Bing Crosby and The Andrews Sisters and The Rolling Stones (who changed the lyrics to describe towns in the UK). Over the years, hundreds of artists have recorded "Route 66," but my favorite version is by The Manhattan Transfer (1981), who won a Grammy for their hip, jazzy list of all the towns encountered along the famous highway.

THE MANHATTAN TRANSFER - "Route 66" 

 

 

THIS IS A P.S.: By the late '50s and early '60s, the actual Route 66 had developed so much popular and cultural importance that CBS developed an entire TV series focusing on the adventures of two photogenic young men traversing the country in a Corvette convertible, Chevrolet's hot new sports car, and encountering crime and drama in the towns they encountered along the route. The show's theme music doesn't include a list; it doesn't have lyrics at all, but Nelson Riddle's theme for the series is one of the greats in TV history. 

NELSON RIDDLE - "Route 66" 

BLONDE FURNITURE - "Has More Fun" (1984)

 

I hope you're ready, because this just might be your new favorite song that you never heard before, and it's by a band called Blonde Furniture from a 1984 album titled "Has More Fun."

I think Blonde Furniture were from Connecticut, or at least that's where this record was recorded.

There's a whole lot going on in this song from start to finish, and yet, this video has only been viewed 14 times in ten years. Is that even possible?

I just listened to it three times myself, and I still don't think I heard everything!  

BLONDE FURNITURE - "No LoveTo Right About" 

THE UNTOUCHABLES - "Sister Salvation"

 

The Untouchables were a band from the UK, and they only made this one record. Shortly afterwards they changed their name to Under The Gun because there was a band from L.A. with the same name who were having some success. Even this video shows a picture of the wrong band, and that's what they were trying to avoid!

There's no listed year, but since Under The Gun's first release was in 1986, I'm guessing this was '84 or '85. 

You're in for a treat!! 

THE UNTOUCHABLES - "Sister Salvation" 

MOE. - "Tin Cans And Car Tires" (1998)

 

MOE. was formed in 1989 in Buffalo, New York, and they know how to rock. If you're not familiar with the MOE. boys, now is a good time to find out what you've been missing!

 

Still jamming today, here's a poster for their upcoming 4th Of July concert in Saratoga Springs, NY.

Here's the kind of cool music you're likely to hear if you attend.

MOE. - "Stranger Than Fiction"

QUICKSILVER - "Shady Grove" (1969)

 

Around 1970, Quicksilver Messenger Service decided to shorten their name to just Quicksilver, and that was the name used on this their third album titled "Shady Grove," and their fourth record "Just For Love,"  before changing it back to the full Quicksilver Messenger Service again.

I think the funny thing is that even with a shorter name, it still didn't fit on the front of the album cover.

Gary Duncan had left the band and was replaced by renown session pianist Nicky Hopkins, which gave the band some different directions, and songs like this emerged.

QUICKSILVER - "3 Or 4 Feet From Home" 

HOWLIN' WOLF - "Hidden Charms" (1963)

 

Chester Arthur Burnett, aka Howlin' Wolf was not just a blues man. Oh, he did play the blues, and wrote some of the most definitive blues songs ever, like "Spoonful," "Back Door Man, and "The Red Rooster," but Howlin' Wolf was also a serious Rock and Roller!!

From 1963, here's what I'm talking about.

The phenomenal Hubert Sumlin lays down the smokin' hot guitar solo. 

Turn It Up!!! 

HOWLIN' WOLF - "Hidden Charms" 

CHAMAELEON CHURCH - "Spring Is Here" (1968)

 

Long before SNL or National Lampoon, Chevy Chase was the drummer and keyboard player in a psychedelic band from Boston, Massachusetts called Chamaeleon Church.

Recently I've been reading that Chevy Chase was not that easy to get along with as an actor. I wonder if he was more agreeable as a musician.

This is an interesting record, but does that translate into good?  

Not exactly, but definitely interesting and full of lofty goals!

CHAMAELEON CHURCH - "Spring Is Here"  

List Songs, Part One - "I've Been Everywhere"

 

Rich here. No matter the subject matter, everybody loves lists, right? And, similarly, songs with lists in them tend to be popular. Think of Cole Porter's 1930s-era "Let's Do It," in which Porter lists all the kinds of people and species who "do it" (wink, wink). People loved not only the risqué nature of the lyrics, but they also loved the humor of the list -- "The locusts up in the trees do it / Even over-educated fleas do it."

 

So popular are lists that Wikipedia even has a whole page devoted to listing (get it?) songs with lists in them.

 

One extremely popular song with a list was country singer Hank Snow's "I've Been Everywhere" (1962) in which a hitchhiker slowly introduces the song by telling us he's on the road to Winnemucca, but when he's picked up by a trucker, he begins singing so quickly, we can barely keep up with the names. Not only is the song catchy, it's truly amazing how quickly the singer rattles off the list of towns he's visited.

HANK SNOW - "I've Been Everywhere" 

 

 

But this version of the song wasn't the first. The song was written in 1959 by Australian country singer Geoff Mack, whose lyrics list all the Australian towns the hitchhiker has visited. The song was later recorded in 1962 by Lucky Starr, an Australian who sings the list even faster than Hank Snow sang his, if possible.

LUCKY STARR - "I've Been Everywhere" 

ASIAN DUB FOUNDATION - "Buzzin'" (1997)

 

What music is supposed to do, offer change in attitude and lifestyle.

Asian Dub Foundation was "a music technology workshop group for Asian youth" in the UK.

There's lots of different elements going on here, these kids did their homework, and this is the almighty results, and it'll make your head spin!

ASIAN DUB FOUNDATION - "Buzzin'" 

DR. Z - "Three Parts To My Soul (Spiritus, Manes Et Umbra)" (1971)

 

I am SO sick of YouTube ads before these songs start, but I guess it's a small inconvenience compared to what it would take to hear a song from this album thirty years ago.

This record is very rare and copies sell for between three and six thousand dollars, and yet you can now listen to it because of modern technology for free. 

Weird tradeoff, but I guess it's worth it. 

Weird album, weird concept, weird song!

Three musicians, and no guitars!

DR. Z - "Evil Woman's Manly Child" 

R.I.P. AUGIE MEYERS (1940 - 2026)

 

I had something else already done for today but when Rich Horton notified me this morning that one of my real musical heroes, Augie Meyers had passed away, I had to change things around.

I've said before that my intention has never been to turn this blog into a musical graveyard, but almost every day you read about some musical legendary icon, only to find out it's somebody you never have heard of, but Augie Meyers really was legendary.

Augie's trademark organ can be heard on many of his recordings with Doug Sahm and The Sir Douglas Quintet, and/or The Texas Tornadoes, but he also had some solo albums like this one that were really great too

He will be missed!!

AUGIE MEYERS - "Five Cent Bag"

AMOEBAS IN CHAOS - "Designer Genes" (1982)

 

Amoebas In Chaos were from Indianapolis, Indiana. They released this album called "On To Mayday" in 1982. There are many interesting song titles on this album like "Incognito," "Fantasy,""Twisted," and "Nuclear Tofu," but my favorite was discovered on a completely different record.

 

I used to own this various artists compilation album years ago called "Red Snerts," and on it, along with a bunch of other wild music, was this cleverly titled song by Amoebas In Chaos!

AMOEBAS IN CHAOS - "Designer Genes"

LEE KRISTOFFERSON - "Night Of The Werewolf" (1977)

 

Lee Kristofferson's real name is John Wagstaff. The name Lee Kristofferson is basically Christopher Lee backwards, and is the influence on his name.

I have a copy of this 45 for sale on Discogs if anybody would like to buy one! 

 

Lee is obviously a pretty funny guy, so I guess after he came up with the last name Kristofferson, he figured he might as well use it to his advantage and copied the cover of this "A Star Is Born" album for his 45 cover.

The A side of this single is called "Dinner With Drac," but I prefer the instrumental on the B side much better.

LEE KRISTOFFERSON - "Night Of The Werewolf" 

TALL TALES OF THE 1960's

 

When was the last time you heard a song that had a title that started with "Tales Of".........?

Do people even tell tales anymore? 

Well, they did back in the sixties, and then they wrote great songs about them.

Here are two of the greatest examples! 

THE BOB SEGER SYSTEM - "Tales Of Lucy Blue" 

 

CREAM - "Tales Of Brave Ulysses"

THE SQUIRES OF THE SUBTERRAIN - "Evil Head" (2008)

 

Rich here. No doubt many of you longtime followers of this blog know that its original focus was the cassette culture of the 1980's, which was a time when the emergence of 4-track cassette recorders made it possible for DIY musicians to record their music at home while being able to mix and overdub multiple instrumental and vocal tracks. 

 

Some background:  Of course, being recorded on cassette tapes meant that the fidelity and sound quality was fairly low, but those primitive 4-track recorders proved to be a great workshop for teaching musicians how to arrange and record their music. And the resulting explosion of lo-fi home recorded music gave birth to a whole new musical underground as musicians gave out their tapes to their friends and fans and traded them with other home-tapers, fanzines were created that devoted themselves to reviewing the 100's of new recordings that were floating around, and left-of-the-dial radio stations were broadcasting the best tapes from the cassette culture. 

 

That's where I got my start as an indie musician in the early '80s, and despite the fact that the technology available to home recording artists these days is much more sophisticated, I still work and record with several of the artists I originally met and traded our primitive tapes with 30-40 years ago. 

 

One of the earliest cassette culture artists I met back in the day continues to be one of its most prolific -- Christopher Zajkowski, an extremely talented musician who channels all the best influences of the Sixties and releases his home-recorded masterpieces under the name THE SQUIRES OF THE SUBTERRAIN. In most cases, Chris writes and plays all the instruments and sings all the vocals, as he does on "Evil Head," which is a great pop song from his 2008 collection, "Feel the Sun." And recorded in Analog!

 THE SQUIRES OF THE SUBTERRAIN - "Evil Head"

CHARLES DE GOAL - "Commemoration" (1989)

 

Charles De Goal was a pretty cool band from France and they released this album called "Commemoration" in 1989 on the French label "New Rose.

There's not a lot to be found out about this group, the information on Discogs shows a band website that no longer exists, and their ancient Myspace page is almost totally devoid of information. 

Discogs lists them as "a the minimal synth project of Patrick Blain' but this song is a rockin' guitar based tune.

The title of this song is the same as the name of their record label, so I guess they were happy to be signed. 

This song has only had 15 views on YouTube in four years, and one of those is mine!

What a shame!

CHARLES DE GOAL - "New Rose"

SCOTT 4 - "Deutsche LP Record" (1997)

 

Scott 4.

The name of the band is the name of Scott Engel's 1969 LP titled ironically enough, "Scott 4."

 

 

That's Scott Engel aka Scott Walker of The Walker Brothers. 

The same Scott Walker that tore down all kinds of walls until his demise in 2019. 

So yeah, why not name your band after one of his albums? 

SCOTT 4 - "Deutsche LP Record"

THE KICKS - "Get Off The Telephone" (1980)

 

They started off as The Incredible Kidda Band, but changed their name to The Kicks after moving to London. They only recorded a couple of singles as The Kicks before changing their name to Were Only Human, and have continued recording all the way up to 2025 back where they started as The Incredible Kidda Band.

Here's one of their singles from 1980.

THE KICKS - "Get Off The Telephone"

TRAVIS WAMMACK - "Scratchy" (1964)

 

I never planned on doing tributes to all the great artists who have passed away over the years, but this is one I just can't ignore since this is a song that has been a part of my musical life almost forever.

Travis Wammack passed away on February 27, 2026. He was 81 years old.

The 'A' side of this single was titled "Fire Fly," but it was the 'B' side of this single titled "Scratchy" that caught everybody's attention and made it to number 80 on the charts in 1964.

Travis was only 17 years of age at the time.

With all the hubbub made over The Kingsmen's indecipherable lyrics in "Louie, Louie," I never could understand why nobody questioned the garbled backwards lines in this tune, because it always sounded like he was saying something nasty to me!

Travis Wammack might not be a household name, but he's pretty damn special to the people who do know who he was. 

Just listen to this song, one of the best instrumentals of all time, and understand why! 

TRAVIS WAMMACK - "Scratchy"