JACOB MILLER - "Tenement Yard" (1976)

 

Jacob Miller was a killer Reggae artist who died in 1980 at the age of 27. While I've never seen his name listed as one of the members of the 27 Club, he sure should be included as he was a very influential musician!

Who do I need to petition? 

Here's one of his better known songs, the title of this 1976 release.

JACOB MILLER - "Tenement Yard" 

THE CHARLATANS - "32-20" (1966)

 

Back in 1966, bay area band The Charlatans released this Leiber & Stoller penned song "The Shadow Knows." 

Just in case you somehow don't know who Leiber & Stoller are, here's just a couple of samples of their compositional skills. I'm talking "Jailhouse Rock" and "Hound Dog" by Elvis, almost every hit by The Coasters, and the über classics, "Kansas City," and "Love Potion Number 9" just to name a few.

Supposedly, just "Love Potion Number 9" has been recorded over 180 times. Pretty incredible!

So I'm sure The Charlatans figured "The Shadow Knows" would be a guaranteed hit, but no such luck, apparently the Shadow didn't know.

This early version of The Charlatans included Dan Hicks, who would go on to lead one of the best bands I've ever seen live, Dan Hicks and his Hot Licks.

So here's a much better song, the flip side of "The Shadow Knows."

THE CHARLATANS - "32-20" 

SUPER DELUXE - "Famous" (1996)

 

Straight out of  Seattle in 1996, this album titled "Famous" by the band Super Deluxe, had a song on it that was named Power Pop Record Of The Year by Melody Maker magazine, and was also used in the film "Kingpin," which you would think would make it memorable, but alas that was 30 years ago, so there's a good chance you've never heard it or maybe forgot you ever heard it even though they were "famous" for a while.

So, here you go....it's back!!

SUPER DELUXE - "She Came On" 

BIG DADDY SUN & THE OUTER PLANETS - "Rockabilly" (1981)

 

Weird Rockabilly Clash cover by Big Daddy Sun and the Outer Planets from 1981.

The Clash's song was one kind of Rockabilly, and this saxophone driven version is something else again, but still Rockabilly. 

Confusing no doubt, but I dig it right down to the "Twilight Zone" ending.

BIG DADDY SUN - "Brand New Cadillac"

KING BISCUIT BOY - "Gooduns" (1971)

 

Probably not the most politically correct song in the world, but it sure does rock, so here's a great cut from this 1971 LP called "Gooduns" by King Biscuit Boy.

I don't suppose it's any worse than these lyrics by John Lennon, 

"You better run for your life if you can, little girl
Hide your head in the sand, little girl
Catch you with another man
That's the end, little girl."

KING BISCUIT BOY - "Boom Boom (Out Go The Lights)" 

WHEN WERE THE INSOMNIACS NOT THE INSOMNIACS?

 

Rich here to talk about another DIY band I met back in the somewhat early days of my involvement in Cassette Culture. 

 

Back in the early '90s a friend of mine sent me a mix-tape that included a couple songs that I really liked by a band I'd never heard of -- THE INSOMNIACS from rural Illinois. I was strongly attracted to the unique voice of their lead singer, their rough-hewn sound and melodies that bore mid-Sixties Kinks and other British Invasion influences, and the band's heartland appeal. 

 

A few months later I was fortunate to find myself trading some of my self-recorded music with the bass player and principal songwriter of THE INSOMNIACS, Bill Retoff, and we became quite close, often talking on the phone for several hours about how we wrote songs, how we recorded, and about the difficulties of making a living as a musician in the Heartland of America, a subject I knew well, given that before I moved to Seattle in the mid-'80s, I'd tried to make a living as a "road musician" in Kansas.

 

At some point, the tapes and records Bill was sending me were no longer inscribed with the name "The Insomniacs." Instead, they bore the name RETOFF, McKENZIE, BUTLER & PIERCE.

 

Turns out there was another band known as The Insomniacs who were unhappy that someone else was using their name, which they felt they had prior rights to. Being the nice, polite Midwestern guys they were, RETOFF, McKENZIE, BUTLER & PIERCE relinquished the Insomniacs name and adopted a "law firm" type moniker featuring only their surnames. 

 

 

After that, the band lasted only a few short years more (roughly 'til the mid-to-late '90s, I believe). But in 1997 the French label Pop The Balloon Records released a compilation album called "Where Were You . . . When the Lights Went Out! The Retoff, McKenzie, Butler & Pierce Story," a collection that included all the band's recordings. 

 

After the dissolution of the band, Bill Retoff went on to release several solo recordings on his own label (Maize Records), which were recorded in his home, which he calls "The Psychedelic Farmhouse," and he has a busy schedule playing with the bar band Ray's Rockets. Meanwhile lead singer Dan McKenzie has performed with a couple other bands, including The Porcupines and The Gilligans (the latter whom I have written about before) and is a leading figure in local community theatre.

 

But the music of The (Illinois) Insomniacs lives on.

 THE INSOMNIACS - "If I'm Not Your Man" (1989)

"THE INSOMNIACS - "It's What You Do To Me" (1992)

THE BATMEN - "Get On Your Knees" (1987)

 

The Batmen were from Grenoble, France. 

The band formed in 1984 and disbanded in 1988, and in 1987 they brought out this snappy little single. 

From the sound of it, they truly deserved a larger audience! 

THE BATMEN - "Get On Your Knees" 

THREE DOG NIGHT - "It Ain't Easy" (1970)

 

Here's one more page out of the book of "How In The Hell Is That Even Possible," the band Three Dog Night is not in that farce they call The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and even worse, they have never even been nominated!

 Ridiculous and absurd!!

They had twenty-one consecutive Billboard Top 40 hits, Eleven Top 10 hits, and three number-one singles between 1969 and 1975, but I guess they didn't snarl as much as Billy Idol, or have monsters on their covers like Iron Maiden, or argue enough with each like the members of Oasis, all of who are getting inducted this year.

Rich has already written twice about Three Dog Night, but it's now my turn at the plate!

This is the original cover for "It Ain't Easy," but you don't have to be a rocket surgeon to figure out that it didn't take the company long to yank this naked guys cover out of distribution in record breaking time.

 

They quickly replaced that cover with this tame and mundane one, because it just ain't easy trying to sell a record in 1970 with golden naked guys on the cover.

The original cover is so rare that even I didn't know about it until I started writing this!

It took a lot of balls to do that cover, fourteen to be exact, and you'd think that would have been good enough, but it's not.

THREE DOG NIGHT - "It Ain't Easy"

SPEEDBALL BABY - "Cinéma!" (1996)

 

Straight outta New York City in 1996, and their first album release called "Cinéma!," here's just a really great song from the band known as Speedball Baby.

I love this song, it's got it all! 

SPEEDBALL BABY- "Rubber Connection" 

TIMES 5 - "Is Your Radio-active" (1980)

 

They don't seem to be that popular with most people, but I've always loved compilation albums by various artists, and this one titled "415 Music" on the San Francisco based 415 label from 1980 is no exception.

Lots of songs on the LP are fun, but one of my faves is a great play on words by a band that's not easy to find much information on called Times 5. 

 

 Coming in at 1:35, and wasting no time getting there, here's

TIMES 5 - "Is Your Radio-active"

CAL TJADER - "Trick Or Treat" (1967)

 

There have been hundreds if not thousands of Halloween songs made over the years, and a lot of them are novelty songs, and a lot of them are just weird, but I don't think any of them are quite as weird as this one.

From the 1967 album "Along Comes Cal," 

Here's

CAL TJADER - "Trick Or Treat" 

THE RATTLES - "The Witch" (1969-1970)

 

In the "If You Don't Succeed, Try, Try Again" category, the winner is the German band The Rattles.

In 1969, when this record was recorded, the members were Kurt “Zappo” Lüngen playing bass, Rainer Degner on guitar, Peet Becker playing the drums with Henner Hoier doing the vocals.

"The Witch" was released as the 'B' side of a record titled "Geraldine." 

 

The record didn't do well, and by 1970 most of the original band was gone, leaving only Kurt “Zappo” Lüngen from the original band.

The new band re-recorded "The Witch with vocals by Edna Bejarano, with Frank Mille, and Borny Bornhold now playing guitar and drums, and the song became a hit.

They flipped the order of the songs to "The Witch" being the "A" side.

 

There are countless versions of this song on YouTube but I do believe even the one that says it's the original from 1969 is still the 1970 version, so instead of giving you two versions of the same thing, here's a version with Henner Hoier that's sung in German followed by the hit version.

HENNER HOIER &THE RATTLES - "The Witch" (Auf Deutsch) 

 

THE RATTLES - "The Witch" (1970) 

The Supergroup You May Never Have Heard Of - Toy Matinee, "Last Plane Out" (1990)

 

Rich Here. In the late '80s some of LA's new crop of session players gathered together to start Toy Matinee, a band whose only eponymously-named album was a masterpiece of playing and singing and production and intriguing arrangements. 

 

Out front was Kevin Gilbert, a young good looking, charismatic singer whose "knowing" voice was full of personality. Keyboardist Patrick Leonard and guitarist Tim Pierce created an interesting tapestry of sound (some may be aware of Tim Pierce due to his frequent appearances in Rick Beato's videos) -- all underlaid by Guy Pratt's bass and Brian MacLeod's drums.

 

Together, their playing was several notches above the Alternative music that was starting to dominate the charts. Their debut album was a tour de force with an intellectually-inclined bent -- subject matter included surrealistic painter Salvador Dali, a Czech poet, an Eastern European political figure, escaping a war zone, and even a song about Madonna. The songwriting was tight and focused, and the arrangements intriguing, with influences ranging from prog to pop to new wave. And full of hooks. It was the kind of musical ambition that had characterized The Beatles and The Beach Boys. 

 

A couple songs received fairly wide radio play. But, alas, the should-have-been mainstream success was short-circuited. Despite the accessibility of the band's appearance and songs, their complexity and intellectualism was not what the Public was looking for in the Age of Nirvana. As well, each of the band's members were busy with more session work than they could handle, and touring required replacing them with new players who weren't on the album was daunting. 

 

And, then, disastrously, Kevin Gilbert, who'd tried to promote the band and the album, died of tragic circumstance.

 

But they left behind one magnificently-made album.

TOY MATINEE - "Last Plane Out"  

BOBBY & DALLAS - "Vampira and Elvira"

 

Well, All Saints Eve is almost upon us so how about a small tribute to the mistresses of the dark, none other than 'Horror Hostesses' Vampira and Elvira.

"Elvira" was a song written and recorded by a guy named Dallas Frazier in 1966, and has nothing to do with Cassandra Peterson, aka Elvira who didn't appear on the pop culture scene until 1981.

This song made it to number 72 on the music charts in 1966. 

It was recorded again in 1970 by Kenny Rogers and the First Edition but was not released as a single. 

In 1981, Dallas Frazier probably made a couple of million dollars when The Oak Ridge Boys recorded "Elvira" again, and it rose to the top of the Country and Billboard charts.

And why not, since the lyrics "Elvira, my heart's on Fi-ra" is probably one of the best rhymes of all time.

DALLAS FRAZIER - "Elvira" 

 

It's just a coincidence that both the song "Elvira" by The Oak Ridge Boys, and the first appearance of Elvira, Mistress of the Night both happened in 1981.

Believe it or not, Cassandra Peterson just recently turned 75. 

 

Besides her appearance in the Ed Wood Classic "Plan 9 From Outer Space" and other films, Maila Nurmi, aka Vampira had her own hit TV show from 1954 to 1955.

 

 

It's said that Vampira was also the model that Disney's Maleficent was based on, and Vampira's look was based on Morticia from The Addams Family. 

Here's Charles Addams first drawing of Morticia. 

What a wild trifecta! 

Oddly enough, Maila's Mother's maiden name was also Peterson. 

Here's the awesome opening introduction from her TV show! 

 

In 1965, Bobby Bare brought out this less than scary looking album with his song "Vampira" on it, which unlike Dallas Frazier's "Elvira" was actually a tribute to Vampira.

Although it's an endearing Halloween classic, it never made it to the top 100.

BOBBY BARE - "Vampira" 

FOUR SONGS THAT REFERENCE FRANKENSTEIN!

 

Over the years there have been countless references to Frankenstein in popular music, so here are just four that I find either good and/or interesting.

Let's start off in 1961 and a song called "You Can Get Him - Frankenstein" that was written by none other than the scary Phil Spector along with Ahmet Ertegun, and Ed Adlum who was a member of the band The Castle Kings who recorded the song. 

 

Great song, but I actually prefer this 2014 version.

EMMY LOU AND THE RHYTHM BOYS - "You Can Get Him Frankenstein"

 

In 1962 The Crystals put out an album called "Twist Uptown" that oddly enough was produced by who else but Phil Spector?

THE CRYSTALS - "Frankenstein Twist"

In 1964 Elvis Presley was in the film "Viva Las Vegas" with Ann Margaret

The Japanese poster for the movie is pretty crazy. 

 

Oddly enough, they chose to only release this four song EP instead of a full soundtrack for the movie.

Maybe they didn't want Ann Margaret to outshine The King, but here's an awesome excerpt from the film featuring both of them, and the lyrics first with Elvis singing "How's about having dinner at eight?" and Ann's reply of "I'd rather dine with Frankenstein."

ELVIS PRESLEY & ANN MARGARET - "The Lady Loves Me"

 

Now here's a weird one you probably were not expecting.

In 1974, Buck Owens And The Buckeroos released an LP titled "(It's A) Monsters' Holiday"

Even weirder, looking at the song titles, this is the only 'monster' song on the record with lyrics like,

"Frankenstein was the first in line, And the Wolfman came up next" 

BUCK OWENS AND THE BUCKEROOS - "(It's A) Monsters' Holiday"

AFTER HOURS with Moe Tucker (1969) and Lord Litter (2011)

 

"After Hours" is the only Velvet Underground song sung only by Maureen "Moe" Tucker, and I also think that it's the sweetest song they ever recorded.

THE VELVET UNDERGROUND - "After Hours"

 

My good friend Jörg Dittmar, aka the late Lord Litter, felt the same way as I do about this song, and recorded his own sweet version in 2011.

LORD LITTER - "After Hours"

GANG OF FOUR - "Entertainment" (1979)

 

Now here's a song from 1979 by Gang Of Four from their album titled "Entertainment" that anybody and everybody should be able to identify with, because who in the Hell wants to get the disease Anthrax?

That's definitely something I don't want to catch, right up there with the plague!

 So why wasn't this a world wide hit? Beats the heck out of me!

GANG OF FOUR - "Love Like Anthrax" 

FRED ARMISEN - "What A Crackup" (1989-2026)

 

I'm going to go see a Fred Armisen show tonight, and boy, am I excited about it. This guy is so incredibly talented, I have no idea what he's going to come up with for the evening, but whatever it is, I'm sure it's going to be amazing!

 

 

Fred's done so much, there's just no way I can get into all of it, but here's a few highlights of his wild and funny career.

In the late 80's and early 90's, Fred was the drummer in the band Trenchmouth who made music like this!

TRENCHMOUTH - "Doing The Flammability" 

 

As a regular Saturday Night Live cast member, Fred performed in fake bands such as Crisis of Conformity and this Clash-like punk band called Ian Rubbish & The Bizzaros in 2013. Bill Hader had the role of  bassist Derek Gash.

IAN RUBBISH & THE BIZZAROS - "Maggie Thatcher"

 

Since Fred is also fluent in multiple languages, he can pull of things like this 2014 release by Joshua Rainhorn with additional vocals by the daughter of the phenomenal singer Minnie Ripperton, actress Maya Rudolph.

JOSHUA RAINHORN - "Voce Tem"
 

In 2015, Fred was in this very fake easy listening pop/rock band called Blue Jean Committee, again with the help of Bill Hader 

Is there any style of music he can't do? I don't think so! 

BLUE JEAN COMMITTEE - "Catalina Breeze"
 

In 2019 it was a mock up of The Talking Heads, a band called Test Pattern, with Bill Hader on bass.

This video from the "Late Night" TV show is very relatable and hilarious!

TEST PATTERN - "Art + Student = Poor"

So who knows which sides of Fred will show up tonight, but whoever they are, I'm sure this is going to be one helluva night to remember.

LES CLAYPOOL AND THE HOLY MACKEREL - "Highball With The Devil" (1996)

 

What better to follow up Larry Norman with than Les Claypool And The Holy Mackerel, and "Highball With The Devil" from 1996?

Nothing I think, because it just doesn't get much better than this. 

Turn it all the way up!! 

LES CLAYPOOL AND THE HOLY MACKEREL - "Holy Mackerel" 

I Am the Six O'clock News - Larry Norman (1972)

 

Rich here. In the early days of the Jesus Rock scene (later referred to as "Contemporary Christian Music"), there really were only a handful of good bands (egs.,Love Song, Phil Keaggy, Overland Stage, Randy Stonehill). Beyond those bands and a few others, the majority just really didn't write good songs, many weren't very good musicians in the first place, and/or their messages were fairly limited to a theologically shallow advertisement that "You should be pals with Jesus."

 

But one Christian rocker stood heads & shoulders above all but a few -- Larry Norman, who was the first true Christian Rock Star. In the late '60s, before turning his attentions to being a spokesman for the nascent Jesus Movement, he'd already experienced  mainstream chart success with his Bay Area band People!, who'd recorded a fabulous cover version of "I Love You" by The Zombies.

 

However, even more than his previous history in a chart-hitting band, what made Larry Norman stand out from the majority of other Jesus Rockers of the early '70s was that he was articulate and intelligent and charismatic and wrote songs that transcended the thematic limitations of most Jesus Rock. Instead, Norman's songs employed the kind of poetic language used by Bob Dylan and Paul Simon. His songs were full of metaphor and complex rhymes and including references to literature and cinema and history and the news to express the feelings of someone who felt he was a foreigner in this world.

 

In fact, the title of Norman's major label debut album was "Only Visiting This Planet" (Verve, 1973). 

 

And before Larry Norman unfortunately turned into a Moral Majority-type Christian right-winger in the '80s, he wrote some of the most poignant songs of the early Jesus Movement, including describing Jesus as an outlaw, critiquing U.S. foreign policy that bombed villages in other lands while American children went hungry, and expressing feelings of alienation from a woman who'd seduced him. And, also, this powerful song told from the cynical viewpoint of a photographer who takes pictures of death and destruction for the Six O'Clock News. Powerful stuff.

LARRY NORMAN - "Six O'Clock News"

URBAN VERBS - "Subways" (1980)

 

The Urban Verbs were from Washington D.C. and this self-titled LP came out also in 1980.

If Urban Verbs sound remotely like Talking Heads to you, the reason is probably that the frontman of the band, Roddy Frantz, was the brother of Talking Heads drummer Christ Frantz.

Damn, unfortunately, while writing this, I just found out that Roddy passed away a couple of weeks ago on October 01 at the age of 71. 

URBAN VERBS - "Subways" 

 

I give Warner Brothers Records a lot of credit for coming out with records like this one titled "Troublemakers" in the 1980's. It introduced me to a lot of new music.

This album was the first time I heard bands like Urban Verbs, Wire, Buggles, & Robin Lane and the Chartbusters, who were bands that weren't getting played on the radio where I lived.

TALKING HEADS - "Stop Making Sense" (1984)

 

Before The Finn Brothers were "Only Talking Sense," Talking Heads wanted you to "Stop Making Sense in 1984.

The Talking Heads have been around a long time, and I'd call them a popular band, but they never had a number one hit song. The highest they ever got on The Billboard charts was #9 in 1983.

 

That hit song came off of this "Speaking In Tongues" album, and was titled "Burning Down The House."

The following year they came out with their film called "Stop Making Sense."

That movie has got one of my favorite videos of a 'live' song by anyone, and what else could it be?

 I get tired just watching it! 

TALKING HEADS - "Burning Down The House"

FINN BROTHERS - "Only Talking Sense" (1995)

 

In 1995 The Finn Brothers Neil and Tim released an album titled simply "Finn."

These two are so talented I could gush on forever about their music, but why waste time talking?

Here's quite a beautiful song that perfectly makes my point! 

FINN BROTHERS - "Only Talking Sense" 

ROBIN LANE & THE CHARTBUSTERS - "Don't Wait Till Tomorrow" (1980)

 

This LP by Robin Lane & The Chartbusters is classic 1980, or is it?

1980 was obviously one of the worst years of popular music, but don't get me wrong, the unpopular music of the same year was some of the best. 

Some of the top 100 songs on the Billboard Charts of 1980 were drivel like Rupert Holmes' "Escape (The Piña Colada Song)," "Do That To Me One More Time" by Captain and Toenail, "Sailing" by Christopher Cross, "Woman In Love" by Barbara Streisand, and "Lady" by Kenny Rogers.

It's like rock and roll didn't even exist.

Meanwhile, the cool people were listening to this stuff, "Brass In Pocket" by The Pretenders, "Whip It" by Devo, "What I Like About You" by The Romantics, "I Got You" by Split Enz, "Turning Japanese" by The Vapors... 

and, of course this song, by Robin Lane & The Chartbusters...

ROBIN LANE & THE CHARTBUSTERS - "Don't Wait Till Tomorrow"

LILLYS - "Better Can't Make Your Life Better" (1996)

 

Lillys, also known sometimes as The Lillys, recorded for some 20 years from 1992 to 2012. Their style changed many times over that period of time, and Wikipedia has the band having over 58 different members over the years if I counted right, with one constant, that being Kurt Heasley as frontman.

This is what the band sounded like in 1996.

From the album titled "Better Can't Make Your Life Better." here's...... 

LILLYS - "Cambridge California

HALF MAN - "Round And Round" (2000)

 

"Right In The Nuts" was an Aerosmith tribute CD that came out in 2000, and featured a lot of bands with wild names like Drunk Horse and Electric Frankenstein, and even though this is a bit more heavy handed than most of what I get into around here, I think this just might be a better version than the original, and I like the long ending a lot better for sure!

So here you go, straight out of who knows where....

HALF MAN - "Round And Round" 

A One-Man Band - Richard X. Heyman, Loud (1991)

 

Rich here. I've written about my fascination with home-recording artists, HERE and HERE. One particular artist, Richard X. Heyman, totally blew me out of the water when I first heard him on a tape that my erstwhile singing partner Jeb Bolan sent me of Heyman's 1988 album "Living Room." 

 

Heyman had previously played in a popular Washington, DC, band, The Rage, with cult power pop god, Tommy Keene. But when the band broke up, Heyman basically said, "I don't need no stinkin' band; I'll do it myself." And "Living Room" was literally recorded in a living room. The record was self-released by Heyman, and the album featured him writing & singing all the lead vocals & harmonies and playing all the instruments. Turns out he's no slouch as a player or a singer. Most particularly, he's a helluva drummer.

 

In summary: "Living Room" was ALL KILLER, NO FILLER.

 

In the early '90s rush to find the next R.E.M. or Nirvana and plunk them from the underground and into the mainstream, Sire Records signed Richard X. Heyman to a major label contract, and in 1991 released his major label debut, "Hey Man!" As with "Living Room," Heyman once again wrote & sang all the songs and played all the instruments (with his wife playing bass on a few songs). 

 

All the songs on "Hey Man!" were fab, and the album's production was pristine. Unfortunately by that point, Grunge had become mainstream, not Guitar-Pop-and-Harmony records that wouldn't have sounded out of place on a Byrds and Beatles playlist, and the public didn't notice. A year or two later, you could pick up a copy of the "Hey Man!" CD for just $3-4 in a cut-out bin. 

 

But these days "Hey Man!" is considered a Cult Classic, and it's so hard to find that it costs over $100 if you try to buy a copy from Amazon.

RICHARD X. HEYMAN - "Loud"