Rest Is History

From Rich Cohen's enjoyable book The Sun & The Moon & The Rolling Stones: "When Watts was fourteen, he heard Walkin' Shoes by the Gerry Mulligan Quartet. The drumming - Chico Hamilton playing with brushes - spurred him into action. He tore the strings off an old banjo and taught himself to play the snare. To fill out the sound, he banged pots and pans. His parents bought him a drum set that Christmas..."

The Gerry Mulligan Quartet - Walkin' Shoes

In Between My Sheets

Moshi moshi, y'all. Today, we're heading over to the land of the rising sun for a remarkable Stones cover. Psychedelic sushi with a touch of the baroque anyone?

Ghost - Live With Me

Don't Do It

Midnight Rambler is a modern blues-rock opera, says Buffalo Tom frontman turned rock hack Bill Janovitz in his insightful book Rocks Off: 50 tracks that tell the story of the Rolling Stones. And he especially recommends this never officially released live take from their notorious 1972 American tour. "After a spellbinding section where the band drones on the riff, nearly turning the beat around in the process, the song comes seemingly to a halt in the middle section, where the band just breaks the song down to bare bones, like a bump-and-grind for a big mama stripper..." Well said.

Rolling Stones - Midnight Rambler (live '72)

Footlose Men

A long and groovy '75 live version of ye olde Stones chestnut. Mick does his recepshun connecshun shtick to great effect, while Keith sings a ragged second as only he can. Ronnie Wood's the new kid on the block, there's a cameo for Bobby Keys on sax, and that's Billy Preston tickling the ivories. Get what you need.

The Rolling Stones - You Can't Always Get What You Want (live Los Angeles '75)

Tribal Blues

"All the braves and squaws and the maids and the whores, did everybody pay their dues?" It's only an early version of Street Fighting Man, but I like it.

The Rolling Stones - Pay Your Dues

Just Sticks

It's 1965, and Vashti Bunyan releases her first single, written by Mick & Keith. Stones producer Andrew Loog Oldham's lush pop treatment doesn't really fit Vashti's made-for-dream-folk-voice, but it's still a delight I can't get out of my head. Some things just stick I guess.

Vashti Bunyan - Some Things Just Stick In Your Mind

Not Allowed

Back in '71, the Stones took on Fred McDowell's You Gotta Move with their Sticky Fingers, a song I never had much time for. Don't know what Fred thought of course, but I'm sure both the royalties and the recognition must have made the last of the great Mississippi blues men extremely happy. Had I been in Keith's shoes though, I would have lobbied for a go at McDowell's Mama Don't Allow instead. A song that sounds like it was made for the Stones to cover in all their sleazy early-seventies glory. "Drop down baby, let your daddy see, you got somethin' really worryin' me..."

Mississippi Fred McDowell - Mama Don't Allow

Had It All

"I can hear the wind blowing in my mind, just the way it used to sound through the Georgia pines..." Here's a moody Stones ballad from the Some Girls sessions, recently released on the deluxe version of that '78 album, which is well worth it for the extra disc of surprisingly good outtakes alone. We Had It All is an oft-covered country classic written by Troy Seals and Donnie Fritts, and originally recorded by ole Waylon for his '73 outlaw masterpiece Honky Tonk Heroes. A year later, Fritts had a go at it himself, on his swampy solo debut Prone To Lean. "You were there to answer when I called, you and me, lord knows, we had it all..."

The Rolling Stones - We Had It All

Waylon Jennings - We Had It All

Donnie Fritts - We Had It All

Just remembered that Dylan played this lament to lost love a couple of times as well during his '86 True Confessions Tour, backed by Petty's Heartbreakers and with soulful help from the Queens of Rhythm. So here goes.

Bob Dylan - We Had It All (live in East Rutherford '86)

Buzz Awhile

Slim Harpo (1924 -1970) was the man alright. A Louisiana swamp blues king if ever there was one, he never worked full-time as a musician. The trucking business was probably a safer bet. Nevertheless, many of his songs have long since become immortal, and were covered by the Stones, the Yardbirds, Them, and Alex Chilton amongst many others. His old friend and admirer Robert Pete Williams, a legendary bluesman in his own right, paid the 'original King Bee' an impressive tribute on the heartfelt Goodbye Slim Harpo. "Goodbye poor Slim, I see you again..."

Slim Harpo - I'm A King Bee MP3

Slim Harpo - Shake Your Hips MP3

Slim Harpo - Te Ni Nee Ni Nu MP3

Slim Harpo - Tip On In, Part 1 MP3

The Rolling Stones - Shake Your Hips MP3

Alex Chilton - Tee Ni Nee Ni Noo/Tip On In MP3

Robert Pete Williams - Goodbye Slim Harpo MP3

Wild Weekend Vol. 8

Hola, amigos da musica. Time to put the old iPod in shuffle mode and see what surprises we´re gonna get this time around. It´ll be a Wild Weekend again, with yet another musical grab bag of goodies for your aural liberation. Because, as the Residents once rightly proclaimed, ´ignorance of your culture is not considered cool´. Right on.

To start off this week´s edition, the ghost in the machine picked a cool song by the Soft Boys. Fun late-seventies punky glamrock psychedelica - or was that the other way around? - from Robyn Hitchcock and company. Their albums A Can Of Bees and Underwater Moonlight have since become cult classics, and that´s totally deserved for once. And talking about cult classics, Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson´s terrific Pacific Ocean Blue definitely belongs to that category as well. Go for the deluxe edition, which comes with a second disc featuring the interesting sessions for the unfinished Bambu album. As a taster, here´s the rather strange He´s A Bum.

The Soft Boys - Insanely Jealous MP3

Dennis Wilson - He´s A Bum MP3

Don´t know about you, but I just can´t wait for the new Drive-By Truckers cd, which will hit the stores any day now. In the meantime, here´s one of their oldies but goldies. "If Mr. Phillips was the only man that Jerry Lee still would call Sir, then I guess Mr. Phillips did all of y´all about as good as you deserve..." Now that´s what I call a solid argument. After which we move to the (mostly) sunny island of Jamaica for some mento sounds from Lord Beginner, who delivers a delightful pre-reggae song about a fearful hurricane hitting Kingston. "A hundred miles an hour was an awful blow..." You can say that again. Thanks to my esteemed Groover´s Paradise colleague Nicolas for this one.

Drive-By Truckers - Carl Perkins´ Cadillac MP3

Lord Beginner - Jamaica Hurricane MP3

"I guess I missed my calling, ´cause I should have been a clown..." Yup, we´re talking prime southern soul and heartaches here. James Carr recorded many a scorcher, but the bitter Pouring Water On A Drowning Man was arguably his finest hour. And we´ll be off with a fascinating Stones rarity from the Exile On Main St. era, featuring some sharp barbed wire guitar by Keef. I wonder if this one will show up on the upcoming deluxe edition of Exile.

James Carr - Pouring Water On A Drowning Man MP3

The Rolling Stones - I Ain´t Lying MP3

Los Rolling

Time for a couple of outtakes from the October ´69 Let It Bleed sessions by Los Rolling, as the Stones are known in Spain for some reason. From a boot called Itchy Fingers, which sports the same cover image as the Spanish version of the official Sticky Fingers album. The Iberian authorities thought the famous Warhol zip cover a tad too obscene. This one´s a lot more tasteful indeed...

These are unfinished working versions of course, and it´s easy too see why they didn´t make the final cut in this form. Which doesn´t mean they´re not fun though. Made me wonder why the Stones haven´t released their own take on a Genuine Bootleg Series/Archives yet. There must be tons of great stuff in the vaults. You can make money that way Mick! Easy money. You know, dinero. Anyone got a clue why this didn´t happen yet? Please leave a comment. I´m just plain curious.

The Rolling Stones - I´m Going Down MP3

The Rolling Stones - I Don´t Know Why MP3

The Rolling Stones - Jiving Sister Fanny MP3

The Rolling Stones - I Don´t Know The Reason Why MP3

33 1/3

Now I don´t know about you, but I always like to read about my favorite albums. And that´s exactly where the 33 1/3 series comes in. A few years ago Continuum Books started to publish these small, handsome books about classic albums, and until now they´ve released the staggering amount of 55 different tomes. No mean feat. I haven´t collected all of them yet, but I guess I´ll end up buying the lot (ok, except for the Abba, Celine Dion and Guns & Roses ones). Which probably means the publisher and I have slightly different opinions on the definition of what makes a classic album, but I´ve got a hunch these titles ultimately just shift more units than Beefheart´s Trout Mask Replica or Throbbing Gristle´s 20 Funk Jazz Greats.

From the ones I´ve read, most are illuminating, in-depth studies with loads of background info that can even make you listen to a long loved album in a different way. I can particularly recommend the books on Court And Spark (Joni Mitchell), Daydream Nation (Sonic Youth), Endtroducing..... (DJ Shadow), In The Aeroplane Over The Sea (Neutral Milk Hotel), Exile On Main St. (Rolling Stones, written by Bill Janovitz of Buffalo Tom fame btw), Forever Changes (Love) and Double Nickels On The Dime (Minutemen). Only Sign ´O´ The Times (Prince) proved dissapointingly shallow, so avoid that one. London Calling (The Clash) and Horses (Patti Smith) are in the works, while the next installment in the series will be Mountain Goats´ mastermind John Darnielle dissecting none other than Master Of Reality by Black Sabbath.

Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea MP3

Rolling Stones - Hillside Blues (Exile On Main St. outtake) MP3

DJ Shadow - What Does Your Soul Look Like (Part 4) MP3

Joni Mitchell - Free Man In Paris MP3

Sonic Youth - Teenage Riot MP3

Minutemen - History Lesson - Part II MP3

Love - A House Is Not A Motel MP3