I Can Hardly See In Front Of Me

The pure beauty of Robert Wyatt´s wavering tenor taking on Chic´s At Last I Am Free is something to behold. Can I get a witness? I´d sure like to testify.

Robert Wyatt - At Last I Am Free MP3

Keep On Dubbing

Dread at the controls taking over... High time to dub it to the top here a bit. One of my fave musical genres, dub basically means stripped-down, instrumental versions of regular reggae songs. Featuring heavy, heavy bass, snippets of vocals, and tons of added sound effects. From echo, tape delay and reverb to animal sounds, ringing telephones, crying babies, gunfire and blaring sirens... Everything goes really, just as long as it pleases Jah.

The legendary Osbourne Ruddock alias King Tubby remains the undisputed master of dub, but other producers such as Lee "Scratch" Perry, Joe Gibbs, Erroll Brown, Herman Chin Loy and Keith Hudson - to name but a few - mixed some mean ones too in their time. And the realization that all these amazing tracks were made with rather limited means, as Jamaican studios didn´t exactly feature state of the art equipment, makes their soundboard wizardry all the more impressive.

The players vary, but often feature reggae revolutionaries Sly Dunbar on drums and Robbie Shakespeare on bass. Without further ado, here´s a well charged dub ten pack for all you brethren out there. No recent stuff here mind, all strickly roots, ´cause that´s the way I like it. Seen?

Herman Chin Loy - Jah Jah Dub MP3

King Tubby - Satta Dread Dub MP3

Augustus Pablo - Keep On Dubbing MP3

Aggrovators - Rockers Almighty Dub MP3

Upsetters - Black Panta MP3

The Revolutionaries - M.P.L.A. MP3

Joe Gibbs & The Professionals - Freedom Call MP3

Vital Dub - Roof Top Dub MP3

Keith Hudson - Black Right MP3

Scientist - Babylon Fight Dub MP3

I Know He Let You In

"I was sitting around the other day, tapping my feet,

A publication came to my door, said you´d died and gone to sleep...

But I couldn´t shed a tear I never knew you well..."

A moving elegy from Minutemen successors fIREHOSE on the death of blues singer extraordinaire Elizabeth Cotten. Haven´t a clue why Mike Watt & co spelled her name wrong btw. Anyone?

"...But I´m missing you just the same,

Libba please rest easy down on Chestnut Street..."

fIREHOSE - In Memory Of Elizabeth Cotton MP3

And then there´s the object of their admiration herself: Elizabeth ´Libba´ Cotten (1895-1987). Lefthanded and self-taught, she held her guitar upside down, playing the bass lines with her fingers and the melody with her thumb: the Cotten picking technique.

"When I die Lord bury me deep,

Way down on old Chestnut Street,

So I can hear old Number 9 as she comes rolling by..."

Elizabeth Cotten - Freight Train MP3

Insurrection And Sex

Confidential 1-A: Director´s Eyes Only. Speaking: Director Hoover, Special Agent Dwight C. Holly.

JEH: Good morning, Dwight.

DH: Good morning, Sir.

JEH: Before you ask, the answer is yes. Expedite Operation Baaaad Brother in the manner you described in you memo.

DH: Thank you, Sir.

JEH: The title possesses a sublime jungle quality. As in "That brother John Edgar Hoover, he baaad."

DH: You are baaad, Sir. And I might add "inimitably so."

JEH: You might, and you should. And, on the topic of jungle artistry, I heard a very disquieting song on the radio this morning.

DH: Yes, Sir.

JEH: It was called "The Tighten Up". A negro ensemble named Archie Bell and the Drells performed it. The song carried the air of insurrection and sex. I´m sure white liberals will find it authentic. I told the Los Angeles SAC to open a file on Mr. Bell and to determine the identity of his Drells.

DH: Yes, Sir.

From the new James Ellroy book I just can´t put down. Blood´s A Rover indeed.

Archie Bell & The Drells - Tighten Up MP3

We´re Comin´ To Get You

As a rule, I´m not much of a Zappa fan. Too many virtuoso guitar solos for my liking, too much of that pseudo neo-classical Edgar Varèse stuff. And although humor certainly belongs in music, Frank can often make you overdose. Sometimes you can´t help but love the guy though. Cue Flakes, from his ´79 album Sheik Yerbouti. Its vivid description of Union-protected ´handymen´ out to get you never fails to bring a smile to my face.

"All what we got here is American made,
It's a little bit cheesy but it's nicely displayed,
Well we don't get excited when it crumbles 'n' breaks,
We just get on the phone and call up some flakes,
They rush on over and wreck it some more,
And we are so dumb they're linin' up at our door..."

Everytime there´s somebody over at our place to fix the telephone line or the plumbing, I´m away humming this tune within seconds. "You can stab 'n' shoot 'n' spit, but they won't be fixin' it..."

Bonus points go to guitarist Adrian Belew for his really funny Dylan persiflage, harp and all. Take it away, Bob...

"I asked as nice as I could,
If my job would somehow be finished by Friday...
Well, the whole damn weekend came and went, Frankie,
And they didn't do nothin',

But they charged me double for Sunday..."

Frank Zappa - Flakes MP3

Wavy Gravy

If wild novelty songs from the fifties and early sixties are your thing, the Wavy Gravy series is the one to get. The two volumes (For Adult Enthusiasts and Four Hairy Policemen) contain a truckload of hilarious rockabilly and country ditties, interspersed with weird radio ads for obscure B movies. The joke tends to wear rather thin when you spin this stuff too often, but for the first couple of plays it´s a real hoot. All together now: "I started using L.S.D., it gave me quite a kick, better than booze and easy to use, but it made me mentally sick..."

Selvyn Cox - His Name Is Jesus MP3

Wendell Austin - L.S.D. MP3

The Leather Boy - On The Go MP3

Ding & Bat - Hearse On A Surfari MP3

Lift Us Up

"People don't you wonder,
how the lord has brought you under...
And demons lied I´m dreaming,
to the nakedness I´m scheming..."

Thanks to the power of iPod shuffle, I realised only yesterday night what a great song this actually is. I bought the fine Superwolf album - a collaboration with guitarist Matt Sweeney - when it came out a couple of years back, but this particular track never really jumped out to me until now. A sparse arrangement that´s just right, in comes Billy with a remarkably solemn vocal, and then the unsuspected hornyness of "and when I wrap around you, ain´t it wonderful I found you..."

"Oh and I...
Lift us up...
Lift us up...
Lift us up."

Bonnie Prince Billy - Lift Us Up MP3

As a bonus track, here´s a song from a brand new release by British folk musician Brian Harnetty called Silent City. Our Billy contributed vocals to a couple of songs, and with great results. Ambient folk for the now generation, or something like that.

Brian Harnetty feat. Bonnie Prince Billy - Sleeping In The Driveway MP3

Roky´s Ghosts

If you have ghosts, you have everything... Halloween never interested me all that much, but it´s everywhere these days, so what can a poor boy do? Compile a halloween-themed Roky Erickson six pack for ya I guess...

So here goes. Featuring a zombie, a creature, some demons and ghosts, and last but not least a two-headed dog. "Winds quiet in the night, her body just blows messiah, sickening sweet sight left and right... is all right does not please my appetite..."

Right on Roky, right on.

Roky Erickson & The Aliens - I Walked With A Zombie MP3

Roky Erickson & The Aliens - I Think Of Demons MP3

Roky Erickson - If You Have Ghosts MP3

Roky Erickson - Creature With The Atom Brain MP3

Roky Erickson & The Aliens - Red Temple Prayer (Two Headed Dog) MP3

Roky Erickson & The Aliens - Stand For The Fire Demon MP3

Fela Marathon

My new blogging colleague Fil over at Star Maker Machine took on a Fela Kuti track a few days ago as part of this weeks Ghosts and Zombies Halloween theme. The song in question - the well-known Zombie of course - is a real scorcher. As he writes: "Just about any '70s Fela will do, but if you can only have one of his songs, Zombie is the one to get".

I fully agree, but it got me to thinking about other Fela tracks I cherish. And as the Nigerian legend´s afrobeat is highly addictive, I found myself hosting a total Fela marathon last night. Good fun. And at last, I settled for the following three songs. First up is the ultra-funky Eko Ile from ´73: no wonder they sometimes call Fela the African James Brown. Next comes the jazzy No Agreement (´77), featuring Art Ensemble of Chicago trumpeter Lester Bowie in fine form. And last but not least there´s the hypnotic Expensive Shit (´75).

The anecdote about the latter is too good not to relate briefly here: Nigerian cops once planted a joint on Fela, who immediately swallowed it to destroy the evidence. He was then kept in jail until he could pass the drugs from his system. Miraculously, nothing turned up when his fecal sample was sent in for analysis, as he got help from his fellow inmates. Looking at the costs of this farce, Kuti coined the phrase expensive shit. True story.

Fela Kuti - Eko Ile MP3

Fela Kuti - No Agreement MP3

Fela Kuti - Expensive Shit MP3

Hats Off

"When Charlie speaks of Lester, you know someone great has gone...
The sweetest swingin´ music man, had a Porkie Pig hat on..."

Here´s three versions of Goodbye Pork Pie Hat, the immortal ´59 tribute to recently deceased tenor great Lester ´Pres´ Young by ´angry man of jazz´ Charles Mingus. The bassist´s original, which became a jazz standard over the years, simply flows and flows.

In ´68 British folk experimentalists Pentangle - featuring the dual guitar wizardry of Bert Jansch and John Renbourn - tackled the song with a totally different, all-acoustic approach. It remained jazz somehow though.

And Joni Mitchell even set Goodbye Pork Pie Hat to words in ´78 when she was collaborating with Mingus in what proved to be the last months of his life. "We came up from the subway, on the music midnight makes, to Charlie's bass and Lester's saxophone, in taxi horns and brakes..." Oh yes.

Charles Mingus - Goodbye Pork Pie Hat MP3

Pentangle - Goodbye Pork Pie Hat MP3

Joni Mitchell - Goodbye Pork Pie Hat MP3

And as a bonus, here´s Lester Young (1909-1959) himself. All dig the Pres.

Lester Young - Love Me Or Leave Me MP3

Lester Young - Red Boy Blues MP3

Lester Young - Gypsy In My Soul MP3

Keep On Truckin´

I gotta admit I was a bit late in discovering the Drive-By Truckers. Guess people just plain forgot to tell me about them or something. And when I finally did wake up to these southern rebel rousers a couple of years back, they crept up on me only slowly. Haven´t got a clue to the why, but it took me a quite while to acknowledge that the Truckers are probably the finest American roots rock band since... well, Uncle Tupelo maybe?

For some reason, their music works especially well while driving. So if you´re going on a road trip today, just load the tracks below - five personal faves, all from different albums - in your iPod and see what happens. Happy trails.

Drive-By Truckers - The Three Great Alabama Icons MP3

Drive-By Truckers - Tornadoes MP3

Drive-By Truckers - Daddy Needs A Drink MP3

Drive-By Truckers - The Night G.G. Allin Came To Town MP3

Drive-By Truckers - Panties In Your Purse MP3