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- James Brown "Star Time" rec. 1956-1984, rel. 1991 (USA)
- We're
featuring drums and drummers on the show this week, and even though he
was not known as a drummer, there is no figure more significant in the
development of "rhythmic music" that James Brown. So we're
stretching the rules a bit this week and inducting a 4 CD box set
compilation instead of a proper "album" of the week. But Star Time
is not simply a greatest hits collection, it's an indispensible
compendium of the development of funk which includes many previously
unavailable unedited performances (classics like "Cold Sweat" and "The
Funky Drummer" were originally split in half as the A and B sides of 7"
singles.) Although Brown had a number of great drummers in his
bands over the years, perhaps the greatest of all was Clyde Stubblefield,
whose drum breaks in the aforementioned tracks have formed the basis of
countless hip-hop songs over the last couple decades. These days
Clyde lives right here in Madison, Wisconsin, where he can be found
hosting the blues jam at The Frequency every Monday night, as well as
performing at all manner of street fairs and special events.
- The
most famous video clip of Brown's career comes from a 1966 Ed Sullivan
appearance where he showed off some fancy footwork for his big hit "I Feel Good".
And he wasn't just the artist who charted more singles than any
other in American pop history, he was a cultural force to be reckoned
with and was truly one of the great civil rights leaders of the 1960's
-- here's a relatively sedate James making the "political"
statement "I Don't Want Nobody To Give Me Nothing (Open Up The Door I'll Get It Myself)". And what a band he had! Check out the way they change it up on a dime in this medley of hits from 1969. And still more outtasite dance moves from later in the 1970's: "Get On The Good Foot". There are other drummers on the show this week as well -- such as the technically overproficient Carl Palmer.
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- Far East Family Band "Nipponjin" 1975 (Japan)
- One
of Japan's most legendary groups of the classic rock era, Far East
Family Band were also notable for getting more global exposure than
most Japanese groups. Their creative peak came during the years
1975-76 when they teamed up with "krautrock" legend Klaus Schulze, who
bathed this and their following album Parallel World
in the Kosmische pixie dust he brought to groups like Cosmic Jokers and
Ash Ra Tempel. All of the material on this album consists of
re-recordings of tunes from two earlier albums, The Cave Down To The Earth and their first album recorded when the band was called Far Out
-- so they already had this material perfected by the time they hooked
up with Klaus. The sixteen minute title track ("Nipponjin" being
the Japanese word for "Japanese") is one of the greatest Kosmik anthems
of all time!
- The only full-blown video of FEFB in action is this clip of "Mystery Of Northern Space" which is on this album -- they sound like Pink Floyd and dressed like characters from Star Trek! A
few members of the band migrated to California at the end of the
1970's, where the band failed to generate much excitement but they did
appear on local public access TV -- here they are performing in Los Angeles 1978, and also leader Fumio Miyashita showing off his synthesizers. More recently, Miyashita has been playing New Age "healing music". But the most successful and famous former member of the group is the New Age legend known as Kitaro.
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- Karlheinz Stockhausen "Hymnen" 1969 (Germany)
- The
late great Karlheinz Stockhausen was born on August 22 in 1928, so
every year we delve into the daunting sound world of this influential
genius. Hymnen
("Anthems") is one of Stockhausen's masterpieces, consisting of two
hours of electronic tape music in four-channel surround sound.
The building blocks of the piece are national anthems from around
the world, manipulated in all sorts of bizarre ways. One of the
most fascinating sequences involves a melody that turns into the sound
of birds, and then into a duck that quacks the French national anthem!!
Recorded during 1966-67 and released on LP in 1969, this piece
may have been the key influence on The Beatles' notoriously avant-garde
"Revolution #9". Indeed, if you compare the two it's easy to
think of the Beatles piece as an attempt to squeeze Hymnen
into the pop single format ("Revolution #9" was originally intended as
the B-side to the "Revolution #1" single -- until McCartney came up
with "Hey Jude" for the A-side instead, and so they recorded a hard
rocking remake of the non-avant-garde "Revolution" for the B-side.)
- Here's a bit of a documentary introduction
to one of the most controversial characters in 20th century music.
And here's some annotated clips of his very modernistic
compositions: "Elektronische Musik Studie I" was a very early example of pure electronic music, and perhaps his most famous piece is the choral-electronic masterwork "Gesang Der Junglinge". He also composed for traditional instruments as well: "Klavierstuck IX" is a solo piano piece in which one chord is played for a very long time! And finally, here's a few minutes of "Hymnen".
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- Jefferson Airplane "Crown Of Creation" 1968 (USA)
- It's
"Hippie Xmas" in Madison this week -- most apartment leases near the
university change over on August 15, which traditionally means lots of
loot on the curbs for the hippies to "recycle" before the trashman
arrives. So on the show this week we celebrate with recycled
vinyl
records! I have purchased this classic Jefferson Airplane album
twice: the first time for $0.50 at a garage sale
(original pressing), and recently I upgraded to a near-mint reissue
which set me back an entire dollar. Jefferson Airplane is one of
those bands that sold a boatload of records in their heyday, so there
are a lot of used copies floating around. The law of supply and
demand means you can pick up their best stuff cheap. Indeed, the
only
worthwhile classic rock bands whose discographies are even more
abundant in the bargain bins are Emerson Lake & Palmer and The
Moody Blues. Who needs to download when you can buy a band's
entire discography on vinyl for like fifteen bucks?
- A lot of the Airplane's best performances on video are songs from this album. They went on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour to do "Crown Of Creation" and "Lather"
-- with Grace Slick performing in blackface make-up!?
An equally amazing moment was the time they played "The House At Pooneil Corners" on
a hotel rooftop in New York City for a Jean Luc Goddard film that never
got finished -- since they didn't have a permit, the police shut them
down and Marty Balin was taken to jail. (This incident inspired
The Beatles to perform a similar stunt in London a year later.) Another big moment was their appearance at the Woodstock festival and in the hit film that followed. Finally, here's a classic Grace Slick-penned B-side from 1970: "Mexico"
is a protest song about Richard Nixon's war on drugs which also
references their performance at Woodstock. Also on the show this
week: "Get Ready" for Tom Jones!!
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- The Grateful Dead "Europe '72" 1972 (USA)
- We're
doing something a little different for the monthly special this August
-- since Jerry Garcia's birthday was August 1st, we're reviving the
"featured artist" special format with a twist -- not only is this
week's show all Grateful Dead live recordings, most of it comes from
audience tapes. For decades, the Dead allowed fans to record
their live performances and trade the tapes among themselves, as long
as no money was involved. Today, these audience tapes have been
archived on the Internet. Check them out yourself!
This archive of audience recordings
includes hundreds of entire shows that can be downloaded or streamed.
As far as the CAOTW, it obviously had to be a live Dead album,
and so here is the group's third live album -- a triple record set from their first
overseas tour.
- Unfortunately
there isn't a whole lot of Grateful Dead video footage from their
golden era pre-1974. The earliest clip I could find was the group
performing "St. Stephen" on Playboy After Dark in 1969. They also played at the Woodstock festival in 1969, but were not included in the movie. Next, here's a clip of "China Cat Sunflower/I Know You Rider" from
the 1972 European tour documented by this week's CAOTW, and check out
the freak-dancing during "Playing In The Band" from The Grateful Dead Movie (recorded on the 1974 tour, the movie was released in 1977). Finally, the greatest psychedelic song of all time: "Dark Star" from Sunshine Daydream, a legendary unreleased film that documents an Oregon gig from 1972.
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- Ash Ra Tempel "Schwingungen" 1972 (Germany)
- Among
the heaviest and most legendary krautrock groups ever was Manuel
Göttsching's Ash Ra Tempel. The original free-rock
kosmik power trio, the group's collaborators include Klaus Schulze
and
Timothy Leary, and they also provided the psychedelic backbone for all
of the Cosmic Jokers
albums. Schwingungen was the second Ash Ra album, and is as good a
place as any to start exploring the far-out realms of the Tempel.
- I couldn't find footage of the band in action, but their music is very popular for making psychedelic fan videos -- here's "Suche Und Liebe" from this album. By the mid-70's the group had basically become a solo vehicle for Göttsching under the shortened name Ashra -- here's a video for "Midnight On Mars". Göttsching 's 1984 solo album E2-E4 is also a classic "kraut" album, and a forerunner of modern electronica. Ash Ra Tempel's original drummer Klaus Schulze also went on to become a legend of electronic music as a solo artist.
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- Suicide "Suicide (Second Album)" 1980 (USA)
- Suicide's first album from 1977 was called Suicide,
as was their second album from 1980, though it also features the names
of the two members, Alan Vega and Martin Rev, on the cover. It's just simpler to call this one Suicide's Second Album,
OK? Suicide were an incredibly important band in the history of
underground music, beginning in the early 1970's as a hippie art
project, and debuting on vinyl in 1977 and thus getting lumped in with
the punk movement. They are perhaps best described as a
psychedelic minimalist electronic group however -- though their stage
performances were so brutalizing and outside the norm for a "rock
concert" that they wound up sparking more riots than just about any
other "punk" band! Audiences couldn't take what they were
laying down: chainsmoking Alan Vega hiccups and croons through
heavy echo like a demented Elvis impersonator, while Martin Rev
stands at the back of the stage grinning malevolently and occasionally
attacking his keyboard as the drum machine pummels on and on. Suicide's first album
has a wonderfully cheesy lofi ambience, but for their second album they
teamed up with Ric Ocasek(!) and produced a somewhat slick and
very danceable album that still retains the sneering street rat malevolence
of their debut.
- Though
they sometimes go a decade or more between gigs, Suicide has never
officially "broken up" -- here's Vega and Rev doing their thing in 1997
on a song from this album, "Mr. Ray" and here's a (somewhat cynical) ballad, "Dream Baby Dream", which was a single released around the same time as their second album (and covered in concert by Bruce Springsteen!) "Ghost Rider" shows
the original in-your-face Suicide of 1977 (punks feared
them!) We also have some listener requests on the show this week, including
"krautrock" represented by Amon Duul 2, and the legendary San Francisco hippie group Jefferson Airplane.
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- Edgar Broughton Band "Sing Brother Sing" 1970 (UK)
- Edgar
Broughton Band is another of those early 70's heavy groups who
disappeared from the cultural consciousness only to be rediscovered by
a new generation in our Internet age.
Though often classified as "progressive rock", I think "freak
rock" is a more appropriate label for this bunch. The
in-your-face social commentary of Frank Zappa and the demented hippie
blues wailing of Captain Beefheart are among their key influences,
though they can also be lumped in with the "progressive blues boom" in
the UK at the end of the 1960's, alongside groups like Groundhogs,
Blodwyn Pig and Savoy Brown. What sets them apart is their more
heavy metalesque approach, and that good ole "freak" appeal (actually
the UK bands they probably most resemble would be The Deviants and Pink
Fairies.) Sing Brother Sing
was EBB's second album released at the height of their initial
underground popularity, and the CD reissue includes a number of their
classic non-LP singles from the same era.
- Here's EBB live back in the day -- "American Boy Soldier" and "Love In The Rain" are songs from their first LP. Captain Beefheart was
a primary influence on Broughton, and the similarity between their
voices is undeniable (though ultimately both of them sound a lot like
blues legend Howlin' Wolf.) Another cool band on the show this week is the latter day lineup of Spirit.
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- Purple Image "Purple Image" 1970 (USA)
- Following up on last week's P-Funk Spectacular, here's a lesser-known heavy funk band from Cleveland.
Not a whole lot is known about this group, and this was their
only album, but it is a doozy! Featuring the 15 minute psychedelic soul
freakout "Marching To The Beat Of A Different Drummer" and the
hard-hitting anthem "Living In The Ghetto", this is one of the greatest acid-funk obscurities you will ever come across.
- There isn't any video footage of Purple Image, but here's a clip where you can hear "Living In The Ghetto" while staring at the CD cover. Some groovy funk trailblazers who are better known would include The Chambers Brothers and Sly & The Family Stone. Meanwhile back in Africa, Fela Kuti and his insanely funky band Afrika 70 were inventing all kinds of new dance moves. And on a completely different note, LIARS are coming to town this week!
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- Bootsy's Rubber Band "Bootsy? Player Of The Year" 1978 (USA)
- Every
Independence Day on this show we celebrate America's greatest band --
the group so nice they named it twice, PARLIAMENT-FUNKADELIC!
Since Funkadelic recently had a CAOTW, this year we'll shake it
up and induct the most successful spinoff of P-Funk into the hall
of fame. William Earl Collins -- better known as BOOTSY, baby! --
joined the Funkadelic gang right around the time they resurrected the
Parliament name and went into funk overdrive. Before climbing
aboard the Mothership, he had previously been playing bass
for James Brown! Now THAT'S FUNKY! His rubbery musicianship
and spacey raps soon took on a life of their own with Bootsy's Rubber
Band (also featuring the horn section from Parliament and the JB's, led by Fred Wesley and Maceo Parker.) Bootsy's group often opened for P-Funk on tour, and their albums sold as well as any by Parliament or Funkadelic.
- Here's a video of Bootsy "Stretchin' Out In A Rubber Band", and here he is soloing on his "space bass". There is only one bassist who might possibly be funkier -- Sly Stone's cousin Larry Graham!!!
P-Funk got a lot of their "afronautical" concepts and imagery from the immortal Sun Ra, and their other style guru was the original "funkadelic" brother Jimi Hendrix.
Finally, here's clips of tonight's featured artist: America's greatest band does the "Cosmic Slop" and the mothership lifts off at the climax of "Flashlight".
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- Melvins "Stoner Witch" 1994 (USA)
- Melvins
may be the most important heavy rock band of the last 25 years,
and
they return to Madison to play a gig this weekend. Though
never "popular", they have cultivated an extremely loyal fanbase
through
constant touring and a steady stream of albums ranging from blistering
riff metal to bizarro art pop to experimental noisescapes. The
closest Melvins ever got to the big time was during the grunge era of
1991-1995; many even say they invented the genre.* Kurt
Cobain grew up in the same town as Buzz (guitar & vocals) and Dale
(the drummer), and auditioned for Melvins before forming Nirvana
-- and later when recording their first album Bleach,
Nirvana hired Melvins' Dale Crover to play drums. Which is why
that first Nirvana album pretty much sounds like a bubblegum version of
Melvins.
With Cobain's sponsorship Melvins signed to major label Atlantic
records where they released three albums before returning to the indie
underground.
Stoner Witch was the
second of these major label releases, and probably the most successful of them (not that it made the charts or anything.)
- (* Madison's Killdozer put their first record out 3 years before Melvins, and they are just as grungy!)
- Here's a grunge era music video from 1993, the year Melvins signed to a major label: "Honey Bucket". Next, here's some truly ancient footage of the band before making any records live on cable TV in 1984. And finally in the era of King Buzzo's iconic grey afro: "Let It All Be" from 2003.
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- Tom Jones "Tom" 1970 (UK-Wales)
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