June 19, 2009 Playlist
 

It's my birthday too, yeah!
The Self Indulgent Birthday show
(Sir Paul McCartney and your host Dave 3000 share a birthday)

"Wheatfield Soul" by The Guess Who (1969)
CLASSIC ALBUM OF THE WEEK
The Guess Who  "Wheatfield Soul"  1969 (Canada)
I have an unreasonable obsession with The Guess Who, and in particular their hammy hockey-haired lead singer Burton Cummings.  He's like a prairie hybrid of Jim Morrison and Lou Reed, but with the voice of Tom Jones!  This was The Guess Who's first "American album", though they had been working in Canada and making records there since 1965.  "These Eyes" became a Top 10 smash and launched a very successful run of hits in America, and the rest of the album is full of juicy psychedelic pop nuggets.  The 10-minute centerpiece "Friends of Mine" is such an over-the-top parody of The Doors, I think it's actually better than anything that band ever did!  Where Morrison's muse was "so poetic" that it delved into self-parody, Burton's jive is "so parodic" that it's true street poetry!  (A street that runs past a grain elevator, that is!) 
Here's a few rare early videos when The Guess Who was the house band on a Canadian TV show and played covers of popular Anglo-American hits like "She'd Rather Be With Me" by The Turtles and "Tin Soldier" by The Small Faces.  And of course their big hit was "American Woman" (this version comes from the mid-70's and features the post-Randy Bachman lineup);  plus here's another jammy version of the song featuring their fellow Winnipeger Neil Young!
 
"Headquarters" by The Monkees (1967)
2nd BONUS CLASSIC ALBUM OF THE WEEK!
The Monkees  "Headquarters"  1967 (USA)
Since this is my self-indulgent birthday show, here's a second classic album for this week:  a landmark album by the first musical group I was ever into.  The Monkees TV show ran in syndication on Saturday mornings in the 1970's, and the groups combination of cute hijinks and subversive surrealism was irresistable to my young mind -- and they made surprisingly good records too.
By 1967 everyone knew the Monkees "didn't play their own instruments", so in a gloriously quixotic move the four actors who played a band on TV rebelled against the suits who created them and insisted on being an actual band in the recording studio.  Don Kirshner, the svengali figure who oversaw the first two (huge-selling) Monkees albums was fired, and the Prefab Four produced, wrote and played most of the instruments on this, their third LP.  Amazingly, their slightly shaky garage-rock stylings stand up very well today (perhaps better than those first two records they did), and Headquarters  even reached #1 on the US album charts for exactly one week -- before being replaced by a little album called Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
For video stimulation, let's start off with the classic opening credits from The Monkees  show which aired from 1966 to 1968.  Here's the band "performing" a song from this album on the show, Mickey Dolenz's protest anthem "Randy Scouse Git" (the title of the song was changed to "Alternative Title" in the UK because "Randy Scouse Git" is British slang for "horny bastard from Liverpool"!)  However, The Monkees' greatest TV moment was their final 33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee  prime time special from 1969 -- here's Mickey working out his mojo with Brian Auger and Julie Driscoll on "I'm A Believer", and here they are actually playing their own instruments  on Mike Nesmith's "Listen To The Band", which was their final hit song.
 
(N) = New Release
(F) = Freeeeakout mixology!
   
Artist Song Album Year Country
The Beatles Birthday
("16 style" live radio remix)		 The Beatles (White Album) 1968 UK
Paul McCartney Oo You McCartney 1970 UK
Paul McCartney
  vs. Yoko Ono		 Momma Miss America
("Fly" live radio remix)		 McCartney
Fly		 1970
1971		 UK
Japan
The Monkees Theme From The Monkees
("16 style" live radio remix)		 The Monkees 1966 USA
Elephants Memory Old Man Willow
(live radio remix)		 Songs From Midnight Cowboy 1970 USA
 
 
The Guess Who Friends of Mine Wheatfield Soul
CLASSIC ALBUM OF THE WEEK		 1969 Canada
The Guess Who Goin' A Little Crazy So Long Banatyne 1971 Canada
The Guess Who Heartbroken Bopper Rockin' 1972 Canada
   
 
Tom Jones I Can't Turn You Loose (Otis Redding) Tom 1970 UK (Wales)
Tom Jones Mohair Sam (Charlie Rich) Funny Familiar Forgotten Feelings 1967 UK (Wales)
Kraftwerk Antenna Radio-Activity 1975 Germany
Richard Hayman Dansero The Genuine Electric Latin Love Machine 1969 USA
Dick Hyman The Topless Dancers of Corfu The Electric Eclectics of Dick Hyman 1969 USA
Tomita Goliwog's Cakewalk (Debussy) Snowflakes Are Falling 1974 Japan
Dr. Octagon 3000 Dr. Octagonecologist 1996 USA
   
 
Vosellglaas U. S. A.  Vosellglaas 2004 USA
Second Family Band Second untitled(?) track on side B Vernal Mystery Hour (N - cassette) 2009 (Skulls of Heaven) USA
"Dave 3000" Let The Sunshine In (from Hair) Subotica (cassette) c. 1995 USA
Naked Aggression Middle East Self-titled 5 song demo (cassette) 1990 USA
 
 
The Monkees For Pete's Sake Headquarters
2nd BONUS CLASSIC ALBUM OF THE WEEK!		 1967 USA
The Monkees Randy Scouse Git
(a/k/a "Alternative Title" in the UK)		 Headquarters
2nd BONUS CLASSIC ALBUM OF THE WEEK!		 1967 USA
The Monkees Long Title: Do I Have To Do This All Over Again Head (OST) 1968 USA
William S. Burroughs Where You Belong
(live radio remix) 		Call Me Burroughs 1966 USA
Klaatu Silly Boys
("sdrawkcab" live radio remix) 		Sir Army Suit 1978 Canada
Yoko Ono Don't Worry Kyoko (Mummy's Only Looking For A Hand In The Snow) Fly 1971 Japan
The Beatles It's All Too Much
(live radio remix)		 Yellow Submarine (OST) 1968 UK
The Beatles I've Got A Feeling Let It Be 1970 UK
 
  
Sonic Youth Calming The Snake The Eternal (N) 2009 (Matador) USA
Dinosaur jr Your Weather Farm (N) 2009 (Jagjaguwar) USA
Meat Puppets Sewn Together Sewn Together (N) 2009 (Megaforce) USA
          
   
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