French Blues (Why Don't You Smile Now)

Peter Orlovsky & Maurice Girodias in Paris 1961
http://www.mediafire.com/?11cu2atxi0rrlf6

You've been up all night on French Blues. You stumble home bleary eyed in an early morning fog that both reflects and reinforces the haze in your still buzzing brain. Bone tired and beat you lay down on your bed and close your eyes hoping for darkness but instead abstractions dance beneath your heavy lids, mocking the desire for sleep. Accepting that you won't enter the arms of Morpheus anytime soon you reach over to the nightstand and tune the radio to an all night DJ. As you lay listening, eyes closed, watching the lights dance behind your eyes, the room begins to hum and vibrate rising slowly into the Aether.

1. Hiroshima Mon Amour- Giovanni Fusco- To set the mood, the title music from the 1959 film directed by Alain Resnais.

2. Sins Of A Family- P.F. Sloan- A character from a Ross MacDonald novel condensed into a three minute song.

Ross MacDonald

3. Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?- Bob Dylan- The kind of song that gets Phil Ochs kicked out of cabs.

4. That's Right Baby- Marianne Faithfull- A bit of a Bond feel in the horns arrangement.

5. Waltz For A Pig- Graham Bond Organization- A Who B-Side that's actually the Graham Bond Organization, the title alludes to lovable producer Shel Talmy.

6. Why Don't You Smile Now- The All-Night Workers- A John Cale and Lou Reed song released in 1965 in which you can here the nascent Velvet Underground sound.  Lou claimed to hate songs that asked questions, which I guess explains the lack of a question mark in the song title.

7. She Weaves A Tender Trap- The Chocolate Watchband- The clip below from the 1967 film Riot on the Sunset Strip is a better representation of how The Watchband usually sound, but I quite like a Tender Trap.

8. Down Dismal Ways- Sandie Shaw- The lovely piano part makes this song, nice bongos as well.  The usually barefoot Sandie Shaw appears to be wearing hose in the pic below.

9. See Dawn- Bobby Jameson- This track is from Jameson's second album Color Him In, it doesn't have the immediate appeal of his first record, Songs of Protest and Anti-Protest, but I've found it to be a grower. The record is produced and arranged by Curt Boettcher.  Bobby's appearance in Mondo Hollywood below.

10. Coconut Grove- The Lovin' Spoonful- No video for this one so instead here's a nice color version of the band miming to "Rain on the Roof" from the same album Hums of the Lovin' Spoonful.

11. The Girls In Paris- Lee Hazlewood & Suzi Jane Hokum- La, la, la, Lee

12. Strip-Tease- Nico- A Serge Gainsbourg production.

13. School Girl- The Standells- "Her one ambition, was to collect degrees", she sounds familiar.  Not originally on Hot Ones! This track was included on the Sundazed cd as a bonus track.

14.  Girl Don't Tell Me- The Beach Boys- Originally released on the 1965 album Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!) (I'm a fan of gratuitous exclamation marks and parentheses myself!!). I recall reading somewhere that Brian Wilson forbid this track from being included on the early 90's box set, the implication being that it was connected to something personal that he didn't want to recall. Either way this is one of his best pop songs, written very much under the influence of the Beatles.

15. It's Only Love- The Beatles- It was between this and "Girl" and I went with this because its a little unloved and underrated, not the least of which by the band themselves, Lennon professed to hate it.  Well I like it, so there.  This is the hard panned version with some sloppy double tracking on the vocals from the American stereo version of Rubber Soul.  Incidentally the American version of Rubber Soul slays the British, a rare instance where Capitol's juggling of songs for the American market resulted in something better than the original- emphasizing the acoustic tone of the album it's a folk rock masterpiece!

16. Please Please Me- The Score- Wow these guys take one of my least favorite Beatles songs, stick it through a heavy R&B/Yardbirds filter and transform it into something just short of amazing, scratch that, it makes it to amazing.  Nice job chaps!  

17. La Maison Ou J'ai Grandi- Francoise Hardy- A favorite of Walker Brother, Scott.

18. Leaving It Up To You- Don Grady- This brings to mind a recent scene in Madmen where Pete Campbell asks Harry Crane, after being used and tossed aside by Rory Gilmore, (aka Alexis Bledel, straight out of Houston and an alumnus of my Jesuit high school's sister school St. Agnes) "why do they get to decide what's going to happen?" Hilarious scene, people love to hate on him but Pete is one of the most interesting characters on the show, certainly as, if not more complex than Don, who gets away with murder because he's cool, reserved and handsome (while Pete looks like that Rankin and Bass character from Rudolph) but I'm not buying the still waters run deep bit here, Don's motivations are fairly easy to figure.

19. You Just May Be The One- The Monkees- Another great one from Papa Nez.

20. House Un-American Blues Activity Dream- Richard and Mimi Farina- A great song from a hip and lovely couple.  Dylan was jealous, can you blame him?

21.  Ba-De-Da- Fred Neil- We lost Fred to the dolphins. "I sure get tired, hanging around this town."

22. Love Minus Zero- The Walker Brothers- My favorite version of this song. Hats off to whoever played that guitar break, very nice.

23. Understanding- The Small Faces- The small but smashing faces! Steve Marriott, goddamn!

24. If You Gotta Go, Go Now- Bob Dylan- Dylan gives a crash course in what is commonly referred to as "the attitude".  Never been able to master this myself, to my detriment it seems. Sounds stupid kids, but it works.

25. Dark In My Heart- Lee Hazlewood-  "Woke up sunday morning and I thought that I could sing, but I can't, no I can't"

26. Places, Times and The People- Bobby Jameson- Another stand out from the Color Him In record.

27. Pocketful of Rainbows- Elvis Presley- You can't keep a good man down.

Laura Petrie-I'm Just A Housewife!

I haven't written much about TV in the past, but I am an ardent fan of the medium, particularly shows from the 1950's through 1970's.  One of the best sitcoms to ever grace the boob tube was The Dick Van Dyke Show. Throughout the shows five season run (1961-66) it featured consistently great comedic writing and a pitch perfect cast.  No one, besides perhaps Dick Van Dyke himself, shone brighter on the show than Mary Tyler Moore as his wife, Laura Petrie.  Initially hired for her grace, beauty and style, the producers and writers quickly realized that Moore also possessed great comic timing and started to increase both her character's screen time and jokes significantly.  Laura Petrie is a definite feminine ideal, below are some clips of her in action, singing, dancing and looking lovely.

1965-Skaterdater

http://www.mediafire.com/?4kr5zfnme17q71y

Noel Black's 1965 short film Skaterdater has your proverbial summer fun all sewn up; nice mid-60's barefoot, clay wheels, sidewalk surfing action, blue Southern California sky, matching racing stripe jackets, blondes on Schwinn Sting-Rays, white jeans, first love, a boss surf rock soundtrack by Davie Allan and a downhill finale. Download the super soundtrack and watch the film all right here, all right now!! Then put down your phone and go out in the street and have some fun!

The Details Too Boring To Attach

http://www.mediafire.com/?pbgbuy4lndsq66b

The Details Too Boring To Attach


1. Ever- Flipper
2. Sylvia Plath- Peter Laughner
3. Life Stinks-Pere Ubu
4. You Can't Win- The Kinks
5. Blessed State- Wire
6. This World Is Not My Home- His Name Is Alive
7. Stairway To Heavan (sic)- Camper Van Beethoven
8. Don't Turn The Light On, Leave Me Alone- Can
9. Diamonds In The Mine- Leonard Cohen
10. Waiting Around To Die- Townes Van Zandt
11. Felt Good To Burn- The Flaming Lips
12. Take Care- Big Star
13. Spirit- The Go-Betweens
14. You Know More Than I Know- John Cale
15. Here He Comes- Brian Eno
16. Acid, Bitter and Sad- This Mortal Coil
17. Worried Shoes- Daniel Johnston
18. It's A Bit Of A Pain- Faust
19. Late Night- Syd Barrett
20. I've Had Enough (edit)- The Who
21. Poledo (edit)- Dinosaur Jr.

In Fact It's A Gas-1968 & 1969

http://www.mediafire.com/?djnzmhdr8kz3npb

Several years ago, for my own enjoyment, I made three mix cd's of The Beatles and the Rolling Stones singles, A&B sides back to back, for the years 1965, 1966 and 1967. I tried my best to include the original single mixes in all cases, though I can't say for sure if I always got it right - it was far enough back that I'm not sure what my sources were at the time. But those three mixes have continued to provide me with a lot of enjoyment over the years, especially when immersing myself in the music of a particular year. These mixes also nicely illustrate the divine symmetry between the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.

Well, I've finally gotten around to covering 1968 & 1969 which I have combined into one mix, because both bands were releasing fewer singles by that point and it all blends into one period stylistically. If there is any interest I may follow up and post the mixes for the previous three years, but for now we'll start near the end and then perhaps work our way back from there.  Enjoy!

1. Lady Madonna- The Beatles

2.  Jumpin' Jack Flash- The Rolling Stones

3.  The Inner Light- The Beatles- Appropriately the b-sides to both of the Stones and the Beatles first singles of 1968 contained, arguably, their last full stabs at psychedelia, the Inner Light and Child of the Moon.

4. Child of the Moon- The Rolling Stones

5. Hey Jude- The Beatles

6. Street Fighting Man- The Rolling Stones

7.  Revolution- The Beatles- Lennon caught a lot of flak for this from the radical left, but time has vindicated both his hesitancy to embrace radical groups and especially his dis of Chairman Mao.

8. No Expectations- The Rolling Stones

9. Get Back-The Beatles

10.  Honky Tonk Women- The Rolling Stones- The guy rushing the stage at 1:50 in the Madison Square Garden performance below reminds me of that Jim Morrison line "well that's New York for ya, only people that rush the stage are guys". 

11. Don't Let Me Down- The Beatles

12.  You Can't Always Get What You Want- The Rolling Stones-

13. The Ballad of John & Yoko- The Beatles

14. Old Brown Shoe- The Beatles- "I want a short haired girl who sometimes wears it twice as long"

15. Memo From Turner- Mick Jagger- Cheating a bit with this one as it wasn't released as a single till late 1970 and not sure if it features any Stones other than Jagger.  But the movie Performance was filmed in 1968 and the soundtrack was recorded sometime in 68 and/or 69 and both are heavy duty and help flesh out this mix.  Easily one of Jagger's best lyrics and vocals.  

16. Come Together- The Beatles- The Ike and Tina Turner version below, though not part of the mix, was too damn hot not to include here.  Yowsa!

17. Natural Magic- Jack Nitzsche- The B-side to Memo From Turner from the highly recommended soundtrack to the film Performance.  

18. Something-The Beatles- The promo featuring the Beatles' ladies below.

RE-UPS & My Dinner With Paul

In the words of Paul Stanley "Alright Houston!" I think I got all the old links re-upped, if you encounter any problems feel free to let me know.  And speaking of Paul Stanley......

1972-Here's Bill & Tony!

Here's Bill & Tony from 1972, one of several interesting short films made by William Burroughs and Antony Balch. Burroughs monologue about asking the pre-clear to do various things (practicing placement in space and time) is based on material from Scientology, with which Burroughs had an interesting and eventually contentious relationship. Tony Balch's bit that starts "We didn't lie to you ladies and gentlemen (etc.)" is taken direct from the script of Tod Browning's 1932 film Freaks. What they proceed to do with switching of image and sound is apparent once you watch and I'd say effectively disorienting.

For more on Burroughs' early interest in Scientology see this link-

http://io9.com/5800673/william-s-burroughss-wild-ride-with-scientology