John Fogerty - Rock and Roll Girls (1985) J. C. Fogerty from: "Centerfield" (LP) "Rock and Roll Girls" / "Centerfield" (Single)

Roots Rock and Roll

JukeHostUK (left click = play) (320kbps)

Personnel: John Fogerty: Lead Vocals John Fogerty: Lead Guitar John Fogerty: Rhythm Guitar John Fogerty: Saxophone John Fogerty: Bass John Fogerty: Drums

John Fogerty: Backing Vocals

Arranged by John Fogerty Produced by John Fogerty

Album Recorded: @ The Plant Studios in Sausalito, California, USA July–September 1984

Album Released: on January 14, 1985

Single Released: March, 1985

Warner Bros. Records

Robert Gordon w/ Link Wray - Sea Cruise (1978) Huey "Piano" Smith from: "Fresh Fish Special" (LP) "Sea Cruise" / "The Way I Walk" (Single)

Rock and Roll | Rockabilly Revival | Roots Rock and Roll

JukeHostUK (left click = play) (320kbps)

Personnel: Robert Gordon: Vocals Link Wray: Lead Guitar The Wild Cats: Billy Cross: Rhythm Guitar Rob Stoner: Bass Howie Wyeth: Drums

Richard Gottehrer: Piano

Produced by Richard Gottehrer / Robert Gordon

Recorded: @ Plaza Sound Studios in New York City, New York USA December, 1977

Album Released: on June 15, 1978

Single Released: on June 17, 1978

Private Stock Records

+++ Huey "Piano" Smith 1934 - 2023 +++

Bob Marley, Mick Jagger & Peter Tosh. Backstage after the Rolling Stones concert at the Palladium Theatre, New York 1978.

Tracklist:

Refugee • Here Comes My Girl • Even The Losers • Shadow Of A Doubt (A Complex Kid) • Century City • Don’t Do Me Like That • You Tell Me • What Are You Doin' In My Life? • Louisiana Rain

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Richard Manuel <3

Little Richard: I Am Everything (Magnolia)

How does one tell the story of an artist as influential as Little Richard? The same way you tell the story of the Universe, by keeping it simple: A long time ago there was the Big Bang. 

Little Richard: I Am Everything, a new documentary directed by Lisa Cortes, presents Little Richard’s existence as an analogous cosmic event. Rock ‘n’ roll as we know it exists because on December 5, 1932, Richard Penniman was born in Macon, Georgia.

Cortes isn’t the first to frame Little Richard in terms of cosmic energy. As Nick Tosches once put it, “[v]ia his pure white-energy raunch and total over-simplification, [Little Richard had] the power to make people say 'fuck it' and turn their backs on their own control conditioning and just go out and debauch and catch a glimpse of the violent, drunken, loving, dancing Universe.” I Am Everything is similarly reverential, but the power of the film stems from its focus on Little Richard’s strange, conflicted human experience. 

Growing up, Little Richard, as he would later be nicknamed, was scolded in church for singing too loud — an impressive feat for a Pentecostal. He exuded a preacher’s charisma and even as a young boy parishioners asked him to pray for them. When he started playing piano, he banged on the keys the way that Sister Rosetta Tharpe, an early influence, banged on her guitar. The idea, Little Richard said, was to drum away at your instrument until you reached “the peak.” 

The nature of that “peak,” would remain a lifelong tension. That erratic blurring of sexual and spiritual extasy, one of rock music’s central paradoxes, is what made his music both threatening and irresistible. 

Fans of Little Richard specifically and rock history in general are likely familiar with the raw information that I Am Everything offers. But in addition to the more expected talking heads —  Mick Jagger, John Waters, Billy Porter — some fresher contextualization comes from Black, queer academics and music historians. “The south is the home of all things queer” says writer and sociologist Zandria Robinson, and she means “queer” in every sense of the word. Homosexuality was illegal, as was drag (the maddeningly circular nature of culture emerges as one of I Am Everything’s subtler themes) but the edges of that reality were “soft.” Little Richard performed with minstrel shows and on the vaudeville circuit, sometimes appearing as Princess LaVonne. 

Like many raised in the church, Little Richard always suspected that rock ‘n’ roll was the Devil’s music. That persistent belief, Jagger notes, “can’t be much fun for those involved,” an observation that further emphasizes how heavy Little Richard’s baggage was in comparison to some of his imitators. 

In 1957, the story goes, Little Richard saw Sputnik in the night sky and interpreted it as a sign from God to repent. He enrolled in Bible school, hosted a buy-back/burning of his records, started making Gospel music, and married a woman. Over the course of his life, he would waffle between publicly denouncing homosexuality and embracing it. As one commentator puts it, “He was good at liberating other people by example, he was not good at liberating himself.” 

Little Richard didn’t come from nowhere: Artists like Billy Wright and Esquerita heavily informed his flamboyance. But it seems most everyone else came from him. Jimi Hendrix, of course, got his start in Little Richard’s band. The Beatles opened shows for him when, as he said, “only their mothers knew their names.” Paul McCartney developed his wild yelp by imitating Little Richard, and Jagger copped his stage moves. 

When Little Richard is given his due, he’s credited with inventing not only rock ‘n’ roll but helping to invent the teenager. Greil Marcus called it “Little Richard’s First Law of Youth Culture:  attracting kids by driving their parents up a wall.” As Waters puts it, “the first songs that you love that your parents hate are the beginning of the soundtrack to your life.” In a recent New Yorker profile Paul Schrader, another artist pulled between the spiritual and carnal, recalls his mother smashing the radio after catching him listening to rip-off artist Pat Boone. One imagines that if it had been Little Richard, she might have burned the house down. 

Eternally offered a kind of ambient credit by musicians and critics, the lion’s share of the specific attention (and money) is paid to the (often white) artists Little Richard inspired, or who arguable just straight up stole his shit. (In terms of respectful homage, there’s a chasm between McCartney’s “Long Tall Sally” and Boone’s “Tutti Frutti.”) It’s as if the man is at once too bright to look at directly, and too Black and queer and alien to fully acknowledge. 

He often made his rightful frustration known. In one clip, Little Richard and David Johansen, fully in his Buster Poindexter era, present the 1988 Grammy for Best New Artist. Little Richard, usually unpredictable on live TV, says of Johansen’s pompadour, “I used to wear my hair like that. They take everything I get. They take it from me.” He opens the envelope and declares himself the winner. It’s a joke but it isn’t. “I have never received nothing,” he continues. “Y’all ain’t never gave me no Grammy and I been singing for years. I am the architect of rock ‘n’ roll and they never gave me nothing. And I am the originator!” He gets a standing ovation, which is something, but it isn’t enough. 

Almost every review of the film mentions this moving, uncomfortable scene, because it teases out one of Little Richard’s most powerful realities. He didn’t always seem to know what he was supposed to be doing, or even who he should be, but he always knew what he was worth. 

Margaret Welsh

     I do enjoy when people on different continents recommend quality music to me. That way, I can generate my normal half-assed commentary but with a greater sense of accomplishment for branching out of my normal range and delivering something fresh to my dear listener. So, indulge me, and dip your heels into content from another culture for a change. I should mention firstly that this band and track were recommended to me by unicornsglitterandcandyfloss, whose home is South Africa, and she’s been my mutual for an internet eternity on Tumblr. She’s a very talented illustrator and she’s expressed a few times that her and I have a similar but not all-the-same taste in music. I recently asked her to send me some of her favorite music from SA… and she responded in droves, listing off band names that were completely alien to me (Black Math, Fokofpolisiekar, Plush, etc.). The single act that most easily rose to the top of her list, to me, was Shadowclub. This is Good Morning Killer from 2011’s Guns and Money. If there’s one style of music that is criminally underrepresented on my blog, it’s blues music. I do prefer classic blues artists (B.B. King, Etta James, Robert Johnson, etc.) but in my advancing years I am getting used to hearing it mixed in with modern rock, and I can’t say I hate it when used effectively. That said, this trio executes bluesy punk-rock very well, and I found a good portion of their catalog to be downright raw and ballsy compared to your average corporately subsumed and tame American acts. I couldn’t find much of a history on this group surprisingly, I suppose because they’re relatively young and Africa is a 16-to-20-hour flight away. But according to some direct interviews with the band, the group were immature punks when they first started making music. They got drunk a lot; they were often physically fighting with other bands before or after live-shows and their professional attitude and discipline was practically non-existent! Around 2009 or so, they had a chance to retool some of their demo material into a serviceable product and get more mature about their place in the SA music industry. This resulted in a moody, intense, fun, brash and bluesy-punk noise which I can sum up in one word… REFRESHING! Smash play and enjoy, and thanks for the recommendation from thousands of miles away lady, much appreciated!

The trio circa a decade or so ago, no doubt taken shortly before a drunken, bloody brawl with another band. Image credit: https://www.barnyardtheatre.co.za/show.aspx?sid=471

Little Feat - Day Or Night 

Chris Isaak - Wicked Game (1989) Chris Isaak from: "Heart Shaped World" (LP) “Wicked Game“ / "Wicked Game" (Instrumental) (US Single) “Wicked Game“ / "Don't Make Me Dream About You" (EU Single)

Ballad | Roots Rock and Roll

Tumblr (left click = play) (320kbps)

~ or ~

JukeHostUK (left click = play) (320kbps)

Personnel: Chris Isaak: Vocals / Acoustic Guitar James Calvin Wilsey: Guitar Rowland Salley: Bass / Backing Vocals Kenney Dale Johnson: Drums

Backing Vocals: Christine Wall Cynthia Lloyd

Produced by Erik Jacobsen

Album Recorded: @ The Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, California USA and @ The Dave Wellhausen Recording Studios in San Francisco, California USA 1988

Album Released: on June 13, 1989

Single Released: on July 14, 1989

Reprise Records

Creedence Clearwater Revival - Bad Moon Rising (1969) John Fogerty from: "Bad Moon Rising" / "Lodi" (Single) "Green River" (LP)

Rock and Roll | Swamp Rock | Roots Rock and Roll

Snuhfiles (left click = play) (320kbps)

Personnel: John Fogerty: Lead Vocals / Lead Guitar Tom Fogerty: Rhythm Guitar Stu Cook: Bass Doug Clifford: Drums

Arranged and Produced by John Fogerty

Recorded: @ Wally Heider's Studio in San Francisco, California USA March, 1969

Single Released: on April 4, 1969

Album Released: on August 3, 1969

Fantasy Records (US) Liberty Records (UK) Epic Records (1991 CD Single Release)

Northeast Regional - Group K

Today’s the second day of the Northeast Regional competition of the March Madness of American Rock Bands tournament. Vote for your favorite band! The top two vote recipients move on to the next round.

Pixies (Boston MA)

C+C Music Factory (New York NY)

Fountains of Wayne (New York NY)

The Roots (Philadelphia PA)

Chris Robinson (left) and Rich Robinson of The Black Crowes - BeachLife Festival; Redondo Beach, CA (5-7-23). @theblackcrowes @BeachLifeFest Photo: Jeff Bliss - for Cali Mag

Tracklist:

Handle With Care • Dirty World • Rattled • Last Night • Not Alone Any More • Congratulations • Heading For The Light • Margarita • Tweeter And The Monkey Man • End Of The Line

Spotify ♪ Bandcamp ♪ YouTube

High on the Hog by The Band Rhino 1996 Country-Rock / Rock & Roll / Roots Rock / Rhythm & Blues / Folk-Rock / Blues-Rock

The Band - "The Band" (the Brown Album)

Wow my expectations for this were low. And although I didn't rate it highly, I didn't not enjoy it. It has a honky-tonk edge to a proto-'70s rock sound and imbues energy and fun harmonies into the songs.

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genre: roots rock, folk rock, country rock, blues rock, Americana year: 1969

personal rating: 5 (out of 10)

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Why this album? It is listed on Rolling Stones Best Albums of All Time in 2003, 2012, and 2020 (at #45, #45, and #57).