The Zombies - Odessey And Oracle (1968)

Lately I've notice a trend on my page this last week for posting Zombies videos. My friend Patrick requested I put up some Zombies, and this is critically regarded as their best work, on par with The Beatles cream psychedlic-era recordings, and Brian Wilson's most melodic work. Much like Love's Forever Changes, Odyessey and Oracle was supposed to be their last will and testament, a swan song that puches the limits of what could be done with rock. Instead it bombed in England, and was almost completly unheard of in America until the single Time Of The Season took the world by storm in '69, three years after the albums completion and disbandment of The Zombies.

As a bonus, I've thrown in their early hits "Tell Her No" and "She's Not There", both the stereo and mono versions.

Odessey And Oracle (1968)

Roger Miller - Pure

Been a rough week internet-wise, which has left me with a week connection, thus... I've been unable to post any new albums, so I'll just post some quickies... not much detailed information, just straight downloads from my remaining requests....

My friend Chesley requested some Roger Miller, so here is a 12 track greatest hits compilation. Not any obscurities here... which is a shame, but it does have a good mixture of his novelty songs and country ballads which show off his knack for songwriting. I wish there was his version of Little Green Apples on this comp, which I consider the best version of the song. Also, no music from the Disney film Robin Hood, which Roger Miller plays the minstrel rooster in. So, if anyone has these... send 'em my way!

PURE

Alan Lomax - Negro Prison Songs

Alan Lomax and his father John Lomax are the forefather's of archiving some of the only known recordings of particular genres of American folk songs. They first began recording black black music in Southern prisons in 1933. African American prison songs were some of the first they recorded. They were under the theory that the Negro folk song probably survived in its most original form behind the walls of prisons across the south. They were wrong however, and found a hybrid of the "field work song," it had become songs of dispair, prison life, murder and the prayer of death.

"These songs belong to the musical tradition which Africans brought to the New World, but they are also as American as the Mississippi River. They were born out of the very rock and earth of this country, as black hands broke the soil, moved, reformed it, and rivers of stinging sweat poured the blazing heat of Southern skies, and are mounted upon the passion that this struggle with nature brought forth. They tell us the story of the slave gang, the sharecropper system, the lawless work camp, the chain gang, the pen." -Alan Lomax

This was recorded at Parcham Farm in in Mississippi between 1947-1948, which is described as one of the absolute worst work prisons around. Very much like the prison in the film "I'm A Fugitive On A Chain Gang" which is actually based on a true story of a Georgia chain gang prison. The recordings were released on an LP a decade after they were recorded and then reissued on CD, first in the early 90's then again in '97 as "Prison Songs Volume 1: Murderous Home" which is where this transfer comes from. Volume Two features unissued recordings from this same sessions, which I do not have... so if anyone does have Volume two, please send it my way.

Pick up dat hammer, boy!

Bessie Johnson's Sanctified Singers

I've been feeling like posting some gospel for awhile, so here are four of the six known sides Bessie Johnson recorded out of Memphis in the early 30's. Bessie Johnsons was a gospel singer from one of the Sanctified sects, from Columbus, Mississippi, and much like several rural blues artists, sunk back into the depths of obscurity never to be heard from again. Last information on her tracks her to Arkansas in 1964. Remembered by Lonnie McIntorsh as “the singingest woman I’ve ever known”, Johnson possessed a huge contralto voice, with a rasping vibrato as wide as a church door.
She was at her best when accompanied by McIntorsh’s metronomic guitar, or that of Will Shade; her own Sanctified Singers were endearingly ragged, and she had to order them to “Come on” or “Get the beat”. The fact that recordings including such ad libs were released speaks for their raw authenticity. One of the sides on this records on this post is the original version of the Laurie Johnson hit, "He's Got The Whole World In His Hands"

Every other day I will be posting a requested download, so if you'd like anything uploaded, send me a comment.

Salvation lies within.

A Carol Kaye Tribute

A new friend on my facebook page became a fan of a group entitled "Put Carol Kaye In The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame." Not knowing the name off hand, I went to the page, and COMPLETELY FORGOT... I had seen her in a documentary on Brian Wilson two years prior discussing her work during the Smile period, and detailing work on "Good Vibrations"... where shortly after, I filed her name away in my brain and completely forgot about her.

If you were to do a biased search on the history of rock & roll via her recording cannon as a session player, you will see her rhythms have graced some of the most sacred of recorded music from the fifties through the early seventies.

She started performing as a bop jazz guitarist doing the club circuit in Los Angeles in the '40's. In 1957, knowing her locally as a professional, she sat in playing guitar as a session player for some Sam Cooke sides, and the rest was history. First rock music, strictly as a guitar player, and then in '63 as a fluke, she picked up a fender bass to fill in for an absent musician. The bass became an equally signature sound, creeping in the background of some of the most surprising sessions of the psychedelic era. She also sat in recording television themes, commercial jingles, film scores; working with geniuses such as Jerry Goldsmith, Quincy Jones, Michel Legrand, Elmer Bernstein, Lalo Schifrin, David Rose, Phil Spector, Hugo Montenegro and David Axelrod just to name a few. For over a decade she maintained a seven-day workweek/on call 24 hour schedule.

Aside from her instrumental contemporaries, she also appears on the pop hits of such vocalists as Brian Wilson, Ray Charles, Elvis Presley, Lou Rawls, Nancy Sinatra and Dean Martin to name a few more. Not to mention writing the first music instructional lesson guide on how to play electric Bass, and teaching several notable musicians such as Simpson composer Alf Clausen.

So... now that we got that out of the way, I have a special treat! I've compiled a double-disc set's worth of her most popular recording sessions, giving a versatile look at her career! I put it together yesterday, but the internet was acting up, so I am posting it a day late... Here ya go, 46 slices of pure music euphoria....

Note:even though the track lists 48 tracks, there are only 46, I miss-counted

A Brief History Of Rock Obscurity

Here's the track list... just incase you don't want to blindly download something without knowing what exactly is on it.

Disc One

01. Good Vibrations - The Beach Boys

02. Then He Kissed Me - The Crystals

03. La Bamba - Ritchie Valens

04. River Deep Mountain High - Ike & Tina Turner

05. Help Me, Rhonda - The Beach Boys

06. Ironside Theme - Quincy Jones

07. Hungry Freaks Daddy - Frank Zappa

08. Andmoreagain - Love

09. Sloop John B - The Beach Boys

10. Homeward Bound - Simon & Garfunkle

11. Witchita Lineman - Glen Campbell

12. I Think He's Hiding -Randy Newman

13. California Girls - The Beach Boys

14. Going Out Of My Head & Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You - The Lettermen

15. Little Honda - The Hondells

16. I'm A Believer - The Monkees

17. Heroes And Villains - The Beach Boys

18. Indian Reservation - Paul Revere & The Raiders

19. I Don't Need No Doctor - Ray Charles

20. It Must Be Him - Vikki Carr

21. Little Green Apples - O.C. Smith

22. Midnight Confessions - The Grass Roots

23. America The Beautiful - Ray Charles

Disc Two

01. Rhinestone Cowboy - Glen Campbell

02. Scarborough Fair & Canticle - Simon & Garfunkle

03. Sixteen Tons - Tennessee Ernie Ford

04. Something Stupid - Nancy & Frank Sinatra

05. This Diamond Ring - Gary Lewis & The Playboys

06. The Twelfth Of Never - Johnny Mathis

07. The Way We Were - Barbara Streisand

08. These Boots Are Made For Walkin' - Nancy Sinatra

09. You're My Soul And Inspiration - The Righteous Brothers

10. Suspicious Mind - Elvis Presley

11. Song Of Innocence - David Axelrod

12. Holy Are You - The Elecric Prunes

13. You've Lost That Loving Feeling - The Righteous Brothers

14. Your Good Thing - Lou Rawls

15. The Duke Of Prunes - Frank Zappa

16. Danke Schoen - Wayne Newton

17. Johnny Angel - Shelley Fabares

18. Let's Dance - Chris Montez

19. Little Old Lady From Pasadena - Jan & Dean

20. Needles And Pins - Jackie DeShannon

21. The Birds And The Bees - Jewel Akens

22. The Daily Planet - Love

23. Surf City - Jan & Dean

Lucille Bogan & Walter Roland - 1927-1935

Here's some music my friend Mary Love requested... I'll be uploading anything anyone requests for their downloading pleasure.

Lucille Bogan was one of the first blues artists to record. Her music is most signature for its frank, rique' nature; often dealing with sex, prostitution and lesbianism... much of which often makes her comparable to Bessie Smith. She started recording for Paramount in 1927, where she reached success having a song covered by Blind Blake. During this time she also began recording for Brunswick, where she cut records with Cow Cow Davenport and Tampa Red.

By the 1930's here records were primarily ALL dirty, and often her unissued Banner acetate of "Shave 'Em Dry" can be found on SCORES of dirty blues compilations.

Her birthday was a few days ago (April 1, 1897) and even though it's a few days late, this is the best way to celebrate. I tried to do a blog search, and couldn't find any that featured more than a song or two. So here ya go, for your own personal archive, is the Yazoo compilation "1927-1935", which offers an even split of songs recorded by herself, and solos by her piano accompanist Walter Roland. This set is transfered from some of the rarest (and thus, battered to shit) 78 rpm records... the quality, considering, is pretty damned decent.

Lucille Bogan passed away August 10, 1948 in Los Angeles, CA... You can visit her grave at Lincoln Memorial Park in Compton.

HARDCORE

As a bonus, in a seperate download, here is her claim to fame, "Shave 'Em Dry" recorded 1935, but not released for the Banner label. If you've never heard it, you're in for a treat... it's one of the most blatant, shocking and obscene records ever recorded from the 78 era. It's had several re-issues, the most common is on the LP 'Copulatin' Blues'. I love her at the 2:10 mark, you can just tell how much fun she's having recording this.

SHAVE EM DRY

Still not enough?

Well then scoot on over to Red Hot Jazz where you can hear nearly her entire discography for free on streaming audio.

The Sonics - Psycho-Sonic

This post was originally going to be the start of my record digitizing, but, alas, I've fallen a little behind, so the first couple of days worth of posts will be from the remaining fifty or so CD's I have left to digitize. As I promised, I will also be periodically adding requests as blog downloads as well...

So here we go...

Ask anyone about the origins of Punk rock, and your likely to get a couple answers:

a) Link Wray's advent of the power chord.

b) The cheap/quick/raw recording methods of garage rock bands whom recorded crudely rushed and naive energy-infused fuzz tone laden singles.

c) The Sonics.

The Sonics originate out of Tacoma, Washington circa. '64-'65 and paved the road for some of the wildest recordings to come out in the decade to follow. Their music falls primarily under two categories, wild covers of fifties standards... and skull cracking 100-mph originals. Their best recordings are their dark themed songs such as "He's Waitin'," "Strychnine," "The Witch"

Psycho-Sonic was released on CD on the Big Beat label, and compiles everything they released on the Etiquette label, which consists of two LP's and a handful of singles... as a bonus, it also includes live versions of "The Witch" and "Psycho," as well as an alternate version of "The Witch."

Download here

"The epitome of '60s punk... harder than the Kinks, and punk long before punk" - The White Stripes

"I, I have to admit... The Sonics recorded very, very cheaply on a two track you know, and they just used one microphone over the drums, and they got the most amazing drum sound I've ever heard. Still to this day, it's still my favorite drum sound. It sounds like he's hitting harder than anyone I've ever known." -Kurt Cobain

BUT THAT'S NOT ALL!!!

As a bonus download (in a separate folder) I am including a couple extra Sonic goodies:

1) The 45rpm single Norton records released of "Don't Believe In Christmas" b/w "Santa Claus"

2) The 45rpm single Norton records released of unissued versions of "The Witch" and "Busy Body"

3) A 24 minute interview from July 16th, 1998 with Larry Parypa, the lead guitar and back up vocalist for The Sonics