* Ivy & Lux *

Ivy! Coolest girl’s name our Museum-manager and his missus could think of, when their daughter was born ALMOST fifteen years ago. Anything to do with The Cramps, the band of Lux Interior (singer) and Poison Ivy Rorschach (guitar)? You bet! And yes, Lux and Ivy were not just bandmates, they belonged to each other for 37 years, until Lux passed away in february 2009.

Would you believe our manager worked for Ivy & Lux? A few months after his little girl was born, in the same town a new movietheatre opened, named LUX. And he was more than happy to accept a job there. Taking care of Ivy during daytime and working nightshifts at the cinema, he can rightfully claim there was a time he worked for Ivy and Lux. Top that!

Here's to Ivy: six Rorschach/Interior-penned "originals" and eight songs that inspired them. Plus 1=15!

                               'Human Fly' (1978) // The Tune Rockers-'Green Mosquito' (1958)
       'What's Behind The Mask?' (1980) // Dale Hawkins-'Tornado' (1958)
'Don't Eat Stuff off the Sidewalk' (1981) // Frantics-'Werewolf' ('60), Ventures-'Fourth Dimension' ('63)
                     'Call of the Wighat' (1983) // The Riptides-'Machine Gun' (1959)
'Cornfed Dames' (1986) // Mac Rebennack-'Storm Warning' ('59), Blues Rockers-'Calling all cows' ('55)
'The Creature from the Black Leather Lagoon' (1990) // Charlie Feathers-'One Hand Loose' (1956)

                                                      'What's inside a Girl' (live 1990 A'dam)

           
Poison Ivy turned 62 last week. How would she be doing without Lux? SMoRaS would love to know. Anyone seen or read a recent interview somewhere?

* Uncle Sam Blues / Little Boy Soldiers *

                                   “Uncle Sam ain’t no woman, but he sure can take your man.”
Oran Thaddeus "Hot Lips" Page (vocal, trumpet) recorded this traditional for Savoy in 1944. Wartime.

                                                        Hot Lips Page-'Uncle Sam Blues'

The oldest song called ‘Uncle Sam Blues’ that your Secret Museum could find is by Clara Smith (1923). 
Filled with grief, she sings: “Let me tell you Postman, what Sammy has done to me.”

Clara Smith reminded me of that bitter song ‘Little Boy Soldiers’ by Paul Weller’s band The Jam.
                   “They send you home in a pine overcoat, with a letter to your mum;
                     saying: find enclosed one son – one medal and a note – to say he won.”

P.S.: "Uncle Sam ain't no woman, but…" Jefferson Airplane sang it too, on Woodstock (1969). The next year Airplane-members Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady did 'Uncle Sam Blues' also on the debut-LP of their next project Hot Tuna. The Vietnam-years needed the song as much as World War II did.

* Curtis Mayfield --> Lloyd Charmers *

Here's more Lloyd Charmers, as promised in the Secret Museum-post about Alton Ellis 3 weeks ago.

Jamaican music in the 60s and 70s was heavily influenced by USA-soul. A nice example is this ’67-cover by The Uniques of ‘Gypsy Woman’, originally a ’61-hit by Chicago-soulgroup The Impressions with Curtis Mayfield, who wrote the song.

                                                          The Impressions 1961 line-up

                                                       The Impressions-'Gypsy Woman'
                                                             The Uniques-'Gypsy Woman'

                                                              L-R: Lloyd, Slim, Jimmy

At this time vocal trio The Uniques consisted of Slim Smith, Jimmy ‘Buster’ Riley and Lloyd Tyrell (real name). The latter had earlier been one half of vocal duo The Charmers. This explains the origin of his later stagename: he became known as keyboardplayer, producer, songwriter and singer Lloyd Charmers. In 1975 he covered another Curtis-composition, found on CM's first solo-album (1970). ‘Darker Than Blue’ demonstrates that Jamaican music had been moving forward as much as Mayfield, from sweet vocal-group-harmonies to upsetting black power.

Curtis Mayfield-'We The People Who Are Darker Than Blue' 
Lloyd Charmers-'Darker Than Blue'; released on LP/CD in 2001 by Steve Barrow's Blood & Fire-label, on a compilation called Darker than Blue: Soul from Jamdown 1973-1980. Since Blood & Fire folded, the album's sadly out-of-print. Get a copy if you can. Also out there, even more rare, is a (vinyl only) 10"-record with this vocal take of 'Darker Than Blue' by Lloyd Charmers plus an instrumental version. On both the melodica is played by Charmers himself, while he's accompanied by the band Third World.

P.S.: Tyrell/Charmers also recorded some X-rated material (adults only!). One of those tracks, 'Birth Control', was released in 1969/70 under his own name Lloyd Tyrell and also in his disguise as Lloydie & the Lowbites. Ten years later the song was adapted by The Specials as 'Too Much Too Young', singing "Ain't you heard of contraception…" 

* Motherless Children *

Paul Robeson-'Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child' (1926)

Blind Willie Johnson (1902-47) 'Motherless Children' aka 'Mother's Children Have A Hard Time' (1927)

Blind Wille McTell (1901-59) - 'Motherless Children Have A Hard Time' (1949)

Son House (1902-88) -'Motherless Children' (1965)

* Jimmy Scott-'Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child (1969); check SMoRaS-post 26-8-'14 !

Kathleen Emery-'Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child' (1970)

Kathleen Emery-'Sometimes…' - Quantic version (2006)

PS: Kathleen Emery-45 reissued by UK-label Jazzman Records (1998 JM-001).
Re-released in 2006 (JM-050) with remix on B-side by DJ/producer Quantic (born Will Holland).

* 7 and 7 is LOVE *

Valentine's Day!

This one goes out “to all you lonely hearts out there”, to quote the late great romantic Joey Ramone. 

‘Alone Again Or’ is the first track on Forever Changes, the third album by Arthur Lee’s band Love, from Los Angeles. Nowadays considered a classic album, a psychedelic masterpiece. But after its release in november 1967 it peaked in the US-albumcharts at # 154. It fared a little better abroad in the UK: # 24. Despite (or maybe because) lyrics like: “Oh, the snot has caked against my pants. It has turned into crystal.” (from: ‘Live And Let Live’). BTW: ‘Alone Again Or’ was written and sung by Love-guitarplayer Bryan MacLean.
                                                                Love-'Alone Again Or'

Big jump foreward in time: In 1992 the French label New Rose released ‘Arthur Lee & Love’, his fourth solo-album. Highlight: ‘Five String Serenade’.

Arthur Lee-'Five String Serenade'

Small sidestep: ‘Five String Serenade’ was covered live by The White Stripes (you can find it on youtube). But most people heard it first from Mazzy Star, the band of singer Hope Sandoval and guitarist David Roback (ex-Rain Parade). I’ve read somewhere that Arthur Lee earned more money from the Mazzy Star-royalties, than all his Love-royalties put together.

Mazzy Star-'Five String Serenade' (clip plus lyrics) or here:

After Forever Changes things went downhill for Love and Arthur Lee. By 1972 two former bandmembers were in jail, and Lee had become increasingly difficult to work with. All because of drugs. Sad to think what could have been. But what we do have is lasting: three albums that still tell a great story. And this is how it started, with a bang: their second single (B-side: ‘No.14’; hey!), from their garagerock-days in 1966:
                                                                      Love-'7 and 7 is'

#100 - Bollywood flashback !

                                                  चोली के पीछे क्या है = Cōlī kē pīchē kyā hai 

For this one I have to give credit to Willem van Z. (VPRO-3voor12; previously Tivoli Utrecht). In the mid-90s he was resident-DJ at the world-famous Dutch rock venue Doornroosje Nijmegen. One saturdaynight he managed to get the crowd dancing while premiering a Bollywood-song. Quite a feat, since most people prefer to dance to songs or sounds they know, unfortunately. Not this time, though. All too curious, I asked for the name of the tune. Alas, no paper or pencil available. Now what are the chances you’d remember a songtitle from India all the way home, after a couple of drinks? Waking up the next morning I found what I had memorized, scribbled down in a notebook beside my bed. Willem had suggested I’d try a local Asian store that had some import-cassettes. So I went there, and they said they could order it. Don’t know if they did; a few weeks they kept telling me to come back later, then I gave up. Years passed, untill I found my notebook again in 2011. Just for fun I googled the songtitle on the internet. To my surprise the title I had written down existed, with a video on YouTube!

So now I knew for a fact that the song was called ‘Choli Ke Peeche Kya Hai’, sung by Alka Yagnik & Ila Charun. The exciting video was from ‘Khal nayak’, apparently a 1993-Bollywood-blockbuster. Mind you, the spectacular leading lady in the movie is not the singer, but actress Madhuri Dixit. More about her and the movie can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madhuri_Dixit

But what still puzzled me: What was the song about? One YouTube-comment said ‘What’s behind the blouse’. Then I fed it to Google-translate in small pieces, and got ‘choli = bra’. Looking for a final word I posted the song on Facebook one year ago and asked if anyone was able to explain the lyrics to me. Nothing happened for four weeks, then all of a sudden Geertje (of BollyFood-fame) dropped me a line: "What's behind the blouse is correct". She added that 'choli' is a short top, worn under a sari, almost qualifying as underwear, which might explain the other translation as 'bra'. Then she really made my day with this:

Hope you enjoyed the clip. Warning: some things just stick in your mind. Ku ku ku ku ku ku ku ku..

PS: Now you might as well try the next Bollywood-video too, brought to my attention by Ben (the man behind the Franco-post last October). It's a song from "the terrifying murder mystery" Gumnaam (1965) by singer Moham(m)ed Rafi: 'Jaan Pehechaan Ho'. Rock'n'roll from India, even included in a list of  favorite songs by Lux and Ivy (The Cramps). More about them in your Secret Museum on Feb 28th.

* Un-Deux-Trois, Oh-La-La *

First up, French Canadian garage beat from Montreal (1966/1967), Les Misérables avec 'Chemises A Pois, Cravates A Fleurs' ('shirts-with-dots, neckties-with-flowers' I guess; correct me if I'm wrong).

Move over to France, where Christine Pilzer made such an impression in 1967 with 'Champs Elysées' (Elysian Fields) that the Parisians decided to name a street after the song.

Even more impressing is the last one. Holy cow, you won't believe your ears, c'est la vache qui rit! Basile & Ze Pecqu'nouz Groupe (1968) with 'Ma charette est malade, mon cheval est cassé'.

66-67-68… la prochaine fois évidemment l'année plus belle: 69! - pardon my french ;-)

* Deep Soul treasure : Kenny Carter *

Ready for one of the greatest soul-records ever? You can find it on Deep Soul Treasures volume 1 (1997 Ace/Kent CD 143), compiled by soul connoisseur Dave Godin. Even he couldn't give much info about the singer. But he did tell us that the next song was actually penned for The Moody Blues, as a follow-up to their hit-cover of the Bessie Banks-soulsong 'Go Now', but they turned it down. Now go listen what Kenny Carter did with 'Showdown' (1966).

* Journeys by DJ: Coldcut - originals *

In 1995 UK-dj-duo Coldcut (Matt Black and Jonathon More) released a much-lauded mix-album, Journeys By DJ: 70 Minutes of Madness. Definitely worth checking out. For once do believe blurb-lines like "headfood-nirvana" and "turntable tricknology". All true, promise! You can find the whole album on YouTube, but here's a little taster already. Starting with a sample from a 1958 stereo-demonstration-LP (pictured below), Coldcut take it away with 'Bola' by Philorene (= David Barratt & Elliot Sharp). 

On the Journeys By DJ-album, Coldcut gave credit to "only" 35 tracks, but they probably used a lot more. And if recognizable, tracks were cut-up or reconstructed. Take for example 'African Drug'. Bob Holroyd recorded it first for his '93-album Fluidity & Structure, as an eight-minute-trip with hypnotizing tribal drumming. Coldcut used only three minutes, and mixed it with weird spoken-word (from 'H-Bomb' by Lord Buckley: "I don't know about that Jehovah cat"). Here's Holroyd's original mix. Might take some time to grow on you. 

Added to the mix, it seems, was a title-mix-up too. Coldcut gave credit to Air Liquide (Köln-based duo Cem Oral and Ingmar Koch, aka Jammin' Unit and Walker, respectively) for using their track 'If There Was No Gravity'. SMoRaS liked it and tried to track it down. BUT, almost certainly, the Air Liquide-track used is actually 'Stratus Static'. Presented here in its original glory, with sample of 'Insane in the Brain' by Cypress Hill.

Last but not least: Coldcut did not only bring obscure acts to a bigger audience. Famous songs got a new life as well. Like ‘One Blood’, a massive 1989-dancehall-hit for Jamaican singer Junior Reid. Hear the original first, then the drum & bass-version used by Coldcut on their Journeys By DJ mix-album.

* Hang the DJ *

Hang the DJ – pt.1: Tony Blackburn

Here's a record with just four syllables: 'Toe-Knee-Black-Burn'. That's all folks. But these four syllables can be ranked in various ways. To understand you have to listen carefully until the end of this video. Don't let the lip-syncing little geezer distract you! Some trivia-facts on the side: singer Binky Baker had a very famous fan club, BOOBS (British Organisation of Binky Supporters). And when he released his only single for Stiff Records (1978) there was a popular BBC Radio 1-DJ named Tony Blackburn. To his credit, TB played the song on a few occasions. Now you know how the story started, please listen how it ends.

Hang the DJ – pt.2: Jan Douwe

Must-see video too! Rare footage, credits go to Icelandic youth television. According to their subtitles this song is about Janû Malledüwer. For those who don’t speak Dutch: the real topic of this song, by a band supposedly including members of Dutch punkbands NRA and Human Alert, is a well-known Dutch radio jock at the time (1996). Jan Douwe was not amused. In fact, he was really pissed when VPRO-colleagues played it on national radio. It remains a mystery how Our Creator completely overlooked JD when a sense of humour was handed out. The poor fellow is 6.5 feet tall. Goes to show you can’t have it all.