Big Ten Inch: Dorothy Logan

Posted on April 15, 2010 by pulse

[audio:http://www.paulcollegio.net/juke/juke0609/shellac.mp3]

Some fine Chicago post-war blues tonight on Jukebox Heart. In the Big Ten Inch category, we take an old musty 78 RPM slab out of the stacks and play it for you. Click on the arrow above to hear it.

The story of this song begins in early 1950’s Chicago with a vocal group called the Gems. The Gems began around 1952, in the Chicago suburb of Evanston, Illinois. The five neighborhood friends, in their early twenties, were: Ray Pettis (tenor lead), Bobby Pee Wee Robinson (first tenor and guitar), David “Moose” Taylor (second tenor), Wilson James (baritone and bass), and Rip Reed (bass).

After a couple of years of practice, they met up with Paul King, one of the owners of Drexel records (at 7319 South Vernon Street). Another partner was Les Caldwell, but there seemed to be a third party, hidden in the shadows. Even the company itself was shadowy. The Gems never saw the company’s headquarters, because there never really was one; the address seems to have been that of Paul King. They rehearsed at a friend’s house and recorded at Universal Recording Studios, legendary for producing the earliest recordings of the Moonglows and Flamingos.

Considering that Drexel was a small label, it’s difficult to tell if songs were recorded at the same session based on the master numbers. Their first four songs have consecutive numbers, so it’s possible that they were recorded on the same day. At any rate, the tunes were: ‘Deed I Do,’ ‘You’re Tired Of Love,’ ‘Talk About The Weather,’ and ‘Ol’ Man River.’ All four were led by Ray Pettis.

There was a blurb in the trades, dated June 5, 1954 announcing the formation of Drexel. Of course, in true music business style, they also announced that two releases were already on the market. President Paul King was described as a “Chicago businessman” and Les Caldwell (general manager and head of A&R) was ‘a former salesman for King’, the well established blues and R&B label.

On this later release, the Gems backed up Dorothy Logan on a throaty version of ‘Since I Fell For You,’ the A Side of this record, competing with the Harptones version [a very weak competitor…] on New York’s Bruce Records imprint. This old standard penned by Buddy Johnson would be immortalized in the sixties by Lenny Welch, still in rotation today on many EZ listening stations. On this sexy blues track presented here, Dorothy Logan warns of the perils of bringing your sexy stud hard-workin backwoods boyfriend into the city of slick-chicks and stud-stealing good-for-nothing floozies. It’s this song that should have been the A Side!

The Gems themselves were a spectacular group who remained hopelessly obscure because Drexel, like so many currently sought after labels, totally sucked at promoting their records and artists. It wasn’t until the first rock n roll revival of the early sixties that collectors really picked up on this stuff. As such, the Drexel releases are exceedingly rare.

Not subscribed to Jukebox Heart yet? You should! It’s easy, and it’s free. Jukebox Heart is also on Facebook and MySpace.

Moonlight Radio : Archival mix from June 2007

Posted on April 13, 2010 by pulse

Once upon a time, before there ever was Jukebox Heart, there was Moonlight Radio. Similar in ambition, Moonlight Radio wanted to share music with friends and people he loved. Though it was pretty and fun, it aso demanded a lot of time and attention of its users. Jukebox Heart came along and provided similar access with a lot less effort. Now and then, we like to bring some of the music forward from Moonlight Radio. Tonight’s mix is culled from the June 2007 edition of Moonlight Radio. If you have an evening to kill, click on that link and browse Moonlght Radio to see what we were up to back then. Clicking on each link takes you to page after page of music, image and tons of information. But for now, just click on the arrow below and enjoy a sampling of Moonlight Radio.

[audio:http://www.paulcollegio.net/juke/juke0706/MoonlightRadio4.mp3]

We open with one of the most mysterious records in my collection, a beat-up lounge-era 45 most of whose label has been torn off. Fortunately, the bits and piecs reveal that the artist is Martin Bottcher, but the title of each side is missing. This was a mammoth 3-hour podcast in celebration of the tird anniversary of Moonlight Radio. So, brace yourself, you’re in for a long night. *wink* You actually get to hear me speak on this one; I modeled this special anniversary edition after my old radio shows on WMFO, WCUW and WZBC…

PKG: Small Cruel Party

Posted on April 9, 2010 by pulse

[audio:www.paulcollegio.net/juke/juke0609/pkg.mp3]

Small Cruel Party was formed in Japan in 1985 as a project for undertaking experimental work in organized sound. Initial projects focused mainly on work with synthesized sound sources and other uses of conventional instrumentation.

After moving to the Pacific Northwest in 1990 work has become more focused on the inherent mysterious and beautiful qualities of sound itself, with the emphasis on noninstrumental sound sources, the source itself not being readily apparent. Work generally involves manipulation of physical objects in acoustic space and a great deal of concentrated activity. Even in pieces involving dense sound at high volume the resultant effect is one of intense calm. More recent work has incorporated various influences related to studies in Buddhism (zen and Tibetan) but without including or perhaps suggesting any obvious references.

Recorded work and performances have been realized in the United States, Canada, Japan, and Europe, and installations have been presented at the Seattle Art Museum and at the AVE Festival for Experimental Art in Arnhem, Holland. Work also has included collaborations with other musicians (Gamelan Pacifica) as well as with other artists (Dappin´ Butoh; Stillwater Butoh). ‘A Tangible Bridge,’ for symphony orchestra and four vocalists, was recently premiered by the Seattle Creative Orchestra.

This is probably his rarest release. It was issued in less than 200 copies, and when the records arrived from the plant, they were all warped. They were shipped to distributors, but Small Cruel Party called them all back; I don’t know if they were ever repressed or what, but I somehow managed to get a copy befoe the recall. The designer, from Provo Utah using the name Pirate Productions, hand assembled each box from driftwood and dried flowers. He designed the enclosed book as well, which included several of Key Ransone’s abstract drawings. Below is an image from the printed record jacket.

Screamer of the Week: Victrola Favorites

Posted on April 8, 2010 by pulse

There is a sobering moment that every yet-to-be-diagnosed OCD record collector faces at some pont, and that is the moment at which the undeniable evidence presents itself that there are collectors out there who are even more OCD than you. These are collectors whose own personal stories reduce yours to mere precious anecdotal eccentricities, and whose collections deeply pierce genres you’ve only dreamed about. Not to mention their *size*. Size does matter, at least to a degree. Every collector wants to have the biggest stock in the bar.

When you begin to listen to the discs included in “Victrola Favorites”, that moment becomes apparent. And you relive the joy all over again that you lived with each new genre you discovered, each new band, each new label – each time you lost another aural virginity.

“The obsessive record collectors Rob Millis and Jefferey Taylor have done all the hard work for fans of oddball early recordings, rare world music, ’20s jazz, blues and old time. Millis and Taylor, of the experimental Seattle band Climax Golden Twins, have collected thousands of unusual old 78 r.p.m. records from around the world, and a sampling from their troves is now available in a lovely and beguiling two-disc set called Victrola Favorites: Artifacts from Bygone Days. The set mixes popular recordings of recognizable American artists like Roy Smeck, Don Redman, the Tennessee Ramblers and Blind Boy Fuller with more esoteric and arcane audio postcard-like tracks from around the world, like the startling recordings of Burmese popular songs with electric guitar accompaniment from the 1950s, or the other-worldly croaking reed music from Thailand, or a lovely track of solo Korean bamboo flute. The set is something like a cross between the ever-relevant Anthology of American Folk Music, compiled by Harry Smith, and the equally astounding series of collections called The Secret Museum of Mankind, issued on the Yazoo label in the 1990s and based, in part, on a radio show on the pioneering freeform radio station WFMU out of the New York City area.

The music is amazing, but so too is the packaging, which dispenses with lengthy book-like liner notes in favor of a more artistic, fetishized-artifact quality, with pictures of old record labels and sleeves from 78s from around the world. You can almost feel the brittle, crumbling paper and the hefty weight of the shiny shellac discs. Like Smith’s Anthology, this set does away with the idea of organizing the music by style, race or region. As a result, it’s only the most terminally eclectic listeners who will be able to stay with the swing of things as the tracks flow from the nasally playing of Bismallah Khan on the Indian shenai to the bumping big-band blues of Noble Sissle and his Orchestra, or on the journey elsewhere from Japan to South Africa to India.” — John Adamian, Hartford Advocate

Here are some of the lovingly reproduced images from the book.

The book was the next logicl follow-on from the series of cassette-magazines that these guys produced – all of which are impossible to track down now. Let’s hope this becomes a continuing series, just as the cassettes once were. Some audio tracks”

Carlos Ramos – Torre De Belem (Portugal 1910)
[audio:http://www.jukeboxheart.com/screamers/victrola/vf1.mp3]

He Zemin/Huang Peiying – Big Idiot Buys a Pig (Hong Kong 1930s)
[audio:http://www.jukeboxheart.com/screamers/victrola/vf2.mp3]

Kane’s Hawaiian – Mokihana (Hawaiian Islands 1928)
[audio:http://www.jukeboxheart.com/screamers/victrola/vf3.mp3]

Zeki Duygulu – Karciar Taksim (Oud solo recorded in Turey c. 1920)
[audio:http://www.jukeboxheart.com/screamers/victrola/vf4.mp3]

While researching this entry, I caThere is also a blog for Victrola Favorites. Check it out.

Jukebox Saturday Night: The Heartbeats

Posted on April 4, 2010 by pulse

Jukebox saturday night, some would say, is the heart and soul of Jukebox Heart. In this category, the music of the pre-Beatles rock n roll is is featured; it’s the music I cut my teeth on. Its namesake comes from the Ink Spots and Nino & The Ebb Tides’ classic tune of the same name.

This time around, we’re featuring NYC doo wop stars, the Heartbeats. The Heartbeats were a 1950s American doo-wop group best known for their song A Thousand Miles Away. One of the most important doo wop songs, this is most famous for its closing sweeping glissando which would characterize the genre for decades to come.

The Heartbeats circa 1955.

Hear the commercially released version by clicking on the arrow below.

[audio:http://www.jukeboxheart.com/jsn/heartbeats/heartbeats1.mp3]

The above image is commonly available on eBay, but my collector geek buddies will recognize the holy grail copy below, on the Hull label in its original black and silver print. This copy commands hundreds of dollars whenever it appears. Hull Records was a tiny NYC independent started in 1955 by Billy Dawn Smith, then A&R man for one of George Goldner’s larger labels, Herald Records. When A Thousand Miles Away began to climb the charts beyond its local popularity, another of Goldner’s labels, Rama, picked it up for national distribution. My own copy is a black label 78 RPM; this 45 RPM image was scouted and pulled off the web for you.

What is exciting about the Heartbeats ad the main reason we are presenting them now is the recent discovery of their rehearsal tapes, and a spectacular acapella version of A Thousand Miles Away. The session tape is present below. This is a quintessential argument in favor of doo wop harmony in acapella over that with musical accompaniment. While the commercially released version is classic and beautiful, it is easily seen how the vocal harmony can lose its impact embedded in the music. These rehearsal sessions show how talented the Heartbeats really were. The tapes from which this was extracted lay dormant for over 50 years, and fortuitously voided any damage.

[audio:http://www.jukeboxheart.com/jsn/heartbeats/heartbeats2.mp3]

And for good measure, I’m also throwing in the followup, and the biggest hit for Hull Records, Daddy’s Home, also fronted by Heartbeats front man James Shepherd as Shep and the Limelites.

[audio:http://www.jukeboxheart.com/jsn/heartbeats/shep.mp3]

Below is some biographical information about the groups for you. Enjoy!

The Heartbeats were formed in the mid 1950s in Jamaica, Queens. Originally called “The Hearts”, they switched in 1955 when a female group by the same name scored a minor billboard hit. They were signed shortly after James “Shep” Sheppard joined the group, and were shuffled between various production companies over the next few years. The group split up in 1959, and Sheppard later went on to start Shep and the Limelites.

Lead singer James “Shep” Sheppard co-wrote a series of velvety doo wop ballads for the Heartbeats during the mid-’50s; one entry, “A Thousand Miles Away,” was a huge R&B seller in 1956. The Queens, NY, quintet began their string of street-corner classics with “Crazy for You” and “Darling How Long,” culminating with “A Thousand Miles Away.” The Heartbeats recorded for Hull, Rama, Roulette, Gee, and Guyden before packing it in. In 1961 the lead singer formed a new trio, Shep & the Limelites, and scored on the charts with a heartwarming sequel to his first hit, “Daddy’s Home,” for Hull. “Our Anniversary” also sold well for the trio the next year, but they broke up soon thereafter. Sheppard was found dead in his auto on the Long Island Expressway in 1970.

James Sheppard (“Shep”) and Clarence Bassett, both from Queens, New York, and Charles Baskerville, originally from Virginia, formed a group in Queens in 1960. This was initially billed as Shane Sheppard and the Limelites, but quickly became Shep and the Limelites. All three had previous experience in other groups when they formed the group: Shep in The Heartbeats (notable for “A Thousand Miles Away”); Bassett in The Five Sharps and then, with Baskerville, in The Videos.

Shep and the Limelites’ recording sessions for Hull Records started in August 1960. They recorded the original version of “Daddy’s Home” on February 1, 1961. “Daddy’s Home” reached no. 2 on the Billboard pop chart in May,[1] and was covered by Jermaine Jackson in 1972. Later songs were not as successful as “Daddy’s Home”, but still sold well; among these were “What Did Daddy Do”, “Ready For Your Love” and “Our Anniversary”.

Kahl Music, publisher of “A Thousand Miles Away”, an earlier song written by Sheppard, sued Keel Music, publisher of “Daddy’s Home”, for copyright violation. Keel eventually lost, and this led to the end of the Limelites and Hull Records in 1966. Bassett joined The Flamingos and Baskerville joined The Players and then The Drifters.[1] Sheppard re-formed the Limelites in the late 1960s, but died on January 24, 1970. He was found dead in his car on the Long Island Expressway, having been beaten and robbed.

Sheppard was found on January 24, 1970, shot to death in his car on the Long Island expressway. Baskerville died, at age 58 on January 18, 1995 in New York. Bassett died on January 25, 2005, at age 68 from the complications of emphysema, at his home in Richmond, Virginia.

Jukebox Heart 017: The Death of Human Speech

Posted on March 26, 2010 by pulse

Jukebox Heart 017: The Death of Human Speech
73:48 | 67.5 MB

“The way the WT-4 robot speaks is similar that of the human species of generations ago, before speech was supplanted by modern and more efficient means of communications such as text messaging and internet chat: air expressed from the lungs vibrates the vocal chords, while changes in the shape or position of the tongue, lips, and teeth form the vowel and consonant sounds.”

If you’ve been paying attention, you have noticed that every time Jukebox Heart issues a new full-length podcast, the mysterious, often lugubrious titles are linked in some way to the audio contents of the podcast. Often, a common thread based on that link weaves its way through the entire mix, sometimes obviously, but more often than not, not. As I was selecting tracks for The Death of Human Speech, myself shut off from the interactions of human speech by the virtue of my iPod earbuds, the truth of the title became apparent to me when my son, who was back in town for Spring Break, sent me a text message, asking me when “Wen dinr?” I was in the kitchen preparing a Mediterranean feast of Avgolemono, Kibbeh on a bed of Tabouleh, and Zucchini with Lupini Beans. I texted back “~5”. Where was he? Ten feet away from me in the living room. The Death of Human Speech, then, anticipates the collapse of language as we know it, and examines the role of speech in music, through its absence, through ironic misrepresentation, through its symbolism in the use of foreign, fabricated and distorted languages, through morphology and the fragmented meaning of detached, repeated phrases, and through, of course, basic speech itself. On the heels of the Death of Print, could Human Speech be far behind?

[audio:http://www.jukeboxheart.com/jbh017/jbh017_2.mp3]

Click the arrow above to listen!

Here is the playlist for Jukebox Heart 017: The Death of Human Speech.

Explosions in the Sky – So Long, Lonesome
Electric Birds – Stem
Toys for the Revolution – Dance with the Devil
Cranes – Everywhere (Live)
Melanie – Psychotherapy
John Otway – Mine Tonight
Rachel’s – Last Things
Big City Orchestra – My Pussy
Thrones – Django
Orion Rigel Dommisse – Alice and Sarah
Trevor Wishart – Beach Double
Quentin Crisp – Stop The Music For A Minute
Antelope – Dead Eye
Crack We ARE Rock – Black Horse Rise
Mirah – Pollen (Pee Pollen mix by Lucky Dragons)
Ted Milton – In Your World
Voices of Kwahn – Undesire/Burnt Mound
Nine Horses – Wonderful World (Burnt Friedman Remix)
Amanda Ambrose – The House of The Rising Sun

Images, links and more info below the cut.

Not subscribed to Jukebox Heart yet? You should! But until you’re ready, you can download this podcast here. Jukebox Heart is also on Facebook and MySpace.

Continue reading →

Jukebox Heart 016: Do We Owe You A Living?

Posted on October 16, 2009 by pulse

It’s hard to believe it has been three months since the last dispatch of Jukebox Heart. Were this more than a one-man labor of love, that would probably be seen as inexcusable. Well, yes, it’s inexcusable anyway. Mea culpa.

We are back with Jukebox Heart 16, “Do we Owe You A Living?” The answer to that becomes obvious as you wade your way through the 69 minutes of this latest Jukebox Heart installment. The three month hiatus has led to a rather large backlog of music that we will be getting to here in JBH. Have Patience.

Big adjustments have been at play. My son left home for college, and hopefully has been spreading the gospel according to Jukebox Heart all over campus. It’s very strange not to have him around; it was always rewarding when I put some strange new sound on that would perk his ears up like a homing device. “What’s this dad? It’s cool.” What he doesn’t know is that when he was much younger, his completely unguarded reactions to whatever was on the stereo was sometimes the deciding factor of whether it was going to be included in my radio program on WZBC that week.

He will kill me for telling you this story, but his very first concert ever was Dead Can Dance, at the Berklee Performance Center, Boston, November 1990. Astute readers will say, “Wait. He wasn’t even born yet!” That’s fair. But he was seven months in utero at the time. Months later, after he was born, he was extremely colicky, sometimes screaming and crying for hours upon hours, and the only thing that soothed him was the music of Dead Can Dance, particularly the Aion album, which was played almost entirely at the concert he attended. Coincidence? Really? I don’t think so. So in this sense, the music is in his blood, from an even earlier point in his life than in mine.

But back to the issue at hand. Do you believe in self actualization and autonomy? Are you responsible for paying enough attention to your circumstances to see that you must dance to a different tune, that of a global economy or tightening market? Are you responsible for paying enough attention to make sure that you can dance to that tune…even when it entails taking dancing lessons? And you need to pay for them yourself? Jukebox Heart provides the drumming. Billy Idol showed you how to dance with yourself. James Brown admonished you to get up offa that thing. And Jukebox Heart invites you to dance. Do We Owe You A Living? Of course we do, of course we do. Owe you a living? Of course we fucking do.

Download Jukebox Heart 016: Do We Owe You A Living?”
Click on the arrow below to play.
63.3 MB | 69:12

[audio:http://www.jukeboxheart.com/jbh016/jbh016.mp3]

Below is the playlist for Jukebox Heart 016: Do We Owe You A Living? Podcast. See below the cut for images, links and information about each track.

Jatun – Young Crooks
(Self Titled, Other Electricities CD, 2007)

Lassigue Bendthaus – Velocity Life
(Matter, KK/Metropolis CD, 1991)

Pacific – Sad Song
(remix from Au Revoir Simone’s Reverse Migration, Our Secret Records CD, 2008)

Deux – Game And Performance
(BIPPP, Everloving Records CD, 2008)

The Soft Pink Truth – Do They Owe Us A Living?
(Do You Want New Wave or Do You Want The Soft Pink Truth? Tigerbeat 6 CD, 2004)

Tristeza – Aeroaviones
(A Colores, Better Looking Records CD, 2005)

Shocking Pinks – This Aching Deal
(Self-Titled, DFA/Astralwerks CD, 2007)

Pistis – Maximum Entropy
(Bread and Circuses, Now Orange Records CD, 1999)

Ricci Rucker – Harder Than Hard, Softer Than Soft (The Line Between Yin And Yang)
(Fuga, Alpha Pup CD, 2005)

Peter Rehberg – ML3
(Work For GV 2004 – 2008, Mego CD, 2008)

Alias – Prelude To A Death Watch
(Resurgam, Anticon Records CD, 2008)

Ciann Zu – An Bad Dubh
(Take Penacilin Now! G7 Welcoming Committee Records CD, 2005)

Grace Braun – Could This Be The Moment
(I’m Your Girl, Dark Beloved Cloud 2xCD, 2002)

The Owls – Airplane
(Daughters and Suns, Magic Marker CD, 2007)

Atlas Sound – River Card
(Let The Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel, Kranky CD, 2008)

To Rococo Rot – Sol
(Hotel Morgen, Domino CD, 2004)

Bergheim 34 – New Ground
(Self Titled EP, First Love Records CD, 1998)

Sieg Uber Die Sonne – I Am Not A Sound
((-).(-)=(+), Multi Color Records CD, 2001)

Continue reading →

Featured Artist: KiloWatts

Posted on July 15, 2009 by pulse

Our featured artist page takes a more in-depth look at an artist who has caught the eye of Jukebox Heart. Here we feature KiloWatts.

KiloWatts, aka James Watts, is a native of Dallas, TX, but currently resides in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He began as a young lad playing the piano, took up making music with trackers during his teenage years, and has since continued exploring digital expressionism via electronic music. He is one half of KiloWatts & Vanek, of Holophon Records in Germany, a glitch-pop project with wide appeal.

He is a part of Artificial Music Machine, based in Austin, TX, with which he creates his most intricate and thoughtful work. He is a staunch supporter of file sharing, and played a part in the setup and launch of Soulseek Records.

Musically, he likes to move you emotionally with deep vaporous melodies, annoy you purposely with noisy musical dishevelment, and entertain you with an irresistable pop appeal – but not all at the same time. He enjoys a distinct storytelling quality within his music, almost as much as making asses move. There are worlds to be explored in his ever growing body of work.

Featured here are four tracks from his albums ‘Problem/Solving’ and ‘Routes’.

—–

[audio:http://www.paulcollegio.net/juke/juke0706/feature1.mp3]

This is Track 4 from the album Problem Solving, called Rocketeer.

Problem/Solving is an introspective and inspiring aural conglomeration of a thousand different experiences, taking sharp turns through calm somber reflection and gutwrenching chaotic confusion – a blend of exquisite melodic structures, lush ambience, and engulfing rhythms.

Problem/Solving shows us in CD form exactly how the whole can be more than the sum of its parts. It eloquently captures the myriad dichotomies of the human condition – knowledge and confusion, destruction and creation, reflection and progress… Driving rhythms give way to abstract sonic imagery. Subtle soundscapes mesh seamlessly with playful experimentation. These disparate elements, each masterful in their own right, come together to form nothing less than an inspired sonic journey.

—–

[audio:http://www.paulcollegio.net/juke/juke0706/feature2.mp3]

This is Track 8 from Problem Solving, called “Easter Lily”

Exciting with experimental urban textures, the rich moods of KiloWatts music has high appeal. This occasionally just takes the top of your head off and explodes into ecstatic highs while retaining a deep ocean reverberation. Echoing caves, haunting melodies and sultry beats mingle with tangible notes of refined delicacy. Just when I thought this album might only be instrumental, a ghostly angel’s whispers appeared. The heaviness of the first track melted away into ethereal bliss. ‘Algae’ is wildly creative. ‘Enter Lilly’, featured here, is awash with oceanic textures, waves washing over nature sounds. ‘Last Horrah’ is sensual and exotic with emotionally complex rhythms. ‘E Suffix’ has warm reverberations and interesting timing with ghostly vocals that mingle with the music in intriguing ways.

The label, Artifical Music Machine, partly run by him, has an impressive roster of artists including Afreet, The Aleph, Book of Shadows, Dreamtigers, Gift Culture, Inversion Effect, Limiter, Merzbow vs. Tamarin and Static Storm System.

—–

[audio:http://www.paulcollegio.net/juke/juke0706/feature3.mp3]

Track 5 from the Routes album, called Subway.

Routes is a travelogue, a record of places and destinations that crackles and pops with the urgency of perpetual motion (check in, check out, get on a plane, take a boat trip). The eighteen tracks of Kilowatt’s latest (some are ambient field recordings of conveyances) seamlessly flow as a fascinating aural trip that isn’t the sort normally put together by your local travel agent. Mixing glitch and complex programming with warm downtempo and psychedelic loops, static and the sound of the rails with boarding announcements and lilting melodies, KiloWatts takes all the stress out of travel.

‘Subway’ arcs us across metropolitan boroughs, clicking and flexing with a futuristic groove, a Kundalini snake rhythm that matches the rolling percussion of the trains. Hiccups and catches in the sound allow for the injection of melodic parts into the mix as if the car is start-stopping for more passengers.

—–

[audio:http://www.paulcollegio.net/juke/juke0706/feature4.mp3]

Track 10 fron the Routes album, “Safety In Numbers”.

‘Safety In Numbers’ turns the packed dance floor into a slow-moving mass of accidental humanity. Elbows and shoulders brush, voices connect, eyes meet. The breakbeat climax sends hearts in a frenzy — new routes are planned, new destinations chosen, rendezvous are agreed upon.

The common thread running through all of his music is an uncommon sense of narrative. We move from track to track with a new world unfolding on the fall of each beat. having just returned from the sea. With tides urning and earth’s quaking and waves crashing, Routes sees James Watts as having just returned from a journey; he can tell you stories…

Big Ten Inch: The Real Hound Dog

Posted on June 27, 2009 by pulse

Named after the famous song by BullMoose Jackson, Big Ten Inch is the category where we pull a great old dusty shellac 78 RPM record from the vault and present it here on Jukebox Heart. This time, it’s the original version of Hound Dog, in all its nasty glory. Can you imagine the mess in CBS studios if Elvis sung *these* lyrics in front of all those teenage girls???

[audio:http://www.paulcollegio.net/juke/juke0508/shellac.mp3]

Willie Mae ‘Big Mama’ Thornton only notched one national hit in her lifetime, but it was a true monster. ‘Hound Dog’ held down the top slot on Billboard’s R&B charts for seven long weeks in 1953. Alas, Elvis Presley’s rocking 1956 cover was even bigger, effectively obscuring Thornton’s chief claim to immortality.

That’s a damned shame, because Thornton’s menacing growl was indeed something special. The hefty belter first opened her pipes in church but soon embraced the blues. She toured with Sammy Green’s Hot Harlem Revue during the 1940s. Thornton was ensconced on the Houston circuit when Peacock Records boss Don Robey signed her in 1951. She debuted on Peacock with ‘Partnership Blues’ that year, backed by trumpeter Joe Scott’s band.

But it was her third Peacock date with Johnny Otis’s band that proved the winner. With Pete Lewis laying down some truly nasty guitar behind her, Big Mama shouted ‘Hound Dog,’ a tune whose authorship remains a bone of contention to this day (both Otis and the team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller claim responsibility) and soon hit the road a star.

Many thanks to Brad Rogowski for pointing me to the following Youtube clip:

But it was an isolated incident. Though Thornton cut some fine Peacock follow-ups — ‘I Smell a Rat,’ ‘Stop Hoppin’ on Me,’ ‘The Fish,’ ‘Just like a Dog’ — through 1957, she never again reached the hit parade. Even Elvis was apparently unaware of her; he was handed ‘Hound Dog’ by Freddie Bell, a Vegas lounge rocker. Early-’60s 45s for Irma, Bay-Tone, Kent, and Sotoplay did little to revive her sagging fortunes, but a series of dates for Arhoolie that included her first vinyl rendition of ‘Ball and Chain’ in 1968 and two albums for Mercury in 1969-70 put her back in circulation (Janis Joplin’s overwrought but well-intentioned cover of ‘Ball and Chain’ didn’t hurt either). Along with her imposing vocals, Thornton began to emphasize her harmonica skills during the 1960s.

Thornton was a tough cookie. She dressed like a man and took no guff from anyone, even as the pounds fell off her once-ample frame and she became downright scrawny during the last years of her life. Medical personnel found her lifeless body in an L.A. rooming house in 1984.

The Divas of Jukebox Heart: Timi Yuro

Posted on June 21, 2009 by pulse

In this new category on Jukebox Heart, we pay homage to our women. Timi Yuro is a good place to start, because her impact is just so fuckin YUGE; she just sets the tone for the whole diva experience. And this song is just brilliant. I’ve heard other versions of ‘Hurt’, by white bread artists such as Eddy Howard and others, but this song was just waiting for Timi to shred it the way she does. It’s hard to believe she was 18 when she recorded this, because her voice already has the 20-years-of-coffee-and-cigarettes thing going on. Timi Yuro’s ‘Hurt’ is sheer agony.

Timi Yuro promo shot, circa 1961.

[audio:http://www.paulcollegio.net/juke/divas/bunny20.mp3]

Timi was born Rosemarie Timotea Aurro (thus, Timi Yuro) in Chicago in 1941. She moved with her family to Los Angeles in 1952, where she sang in her family’s Italian restaurant. She had a Mediterranean heritage and was influenced by some of the great Blues singers, to the extent that many people mistakenly thought that she was black.

Timi signed a contract with Liberty Records in 1959. She worked with songwriter/producer Clyde Otis and put 11 songs in the top 100 from 1961 to 1965. The biggest of these was her first, Hurt, featured here, which reached the top ten nationally. Brenda Lee was probably the hottest female singer at the time, but Timi’s songs had a soul sound to them that were in contrast to Brenda’s recordings. Timi put several such records on the charts, including What’s A Matter Baby [Is It Hurting You], Gotta Travel On and Make The World Go Away.

Timi went into retirement but decided to come back in 1980. She assembled a 14-piece band and began rehearsals, but then was troubled by health problems. Doctors at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York performed surgery to remove nodules from her larynx and esophagus. This was followed by six months during which she was not allowed to talk, much less sing.

A video of here performance of Hurt during this comeback period is below. What a pwerful singer, even though you can see she’s beginning to feel her illnesses. Much respect.

When she regained her voice, Timi went to Nashville and recorded All Alone Am I. It was released in Europe by Dureko Records in Holland in 1981. In 1982 she headlined at the Sands in Las Vegas to a packed showroom every night for two weeks. Timi went to Amsterdam to promote her new album and it proved to be immensely popular in Europe. In Rotterdam she performed before an audience of over 20,000 along with Olivia Newton-John, Janice Ian and Art Garfunkel, and brought down the house. Timi Yuro was back. Timi had three more European tours and three more albums followed, including one that she recorded with her old friend Willie Nelson in 1984 titled Timi Yuro Sings … Willie Nelson.

In the late 80’s Timi had more throat problems and sang less and less. In the late 90’s cancer was detected. It began to aggressively attack her throat and larynx, and in early 2002 this fine singer’s larynx was removed to save her life. Her illness finally caught up with her and Timi died at her home in Las Vegas on March 30, 2004.

Timi’s top ten recording of Hurt remains as one of the best vocal performances of 60’s pop music. Here is a 1964 Scopitone clip of one of her lesser known masterpieces, “If”.