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What the world needs now?
Nah, not love.
What the world needs now—what it cries out for, daily—is inspired silliness.
Brave Combo, live
“The Denton Polka,” Texas (Denton), 2007
*****
“Louie, Louie,” Illinois (Berwyn [FitzGerald’s]), 2008
Brave Combo played a wild set Sunday night (the 4th) at FitzGerald’s American Music Festival—everything from “Beer Barrel Polka” to a hard-rockin’ “Hokey Pokey” to a polka-inflected “Ode to Joy” (“Any Beethoven fans in the house?”) to a Tejano-style “America the Beautiful.” By the end of the 90-minute set, everybody’s IQ, it seemed, had gone up 15 points. Or was it down?
How many songs are so 4th-of-July perfect?
The Blasters, “American Music”
Take 1
Live, Illinois (Champaign), 1985
*****
Take 2
Live, Los Angeles, 2010
On Saturday night these guys played this, in overdrive, at FitzGerald’s American Music Festival, a wonderful 4-day event that just celebrated its 30th anniversary.
Happy 4th of July!
The funkiest, countriest quartet. As a church once rocked to guitarist William ‘Pee Wee’ Crawford’s vamps, the late Reuben Willingham quipped, ‘This may not be a Fish Fry, but it sure got soul.’ The Augusta-based Swanees maintained the same background—Charlie Barnwell, Rufus Washington and the good-humored falsetto James ‘Big Red’ Anderson—for over thirty years. Some of James Brown’s grooves were first set down by his friends the Swanees. Veteran leads included Willingham, Johnny Jones (the finest singer in the post Sam Cooke tradition, with a range from baritone to high falsetto, and a more vivid, sanctified persona than his idol Cooke) and Percy Griffin.
—Anthony Heilbut, The Gospel Sound: Good News and Bad Times (6th ed. 2002)
*****
Swanee Quintet, live
“What Are They Doing In Heaven” (featuring Johnny Jones), TV broadcast
*****
“Little Talk With Jesus” (featuring Johnny Jones), TV broadcast
*****
“New Walk” (featuring Reuben Willingham and Johnny Jones), TV broadcast
*****
“Doctor Jesus” (featuring Percy Griffin and Johnny Jones)
**********
lagniappe
listening room
Sly Stone, gospel singer
*****
Happy Birthday, Louis!
Louis Armstrong Birthday Broadcast, WKCR-FM (’til 9:30 a.m., 7/5/10)
jailhouse rock
Speaking of prison music, here—thanks to a tip from my (19-year-old) son Luke—is the indomitable Lil Wayne, phoning in a verse for a new Drake track from Rikers Island (New York City), where he’s serving a year after pleading guilty to a gun charge.
Lil Wayne, Rikers Island/Drake, “Light Up” (2010)
lagniappe
Even behind bars, Lil Wayne can’t catch a break. The incarcerated rapper has reportedly been caught with a contraband MP3 player inside Rikers Island prison.
Weezy’s secret jams were discovered during a routine search on Tuedsay morning, when officials found unauthorised headphones and the charger for an MP3 player hidden in his dustbin. “We found the items wrapped in an aluminum potato chip bag, in a garbage can,” an anonymous official told Fox News. Officers then scoured the “housing area” where Wayne is incarcerated, uncovering a matching MP3 player in the cell of another inmate.
While prisoners are permitted to purchase an AM/FM radio and basic headphones from the Rikers Island commissary, inmates are banned from using fancy headphones, MP3 players, or, even, chargers for MP3 players. Weezy and his fellow inmate will be charged with possession of contraband, and “some discipline can follow”, the official said.
Lil Wayne is serving a one-year prison sentence for weapons infractions, stemming from an incident in July 2007. Although sentencing was repeatedly postponed, he was eventually jailed in early February. A month before beginning his term, Weezy told Rolling stone that he was “looking forward to” prison. “I’ll have an iPod, and I’ll make sure they keep sending me beats,” he said.
Officials were quick to point out that the seized MP3 player is not, in fact, an iPod. We’re not sure what this means except, perhaps, that they may wish to check the other empty crisp packets … just in case.
take two (or is it one?)
Following up on Vijay Iyer’s take (6/30/10), here’s the original.
M.I.A., “Galang” (2005)
One of the things I love about M.I.A. is that she doesn’t let any of the usual stuff get in her way. Take her dancing, for instance: she’s, uh, not real good at it—at least not by the usual standards. Does that stop her? Nah.
music clip of the day 