02.12.10
Posted in Rock 'n' Roll, Sludge in the Seventies at 10:19 am by George Smith
After twenty five years I decided to see if I could still play one of the old signature tunes from the DD & the Highway Kings’ first album.
“Roadkill” was the choice, an instrumental played at every gig. Originally, recorded on a 4-track tape machine, all the analog equipment I used to do it is long gone.
But — yup, I can. Dementia hasn’t set in yet.
Here it is.
Back in ‘84 or ‘85 I started a set in front of a group of hardcore punks with “Roadkill.”
This was a serious mistake.
You have to understand many hardcore punk kids had adopted a set of odd moral standards stringently adhered to. Beating up girls, for instance, was OK. But doing anything perceived to be mean to animals was verboten.
“Roadkill” starts out with a maniacal laugh and shout of its title.
You can imagine how this went over. The punks stood there with backs turned and arms folded for the rest of the set. And that was the last time DD ever played for a crowd of them.
Believe me, drunks were way better.
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02.11.10
Posted in Rock 'n' Roll, Sludge in the Seventies, Stumble and Fail at 11:48 am by George Smith
“Why Dontcha Do Me Right” — here.
The above is a song dating from around the time of Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention Absolutely Free album.
And — “Walkin’ for Bumwine in Pasadena Blues,” an instrumental as virtual B-side — here.
Inspired by the two bum wine selling markets on Villa.
From an earlier post here:
Most people think Pasadena is very upscale, a place where it’s hard to find bum wine.
Not true!
In at least one spot, made up of two small markets at the intersection of North Wilson and Villa, Thunderbird and Night Train Express are in stock.
These beverages served and serve a purpose. They’re for when you’ve really hit the skids. And because they are fortified with about 18 percent alcohol by volume, they’re bona fide painkillers.
Yes, it’s been a very bad year here in Pasadena and it looks to only get worse.
Gear: Roger Linn Adrenalinn III
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02.10.10
Posted in Rock 'n' Roll, Sludge in the Seventies at 11:24 am by George Smith
Well before Bill Cosby’s enshrinement as a TV star in the Huxtable family, DD thought he was hilarious.
If you were a smartypants kid living in Pennsylvania within easy travel of Philadelphia in the mid-Sixties, Cosby was the homegrown comic for you.
The most played Cosby vinyl in the Smith household, between my brother and I, was “Bill Cosby Is A Very Funny Fellow Right!” — a live recording of him doing his thing at the Bitter End in NYC.
But there was one Bill Cosby record that was off style.
“Bill Cosby Sings Hooray for the Salvation Army Band!” was an album of Cosby singing — or yelling and chanting if you prefer — old favorites, many with his own lyrics tacked on, while backed by a funk band.
Viewed with a fishy eye by some regular fans, it was at first perceived to be a joke album by a jokester putting one over on the same fans.
It wasn’t.
DD was introduced to it by fellow Pine Grove Area School District student Dave Berger. Berger showed up in class one day reciting the lyrics to the title track. Even without music, they were a laugh riot if you were in our state of mind.
As we were easily entertained, Berger’s description of Bill Cosby singing about “stealing tires” and getting ready to “have a little sin” set to an unusual interpretation of the Jimi Hendrix Experience’s “Purple Haze” sounded top shelf — not a piece of eye-rolling junk to try your patience.
After that, it was about a week before I had convinced my grandfather to drive me to Pomeroy’s in Pottsville to secure a copy.
In the Eighties in Bethlehem I always wanted to perform “Hooray for the Salvation Army Band” but the Highway Kings would have never went for it.
The song was recorded using Roger Linn’s Adrenalinn III magic box. The Adrenalinn III is a guitar amp emulator and drummer coupled to beat-synchronized multi-effects. What that means is you can play a guitar through its digital selection of vintage pieces of equipment, like amplifiers chosen for their rock and roll history and tone. Through the software and processing power in the Adrenalinn III’s chips, your playing is lashed to the beat of any song you would like to record or perform.
The Adrenalinn has been around for years, upgraded intermittently but very effectively by its designers. It is the embodiment of sophisticated music machine fun and it’s hard to imagine making a recording or writing a new tune without employing it.
So the Adrenalinn III was the perfect tool for “Hooray for the Salvation Army Band” as it provides settings and sound ideal for something loosely based on “Purple Haze” — the original’s basic drum track, plus the old Marshall amplifier and octave fuzztone used by Jimi Hendrix.
Everything on the track (with the exception of the “Bringing In the Sheaves” punchline) was sent through the Adrenalinn III.
If you have Cosby’s original album — it is back in print — you know the tune was interpreted as garage-style funk rock. DD has altered it slightly, toward a more psychedelic hard rock flavor.
Hooray for the Salvation Army Band MP3.
A variety of endorsements of the Adrenalinn III — including mine.
No, you’re not seeing double. This is an old post migrated from DD’s old Blogger-administered site. In advance of Blogger’s shutdown of FTP publishing.
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02.09.10
Posted in Rock 'n' Roll, Sludge in the Seventies at 5:25 pm by George Smith
Dick Destiny plays Needle and Spoon
Here!
“Needle and Spoon” first appeared on Savoy Brown’s Raw Sienna album from 1970. Penned by Chris Youlden, the band’s gruff but soulful blues shouter, it has always been one of my favorite blues rock tunes.
I’ve kept the fast shuffling beat, added a bit more thumping acoustic guitar, plus a short fuzz solo tossed in behind a vocal imprecation. For just that old-timey feel.
No one in this edition of Savoy Brown was a heroin user so rack it up to bumping into other rock ‘n’ rollers in 1970 Blighty who were. There was no shortage.
For extra fun, consider the single to have a virtual B-side, “Internal Revenue Boogie,” here.
Jolly good!
Gear: Roger Linn Design Adrenalinn III, lotsa guitars — at least three.
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