I really love these clips of Ike Turner and a few of the Kings Of Rhythm.
For more on Ike, I did a post on him last year (here).
Month: August 2009
James Luther Dickinson 2
A Young Jim Dickinson (is this an Eggelston photo?)
Video for Down In Mississippi
Muscle Shoals, 1969, listening to the playback of Wild Horses, Dickinson is seated to Keith’s left on the couch.
As an addendum to Aug. 18th’s post concerning the death of Jim Dickinson, here is the JD & the Hoods version of Rumble issued by the Memphis based Barbarian Records in 1980. It’s an amazing record, there’s all sorts of stuff buried in the mix, and it takes the swagger of Link Wray’s original version and adds a real Memphis feel to it.
It was already rare when I made my first visit to Memphis in 1981 and I’ve never been able to find a copy. This version was dubbed by Jim’s son Luther of the North Mississippi All-Stars. The flip is a version of the old Freddie Slack/Ella Mae Morse tune House Of Blue lights which I’ve never heard. Barbarian also issued a Dickinson produced 45 by pro-wrestler Jerry Lawler, best known for giving Andy Kaufman a real life beating on the David Letterman Show. The Lawler record is a cover of the Jesters’ Cadillac Man (Dickinson sang and played piano on the original Sun version).
A full Jim Dickinson discography can be found here. He also has a new CD out on the Memphis International label (his third) called Dinosaurs Run In Circles, which I haven’t heard yet but am expecting in the mail any day. His other two MI discs– Jungle Jim and the Voodoo Tiger (2006)
and Killers From Space (2007) are both excellent as is the 2002 Artemis release Free Beer Tomorrow which I think is still in print, or at least easy to find. Anyway,thanks to Luther Dickinson for the download of Rumble, it may be the only way you’ll ever hear it.
MORE RIP’S: John Carter, lead singer of the Dells (and also the original lead singer of the Flamingos, on their early Chance and Vee Jay sides) passed away last week. Ellie Greenwhich, songwriter (usually with Jeff Barry) whose classics include Be My Baby, Leader Of The Pack, Hank Panky, and a thousand other classics went over the weekend.
Gillian’s Found Photo #23
This week the Fang comes up with a photo from a collection of Polaroids taken at Stevensville Prison, which I think is in Maryland. Polaroids are popular in prisons, getting a good photo of yourself with a big time shot caller can be just the thing to let others know just who they’re dealing with. These two? Just some righteous, meth tweakin’, scooter ridin’,
bad ass white folk, doin’ their time. Either that or Three Dog Night got themselves locked up.
Outlaw pride indeed!
Why Blues Singers Should Be Named After Presidents….
Larry Knechtel Dies
Kip Tyler- Will His Story Ever Be Told?
Studio keyboard player and bassist Larry Knetchal died of a heart attack last week. Knechtel was a member of LA’s session players loosely known as the Wrecking Crew as well as a former member of Duane Eddy’s Rebels and Kip Tyler and the Flips. He was born in Bell Garden, California in 1940. He also played on the Elvis ’68 Comback (Singer Special) TV Show, played organ on the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds, played bass on the first Doors and Byrds albums (that’s him on Mr. Tamborine Man). As the original members of the Flips die off (sax player Steve Douglas died in recent years)a great story is rapidly being lost to time, that is the story of Kip Tyler & the Flips. Still living members include Sandy Nelson, Jim Horn, Kip Tyler, Mike Bermani, Mike Deasy and Jimmy Troxel. Anyone out there got Kip’s phone #?
Bobby Lee Trammell
How come no one makes a scanner that fits a 12 x 12 LP?
Bobby Lee Trammell (b. Jan. 31, 1934) was crazy. Born in the country outside of Jonesboro, Arkansas, to a pair of cotton farmers (he father Wiley played fiddle, his mom Mae played organ in church, his little sister played on the linoleum) he had a typical upbringing of singing in church and listening to the Grand Ole Opry on the radio. The young Trammell had aspirations as a country singer, until one day, in 1956, a package tour hit Jonesboro, the headliners were Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash, and the ever affable Perkins allowed young Bobby to join his band onstage for a song, Perkins even recommended that Trammell try his luck in Memphis and talk to Sam Phillips. This Bobby Trammell did, only to be told to come back in a few weeks when Sam wasn’t so busy. Not exactly the patient sort, Trammell headed for California where he landed in Long Beach and took a job in the Ford plant. He also found a gig singing at the Jubilee Ballroom in Baldwin Park. He attracted enough attention to get a record deal with the tiny Fabor label, run by Fabor Robinson. His first single– Shirley Lee b/w I Sure Do Love You Baby was recorded using Bob Luman’s group– the Shadows as his backing band. The Shadows featured a young guitarist named James Burton who would soon leave Luman for the greener (as in money) pastures of Ricky Nelson’s band (with whom he would re-cut Shirley Lee with Ricky Nelson on his second LP). Shirley Lee was a minor, regional hit. Fabor leased the master to ABC-Paramount, and it was off to the races for Bobby Lee Trammell. Unfortunately he placed out of the money.
James Luther Dickinson
James Luther (“Jim”) Dickinson died last Saturday (Aug. 15) of a heart attack. His loss to the world of rock’n’roll cannot be understated. He was one of a kind. The good kind.
Dickinson was something of a musical philosopher, see the interview above. He never minced words. On Chuck Levall, the Stone long time piano player– “that cocktail lounge playing mother fucker….”. He never got to produced Dylan or the Stones, the two acts that needed him most.
Such is life. I suggest you get yourself a copy of Dixie Fried (Atlantic), and Known Felons In Drag (New Rose), sit back and and enjoy what was one of America’s last great rock’n’roll characters.
We won’t see the likes of him again.
Les Paul
Les Paul died yesterday, age 94. It seems for as long as I remember he held down a Monday night gig someplace in NYC, I saw him many times, he was always great. I love his old Capitol records with Mary Ford, they sound like they were recorded in outer space. I thought as a tribute I’d thrown in a couple of long excerpts from their 50’s radios show (here and here),
they’re quite amusing. I’m sure there’ll be obits in every paper and magazine in America, I don’t need to go into his history here, but take a listen to those airchecks, they’re a hoot.
Gillian’s Found Photo #22
It’s July ’57 and according to the scribble on the back of this photo it’s Elvis Presley night at the Variety Show at Kingsway, so says David, whoever that is. Can anyone identify the hot boppin’ hepcat in the white bucks? Did he cut any records? There’s something familiar looking about this guy. The piano player seems lost, is he about to sit down and start playing? Can the audience hear the unamplified guitars? Who knows, but the Fang surely came up with a good photo this week, no?
It’s A Nugget If You Dug It….
I’ve always loved the Music Machine’s Talk Talk, dig those get ups!
From the TAMI Show, the Barbarians featuring Moulty.
The Count Five’s Psychotic Reaction- When this came out we thought it was a new Yardbirds record….
The Preachers version of Who Do You Love, I heard this on the radio exactly once.
The 13th Floor Elevators’ You’re Gonna Miss Me, a huge hit where I grew up in S. Florida.