I Found That Purity Of Essence Rare

Koen writes: The music industry can be a weird business, plenty of stories of labels/managers who ripped off their artists and/or exploited them in other ways.

On the other hand, artists recording for different labels under different names wasn’t uncommon in the past either, e.g. John Lee Hooker had an impressive number of aliases: Birmingham Sam, Boogie John, Delta John, John Lee Cooker, Johnny Lee, Johnny Williams, Texas Slim, and The Boogie Man!

Claiming copyright of traditional songs by just changing a few words used to be standard. Some bands with the same name played live gigs on the same dates but in far-away places with different musicians!  The list could on for a long time…

In the sixties it was common that albums released in the UK would have slightly different track lists from the US versions, e.g. the first few lps of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, etc. Much later Japanese CD releases usually got 1 or 2 bonus tracks which increased their value a lot!

Lately some modern-day artists have been re-recording earlier albums for copyright reasons, e.g. Taylor Swift.  Recently, Strohmian shared a story on the Twilight Zone blog that gave all of the above a completely new twist!

Graham Parker’s old band, The Rumour (with Brinsley Schwarz!) released three albums.  The second one - 1979’s Frogs, Sprouts, Clogs And Krauts (wonderful title!) - even had a minor hit in Holland: 'Frozen Years'. 

But they never really broke through, and their 3rd album became their swan song.  The original UK release of Purity Of Essence came out on Stiff Records in 1980.  And now we are entering the Twilight Zone of recorded music…  From the liner notes by Martin Belmont:

"The Rumour recorded its third album without Graham Parker (and its first without keyboard player and singer Bob Andrews) in 1980. The title 'Purity of Essence' came from the Stanley Kubrick film 'Dr Strangelove', a band favourite on the tour bus. The album was produced by Alan Winstanley at Eden Studios in West London, and released in the UK on Stiff Records. 

"Joe Boyd wanted to release it in the States on his Hannibal imprint, but, after being unable to reach a financial agreement with Stiff, he figured it would be cheaper to re-record the entire album. We did this at Island Studios with the considerable production skills of John Wood, and that is the version on this CD.

"The two recordings differ in a couple of ways: firstly, three songs have changed from the UK set: 'All Boys Lie' - a Clive Langer composition from his days with Deaf School; 'Rubber Band Man' - a Thom Bell song that had been a massive hit for The Detroit Spinners with their wonderful singer Phillip Wynne in 1976; and 'Depression' - written by Glen Tilbrook and Chris Difford from Squeeze. These three songs were only released on the US version, and replaced 'Pyramids' 'My Little Red Book' and 'That's The Way The Ball Rolls' from the UK release. 

"The second change is that the US version has a much more energetic, confident and 'live in the studio' feel, with very few overdubs. The instrumentation is simple; mostly two guitars, bass and drums, with vocals from Brinsley, Steve and one from me. The only guest featured on the sessions is Glen Tilbrook, who added the organ part to 'Depression'."

Despite the availability of 2 versions of the same album and 2 singles, 'My Little Red Book' & 'I Don’t Want The Night To End' (a Nick Lowe cover!), sales didn’t improve, and the band decided to call it quits, sad but true.

The JOKONKY edition is (in essence) a double CD with 25 numbers total for your listening pleasure.  Tell us which version YOU prefer!

Get In Loser, We're Going Rockabilly (Volume 2)!

 

Stinky follows his first "Going Rockabilly" comp with another installment.  The concept (as you may recall) is rockabilly music performed by artists not usually associated with the genre.  Some are cover songs, and others are originals (like Alan Vega's jittery "Jukebox Babe").

My favorite band The Fall is here with a Gene Vincent cover, as is Ian Dury with his ode to "Sweet Gene Vincent".  The Clash, Elvis Costello and Marky Ramone are also among the Class of '77 rockabilly fans.

You might remember Stinky's stellar tribute to guitarist Joe Moretti, who played the unforgettable guitar line on "Shakin All Over".  The Who takes on that classic of early British rock.  

Eva Cassidy is another artist who has been anthologized by Stinky in these pages.  We've also featured Chuck Berry covers, and there are a few more here to add to your collection.  

Robert Johnson (our Close Personal Friend) is back, as well as Jeff Beck, Led Zep, Conway Twitty, Neil Young's Shocking Pinks and the Foghat side project Warren Phillips & The Rockets. Dana Gillespie (one of the artists who "got a leg up" from David Bowie) is here too.  

Also featured are Elton John and Harry Nilsson (before they became famous), covers of Buddy Holly by Jackie DeShannon and Graham Nash, plus versions of Rick Nelson's hit It's Late and Jimmy Long's That Silver Haired Daddy Of Mine. 

PS - does that cover model sitting on the 8 ball look a lil' bit like Pearl Harbour?  Don't forget that the expanded edition of her solo album Don't Follow Me, I'm Lost Too is available now on Bandcamp (digital, CD, and purple vinyl!)

Call Me The Wolf: Howlin' Wolf 1969-1973

Koen writes: One of the greatest blues artists from the past is probably Chester ‘Howlin’ Wolf’ Burnett, who first recorded for Sam Phillips’ SUN Records and later for Leonard & Phil’s Chess Records with amazing results. His work can be easily found in the blogosphere, including two great compilations shared by Babs and Butterboy.

But these fantastic sets focus only on his early career’s songs, up to the mid-sixties.  If you look at Amazon, it isn’t any different, countless early work compilations of sometimes dubious origin and quality, a shame really. 

In fact, there has never been an official (or unofficial!) collection of his final years’ work!  Once I realized that a new JOKONKY project was born: Call Me The Wolf 1969-1973.

In this final years' time frame, Wolf released five albums, of which The London Howlin’ Wolf Sessions is probably the most well-known, it even received a Deluxe treatment as a double CD with the original album plus alternate takes! Therefore I chose only one track, but it’s the classic Red Rooster, with Wolf explaining to Eric Clapton how it’s supposed to be done!

I remember vividly the first time I heard 1969’s The Howlin' Wolf Album, and was shocked, such a different take on those famous songs. Obviously I wasn’t alone, it got very bad reviews at the time and sales sucked.  Since then it has received a kind of re-appraisal and I’ve become more open-minded too ;-)

The spooky version of Moanin’ At Midnight deserves to be heard, it’s stunning! For the full-length Back Door Man I opted for a vinyl rip as that includes the spoken intro by Wolf, until now all CD versions of this album botched that up which resulted in 20+ seconds missing!

In the nineties, two Chess collections were released: a three-disc set The Chess Box and a two-disc Ain't Gonna Be Your Dog. The first one had the hits plus some unreleased work, the second focussed on alternate takes, single-only tracks, etc. Both featured a couple of (excellent!) songs from his later career which made these perfect for inclusion here!

Message To The Young is in many ways the most different album compared to his other recordings. Responsible for this were Sonny Thompson (piano, arranger, conductor, lyrics) and Cash McCall (producer, conductor). I selected 2 tracks that give a good indication of the rest of the album.

Live And Cookin' At Alice's Revisited gives us a chance to hear Wolf in a live setting with his regular band The Wolf Gang, brilliant. The Back Door Wolf is his final album and gathered good reviews, but not many people have heard it, I think.  From those last two albums I picked 3 tracks each.

Get Yer Third Leg Up (More Artists Who Produced Their Idols)

Koen and Stinky set a high standard for this series; today we've got leftovers.  Ric Ocasek produced a lot of new bands (possibly to "give them a leg up"), but he didn't necessarily idolize them.  I chose a song from I'm So Confused, which Ric produced for Jonathan Richman.

The bassist on I'm So Confused is Darryl Jenifer of the Bad Brains, whose album Rock For Light was produced by Ocasek.  I doubt Ric idolized the Bad Brains, but Adam Yauch certainly did, and Yauch produced Build A Nation.

Rick Rubin may idolize the legends he produced (such as Johnny Cash and Tom Petty).  But if you've ever heard Rubin's band Hose, you can be sure that he idolized Flipper, and he produced American Grafishy.  Speaking of Tom Petty, he produced Chris Hillman's album Bidin' My Time (which features Roger McGuinn on The Byrds' rarity Here She Comes Again).

Jack White has also produced legends (Wanda Jackson and Loretta Lynn). The White Stripes' music was greatly influenced by the Flat Duo Jets, and Jack produced and released a live album for the Dex Romweber Duo, as well as their single The Wind Did Move.  

Stinky featured a Wanda Jackson album produced by Joan Jett. Justin Townes Earle produced Wanda's Unfinished Business. Iggy Pop has worked with several of his admirers (including David Bowie and Josh Homme). As a Detroit native, Don Was must have been thrilled to produce Brick By Brick (with Slash joining Iggy on guitar for Home).

Mavis Staples is another legendary singer.  Her cover of Funkadelic's Can You Get To That was produced by Jeff Tweedy, and One More Change was written and produced by Ben Harper. 

Stinky featured Mary Weiss. Today we've got La La Brooks (produced by Mick Collins), Ronnie Spector (produced by Joey Ramone) and Darlene Love (produced by Steve Van Zant).   Speaking of Little Steven, he and The Boss produced albums for their heroes Southside Johnny and Gary U.S. Bonds.  Don't miss Stinky's comp The Best of Ronnie Spector!

Koen featured Dr. John as a producer. Today's comp includes a Dr. John song produced by Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys.  Auerbach was also entrusted by Tony Joe White's son to produce Tony Joe's posthumous album Smoke From The Chimney.  

Terry Adams of NRBQ has long praised Sun Ra.  Terry coproduced the Arkestra's A Song For The Sun.  Don't miss Koen's post on the American Explorer Series, which features albums produced by Terry Adams and Ben Vaughn!

Koen's comp of Willie Dixon includes a track produced by T-Bone Burnett. Stinky quipped that Burnett "has knobs in his hands more often than a hooker running a two-for-one special."  T-Bone twisted the knobs on Gregg Allman's Low Country Blues.

Like T-Bone Burnett, Joe Henry is probably better known for his production work than his own music.  Joe has produced Solomon Burke and Mose Allison.  

Flamin Groovies frontman Roy Loney made several fun records as Roy Loney And The Longshots, backed by the Young Fresh Fellows and coproduced by Scott McCaughey.

Adrian Sherwood has been featured here several times, and he produced several albums for his idol Lee "Scratch" Perry.  Tim Armstrong did a great job producing Rebirth for Jimmy Cliff.

Last but not least is Tanya Tucker's comeback While I'm Livin', coproduced by Brandi Carlisle and Shooter Jennings.  Stinky and I highly recommend the "making of" documentary.  

Artists Who Produced Their Idols: Get A Leg Up, Part 2!

Stinky writes: Many of the producers featured on this volume of GET A LEG UP produced so many albums that it’s sometimes difficult to glean which band was produced for the paycheck, and which ones were more of a labour of love (to quote Nick Lowe).

Mott The Hoople’s All The Young Dudes was written especially for and produced by David Bowie, who was a fan of the group. Bowie also produced his girlfriend Dana Gillespie singing another song Bowie penned, Andy Warhol. 

Iggy Pop was having a hard time morphing from a member of The Stooges to a solo artist when he & David Bowie became close. Bowie toured as Iggy’s keyboardist and produced The Igg-ster’s album TV Eye 1977 Live, which included I Wanna Be Your Dog.

While not her idols, Joan Jett was one of the old guard that was embraced by the punks. She cut some sides with Paul Cook & Steve Jones, and was fond of Darby Crash & The Germs. She produced their first album, from which Lexicon Devil was selected.

Run-DMC were unaware of Aerosmith when muso Rick Rubin suggested that instead of sampling the group —like many did at the time— they should ask Steven Tyler & Joe Perry to join them for Walk This Way, simultaneously giving rap music a leg up.

As the offspring of Suzi Quatro and her guitarist Len Tuckey, it’s safe to say that young Richard Tuckey idolized his famous mother—so he’s a perfect fit for our theme. He twiddled the knobs for Suzi Quatro & KT Tunstall’s Scar.

David Bowie wasn’t the only one who idolized Mott The Hoople. The Clash’s Mick Jones produced Ian Hunter’s I Need Your Love, which should have been a major hit.

Reigning Sound frontman Greg Cartwright produced Stop & Think It Over for one of his heroes, Mary Weiss of the Shangri-La's.

John Mellencamp masterminded Mitch Ryder’s comeback album Never Kick A Sleeping Dog, and When You Were Mine is a stand-out Prince composition that was given the Mitch Ryder treatment under the direction of “The Little Bastard” with Kenny Aronoff on drums!

One might wonder how Mike McGear managed to get Paul McCartney & Wings to back him on Leave It, much less to get Paul to produce it? Well, that’s because they’re brothers. Michael McCartney took the stage name McGear from a common expression of admiration. To be GEAR, something had to be outstanding—which is the case with this fun track.

Dave Edmunds produced many amazing acts, but the two included here are major influences on his music. He produced And The Night Stood Still for Dion, and Amanda Ruth for The Everly Brothers. A former A&R guy who frequents this blog shared with us that Dave deserved “combat pay” for trying to corral Don & Phil for not ONE but TWO albums! Amanda Ruth should have been a hit in this version AND the original version by Rank & File.

This live version of Sweet Little Sixteen by Chuck Berry was part of a live concert film supervised/produced by Berry super-fan Keith Richards, who selected the band, and even got Chuck to reunite with his original piano player Johnnie Johnson. (Chuck originally joined JOHNNIE’S group.) Another live concert (by another guy every musician seems to admire) yielded Roy Orbison’s spirited version of Mean Woman Blues. In this case, the concert and attendant album were produced by T-Bone Burnett, who has knobs in his hands more often than a hooker running a two-for-one special.

Tom Petty produced Sea Of Love for one of his heroes, Del Shannon. When original Heartbreakers bassist Ron Blair left his band, Petty swiped his replacement from Del’s. Jonder found some little-known info about Del Shannon: he paid for Bob Seger’s first demos & took them around to record labels. Which raises the question; “Why didn’t BOB SEGER produce Del’s comeback album, instead of Tom Petty?” Del Shannon was briefly considered to replace the recently deceased Roy Orbison in The Traveling Wilburys. Prior to forming that group, Petty & his Heartbreakers toured as Bob Dylan’s opening act/backing group. Band Of The Hand is Bob Dylan with The Heartbreakers, produced by Tom.

Lieber & Stoller were songwriters/producers who were among the first to become free agents, and they went on to own their own label Spark Records. They were eager to sign and produce The Coasters, who had recorded two of the duo’s

compositions in their previous incarnation as The Robins. They hit paydirt on their second attempt with the group, Riot In Cell Block #9.

Elton John always loved Kiki Dee’s voice. He signed her to his label Rocket Records, and produced the comeback album that Standing Room Only is taken from. 

As with Roy Orbison, every musician seems to love Dusty Springfield. So it’s no surprise that Pet Shop Boys gave Dusty “a leg up” with a song they wrote especially for her, What Have I Done To Deserve This.

Two of the toughest rock chicks in history teamed up for Wanda Jackson’s Treat Me Like A Lady. Wanda was encouraged by Elvis Presley himself to forgo her country career and to record rockabilly.  She not only did that, but also managed to top Elvis’ version of Let’s Have A Party. But I digress... here Wanda is produced by Joan Jett, who also sings & plays guitar.

Edgar & Johnny Winter were understandably fond of each other’s music, and they co-produced their high-octane version of Sam & Dave’s Soul Man. Bringing it all home is idontwannabeyouanymore by Billie Eilish, whose producer is her brother Finneas Baird O’Connell. Lock me in a studio with MY sister, and the only thing that’s likely to be produced is a slap fight or nasty rope burn.

Sing, Sing, Sing and Dance, Dance, Dance

You may ask yourself, Why Why Why?  But you can see no reason, because there are no reasons.  What reason do you need to be shown?  Indeed, what else is there to Say Say Say?

Sometimes you get an idea and think Neat Neat Neat! Let's go Down, Down, Down that rabbit hole.  Like when I did this post.  Or when Stinky shared this double album.  We're willing to Go Go Go to ridiculous lengths to bring you ridiculous concepts.

Are there really over 40 songs here?  Yes, Yes, Yes!  It took a Long, Long, Long time to come up with them.  I looked up a few (not gonna Lie Lie Lie), but most of them popped into my head.  Can't say I like every song, but as a whole it Turn Turn Turned out Well Well Well. 

 

These two sets Run Run Run the gamut from Cold, Cold, Cold to Hot Hot Hot!!  Is this the last word on the subject?  No, No, No.  I bet you can think of a few More, More, More if you Try, Try, Try! Please, Please, Please share them in the comments.  

Share this post with your friends and say Hi, Hi, Hi!  Maybe it will get a Buzz, Buzz, Buzz on social media.  Or maybe it's another idea destined to Die Die Die.  

At least I can stop thinking about it now.  Sometimes an idea will just Nag Nag Nag at you (like a song stuck in your head), and then one day it's Gone Gone Gone before you had a chance to say Bye Bye Bye.

Artists Who Produced Their Idols: Get A Leg Up!

Jonder wrote a few weeks ago: "This is a concept that Stinky and I have been kicking back and forth for quite awhile. There are musicians (like T Bone Burnett, Don Was and Joe Henry) who are probably better known as producers, and not everyone they produced would be considered an idol or influence." 

Then he came up with an impressive list of artists who had produced other artists, and invited me and Stinky to come up with our lists! And so another Jokonky project was born…

First artist that came to mind was Tom Waits, due to my Chuck E. Weiss collection, but he also produced John Hammond’s Wicked Grin, a collection of great Waits covers.

J.J. Cale is pretty well known, but I guess not many people were aware of his production work… Surprise, surprise, he was responsible for (again!) John Hammond’s blues album Got Love If You Want It.

My first post here was about Robert Palmer, who had a big hit with Moon Martin’s Bad Case Of Loving You. He produced Moon’s Mystery Ticket, trying to update his sound with mixed results.  Palmer apparently was a fan of The Comsat Angels, even helped them get on Island Records and produced their Chasing Shadows album.

Scottish indie rock band The Bluebells were close to a much more famous artist. B-side track All I Ever Said was (according to the liner notes) "a song full of words and chords produced by our old bonhomie, Elvis ‘King’ Costello".

Dave Edmunds liked Del Shannon and was responsible for the gorgeous And The Music Plays On, a 1974 single.  Shakin’ Stevens started as the lead singer of The Sunsets and their first album A Legend was another Edmunds production. The final Edmunds track here is a classic: Flamin' Groovies’ Slow Death.

Joan Osborne was (& is) a big fan of The Holmes Brothers and in her liner notes of their Speaking in Tongues (produced by Osborne), she explains how she first met them in a New York Bar where they were playing.

Steely Dan’s Walter Becker did a great production job on Rickie Lee Jones’ Flying Cowboys. It even gave her a minor hit song, Satellites.

David Byrne tried his best with The B-52's Mesopotamia, but unfortunately the band members weren’t that impressed with the results…

John Cale got quite a name as a producer with Nico and The Stooges, but I selected The Modern Lovers’ Roadrunner.

David Baerwald (from David + David as well as solo) produced a few tracks from Susanna Hoffs' 1996 self-titled album.

I’ve posted about Bennie Wallace here before and like his first album, the follow-up Bordertown was produced by Dr. John as well.

Steve Berlin (Los Lobos) did a good roots production job on Tish Hinojosa’s Homeland.

Don Dixon is probably best known for his work with R.E.M., but this Guadalcanal Diary track is excellent too.

[Thanks, Koen!  Stinky came up with the title of this series, Get A Leg Up!  His set of songs produced by famous artists for their musical heroes is coming soon.]