The Medleys Vol. 1: I Feel Fine / The Sidewinder

I guess it all started in 1966, my parents had a record player, and one of the lps my mom bought was James Last’s Non Stop Dancing 66 (28 Hits Für Ihre Party)…
Unnecessary to say I had never heard of this guy, he certainly wasn’t played much on Dutch radio, but my mom loved dancing!
So bit by bit I got familiar with his style; big band medleys (or ‘potpourris’!) of hits of the day, a totally new experience to me!
Even so, this was not really my cup of tea, I preferred the original hits.
But somehow the concept of a medley stuck and I started paying more attention whenever I encountered one.  

Beatles and 50s rock ’n roll medleys were usually not particular special, but Jerry Lee Lewis did a great one on his London Sessions!

Lately the Dutch have been blamed for lots of crimes in the past (slavery, genocide, invention of the stock market, clogs, windmills, 2nd rate Flying Burrito Brothers, tulips, Heineken, etc.), but if there’s any reason for exterminating the Dutch once and for all we must go back to 1981 when a Dutch (no surprise) dude called Jaap Eggermont came up with the unholy idea of releasing an onslaught of disco medleys which were ridiculously popular…

Any serious music lover started vomiting whenever they heard these Stars On 45 abominations played on the radio…
Despite this aural torture I kept my faith on discovering more superior medleys.

Over the years I encountered some which managed to combine unusual songs to say the least, stringing Beatles songs together is not that special, but going from their ‘I Feel Fine’ to Lee Morgan’s ‘The Sidewinder’ is a whole different story.

And ABBA’s folk medley isn’t bad either, the only time they recorded songs NOT written by themselves!

So here for your listening pleasure I gathered 11 tracks which imho raises the medley quality quite a bit.
Number 12 is a kind of wonky bonus, added just to give you an idea of how James ‘The Gentleman of Pop’ Last did it!
In hindsight going from Bob Dylan to Shawn Elliot to Screaming Lord Sutch is quite a feat, although perhaps not a particularly great one, but still…

Please let us at JOKONKY know your favorite medley!

p.s. A second volume will follow in due time.

LINKS:

https://www.discogs.com/master/297034-James-Last-Band-Non-Stop-Dancing-66-28-Hits-F%C3%BCr-Ihre-Party
https://onebuckrecords.blogspot.com/2024/05/uh-oh-those-burrito-brothers-are-flying.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stars_on_45

https://www.udiscovermusic.com/news/james-last-non-stop-dancing-box/

Halloween Madness 2024!

 

Is there a cooler holiday than Halloween?  Someone once said that the devil has the best tunes, and it is equally true that the best holiday songs belong to Halloween.  

Groovy Library started posting Halloween music last month, and it's Weird October at Nothin' Sez Somethin'.  (EDIT: Opium Hum just posted a creepy one: "haunted house sound effects and rasping vocals [which] morph into the more identifiable shapes of queasy, droning black metal filth.")  Jinkies!

Stinky took a broad-minded approach to his Halloween themed mix this year.  It includes the musical saw (which can sound just as creepy as the theremin) as well as an accapella "Zombie Jamboree" by The Lords, and a lovely (but spooky) piano ballad by Anna Ternheim called "Keep Me In The Dark".

Stinky's Halloween Madness 2023 is still available for download, as well as his kid-tested and uncle approved Halloween mix and my own Halloween Creeps comp from last year. 

And it's never too late (or too early) to take heed of the deeply concerned celebrities at the North American Hallowe'en Prevention Initiative and their public service message "Do They Know It's Halloween?"

No Wave - ANOTHER Blatant Attempt To Influence Your Musical Taste

When Koen first shared his Propaganda project with us, I noticed that the second one was titled Propaganda (No Wave II). That parenthetical subtitle triggered a memory of the first A&M No Wave compilation album (with the  surfer on an ironing board). The title, of course, had nothing to do with Mars, DNA, Teenage Jesus, or James Chance. 

There's a picture disc version called No Wave To Go with the surfer on side one and a picture of a pizza on the flipside.  It was also released on "blue water" translucent vinyl.

Like its Propaganda sequels, there were other version of No Wave with different tracklists.  The Canadian version of No Wave drops the Stranglers' tracks and substitutes two songs by David Kubinec from his 1978 A&M LP Some Things Never Change. Kubinec's album was produced by John Cale, and it featured Chris Spedding and Ollie Halsall on guitar.  (The Stranglers were signed to A&M in the US, but not in Canada or the UK.)

There's yet another A&M compilation titled No Wave, which came out in 1979.  This one includes Kubinec as well as other artists featured on Propaganda -- Bobby Henry, The Secret, and Shrink.  In the UK, these artists were signed to Oval Records (which also released a version of Propaganda II). A&M had a deal with Oval Records, and promoted their artists through these compilations.  

Similarly, it was a deal between A&M and Miles Copeland which led to both No Wave and Propaganda featuring Squeeze, The Police, and Klark Kent. 

According to this interview with Dickies guitarist Stan Lee, A&M "had just kicked the Sex Pistols off the label and were wanting a punk band that wasn't so notorious."  The Dickies scored two hit singles for A&M in the UK. 

More trivia: Dave Murray from The Secret played guitar in Iron Maiden!  Bobby Henry was a member of a band called Bim, which included Stephen Street (who became a producer) and Cameron McVey (who cowrote "Buffalo Stance").

There's some overlap between the compilations, but now you have all the songs from the various versions of Propaganda, Propaganda II and the three versions of No Wave.  ELSEWHERE ON THE BLOG:  Stinky's Homemade Live Joe Jackson Albums.

Propaganda - A Blatant Attempt To Influence Your Musical Taste

It’s strange the way things develop at times, in this case reading an article about certain songs not being available digitally at all and the search for an old 1979 sampler collection…
I wrote the following to Jonder and Stinky:
This is an interesting article but unfortunately focussing mainly on songs from the 90's
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgl7ld1glk3o
I think there are loads of songs from the 50s, 60s, 70s & 80s still only available on vinyl (or CD in some cases!)...
Good example is an old sampler from 1979 I'm trying to put together digitally: Propaganda No Wave II
I bought the lp in that year, mainly for the great cover design, the Police & Joe Jackson live tracks and Squeeze's Wrong Way (later covered by Rockpile!), but the other tracks weren't bad either, some previously unissued as well!
A little later I found a slightly different version, just Propaganda, but with some other interesting tracks…
I requested my partners in crime’s help in finding these 2 for a new JOKONKY project.
The first Propaganda I found easily enough in a dark corner of the Internet, but the second one kept eluding me.
I searched 'everywhere' for "Propaganda No Wave II" & "Propaganda" lp 1979 but to no avail...
Jonder tried very hard too, he found some tracks separately, but not all, among others Bobby Henry’s "Hollow Sound" and Squeeze's Wrong Way…
That last one can be found on YouTube but ripped from a flexi-disc, very poor quality, utterly useless…
However I tried searching for "Bobby Henry" "Hollow Sound" which somehow led me to an old (defunct?) French blogpost which had posted the whole album… The logic escapes me!
As a result we proudly present the Deluxe Edition of Propaganda with all 17 tracks, enjoy!

Guest Spots: Kelly Hogan

Kelly Hogan started her singing career in Atlanta.  Her band The Jody Grind was beloved in their hometown. The band ended tragically, and far too soon. 

Not long after Kelly's first solo album was released (in 1996) she left Atlanta for Chicago, where she soon fell in with the Bloodshot Records crew.  On Beneath The Country Underdog (her second solo album), she was backed by the Pine Valley Cosmonauts.  A third album followed in 2001.

Kelly contributed lead and backing vocals to a variety of projects.  It was the golden age of alt-country (or Americana, if you prefer), and tribute albums were also popular.  Kelly appeared on tributes to Wanda Jackson, Joe South, Bob Wills, The Knitters, the Nashville soundtrack, and the recently deceased Kris Kristofferson.  Kelly has collaborated with Neko Case, Carolyn Mark, Robbie Fulks, The Sadies, and others.  She has sung backup with Mavis Staples, The Decemberists, Drive-By Truckers, Amy Ray, Jakob Dylan, Poi Dog Pondering and many others.

A decade passed before Kelly Hogan released another solo album, maybe because she was so dang busy.  She has performed children's songs as a member of the Wee Hairy Beasties, trad. arr. with the Love Hall Tryst, and vocal pop (think the Fifth Dimension or the Free Design) with the Flat Five.  Kelly can sing just about anything, but it's in country music that her full vocal and emotional range really shines: her voice can be sassy, sexy, silly or supremely sad and lonesome.

I'm not the only fan who wishes there were more Kelly Hogan solo records.  You could make an entire album of Kelly's songs that have appeared on Bloodshot samplers, tribute albums, and her duets with John Wesley Harding, Nora O'Connor, Alejandro Escovedo, Scott Ligon, and Rex Hobart.  That's what I've done here. Only one of the two dozen songs here is from a Kelly Hogan album, and that's only because it was impossible to resist "Wild Mountain Berries" (originally recorded by Loretta Lynn and Conway Twitty).    

ELSEWHERE ON THE BLOG: Guest Spots from Lisa Kekaula, Hollie Cook, Cassandra Wilson, and others.

Under The Covers, Vol. 2

Download this compilation, or we shoot this dog

Two years ago, this blog broke the internet (now there's an overused phrase) with the staggering results of an undercover investigation into the plethora of cover albums with the title "Under The Covers" (or "Undercover', or similar variations on this tired pun).  

Under The Covers was the debut release on Jon-Ky Records, which has since been acquired in a hostile takeover by the heartless bean counters at Jokonky Enterprises. 

Unbeknownst to me -- and you think you knownst somebody! -- Stinky went even deeper undercover, risking safety and sanity to uncover even more evidence of this shocking epidemic which continues to spread unchecked, like rumors of Diddy party guests.

Under The Covers Vol 2 brings us 20 more songs from artists and record companies who were either A) unaware that the title has been done to death, or B) under the delusion that it's still a clever play on words.

A glance at the tracklist will tell you that there's some good music by talented people here. Some of them appeared on Volume 1. I myself own the Dwight Yoakam record, and I wouldn't dream of criticizing Matthew Sweet & Susanna Hoffs for their fine work.  

Some of these tracks have been comped after the fact (and even after the death of artists like Prince and Kurt Cobain).  And who expects much in the way of originality or wit from RHCP?  But shame on Ministry, who have made some truly great puns over the years.  

It's Always Rubbish On The B-Side

 

The B-sides topic has been pretty successful so far, plenty or readers’ responses and suggestions. One of these was taking an opposite approach and instead of focussing on cool non-album tracks why not select some that were just filler (no killer!), thank you Richard and Jonder!

As one musician eloquently expressed himself: "Our Buddah releases were known for their ridiculous B-sides, like A-side played backwards in order for the business dudes to copyright something with themselves as writers, even though they couldn't write songs."

 
Jonder suggested "B-Side Pisstakes” and thinking of Napoleon XIV’s “They're Coming To Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!” B-side (VIX noɘloqɒИ - !ɒɒɒH-ɒH ,γɒwA ɘM ɘʞɒT oT ϱnimoƆ ɘɿ'γɘ⑁T), a novelty record from 1966, yes, taking the piss indeed!

But I decided to give it another twist by having artists taking their B-sides literally…
Tracey Ullman’s “The B-Side” definitely takes it to the extreme, but don’t underestimate Morris Minor and The Majors, their “Another Boring B side” also makes it very clear how they feel about it…
On the other hand Khruangbin & Leon Bridges’ “B-Side” is a pretty cool song!

First price though must probably go to Wall Of Voodoo, they released a special 12” in 1982 named: Two Songs By Wall Of Voodoo.

Side One was their hit “Mexican Radio” and the other side just showed “There's Nothing On This Side”!

Anyway, here comes “It's Always Rubbish On The B-Side”, a highly dubious collection (from nonsense to blues to rap to rock and beyond + 2 tracks from the first compilation) which probably won’t be played often but might make you smirk a bit!

 

Question: What's your favourite novelty record?