20 Sonic Salutes - From Adam Ant To XTC

I can’t remember what exactly triggered this compilation but I guess like a pot of coffee it must have percolating in my mind for quite some time.
Perhaps it was Phil Lynott’s tribute to Elvis (King’s Call) that got me out of my lazy chair, put on my Indiana Jones’ hat and started digging around the internet.
Within a relatively short time I had collected a decent amount of tracks which all mentioned singers, groups, and a DJ.
Most were respectful, others definitely not, a few did a good tongue in cheek job and some weird ones…
Of course this is not an exactly original concept (both Stinky & Unherdmusic made similar) but I think I managed to collect a nice bunch (hopefully!) without any overlaps.

Adam Ant, Beatles, Bo Diddley, Bob Dylan, Brian Wilson, Carl Perkins, Edith Piaf, Eddie Cochran, Elvis Presley, Gene Vincent, Jet Harris, John Peel, Johnny Ace, Johnny Cash, Little Richard, Mose Allison, Nick Drake, Rolling Stones, Tom Jones, Willie Dixon, and XTC

Keep My Name Out'cha Mouth #4

 

CLEAR THE DECKS WEEK rolls on relentlessly, with daily posts for your downloading pleasure.  There were two year gaps between the first, second and third posts in the Keep My Name Out'cha Mouth series, but here we are with Volume 4 already, not 24 hours since the last one!  BAM!

This one is a personal favorite, because Stinky included some favorite bands of my punkish youth: Redd Kross, the Leaving Trains, and a deep cut from the first Vandals record! A tribute to Koen's fearsome rockabilly idol (Crazy Cavan) is also included.  What a thoughtful friend we have in Stinky!

There's a similar series of mixes at the Unherd Music blog called Hello My Name Is..., but songs in that series are strictly limited to famous names, and Roy hasn't posted one of those mixes in quite a while.

Speaking of Redd Kross, tomorrow is the official release date of their brand new self-titled double album on In The Redd Records!  The US tour begins on July 2, the Born Innocent documentary is making the rounds of film festivals, and the McDonald brothers' memoir (Now You're One Of Us: The Incredible Story of Redd Kross) will hit the shelves in October!!  It's a full on multimedia assault!!!  Neurotica is coming down fast!!!!

Forgive my excitement... back to our regularly scheduled programming (already in progress)... please enjoy Volume Four of Keep My Name Out'cha Mouth!

Keep My BRAND NAME Out'cha Mouth!

 

Here's a new twist on a theme that Stinky has previously explored.  Keep My Name Out'Cha Mouth (volumes 1 and 2) was our 100th post (back in 2020) and Volume 3 materialized almost two years later.  Now it's 2024, so I guess it take two years to generate these things? Our pal Mr. LePew has a mind that moves in mysterious ways...

As you can tell from the post title and the logos on the cover, the new variation is songs that mention brand names rather than people's names.  America loves fast cars, fast food, and soft drinks, and we celebrate them in song -- as well as clothing, cosmetics, and other consumer goods and services.  After all, we ARE living in a material world, are we not? 

A few months ago, I finally had the opportunity to actually meet Stinky for the first time, after years of exchanging emails and texts.  I spent a weekend in the Big Apple, and he emerged from an undisclosed location (I'm sworn to secrecy) to meet up for a day of record shopping and trading stories.  It was no surprise that he is kind, generous and very funny in person, just as he is on the internet.  It was cool to ride around with him, listening to his homemade CD-R's on the car stereo (just like I do) while recounting music trivia (just like I do) and brainstorming ideas for compilations like this one.  

It's great to have Koen with us now (at least virtually, if not in person) to share ideas and our mutual musical enthusiasms.  Each of us has his own tastes and perspectives, but all three of us enjoy the comments that readers post.  We hope you like today's compilation, and please share other songs that fit this name-dropping theme!

Plants and Byrds and Rock and Things

Don McLean promised to reveal the meaning behind "American Pie" in a recent documentary. He says that he wasn't making references to Elvis or Dylan. The Byrds, The Big Bopper, Richie Valens and Buddy Holly are definitely in there.

Name-dropping abounds in Stinky's third volume of "Keep My Name Outcha Mouth" (see volumes 1 and 2 here). Other songs are mentioned in these songs. There's Johnny B. Goode, Roll Over Beethoven, Good Golly Miss Molly, Long Tall Sally, Blue Suede Shoes, Crazy Arms, I Walk The Line, Lonely Avenue, Hello Mary Lou, A Boy Named Sue, Yummy Yummy Yummy, Mack the Knife, Honky Tonk Women, She Belongs To Me, and Valleri. 

Among the real and mythical figures mentioned in this set of songs are Elvis, Dylan, The Byrds, JFK, Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Sly Stone, Ravi Shankar, Hugh Masakela, Herb Alpert, Aretha Franklin, Phil Spector, Frank Sinatra, Steve & Eydie, Ike & Tina, Boyce & Hart, Bonnie & Clyde, Bo Diddley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, James Burton, Doc Pomus, The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, The Monkees, The Who, CCR, Yoko, Lulu, Liberace, Lemmy, Prince, Bowie, Hitler, Houdini, Davy Crockett, Billy Jack, Sigmund Freud, Hermann Hesse, Damon Runyon, Jack Benny, John Travolta, Timothy Leary, and a horse with no name. 

Places mentioned include Memphis, Gatlinburg, Madison Square Garden, Belsen, Dusseldorf, Burbank's Pickwood Bowl, and Ferriday, Louisiana.

A Stinky-Stravaganza for Our 100th Post!

It took two and a half years to reach a hundred blog posts, and it would have taken much longer without the contributions and support of Stinky LePew, resident musicologist and mixologist. He is a conceptual artist: a wellspring of ideas for new series of compilations based on unique themes.

Stinky has created mixes of songs about footwear, lipstick, car trouble, and getting into trouble in the backseat. He has celebrated holidays in song (both Christmas and Halloween), and he's curated compilations that feature falsetto singers and sound effects. And don't miss his career overviews of Brian James and Stiv Bators!

Some of Stinky's more inventive concepts include Songs That Start With The Chorus, Answers To Elvis, and today's new series. Keep My Name Outcha Mouth compiles tunes by artists with names that reference famous people, places, religious figures, fictional characters, actors, and other musical performers.

Some of the names are puns (The Coal Porters, Noel's Cowards), and others are portmanteaus (The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Artimus Pyledriver).

Readers are again invited to share suggestions for future volumes in this new series. Many thanks to everyone who reads, follows, and comments on the blog. Thanks most of all to Stinky LePew, without whom post #100 would still be far away. Two more volumes of The Backseat are already cued up, plus a slew of Rough Trade singles, so stay tuned!