Dance to the Saxy Beverly Hillbillies Theme Song

Journeyman musician Bill Ramal is known to "cult" and "outsider" fans mainly for his work with Dickie Goodman ("Flying Saucer Part One"). As "Jeckyl and Hyde," Bill and Dickie recorded the novelty singles "My Baby Loves Monster Movies" and "Frankenstein meets the Beatles." Ramal also played sax and/or arranged music for Del Shannon as well as Johnny and the Hurricanes.

Ramal also worked as a conductor or arranger on a few oddball albums through the 60's, like "Screamin' Saxes" (MGM, 1962) and "Saxophone Circus" (Avco, 1969) which had versions of "Lion Sleeps Tonight," "The Love Theme from Romeo and Juliet" and "The Theme from The Name of the Game" TV show. He led his own groups, "Bill Ramal and his Teen Swingers," "Blll Ramal and his Combo" and "Bill Ramal and his Twist Band." Solo he recorded "Don't Count Your Dreams" "Rock Lomond" "Hard Times" among others and as "Big Bill Ramal" he offered "Wing Ding."

In 1963, for 20th Century Fox Records, he created "Young America Dances to TV's Greatest Themes," a wholesome party record where such favorite themes as "Ben Casey," "The Defenders," "Gunsmoke," "Perry Mason" "The Fugitive" and "Bonanza" were hepped up so the little ones could twist their hips or mash their potatoes. Your sample is a re-working of "The Beverly Hillbillies" theme, with busy drums, an appropriate Duane Eddy-type twangy guitar, and riffin' Ramal coming in on roarin' sax to tear up the joint.
Makes you wish Del Shannon dropped by to sing the lyrics.
BILL RAMAL the BEVERLY HILLBILLIES DANCE THEME

20 "Love Is Blue" Covers - Happy POPP Birthday

40 years ago, Paul Mauriat's "Love is Blue" was a huge hit...the only time a French musician had a #1 on the Billboard chart.
The pop tune was composed by Andre Popp, born on this day February 19, in 1924.
The lyrics were of course originally in French, and as "L'amour est bleu," Greek singer Vicky Leandros represented Luxembourg and premiered it at the 1967 Eurovision Song Contest...and lost. The winning song that year was "Puppet On a String," the entry from Great Britain.
Popp's previous hit was an instrumental, "The Portuguese Washerwomen." He also had success with an ambitious classical novelty suite for kiddies, "The Adventures of Piccolo, Saxie and Co.," which was recorded by Victor Borge among others.
Sans les lyrics, Mauriat had the biggest success of his career with the puffy Popp ditty. By the time Otis Redding's "Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay" shoved Mauriat off #1, the song was being translated into multiple languages and Al Martino grazed the Top 100 with it. No version with lyrics ever came close to Mauriat's numbers, but many versions turned up as album tracks for the era's pop singers, and it was a favorite number to belabor on 60's variety shows.
The song is probably best as an instrumental, since a vocalist needs great emotive skill to make the aborted journey through primary colors sound pithy: "Blue, blue, my world is blue...red, red, my eyes are red..."
Smurf's up! You've got 20 Blue meanies in your download, including Vicky Leandros' French and English versions, Sylvie Vartan, Al Martino, Marty Robbins, The Sandpipers, separate versions by Andy Williams and Claudine Longet, twangy stuff from The Ventures and Santo & Johnny, a moog turn from the Electronic Concept Orchestra, plus much more, more or less.
20 LOVE IS BLUE COVERS

Come Away With the Bipolar Penguin! Burgess Meredith

Put new lyrics to "Greensleeves," have it semi-sung by the resonant Burgess Meredith, and what have you got? Not much. "Home in the Meadow" is from 1963, a few years before the throaty thesp became Batman's TV nemesis, "The Penguin." Trivia: Burgess ad-libbed the Penguin quack-laugh as a way to clear his throat...he was allergic to the cigarettes his kool penguin character had to smoke.
On this single, he wants a smoke-free environment:
"Away, away! Oh, come away with me. I'll build you a home in the meadow! Come, oh come..."
The song from "How the West Was Won," was a semi-hit for the movie's star, Debbie Reynolds. (No, Meredith was not in the film at all.)
Oliver Burgess Meredith (Burgess was his mother's maiden name) first attained fame in the 30's on the Broadway stage. In 1939 he co-starred with Lon Chaney Jr. in "Of Mice and Men," a film overlooked at Oscar time, thanks to blockbusters "Wizard of Oz," "Gone with the Wind" and "Stagecoach." Hell, there wasn't even an Oscar nomination for "Son of Frankenstein."
Meredith's burgeoning career stalled for World War II service (he was a captain) but on his return, he not only starred in many films, in 1949 he directed Charles Laughton in "The Man on the Eiffel Tower." The 50's? Well, combine "Red Scare" and blacklist...and it was checkmate for Meredith. But as the 50's ended and the 60's began, he appeared in a pair of memorable "Twilight Zone" episodes, rode the "Thurber Carnival" to Broadway success, and returned to films. Into the 70's he was Tony-nominated for directing a production of "Ulysses in Nighttown," and won new fame (and an Oscar nomination) as the feisty manager in a trio of "Rocky" movies. He played many high-strung teeth-gritting characters in the 80's and 90's including parts in "Grumpy Old Men" and "Grumpier Old Men."
In 1994, amid his "Grumpy" successes, he wrote an autobiography, which not only touched on his amazing, varied career, but his battle with mood swings and bipolar disorder.
Fans can find some oddball audio on Burgess Meredith, ranging from a guest narration on "The Bells Of Dublin" from The Chieftains, to a superb Lively Arts album narrating two Ray Bradbury stories...to this, his magical mystery tour to nowhere: "Come Away With Me," colorfully detailing pastoral delights to be found somewhere on Earth or in heaven.

COME AWAY WITH BURGESS MEREDITH

Singing In Tongues: 3 Pop Tunes Go Poop

Listen to..."RINGO" sung in Italian.
Try a Scandanavian take on "RAGS TO RICHES."
Spin the "Windmills of Your Mind" via a Greek translation.

Some pop songs get stale with age.
With a different language and a different singer, a tired tune can perk up!

Forlorn over Lorne Greene? The vivid spaghetti western version of "Ringo" here is sauced by Adriano Celentano. He was a huge singing star in Italy in the 60's, with over 40 albums under his belt (he wore oversize pants). He also enjoyed a long acting career in the 70's and 80's, and most viewers enjoyed it, too.

The phrase "it's all Greek to me" is akin to "something's ass backwards." Usually, it's the singer, but not in this case. The Greek translation isn't "Windmills of Your Behind." The song's sung in Greek only because wiley Vicky Leandros likes being an "International Star," and the more languages she can cover, the better. She sings the tune in English and French elsewhere on the blog...now we've backed into the Greek version. (Yes, that's a recent photo of Vicky.)

"Rags to Riches" was notably used in "Goodfellas," but let's chill the Mafia taint by taking it up north to the Netherlands, and re-naming it "Ik heb geen geld en geen juwelen." As for singer Jan Verhoeven, he's still going strong. Hij zat in diverse orkestjes en trad ook solo op bij bruiloften en partijen. Jan speelde al op zijn 10e jaar bescheiden gitaar, maar genoeg om zijn broer te begeleiden en te zingen. Toen nog zonder microfoon of geluidsinstallatie. And if you want more, why, visit janverhoeven.nl

Rags to Riches from Verhoeven
Windmills of Your Mind in GREEK
The Spaghetti Western version of "Ringo"

KURT DEMMLER DIES: Singer/Songwriter Sex Offender

Was Kurt Demmler guilty of molesting underage girls?
He was arrested and tossed in jail, to await trial.
He was found hanged in his cell, an apparent suicide. He was 65.

Demmler was one of the most prolific songwriters in the former German Democratic Republic; he supposedly wrote the lyrics to 10,000 tunes. But, to quote the old Steve Allen joke, "Can you name two?"
His two best known hits were “Come Into My Guitar Boat” and “Every Person Can Love Everyone." He wrote songs for Nina Hagen, Rote Gitarren, Karat, Babylon, Frank Schobel, and Berluc among others. Under an alias, he wrote the lyrics for the 1988 album Neue Helden (New Heroes) by The Puhdys.
Demmler also recorded many solo albums, and from the late 60's through the 90's could often be counted on to appear at a protest rally, strumming his guitar and singing a few numbers. The photo of him is from a 1989 performance.
Your download? Two songs from a 1970 protest event. "Ho Chi Minh" is a tuneful ballad, while "Schniegelscher," has a kind of Phil Ochs feel to it...fast lyrics (in German, of course) which get both applause and laughs from the audience. Kurt was part of the famous uprising and demonstration in East Berlin on the 4th of November 1989, taking the stage for songs and protest. He seemed to be on the politically correct side of many issues.
But was he always sexually correct and proper?
After about 15 years of success, with his songwriting, his solo albums, even an adaption of "The Little Prince," his song peddling took second place to his schlong pedo-ling.
In 2002 he was accused of involvements with underage girls. He was fined, but all was not fine. The cops kept their eye on Demmler and in 2008 they amassed messy evidence, going all the way back to 1995, with six girls ready to testify. Their ages were from 10 to 14...and the tally of rude incidents was over 200. Did Kurt fondle them, or masturbate in front of them ("Kurt Jergens") or worse? Demmler protested his innocence, but was locked up. It was alleged that he had lured girls to his apartment on the promise of auditioning them for an all-girl band.
Demmler did not get his day in court. Six days ago the case against Demmler ended with his death. If the six girls were truly abused by him, they have been spared having to give sexual testimony. The victims need not describe the salacious details, although on February 3rd, Demmler showed the world he was well hung. Yes, a sad ending and a bad joke about Demmler and his wayward weiner, but illfolks spares you the wurst. Let's go back to 1970 for Kurt Demmler performing meaningful music and not mischief:

HO CHI MINH
Schniegelscher

FOREIGNERS in the whore HOUSE of the RISING SUN

Why do so many people identify with whores? They love to sing "House of the Rising Sun!"
Literally hundreds of females have wailed about workin' in a New Orleans bordello, as if they ingested enough semen to get flood relief from Fema.
Even worse, hundreds of MEN have likewise belted and brayed about being bothered, bewildered and buggered by anyone who wanted 'em to bend South while getting poked up North.
Folk song hunter Alan Lomax recorded Georgia Turner singing it in 1937, as "Risin' Sun Blues," and the bawl about balling kept on rolling, with some claiming credit for the lyrics, the music, or both. Dave Van Ronk perfected the right version...and as Suze Rotolo noted in her book about Bob, was mighty peeved when young Mr. Dylan decided to stick the song on his debut Columbia album. Dave couldn't sing the tune after that, 'cause he was accused of "stealing from Bob." Dave had the last laugh. When Eric Burdon copied Bob's, and had a hit with it, Dylan had to drop it, too!
Burdon and The Animals turned the song into a real rocker, with that famous opening guitar riff (or arpeggio, if you want to get technical) by Hilton Valentine, and the scorching organ of Alan Price...not to mention Burdon singing as if his organ was scorched, too. Many earlier versions credited whoever "adapted" it as the author, but when Alan Price ended up with the credit, rather than all the band members, there was much chagrin, especially when the tune became almost as big a perennial money maker as "Whiter Shade of Pale" or "Yesterday."
In placing "House of the Rising Sun" #91 on his list of the "1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made," ex-Rolling Stone scribe Dave Marsh, noted the gay problem with bleary-eyed Eric:
"Burdon...brattish spawn of Newcastle coal miners that he was...turned the lyric around, portraying the prostitute as a male and, thus, himself as a catamite."
Marsh, and most others, reject the musicologists who say that the song is only about a prison...and that the singer didn't lay for a living, just laid one person low.
But no, if you look it up, "catamite" doesn't refer to a prison inmate, or a little insect on a feline. "House of the Rising Sun" sounds more like a bordello than a prison and that's how most singers relate to it.
But that's not why you're here. You're not here to hear the White Man Burdon. No, this blog is too ill to offer famous English versions of the song. Instead, your download is...FOREIGN LANGUAGE versions.
Russian whores. Italian whores. German whores. Spanish whores. And more.
All of them bellow through herpes-riddled lips and have to stand up to sing because of nether-holes as prolapsed as a Slinky going down a stairway.
You get Johnny Hallyday singing in French and German, plus French singer Marie Laforet singing in Japanese, and...Boris Brown, Manfred Krug, Anatoly Savenkov, Bisonti, Alazan, Bruno Lomas, Sukachev, the appropriately named T. Hors, Vadim Kosogorov, Pataky Attila, Manfred Krug, Frida Boccara and much more..."La Casa Del Sol Naciente," "Es steht ein Haus in New orleans" "Dom Voskhodjashhego Solnca," "Le Penitencier" and more!
FOREIGN HOUSES OF THE RISING SUN

For Fans of Repetition - STARDUST x 19 plus...

If you're the type that never got up to push the needle along when it got stuck, or if you have a morbid curiosity about how different people can sing the same song...check around the blog and you'll find a lot of ridiculous posts featuring more than enough cover versions of a particular song. Like...

19 versions of STARDUST including the Dinahs Shore & Washington, Ben Webster, Cab Calloway, Brubeck, Krupa, Coleman Hawkins, Isham Jones, The Ink Spots, Louis Armstrong, Sammy Kaye and even satire (Jackie Vernon). There's country nasal and country swing (Willie and Leon), and since you probably didn't know she could sing, Elke Sommer. Also, a 1933 solo from the author, Hoagy Carmichael. STARDUST

Elsewhere (just type in a few key words in the top left corner) you'll find:
17 VERSIONS OF TOM DOOLEY, duly noted.

12 VERSIONS OF FAREWELL TO NOVA SCOTIA, for those who never know when to leave.

25 VERSIONS OF UNCHAINED MELODY including Shayne Ward, Dobby Dobson, Ann & Nancy Wilson (huh? they covered it??), Matt Monro, the late Boots Randolph, U2, Pitney, Orbison, and a host of others.

And no, that isn't a Photoshop job at the top of this entry, that's the damn nice Dahm Triplets, repetitive in their smiles, waving the red white and blue.

There's plenty of "live" links going back to the beginning...plus pithy paragraphs, cogent commentary, and peculiar pictures. So you are indubitably encouraged to peruse this jeremiad and explore all atrabilious amphigories.

It was 200 Years ago today: EDGAR A. POE

The greatest writer America ever produced, was born on January 19, 1809.
His 200th birthday will be marked by many new books and tie-ins. Look for "Poe's Children," collecting horror stores by Stephen King and other contemporary writers, and "On a Raven's Wing" with Mary Higgins Clark and others knocking out stories in Poe's style. There's also a new Poe stamp at your local post office, and this modest tribute here at the Ill Folks blog.
Edgar's poetry has been adapted to music and sung by everyone from Frankie Laine to Harry Belafonte, and his stories have been turned into opera and rock opera ("Fall of the House of Usher" especially), and even jazz pieces. Almost a rock star in his own time (poems at the time were as popular as songs), Poe often staged a one-man show, and the centerpiece was his "greatest hit," a recitation of "The Raven."
Unfortunately for Edgar, he was a wild and crazy guy, so bizarre he was buried twice (as you can see from this marker for his original resting place). He was always getting into incredibly vicious feuds every time he joined a newspaper -- not always getting along with co-workers and outraging dozens of writers (including the greats of his day) by scalding them with literary criticism.
While today he's known as a poet and horror writer, back then he was also known for being a controversial magazine editor writing notoriously opinionated reviews. He could rapturously praise a poetess he might've fancied, and venemously put down the latest work of Longfellow, sometimes adding an accusation of plagiarism. The occasional physical confrontation only added to his notoriety. His problems with alcoholism didn't help. Suffering a typical freelance writer's lifestyle, he was perpetually broke and tormented...knocking out hack non-fiction to get by (often making up facts and then declaring the result merely a "hoax"). His marriage to his 13 year-old cousin has intrigued amateur psychologists. After her tragic death, he went on to romances with a variety of women, including the strange Sarah Whitman, who liked to breathe ether from a soaked handkerchief. Poe had no idea how deeply some loved him and others hated him, and in the latter case, unfortunately left his literary legacy in the hands of evil Rev. Rufus Griswold, who set about blackening Poe's name after death. Hardly a friend at all, Griswold instantly posted a mocking obit (under an assumed name) to accentuate Poe's alcohol problems and prickly disposition.
Poe invented the mystery story, and the first detective hero in Auguste Dupin. While his horror stories might've been "pulp fiction," designed to make him some fairly easy money from lurid mags of the day, he put a literary stamp on them and turned them into enduring, fascinating classics, probing deep into the soul and psychology of mortal man. He probably felt his main gift was in the essay, and in poetry.
He was a complex, surprising man, and unlike his wan image, in his early days he was a hearty swimmer and enjoyed boxing, and despite the miseries of his life, he was also capable of wicked parody and black humor.
The last full biography of him, one that is at least equal to the pioneering tome by Arthur Quinn, is by Kenneth Silverman. It's simply titled "Edgar A. Poe." That's the byline Poe chose for his works. Orphaned at 3, he despised his adopted "father" John Allan, and it was only after his death that fussy schoolmarms began writing out "Edgar Allan Poe" to go with Ralph Waldo Emerson, James Fenimore Cooper and the rest of the triple-threat names. So "Edgar A. Poe" it is. Or, you can call him "Eddy," as his wife and mother-in-law did.
Your download is a baker's dozen of musical oddities in all styles from emo and goth to psych and folk. The musical setting for "The Bells" is the musical adapation created by the Ill Folks favorite, Phil Ochs....here, performed by Jim & Jean. The Poe load opens with a song about Eddy as performed by Lou Reed, closes with Vincent Price reading "Dreamland" and in between you'll find:
The Lake (Simon Dreams in Violet), Alone (Neither Neither World), A Dream Within a Dram (Soul Parish), A Dream within a Dream (Glass Prism), Masque of the Red Death (Ivy League Trio), The Raven (Fettdog), Ulalume (narrative backed by the Buddy Morrow Orchestra), System of Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether (Alan Parsons Project), Tell Tale Heart (Hydra), Cask of Amontillado and the Premature Brural (Michael Romeo), Annabel Lee (Society Islands), The Bells (Jim and Jean).

AK...Update October 2010...this link apparently died. Hopefully a new version will be up and running by Eddy's birthday, January 19th.
Re-Up: Poe, Poe, Pitiful He

I HEAR DEAD PEOPLE : THE C&W and POP Stars Dead in 2008

"Dead...didn't even know they were ill..."
It was ladies first on the illfolks blog, so having presented the musical death knells to departed singers and songwriters last week, it's time to honor the men who are now, to quote that Jody Reynolds novelty classic, sleeping the "Endless Sleep."
As this is a music blog, you can look elsewhere for tributes to all the great statesmen, politician, actors, writers and others who shuffled off their mortal coils. The roll call includes the following who contributed a lot to the world, or to the world of illfolks : Paul Newman, George Carlin, Sir Edmund Hillary, Sir Arthur C. Clarke, Forry Ackerman, Bill Meléndez, Harvey Korman, Harvey Karman, Sydney Pollack, Dick Martin, Will Elder, Ted Key, William F. Buckley, Jr., Barry Morse, Werner "Frick" Groebli, John Hewer, David Groh, Roy Scheider, Paul Scofield, Claiborne Pell, Charlton Heston, Clive Barnes, Irving Brecher, Reg Varney, Herb Score, Joe Hyams, Preacher Roe, Gerard Damiano, Rudy Ray Moore, Jack Narz, Tom Tresh, Lloyd Thaxton and grouchy sitcom character actors Henry Beckman and Allan Melvin.
The following dead sports figures have fun names too good not to repeat:
Baseball's Herb Hash (97) and Bob Purkey (78), Football's Buzz Nutter (77) and Coy Bacon (66) and wrestling's Ron Slinker (62).
This segment salutes some pop and country stars who passed on. But aside from those you can sample in the download, let's take a paragraph to note some of the other casualties of the past year.
On December 27th, Delaney Bramlett died. He wrote "Let it Rain," and co-wrote "Superstar" with Leon Russell, most recently covered by Sonic Youth. His tune "Never Ending Song of Love" was a regular on the country charts, covered by dozens and dozens of C&W performers. Also unable to make it into 2009, was Derek Wadsworth (69) who wrote the spectacular theme song for "Space: 1999," and Neal Hefti (85) who wrote the theme for "Batman" and "the Odd Couple" and Earle Hagen (88) who wrote the themes for "The Andy Griffith Show" and "I Spy" among others. Using the search feature, top left, you can find the illfolks tributes previously written for both of those men.
Also departed: Danny Dill (83), who co-wrote "Long Black Veil" and had a hand in many other C&W standards, Pink Floyd keyboard player Richard Wright (65), Mike Smith (64) who was a major member of The Dave Clark Five, Buddy Miles (60) both a drummer and a singer (that's his voice leading the California Raisins), pianist Louis Teicher (83) who issued dozens of albums with his piano partner Ferrante, Ralph Young (90) the American half of the Sandler and Young nightclub act, and upstate New York folkie favorite Artie Traum (65),
Perhaps the saddest passing was of Tarka Cordell. Tarka (40) was the son of veteran rock producer Denny Cordell. He issued one album on a small indie label two years ago, and samples of it are still on his myspace page. He was a suicide. And calling it a day, via natural causes, was Chuck Day (65) a Chicago guitarist who recorded as Bing Day and Ford Hopkins, but would anonymously turn in one of the more iconic riffs in rock history when he ad-libbed the guitar introduction to "Secret Agent Man." Aside from working with Johnny Rivers, he also played on albums for The Mamas and the Papas and later fronted his own band for gigs in California over the past decade.
In your download:
Jimmy Carl Black (Lonesome Cowboy Burt), Jody Reynolds (Endless Sleep), Willoughby Goddard (I Shall Scream...from the original Broadway production of Oliver), Dennis Yost of Classics IV (Spooky, Traces), Rod Allen leader of The Fortunes (You've Got Your Troubles I've Got Mine), Eddy Arnold (Mommy Please Stay Home With Me), Jerry Wallace (You're Singing Our Love Song), Charlie Walker (Honky Tonk Woman, Wild as a Wildcat), Jerry Reed (Smell the Flowers, When You're Hot You're Hot), Davy Graham (Goin' Down Slow, Leavin' Blues), Henri Salvador (La Muralle de Chine), Erik Darling, leader of the Rooftop Singers (Walk Right In), John Stewart (Lost Her in the Sun), Robert Hazard (Blood on My Hands).
I Hear Dead People This link won't stay dead! Re-upped in 2011 after Rapidshare dropped it.

I HEAR DEAD PEOPLE : The R&B, Soul, Ska & Rock Stars, Dead in 2008

Time and storage space constraints made it difficult to give a musical sample for every major musician who died in 2008. Omissions reflect the Illfolks taste (or lack of it), since much of what's on the blog simply comes from grabbing what's handy in the archives and shelves of Ill Central.
So without further adieu, at least a mention of some guys who aren't represented in the download below:
The last major musician to evade the Grim Reaper was Freddie Hubbard (70), the great jazz trumpet legend, who died on December 29th. A day earlier, December 28th, Vincent Ford departed. Just how much of a music legend he is, depends on whether he actually wrote Bob Marley's hit "No Woman No Cry." Most say that Ford, who ran a soup kitchen in Jamaica, was generously handed the songwriting credit by Marley so that royalties would go directly to Ford's charity enterprise.
Ray Ellis (85) was a great musician and orchestra leader, Norman Whitfield (68), the Motown songwriter behind "I Heard It Through the Grapevine." Few were as great on sax as Johnny Griffin (80), and Ira Tucker (83) was the lead singer for The Dixie Hummingbirds.
Cliff Nobles (64) may have the oddest credit in Top 10 history: a hit record without being on it. Nobles was a singer, and he thought he had a hit with "Love is All Right." On the flip side was an instrumental arrangement titled "The Horse." Radio stations flipped over the B-side, and it reached #2 in the charts...with the credit going to the man (who played no instrument, only sang) and not his band.
A special mention for a non-singer who is represented below. Jerry Wexler was one of the great music producers, and his range was phenomenal. He sensed what Bob Dylan wanted for "Slow Train Coming" and booked studio time and musicians in Muscle Shoals, the flavor just right for Bob's gospel inspiration. For Big Joe Turner's "Shake Rattle and Roll" Wexler actually sang on the chorus, along with another Atlantic Records legend, Ahmet Ertegun. He brought Dusty Springfield to a comfortable urban studio in New York so she could complete her historic "Memphis" sessions, singing to all the music laid down in Tennessee. And while he didn't have to do much except let Ray Charles sing, and The Drifters drift, quite often Wexler stepped in to coach an artist...notably directing pauses in Wilson Pickett's delivery of "In the Midnight Hour." And representing his diverse work, the download features Professor Longhair's "Tipitina" (Wexler inspired that song by asking his singer to lay down a tune similar to "Tee Nah Nah") and the Dire Straits' "Lady Writer," another example of Wexler's choice of location (the Bahamas) helping him get what he wanted from his artists...in this case, a richer, bluesier sound. Wexler also produced Willie Nelson, James Booker, Aretha Franklin, Etta James and many, many more.
In your download:
Bo Diddley (Run Diddley Daddy, Mumblin' Guitar), Nappy Brown (Something Gonna Jump Out the Bushes), Levi Stubbs of the Four Tops ("I Can't Help Myself" sung in Italian, plus In These Changing Times), Isaac Hayes (Never Can Say Goodbye, Out of the Ghetto), Byron Lee (Soul Ska), Alton Ellis (All My Tears Come Rolling, If I Could Rule This World), Bill Coday (60 Minute Teaser), Jeff Healey (While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Someday, Someway), and for producer Jerry Wexler: Professor Longhair's Tipitina and Dire Straits' Lady Writer.
Hear Dead People R&B/Soul/Rock 2008 Update 2011: it died on Rapidshare, resurrected via Box.

I HEAR DEAD PEOPLE (the women of 2008) Suzan Tamim

Along with the mega-deathload of ordinary missing links, many celebrities died in 2008, and has become a custom, the illfolks blog recites that corny line, "dead...didn't even know they were ill..."
Without any further adieu, it's time to start saying goodbye.
This segment is on fallen females.
2008 saw the passing of two women who graced album covers as well as girlie mags. Model DIANE WEBBER, 76, seen in the top two album covers, was born Diane Marguerite Empey. She used the name "Marguerite Empey" when she was Playmate of the Month (twice: in May 1955 and February 1956). BETTIE PAGE, 85, was a fetish film queen in the 8mm era, an early Playboy centerfold, and with her unique hairstyle, frisky smile and perfect figure, became a pin-up icon.
The number of women who were treats for the ears, and who passed on in 2008, are listed below, along with the representative song or songs chosen for the six-foot-download. A few deserve special mention, as you might not be familiar with them. Katie Reider was only 30 when a cerebral hemorrhage ended two years of massive suffering...some of it chronicled elsewhere on this blog. Likewise, Suzan Tamim, a Lebanese singer and actress, was only 30 when she met her demise...brutally murdered in typical Arab fashion by some psycho thug hired by her ex-husband.
The last tune is not sung by a woman, but by James Darren. It's to represent Gloria Shayne Baker. A songwriter, her biggest solo success (credited as Gloria Shayne) was "Goodbye Cruel World." A co-write with her first husband Noel Regney gave the world a Christmas classic, "Do You Hear What I Hear?" She co-wrote with many others, and was part of the trio responsible for "The Men In My Little Girl's Life," a sentimental hit for Mike Douglas. Gloria generally wrote the lyrics for songs she co-wrote, but in the case of "Do You Hear What I Hear," her husband (a member of the French underground while drafted into the German army) wrote the lyrics and she wrote the music.
The voices you're going to hear...immortal.
Odetta (77, Dec. 2) Dont Think Twice It's All Right, Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out
Monna Bell (70, April 22) Aun Te Sigu Amando and Yo Que No Vivo Sin Ti ("You Don't Have To Say You Love Me" sung in Spanish by this Chilean superstar)
Miriam Makeba (76, Nov 10) Pata Pata
Mae Mercer (76, Oct. 29) Sweet Little Angel
Christie Allen (53, Aug 12) He's My Number One
Eartha Kitt, (81, Dec 25) I Want to Be Bad
Edie Adams (81, Oct 15) Namely You (duet with Peter Palmer)
Katie Reider (30, July 14) My Love For You
Jo Stafford (90, July 16) No Other Love and Haunted Heart
Suzan Tamim (30, July 28) Wainoh Habibbbi and Saken Albi
Yma Sumac (86, Nov 1) El Condor Pasa
Gloria Shayne (84, March 6) Goodbye Cruel World performed by James Darren

I HEAR DEAD WOMEN! 16 songs
and...
I never got around to doing a post on Suzan Tamim, and her bizarre death, but by way of tribute here's her obscure 2001 album SAKEN ALIBI:
SUZAN TAMIM full album

BOBBY DARIN: OUT OF THE VAULTS (Rarities & Demos)

Snap, snap...as cool as Bobby Darin was, some of his tracks just didn't end up etched in vinyl.
Here's a set of 25 songs that stayed in the Capitol vaults in the 60's, an era that shows him slippin' and slidin' over Al Jolson (Alabamy Bound) Anthony Newley (What Kind Of Fool Am I) Andy Williams (Moon River) and the rest of them older, squarer cats.
Of special interest, an attempted Mack the Knife sequel called Gyp the Cat!
At the time, some folks thought this guy was pretty ill: too young to be Middle of the Road, but acting too old to really appeal to the teens. But hey, the answer was that this guy didn't need to be Frank or Dino, nor Sedaka or Anka. He was the best at being Bobby Darin, and now he's legend.
The outtake tracks include: I Got Rhythm, Alabamy Bound, I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Know, When My Baby Smiles at Me, Beautiful Dreamer, When You Were Sweet Sixteen, I Ain't Got Nobody, You're Nobody till Somebody Loves You, This Nearly Was Mine, The Sweetest Sounds, Standing on the Corner, Whispering, Just Bummin' Around, On the Street Where You Live, Red Roses for a Blue Lady, If I Ruled the World, Tall Hope and more.
25 Outtakes from Bobby D.

Green Green Grass of Home - over 40 Versions

Yes, if you download both parts, you will get OVER FORTY versions of "Green Green Grass of Home."

Maybe that's almost like getting a death sentence.

But...this song has transcended its sentimentality and lousy ending. It's a true classic. It's the masterpiece of veteran songwriter Curly Putman (who wrote or co-wrote over 400 tunes, and had a co-writing hand in some of the most achy-breaky songs of all time, including "D.I.V.O.R.C.E." and "He Stopped Loving Her Today" and "Wino the Clown").

Cringeworthy? What's more cringeworthy than a burly country star talking about getting off a train "and there to greet me is my mama and my papa." And yet everybody from gritty Merle Haggard to burly Burl Ives to spooky Jack Palance has sung that line.
What's more of a mediocre cliche than having a girlfriend named Mary who's got "hair of gold and lips like cherries?" If she really did, God would she be repulsive. Besides, "Mary" and "Cherries" is a lousy rhyme. (So is "padre" and "daybreak," but at least it's interesting.)
And finally, let's be honest, the worst cop-out in any short story is "it was all a dream."

Yet "Green Green Grass of Home" has served as both a weepy example of C&W drama, and even a protest against capital punishment (the Joan Baez version most notably, here represented by a rare live TV version). The song was a crossover hit for Tom Jones, was overbaked into opera by Katherine Jenkins, has been sung in all kinds of improbable languages, and even parodied by Ben Colder (Sheb Wooley's drunken alter-ego).

Now why, baby, why, would you want to wade through FORTY versions?
In part one, you might want to check on the way Pitney, Laine, Rogers, Twitty, Brown, Jones and other C&W veterans choose to either sing "I was only dreaming" or, for dramatic effect, speak those lines. You might want to note which ones use a backing choir, which ones add squeamy steel guitar, and which ones either string up the tempo or hang it gently. Then there are the ad-libs..."I was only dreaming" or "I must have been dreaming."
There's also a question as to where the prisoner is confined. It's usually "four gray walls" but for Joan Baez, "cold clay walls" and for Johnny Cash, "cold gray walls." It's just plain "gray walls" for Kenny Rogers and "four walls" (no color) for Jack Palance.
Part two concentrates on the more disturbing, offbeat and ill versions of the song. There are lots of women here, from Bonnie Guitar, who shifts the song into the third person, to Margareta Pasiaru, who sings it as "Ce dor imi e sa flu acasa lar." There are Italian cover versions and Spanish cover versions (L' Erba Verde Di Casa Mia and Os Verdes Campos da Minha Terra) as well as Jan Malsjo's "En sång en gång för länge sen."

Are you only dreaming? No, this is truly your chance to download OVER FORTY versions of this classic song, and turn yourself Green, Green, Green, Green, Green, Green....
GREEN GREEN GRASS OF HOME Predominantly normal versions
GREEN GREEN GRASS OF HOME Predominantly unusual and foreign versions

A GARLAND TO BEVERLY - Not of This Earth

Beverly Garland, star of "Not Of This Earth," has swooped the planet. Her passing didn't quite get the attention it deserved.
Some stars had that one defining role that instantly got some attention. The recent death of an obscure actor named Paul Benedict got a lot of coverage because he had played a British twit on "The Jeffersons" for several seasons. So the headline was "Jeffersons Star dies." Veteran Hollywood stars like Yvonne de Carlo and Carolyn Jones were likewise identified as "Lily Munster" and "Morticia Addams," because their dozens and dozens of other film roles just marked them as good professional actresses.
And so it was, that the news of Beverly Garland's death only made it to the back obituary page in most newspapers, if at all. It wasn't headline news, but that doesn't diminish her achievements over fifty years and a great amount of film and TV appearances.
Her TV career took off in 1955 with an Emmy-nominated performance in "Medic," and she followed it with several seasons of "Decoy," the first TV show that starred a woman in an action role (she played an undercover cop).
She also had a continuing role as the perfect sitcom wife opposite Fred MacMurray on "My Three Sons," and later took "mom" roles; Stephanie Zimbalist's mother in "Remington Steele," Kate Jackson's in "Scarecrow and Mrs. King" and Teri Hatcher's in "Lois & Clark."
As for the movies, she's best remembered as a "Scream Queen," but one who more often took up the fight, rather than shrank in fright. She aimed her rifle at the creature terrorizing the planet in "It Conquered the World," and went into the swamp after 'The Alligator People,' and she was sexy as the tough nurse who was feeding blood to the stoic alien who was "Not Of This Earth."
The former Beverly Fessenden married and divorced actor Richard Garland, but found an enduring marriage in 1960 with the unlikely-named Fillmore Crank. Crank was a real estate developer, and the couple built a hotel (named after Beverly) in 1972, and while she continued her acting career, she was secure with her hotel business, her marriage, and her two children. The hotel would often hold memorabilia conventions and for a little fun and profit, she'd join in and set up a table to autograph a Twilight Zone card or an 8x10.
She had a great sense of humor, warm recollections of her co-workers, enjoyed those crazy B-movies she made, and knew the business inside and out...which means, as you can see from her varied roles, that she could be tender or tough...and remain beloved and respected.
A suite from "Not Of This Earth," in full stereo:
Main Title - The Eyes Have It - Rabid Blood - End Title

Ian Dury's obscure 4000 WEEKS HOLIDAY

Most of Ian Dury's albums are pretty easy to find...except "4000 Weeks Holiday." This is very frustrating for the many who have collected everything possible (from bootlegs to Baxter Dury and back) and fondly remember seeing Ian and his Blockheads perform live.
Suffer no more...you can quench your curiosity with the download below. And here, from page 135 of his book on Mr. Dury (half bio, half song lyrics) is author Jim Drury's quick take on this forgotten album:
"4000 Weeks Holiday, a reference to the approximate life span of the average human, was released in November 1983, months behind schedule. The reason for the delay was Ian's initial refusal to remove the song "Fuck Off Noddy," despite the threat of legal action from Enid Blyton's estate...Having removed the offending track, the album reached a paltry number 54 in the charts, leading to a disenchanted Polydor axing Ian from the label."
While the average fan of Ian Dury might not consider "Lord Upminster" (1981) or "Apples" (1989) masterpieces either, this inbetweenie, "4000 Weeks Holiday," has some very worthy tracks, with typical impudent Dury recitations and cheekiness, and the occasional bit of underhanded smut ("Really Glad You Came"). "The Man With No Face" is another bit of coal with a glint of diamond in it. Other cuts include "Take Me to the Cleaners" "Percy the Poet" "Peter the Painter" "Tell Your Daddy" and "Very Personal."
The censored track "Fuck Off Noddy" can be found with amusing visuals, via YouTube.
For various reasons, Ian's hit songwriting partner Chas Jankel couldn't or wouldn't work on the songs and his band The Blockheads either couldn't, or wouldn't participate in the recording. Ian co-wrote most of the tracks with old Kilburn mates Russell Hardy and Rod Melvin, so that scratches the itch for those who fondly remember their Kilburn and the High Roads songs, and always wondered what they could do if given another chance.
As bloggers love to say, if you like it, buy it...but considering your choice is either a scratchy original UK vinyl pressing, or a very expensive Japanese import...you might be forgiven if you feel that this mp3 version suffices.
The enduring Dury's most obscure album via Rapidshare
Durex Dury's 4000 via Box

Run for Cover versions: BOLL WEEVIL x 7

For generations, folkies & CW singers have sung about "The Boll Weevil," and the song can bug you. It can be a lesson in accepting, with humor, life's misfortunes, or it could be a sly grumble about immigration, or...literally a song about an insect. (And yep, if you click the picture, it gets bigger, and you can really see what a boll weevil looks like when it's lookin' for a home.)
In most versions of the folk tune, a farmer finds a talking boll weevil has moved in, and there ain't much he can do about it. He tosses the bug into a cake of ice, and the bug replies, "it's mighty cool and nice." The song ends with the insect chewing up a path of cotton on the man's farm.
That's The Weavers version, though. Listen to how rockabilly Eddie Cochran adapts it using a racist opening line: "The Boll Weevil am a little black bug, came from Mexico they say. Came all the way to Texas just lookin' for a place to stay."
Eddie's anecdotes end with the boll weevil heated up and still taunting the farmer. As for the "red hot sand...it's mighty hot but I'll take it like a man." And that's the end of the song. No way to get rid of the boll weevil.
Tex Ritter's C&W version also mentions "the boll weevil am a little black bug from Mexico..." and (you know how they procreate) the "whole family" is now causing a ruckus. Ritter's bug is tossed in the "red hot fire," but the bug says "Yassah, it'll be my home." Ritter's versions ends with the weevil destroying half the farmer's cotton.
The song originated with the black folk-blues singer Leadbelly, and no, his shout does not mention blacks or Mexico. It simply mentions how the insect and his whole family came "lookin' for a home" and he can adapt to ice and sand.
For those who simply want to hear a funny folk song, The Weavers, with droll Lee Hays muttering the lines, is the choice...the beast is "humanized" by being able to speak and his destructiveways lightly written off as just something that can't be cured and can only be endured. The clever weevil even wants to make a deal with a lightning bug so he can create havoc after nightfall! Brook Benton, a black pop singer popular in the 50's, does a version marred by an irritating clinky-piano, but his lyrics do not mention the color of the boll weevil, and "where they come from, nobody really knows." In Benton's version, the farmer asks "Why'd you pick my farm. The boll weevil just laughed at the farmer and said we ain't gonna do ya much farm...we're just lookin' for a home....gonna take me a home...Farmer I'd like to wish you well. And the farmer said to the boll weevil, yeah, and I wish you was in — lookin' for a home."
There are a few other songs about the boll weevil, but these all have the same melody and pretty much the same lyrics. If someone adapted the song today...who knows what that boll weevil would be getting into...
Eddie, Tex, Brook and four more, singin' about BOLL WEEV-ILLS!

DRILL YE TARRIERS & PAT WORKS ON THE RAILWAY

"If God had meant us to fly," Michael Flanders once remarked, "he would never have given us the railways."
In America, there was romance and excitement as the nation became linked via thousand of miles of track. It wasn't quite so exciting or romantic for those who were working on the railroad, all the live-long day.
To keep up their spirits, the workers sang, and often about the ironies and miseries of their lives. "For it's work all day for the sugar in your tay," was the Irish chorus on "Drill Ye Tarriers Drill." Another popular tune was "Pat Works on the Railway," which includes a typical Irish nonsense-word chorus, "Fill-a-me ory-ory-ay."
The lyrics are simple, easy to remember rhymes that could go for nine stanzas. "In Eighteen hundred and forty one, I put my cordoroy britches on. Put my cordoroy britches on, to work upon the railway..." Each year is just as bland.
"Drill Ye Tarriers" is more amusing, as the grousing lead singer takes a shot at his boss, the boss's wife, her cooking, and the cheap ways of the railroad. Hear for yourself the vivid picture of a fellow blown skyward, and his punishment.
The Weavers covered both songs, and they are joined by two extra Tarrier versions (Chad Mitchell and Cisco Houston) and two other "Pat Works on the Railway" attempts, one from The Cottars, and an oddity from Mechanicy Shanty, a European group of wild and crazy guys who sing with Russian-Polish accents and have their own nonsense syllables to replace "Fill-a-me ory-ory-ay," which sounds like: "Rilla-he-rollin-rollin-way."
The whole point of nonsense refrains was to create something catchy even illiterates or those who don't know the language can easily remember and sing. These days, it could be the entire song. But we'll save "Who Let the Dogs Out" for another day...
Various Versions of "Drill Ye Tarriers Drill" and "Pat Works On the Railway"

Living Voices: THE EVE OF DESTRUCTION

And now, gentle people, a gently-performed song about the end of civilization....not that it was ever so civilized. Religious people have always devoutly gone out to murder other people, simply for not sharing the same view of an imaginary friend. It's just that these heinous incidents are coming with a lot more frequency.
The two people in the photo were among the over 150 destroyed by religious terrorists two days ago.
It was a familiar message; Muslim maniacs or Islam assholes killing complete strangers, by way of declaring God is Great. All around the world, from London and Spain to India and America...these Middle Eastern monkeys are emigrating just to blow things up and gun people down.
The legendary Brigitte Bardot has actually been fined for speaking her mind on the subject of immigration. Her countrymen don't know the meaning of free speech, nor the threat she exposed five years ago in her book "A Scream in the Silence." Of the “Islamicization of France”, she declared: "Over the last twenty years, we have given in to a subterranean, dangerous, and uncontrolled infiltration, which not only resists adjusting to our laws and customs but which will, as the years pass, attempt to impose its own."
Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg and his wife, Rivka, not yet 30, came to Mumbai to be charitable and decent. They presided over Nariman House, a joyous, open, honest place where anyone was welcome to share a meal, pray or rest. They went to a foreign land to be part of a kindly outreach program. They came up against Islam-Muslim fanatics who had an outrage program...the slaughter of defenseless people. The terrorists found it very easy to storm into the rabbi's building...and neighboring hotels that housed unarmed tourists and business people.
In America in the mid-60's, a call for change was made non-violently by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and on the radio, by such men of Jewish heritage as Bob Dylan and Phil Ochs. They were joined by Christians old (Pete Seeger) and new, including P.F. Sloan, who wrote "Eve of Destruction," a hit for Barry McGuire and covered by Anita Kerr's "Living Voices."
There's something unsettling about a middle-of-the-road choir handling "Eve of Destruction," but in this world gone wrong, their rendition can be interpreted in many ways. Were they harmonizing over a melody and ignoring the words? Or were these lambs all too certain that there was nothing to do but sing...and await the slaughter?
EVE OF DESTRUCTION

MORTON DOWNEY JR: NO SOLUTION TO POLLUTION

From 1987 to 1989, Morton Downey Jr. thrived as the wart-faced descendant of abrasive talk show pioneer Joe Pyne, cigarette smoke his blowhard trademark. He'd paid his dues with local talk shows on radio and TV. When he left KFBK-AM, a fellow named Rush Limbaugh replaced him.
As Downey's fame soared, David Letterman, noting Pyne's brief flash of fame, said "We see this every 10 or 12 years...I don't quite understand why everybody's falling over backwards over the guy." Soon enough, people were bored with the cries of "Zip it" and the artificial confrontations. In these pre-Springer days, there weren't enough morons to keep Mort on the air, and the indie stations running his syndicated show suffered backlash from sponsors.
In 1989, Downey knew he was flaming out, and made a desperate attempt to show he was still relevant. He emerged from a San Francisco International Airport toilet with a swastika strangely marked backwards on his face. He claimed he'd been attacked by Neo-Nazis, but it was obvious that he was lying...and only someone using a mirror could've made a backwards swastika.
Mort's show sank, as did his 1990 "Morton Downey Jr. Sings" album. A somewhat nicer Downey was on the cover, befitting a man who had self-consciously had his warts removed...in an attempt to give his critics a little less of a visual target. Always known as a "loudmouth," Morton's choice of singing style will surprise you. Showing a somewhat weak country tenor, and here, abetted by a band member to form a Dr. Hook-ish duet, Downey offers a down, quietly pessimistic view of the future. The guy was actually a singer before he grabbed fame as a shock-talk host. In the early 80's he was Sean Morton Downey, and his 1981 country single, "Green-Eyed Girl," grazed the outer reaches of the Country Top 100 chart.
Downey bounced around various local TV and radio stations, and had a lung removed during cancer surgery in 1996. He died in 2001.
But back in 1990 he was convinced the planet was dying...
"There ain't no solution to pollution anymore. We won a couple' battles but we're losing the war. We're dumpin' in our oceans, we run sewers in our lakes. We build mountains made of garbage and we bury toxic waste....take a look around you, man is snuffing out his life."
NO SOLUTION TO POLLUTION

It Kinda Makes Ya Wonder Don't It

Most any song can inspire drivel. Some songs lead a writer to do a "memory piece," describing remembered (but best forgotten) anecdotes from a nostalgic (if boring to everyone else) past. Sometimes pontificating about a lyric or giving a bio of its singer is just showin' off. So why bother? It kinda makes ya wonder, don't it?
Today's entries are all short, 'cause most times, a novelty song squeaks for itself. Now, the existential question posed by Jerry Van Dyke...nah, there could be an analysis here, a memory piece about watching "My Mother the Car" or "Coach" or a bio of his life and times but...nope. Although...it kinda makes ya wonder...
"It Kinda Makes Ya Wonder Don't It"