Picture, 1000 Words, Etc.

Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan, backstage at a Dylan concert (at Rutgers University, if memory serves) in 1965.



I hadn't seen that one till the other day, and it's still inducing a serious "oh wow" in me.

In any case, if both those guys aren't speeding their fricking brains out, than I'm Marie of Rumania.

Okay, This is Getting Ridiculous Already

Terry Reid and friends from 2006, with the Four Seasons' "Rag Doll.



Okay, we won't bring up the whole "Are the Four Seasons power pop?" question again -- long time readers are aware where I come down on that one, and in any case this performance should settle it for as long as the corridors of time continue to echo.

But sweet Jeebus, is there any song that Reid can't make sound even better than it already is?

Also: Waddy Wachtel is God. Just thought I'd say it again.

If It's Thursday, It Must Be One of Steve's Crackpot Theories!!!

Food for thought: The greatest short -- under five minutes -- piece of orchestral music written in the second half of the 20th Century is either Albert Glasser's theme for The Cisco Kid...





...or Fred Steiner's theme for Perry Mason (originally titled "Park Avenue Beat").



Discuss.

And yes, I've probably done this before, but it behooves repeating at regular intervals.

Wednesday Moment of Words Fail Me

Okay, I've done whole weeks here about the astounding Terry Reid, but here he is wailing my favorite of his songs -- "Without Expression" -- in 1973.



Don't know how I missed this clip, but better late than never, obviously.

Have I mentioned that Reid turned down Robert Plant's gig in Led Zeppelin, thus altering history in unfathomable ways?

Tuesday Consolation Track

Okay, nobody guessed that it was Warren Zevon and Bones Howe performing yesterday's mystery song, so no coveted PowerPop No-Prize© will be awarded.

However, since I'm a nice guy and because I love all of you, here's a very nice outtake version -- from the sessions for his eponymous debut album on Elektra -- of "Poor Poor Pitiful Me."





Perhaps my favorite Zevon song of them all, if truth be told.

You know, I really wish Waddy Wachtel would wear a buttoned shirt on-stage, but in the studio I guess it doesn't matter. In any case -- is he great on this or what?

Monday Mystery Song

Okay, if you get this one, you're good.

From 1966, please enjoy the quite remarkable "You Used to Ride So High" by Abilene Motorcycle.



This is an unreleased demo, but as you can hear, it's a pretty amazing mashup of Mamas and Papas harmonies, a Buffalo Springfield-ish band track and the "dit-dit-dit-dits" from "Friday on My Mind."

The performers -- and there are two of them -- both went on to become quite famous a few years later, one as a producer and the other as a celebrated singer-songwriter.

I think it's great, and could have been a hit, although I will admit that the guitar solos -- which seem to have been played by Jerry Lewis --



--are kind of heinous.

In any case, if you already know who did it, please don't give it away in the comments.

Because I'm a nice guy, you can find a photographic clue to their identity here; if you think it makes it blindingly obvious (and I don't think it does) please don't give it away in comments either.

I should add that I had no idea myself of the existence of this until last week, when it rather blew my miniscule mind.

And of course, a coveted PowerPop No-Prize© will be awarded the first reader who correctly guesses the artistes.

[h/t Seth Gordon]

The Heavy Metal Came Down From the Mississippi Delta (An Occasional Series)

Attentive readers with long memories may recall my paean to local rap-metal guys King Hell, who I first encountered and wrote about in these precincts back in September of 2010. A sort of unholy schtup between Judas Priest and Parliament/Funkadelic, they were so theatrical, funny and musical when I chanced upon them at a Battle of the Bands back then that I became an instant fan, despite the fact that the genre they were mining was not by and large my cuppa tea.

Anyway, to my chagrin they broke up soon after, but in the interim since I have become chums with their charming co-lead singer Sam Walters, who is now fronting a slightly more straight ahead outfit called Driven Mad, and it gives me great pleasure to post some new music by them.

So -- please enjoy the aforementioned Driven Mad and the appropriately monikered salute to their raison d'etre that is "Mania."





A song, I would venture to say, that makes the most effective use of the word "motherfucker" I've heard in a long long time.

An amusing postscript: Sam is, as you can hear, pretty much of a 100 percent metalhead, but we were discussing music a few weeks ago (I took him to see John Cale doing Paris 1919 live at BAM, which was great fun, and only partly because I'm old enough to be his granddad, which I find hilarious) and he let it drop that he was hugely a fan of -- and hoped someday to be able to perform the music of -- this guy.



You could have knocked me over with a feather frankly, but I have no doubt he could do Mr. Brown justice. And one of these days I hope to hear him do that very thing.

In the meantime, you can still get King Hell's Rhythm and Bruise album over here at Amazon, and definitely should, if only to hear them doing to Duran Duran's "Hungry Like the Wolf" what should always have been done to it.

And This Just In -- World's Oldest Mid-Life Crisis Detected!!!!

Okay, I've decided what my creative project for 2014 is.

I'm gonna make a music video -- featuring me, Steve Simels, as Groucho Marx -- doing this song.





Seriously -- this may be the greatest thing ever written.

One night in Bixby, Mississippi,
We watched the clouds roll by.
I said "My dear, how are you?"
And she whispered "So am I"

And obviously I've got some Groucho drag in my past.



Hey -- this is precisely the kind of thing you're supposed to do in retirement. Or senility.

Okay, I'm just kidding; obviously I'm not going to do this. It's fun to fantasize about, though.

And I should add that the Groucho bootleg pictured above is available for download on the web (somewhere -- I forget where I got it) and you should try to find it. Seriously, it's one of the most entertaining compilations (by anybody) you'll ever hear.

Wednesday Moment of Self-Indulgence (An Occasional Series): Special Beyond the Valley of the Canyons of Your Mind Edition

Here's a Floor Models outtake I almost played on last night's radio show [Theme: "Does Humor Belong in Music? And Fuck You Frank Zappa Regardless] which turned out to be a lot of fun, BTW.





The song is "Fade Into Grey," a different version of which appears on our album. This version was recorded semi-live at WBAI-FM circa 1983; ace 12-string player Andy Pasternack edited out a dramatic, sort of Police-like middle section that worked better on stage and replaced it with sitar samples from The Beatles' "Tomorrow Never Knows," thus giving the tune a delightfully cheesy faux psychedelic feel.

I think it's hilarious, but on balance it was probably a wise decision on my part to play a track by Spike Jones on the show in its place.

Tuesday Programming Note

For those of you with nothing to fill the gnawing void at the center of your hollow lives, I will be guesting on my old chum Allan Rosenberg's intertube radio show Lost at Sea today.

Between 5-7pm.



The streaming audio can be accessed at the link above, 'natch.

Incidentally, the theme of today's program is "Does Humor Belong in Music?", which is ironic in that I mostly detest Frank Zappa, do not think he's funny, and will not be playing any of his recordings.

Two hours of hilarity will ensue, however. Trust me.