Rock for Ages
Before Alice Cooper, before Marilyn Manson, before Doctor John’s first album, even before Arthur Brown, there was Screamin’ Jay Hawkins. On record he strikes you as an off-center blues guy, rockin’ out like some mash-up of Doctor John and Albert Collins. Then you listen a little closer, remembering that Hawkins wrote “I Put a Spell on You”, recorded by…well, pretty much everyone. Turns out he was more innovative than off-center, and worked with outstanding backing musicians, including Mickey Baker, to craft a weird, sometimes scary, sometimes funny, blues subgenre. He actually earned his living by providing rock theater to 50s audiences whose closest brush with anything this wacky had to come from regional theater companies butchering Italian opera.
Hawkins’ stage show had him climbing out of a coffin with his primary prop, a flaming human skull named Henry. Pyrotechnics were part of his act. The whole thing must’ve been hard to pull off in the 20 minute allotments of an Alan Freed show, but somehow he made it work. Highly recommended, no family should be without. Best way to access most of his worthwhile stuff is to grab the two disk “Weird and Then Some” best of collection on Jasmine Records (photo above).
Dreaming a Death Song
I had a nasty bout of vomiting this week. This is a problem from several perspectives, not least of which is that I’m having a hell of a time keeping my weight up. Every calorie counts. Also, because the surgeons have rearranged my throat infrastructure so weirdly, barfing feels like suffocating. Causing panic all out of perspective to the fact of a 24 hour virus.
Anyway, being unable to sleep last night until I’d seen every Pawn Stars twice, I drifted off. And dreamed the lyrics from Drugstore’s first album: “When God comes to me…I will be shaking…gun on my knees…my fingers waiting…gonna tell him I was born…mistaken…then I’m gonna let my fingers sleep…”.
Made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I don’t need a death song—yet. But when I do, I’ve got at least one candidate here!
Waitin’ Around to Die
Those of you old enough to remember the first incarnation of Lilith Fair in the 90s might be shocked to think that a group relegated to busking outside the entrance gate would amount to much. But your skepticism would be misplaced if you were thinking of The Be Good Tanyas. A trio singing gorgeous harmonies and playing quiet acoustic guitars has to have some stellar songwriting skills to make it beyond parody covers act. I fell in love with their murder-ballad-with-the-surprise-ending Waitin’ Around to Die about 10 years ago. Then I got ahold of all of all 3 of their excellent albums. Recently, Waitin’ Around to Die has come back to be my theme song. I listened to it over and over while deciding whether to heave myself back on the pyre of radiation therapy. In a sense, then, at least as of now, I can say The Be Good Tanyas saved my life, giving me the strength to slug it out with the cancer treatments one more time. Beyond that, though, all their stuff is fabulous. Highly recommended. All available, I believe, as downloads via Amazon, although hard copy CDs sometimes still turn up.
