Thanks to helpful readers like Berni, Crab Devil, One Buck Guy, steVe, and our own Koen, another set of songs was assembled to complement the first two.
jonderblog
homemade CD-length compilations created by Jonder, Stinky and Koen
Sunday, April 21, 2024
More More More Fun Fun Fun
Friday, April 12, 2024
I Found That Purity Of Essence Rare
Koen writes: The music industry can be a weird business, plenty of stories of labels/managers who ripped off their artists and/or exploited them in other ways.
Claiming copyright of traditional songs by just changing a few words used to be standard. Some bands with the same name played live gigs on the same dates but in far-away places with different musicians! The list could on for a long time…
Lately some modern-day artists have been re-recording earlier albums for copyright reasons, e.g. Taylor Swift. Recently, Strohmian shared a story on the Twilight Zone blog that gave all of the above a completely new twist!
Graham Parker’s old band, The Rumour (with Brinsley Schwarz!) released three albums. The second one - 1979’s Frogs, Sprouts, Clogs And Krauts (wonderful title!) - even had a minor hit in Holland: 'Frozen Years'.
But they never really broke through, and their 3rd album became their swan song. The original UK release of Purity Of Essence came out on Stiff Records in 1980. And now we are entering the Twilight Zone of recorded music… From the liner notes by Martin Belmont:
Sunday, April 7, 2024
Get In Loser, We're Going Rockabilly (Volume 2)!
Stinky follows his first "Going Rockabilly" comp with another installment. The concept (as you may recall) is rockabilly music performed by artists not usually associated with the genre. Some are cover songs, and others are originals (like Alan Vega's jittery "Jukebox Babe").
My favorite band The Fall is here with a Gene Vincent cover, as is Ian Dury with his ode to "Sweet Gene Vincent". The Clash, Elvis Costello and Marky Ramone are also among the Class of '77 rockabilly fans.
You might remember Stinky's stellar tribute to guitarist Joe Moretti, who played the unforgettable guitar line on "Shakin All Over". The Who takes on that classic of early British rock.
Eva Cassidy is another artist who has been anthologized by Stinky in these pages. We've also featured Chuck Berry covers, and there are a few more here to add to your collection.
Robert Johnson (our Close Personal Friend) is back, as well as Jeff Beck, Led Zep, Conway Twitty, Neil Young's Shocking Pinks and the Foghat side project Warren Phillips & The Rockets. Dana Gillespie (one of the artists who "got a leg up" from David Bowie) is here too.
Also featured are Elton John and Harry Nilsson (before they became famous), covers of Buddy Holly by Jackie DeShannon and Graham Nash, plus versions of Rick Nelson's hit It's Late and Jimmy Long's That Silver Haired Daddy Of Mine.
PS - does that cover model sitting on the 8 ball look a lil' bit like Pearl Harbour? Don't forget that the expanded edition of her solo album Don't Follow Me, I'm Lost Too is available now on Bandcamp (digital, CD, and purple vinyl!)
Monday, April 1, 2024
Call Me The Wolf: Howlin' Wolf 1969-1973
Koen writes: One of the greatest blues artists from the past is probably Chester ‘Howlin’ Wolf’ Burnett, who first recorded for Sam Phillips’ SUN Records and later for Leonard & Phil’s Chess Records with amazing results. His work can be easily found in the blogosphere, including two great compilations shared by Babs and Butterboy.
But these fantastic sets focus only on his early career’s songs, up to the mid-sixties. If you look at Amazon, it isn’t any different, countless early work compilations of sometimes dubious origin and quality, a shame really.
In fact, there has never been an official (or unofficial!) collection of his final years’ work! Once I realized that a new JOKONKY project was born: Call Me The Wolf 1969-1973.
In this final years' time frame, Wolf released five albums, of which The London Howlin’ Wolf Sessions is probably the most well-known, it even received a Deluxe treatment as a double CD with the original album plus alternate takes! Therefore I chose only one track, but it’s the classic Red Rooster, with Wolf explaining to Eric Clapton how it’s supposed to be done!
I remember vividly the first time I heard 1969’s The Howlin' Wolf Album, and was shocked, such a different take on those famous songs. Obviously I wasn’t alone, it got very bad reviews at the time and sales sucked. Since then it has received a kind of re-appraisal and I’ve become more open-minded too ;-)
The spooky version of Moanin’ At Midnight deserves to be heard, it’s stunning! For the full-length Back Door Man I opted for a vinyl rip as that includes the spoken intro by Wolf, until now all CD versions of this album botched that up which resulted in 20+ seconds missing!
In the nineties, two Chess collections were released: a three-disc set The Chess Box and a two-disc Ain't Gonna Be Your Dog. The first one had the hits plus some unreleased work, the second focussed on alternate takes, single-only tracks, etc. Both featured a couple of (excellent!) songs from his later career which made these perfect for inclusion here!
Message To The Young is in many ways the most different album compared to his other recordings. Responsible for this were Sonny Thompson (piano, arranger, conductor, lyrics) and Cash McCall (producer, conductor). I selected 2 tracks that give a good indication of the rest of the album.Live And Cookin' At Alice's Revisited gives us a chance to hear Wolf in a live setting with his regular band The Wolf Gang, brilliant. The Back Door Wolf is his final album and gathered good reviews, but not many people have heard it, I think. From those last two albums I picked 3 tracks each.
Friday, March 29, 2024
Get Yer Third Leg Up (More Artists Who Produced Their Idols)
Koen and Stinky set a high standard for this series; today we've got leftovers. Ric Ocasek produced a lot of new bands (possibly to "give them a leg up"), but he didn't necessarily idolize them. I chose a song from I'm So Confused, which Ric produced for Jonathan Richman.
The bassist on I'm So Confused is Darryl Jenifer of the Bad Brains, whose album Rock For Light was produced by Ocasek. I doubt Ric idolized the Bad Brains, but Adam Yauch certainly did, and Yauch produced Build A Nation.
Rick Rubin may idolize the legends he produced (such as Johnny Cash and Tom Petty). But if you've ever heard Rubin's band Hose, you can be sure that he idolized Flipper, and he produced American Grafishy. Speaking of Tom Petty, he produced Chris Hillman's album Bidin' My Time (which features Roger McGuinn on The Byrds' rarity Here She Comes Again).
Jack White has also produced legends (Wanda Jackson and Loretta Lynn). The White Stripes' music was greatly influenced by the Flat Duo Jets, and Jack produced and released a live album for the Dex Romweber Duo, as well as their single The Wind Did Move.
Stinky featured a Wanda Jackson album produced by Joan Jett. Justin Townes Earle produced Wanda's Unfinished Business. Iggy Pop has worked with several of his admirers (including David Bowie and Josh Homme). As a Detroit native, Don Was must have been thrilled to produce Brick By Brick (with Slash joining Iggy on guitar for Home).
Mavis Staples is another legendary singer. Her cover of Funkadelic's Can You Get To That was produced by Jeff Tweedy, and One More Change was written and produced by Ben Harper.
Stinky featured Mary Weiss. Today we've got La La Brooks (produced by Mick Collins), Ronnie Spector (produced by Joey Ramone) and Darlene Love (produced by Steve Van Zant). Speaking of Little Steven, he and The Boss produced albums for their heroes Southside Johnny and Gary U.S. Bonds. Don't miss Stinky's comp The Best of Ronnie Spector!
Koen featured Dr. John as a producer. Today's comp includes a Dr. John song produced by Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys. Auerbach was also entrusted by Tony Joe White's son to produce Tony Joe's posthumous album Smoke From The Chimney.
Terry Adams of NRBQ has long praised Sun Ra. Terry coproduced the Arkestra's A Song For The Sun. Don't miss Koen's post on the American Explorer Series, which features albums produced by Terry Adams and Ben Vaughn!
Koen's comp of Willie Dixon includes a track produced by T-Bone Burnett. Stinky quipped that Burnett "has knobs in his hands more often than a hooker running a two-for-one special." T-Bone twisted the knobs on Gregg Allman's Low Country Blues.
Like T-Bone Burnett, Joe Henry is probably better known for his production work than his own music. Joe has produced Solomon Burke and Mose Allison.
Flamin Groovies frontman Roy Loney made several fun records as Roy Loney And The Longshots, backed by the Young Fresh Fellows and coproduced by Scott McCaughey.Adrian Sherwood has been featured here several times, and he produced several albums for his idol Lee "Scratch" Perry. Tim Armstrong did a great job producing Rebirth for Jimmy Cliff.
Last but not least is Tanya Tucker's comeback While I'm Livin', coproduced by Brandi Carlisle and Shooter Jennings. Stinky and I highly recommend the "making of" documentary.
Monday, March 25, 2024
Artists Who Produced Their Idols: Get A Leg Up, Part 2!
Stinky writes: Many of the producers featured on this volume of GET A LEG UP produced so many albums that it’s sometimes difficult to glean which band was produced for the paycheck, and which ones were more of a labour of love (to quote Nick Lowe).
Thursday, March 21, 2024
Sing, Sing, Sing and Dance, Dance, Dance
You may ask yourself, Why Why Why? But you can see no reason, because there are no reasons. What reason do you need to be shown? Indeed, what else is there to Say Say Say?
Sometimes you get an idea and think Neat Neat Neat! Let's go Down, Down, Down that rabbit hole. Like when I did this post. Or when Stinky shared this double album. We're willing to Go Go Go to ridiculous lengths to bring you ridiculous concepts.
Are there really over 40 songs here? Yes, Yes, Yes! It took a Long, Long, Long time to come up with them. I looked up a few (not gonna Lie Lie Lie), but most of them popped into my head. Can't say I like every song, but as a whole it Turn Turn Turned out Well Well Well.
These two sets Run Run Run the gamut from Cold, Cold, Cold to Hot Hot Hot!! Is this the last word on the subject? No, No, No. I bet you can think of a few More, More, More if you Try, Try, Try! Please, Please, Please share them in the comments.
Share this post with your friends and say Hi, Hi, Hi! Maybe it will get a Buzz, Buzz, Buzz on social media. Or maybe it's another idea destined to Die Die Die.
At least I can stop thinking about it now. Sometimes an idea will just Nag Nag Nag at you (like a song stuck in your head), and then one day it's Gone Gone Gone before you had a chance to say Bye Bye Bye.