Happy Birthday, America!

Paying Mr. Kafi

Posting is going to continue to be slow at least through the next month or so. But here's a great, very funny film some friends made.

Never Forget

Songs of the Season, Part 12

Beach Party Time!!!



You know, as many times as I've listened to this song, I've never been able to figure out that first line until just now, when I read the lyrics in the description of this video. And I feel foolish now. "Chewin' out a rhythm on my bubblegum." That has to be one of the all-time greatest opening lines of a song. Right up there with "I got so much trouble on my mind" and "Livin' on spongecake."

Frankie and Annette - Beach Party
Dick Dale - Miserlou
The Trashmen - Surfin' Bird
The B-52's - Rock Lobster
The Dictators - California Sun
Annette Funicello and Fishbone - Jamaica Ska



OK, Clambake is not a great movie by any means, but this scene...come on, doesn't that look like the greatest party you've ever seen?

Another Random YouTube Music Post

A great performance of a good ol' cowboy song. You can't find shit if you search YouTube or Google for "Get Along Little Doggies." You have to search for "Git Along Little Dogies." Then here's a parody of that song from Miss Ella Mae Morse:



He's raised on loco weed
He's what you call a swingin' half-breed

Dorothy Dandridge also does a great version of this song. That chorus sound familiar?

Tiny Bradshaw - Train Kept A-Rollin'
Johnny Burnett and the Rock-n-Roll Train Kept A-Rollin'
The Yardbirds - Train Kept A-Rollin' (lots of cool performances around YouTube by different line-ups of this band, including a variation called "Stroll On" that appears in Antonioni's Blow-Up)
Led Zeppelin - Train Kept A-Rollin'
Aerosmith - Train Kept A-Rollin'
Motorhead - Train Kept A-Rollin'

I love the progression of these versions. I guess like most people, I'm most familiar with the Aerosmith version, so maybe that biases me, but I really think they just nailed this song. But then I heard this one (which I wasn't even looking for), and I think it's now my favorite version:

Songs of the Season, Part 11

(All-Time Greatest Summertime Hits Mixtape, Side 1, Track 2)

This one always felt to me like the platonic ideal of the summer song. I'm not sure why, but it's just so big, bouncy, joyful, jangly, wet and wild, all great summer songs combined into one: the Ramones drumbeat, the surf guitars, the giddy girl group vocals. It always brings to mind a big convertible full of girls on the way to the beach, laughing and giggling as they sip Slupees (or are they wine coolers?) with the radio cranked up loud (I guess this image is attributable to the video for "Our Lips Are Sealed"). I reckon it says something that I was absolutely nuts about this song when it came out, at a time when I basically listened to nothing but metal.

Songs of the Season, Part 10

(All-Time Greatest Summertime Hits Mixtape, Side 1, Track 1)

As the last class drags on, you watch the clock. It seems to be moving in slow motion, and the last half hour seems to have lasted a week, but finally, the second hand is making it's last pass around the 6, and you're body feels like a slingshot stretched to its limit. Then the bell rings, and your entire body explodes in release, this one moment a singularity of your entire childhood, an entire summer of possibilities stretched out before you: SCHOOOOOOOOLS OUT! FOR! SUMMAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!