Harmony in My Head Broadcast Notes for 11-22-04

I will be in NYC on a press junket when this hits the airwaves. Rather than play a re-run, Engineer X and I came in today, Saturday and did the show. I’m just back. It was a little loose but pretty good. A spontaneous interview occurred at the end of the show when Jackie, the nice gal who has the metal show on Thursday nights came in and I converted her and her show to Islam on the spot. Now it’s an Islamic metal show, we’ll see who she goes. All in all, great music for you here. Hope you enjoy it. I really have a blast putting all this stuff together for you all and I appreciate the mail you send, glad you’re digging the music. Henry

Butthole Surfers – Sweatloaf: From the Locust Abortion Technician album, came out in 1987 I think. I’ll never forget all the shows we did with the band in 1991 on the Lollapalooza tour. I forget how many times they did this but there were some shows where the band would be onstage and the band’s roadie Danny would come out with a shotgun and give it to Gibby. No one in the audience knew that the gun was loaded with shells that had no shot, just powder. With no shot and more powder, sound was enormous and the flame that came out of the barrel was quite intense. Gibby would yell into the mic, something like, “I didn’t see you little motherfuckers dancing to the Rollins Band!” and then he started firing on the crowd. It was really scary and people scattered. What a swell band.

The Lamplighters – Be Bop Wino: This is off a CD comp. I found in London years ago called Great Googa Mooga on Sequel Records. It looked interesting so I went for it. Lots of good R&B and Doo Wop stuff on here. One the best songs on it is this great vocal work from the Lamplighters.

Lynn Hope - Morocco: Jihad, y’all! A Muslim sax player, oh yes! Lynn Hope stuff is hard to find. This is off the Morocco album. My copy says it’s made in Czechoslovakia 1985. Used to hit stage in a turban. A kind of legend around him as he dropped out of the Philly Mosque scene in the 60’s and has completely dropped out of sight. Who knows where he is? Allah does.

Dewey Phillips – Red Hot and Blue: I don’t know if any of you are familiar with the tale of the DJ so taken with Presley’s rendition of That’s Alright Mamma, he played it over and over again due to caller demand and a few spins later, had Elvis come down to the station. He is the first guy to have played Elvis. He’s the guy who would play “race” records by black artists right a long with the white boys and at the time, this was unheard of. His show was called Red Hot and Blue and he was a pioneer and a maniac. There’s a great CD of his shows on Memphis Archives. No one touches this guy. It’s a must have.

Mahavishnu Orchestra – Birds of Fire: From the Birds of Fire CD. John McLaughlin's monster band. If you have ever had a chance to check out any of the McLaughlin-Hendrix jam bootlegs, you will hear McLaughlin match Hendrix lick for lick. What was his rank on that lame Rolling Stone top 100 guitar players list? He wipes the floor with at least 95 of those players. If you like what you hear, the record is cool and so is Inner Mounting Flame. I think Greg Ginn really got a lot from this record. Some of the licks on this track alone have some of his attack and arc.

Lenny Bruce – Father Flotski’s Triumph: Not Lenny’s later period stuff when he was getting hammered by the courts over language that is tossed casually by eleven year-olds, this routine comes from an earlier time when he wasn’t getting witch hunted. As far as spoken word, comedy, whatever you want to call it, Bruce is the man I think. Years ago when I met George Carlin, he told me some cool Lenny stories.

J Mascis and the Fog – Sameday: From the More Light album. I am such a fan of this guy. I can play this album over and over. I don’t have a J record I don’t like and I have them all.

Harry Partch – The Letter: The man was on his own. If you listen to some of his original recordings, you can see where Tom Waits gets a lot of inspiration. Not to take anything away from Mr. Waits, who’s amazing, but there’s some Partchian moments on Raindogs and Swordfish Trombones. It’s gotta be. More to know about Partch than I can put here, please check out: http://www.harrypartch.com/

Mother Superior – Four Walls: From the 13 Violets album. One of LA’s great bands. I know these guys a little. This is a very well done and ambitious piece of work for the lads. Legendary producer Tony Visconti is one of the band’s many high profile fans and arranged this beautiful string arrangement. Nice one, boys!

Trouble Funk – Say What?!: One of the later period masterpieces. We play a lot of Trouble Funk because a, the band is it, and b, your host is shares Trouble’s hometown of DC. Another slice of the real.

Captain Beefheart – Ice Cream for Crow: From the album of the same name. I always liked his later stuff, Shiny Beast, Doc at Radar Station and this one are all great to me. I think this period of Beefheart is really on lyrically and the band was killin’. He’s like Duke Ellington, he’s his own genre and should be checked out.

The Fall – Pay Your Rates: Pay Your Rates! From the amazing Grotesque album. Recently remastered and re-released with some singles as extra tracks. This is one of my heavy rotation Fall albums. January sees the re-release of the mighty Fall album Hex Induction Hour, this too will have extra tracks. Can’t wait.

Mercyful Fate – Black Funeral: From the Melissa album. I don’t know a damn thing about the singer, King Diamond besides the fact that he made me laugh my ass off when I saw him on MTV once talking about Satan. The make-up was great and you can’t help thinking what he would have done, looking like that walking through Brooklyn. Satan can’t help you in Red Hook.

The Cramps – She Said: One of the many great songs by this band. I used to see them when you could buy the first two singles from one of the roadies on the way out the door. I was lucky to see those shows. What a band.

The Jazz Destroyers – Love Meant to Die: From the seminal Cleveland Confidential album. Out of print since it came out and put on CD by John Esplen and his very very cool label Overground in Newcastle UK. You can probably tell that’s Dave Electric Eels singing on this one. There’s never too much of that guy if you ask me.

Venom – The Chanting of the Priests: From the Calm Before the Storm album. Black Flag played with these jokers in Trenton NJ in 1986. Price of a ticket? A few bucks. Joe Cole getting in the singer/bass player’s face with his palm covered in a penned-on pentagram, doing his best Richard Ramirez imitation as he told Kronos to, “Hail Satan”? Priceless.

Cat Stevens – If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out: This is the song he did on the Harold and Maude soundtrack. I have seen the film a lot of times and it’s perfection. This is one of the many many great Cat Stevens songs. Do you remember when ol’ Cat was down with the fatwa issued against Salmon Rushdie? That made me want to smack this little singer-songwriter into the bottom of Lemmy’s gym bag. Jihad up on that bitch!

The Mob – Witch Hunt: I remember buying this single because the cover looked so cool. That was about twenty-four years ago. This song and all their others are contained on the Let the Mob Increase CD.

The Meters – Hey Pocky A-way (single edit): From the very awesome Rejuvenation album. This one and Cabbage Alley were out of print for a long time and a few years ago, thankfully they came back.

The Moffs – Grazing Eyes: From the Labyrinth album. I met these guys in Australia many years ago. The record’s really cool. I don’t know what kind of music this is, stoner-prog-psychedelic? Really cool. I don’t know how easy this one is to find these days. Here’s a site for a little Moffs info: http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Underground/2507/moffs.html

Miles Davis – Black Satin: From the On the Corner album. When this was first released, the little jazz critics gave it the thumbs down. Years after Miles passed away, On the Corner was re-released and all the critics basically had to admit the album is great, that they were wrong. It’s Miles Davis, critic boy! Kneel at his greatness, you overpaid underachieving swine!

.

Thanks for listening.