Playboys of Edinburg – Mickey’s Monkey

Playboys of Edinburg

Listen/Download – Playboys of Edinburg – Mickey’s Monkey

Greetings all.

Before we get started this week I have some important news.

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In related news, my new weekly radio show for WFMU’s Give the Drummer Radio, Testify! had it’s inaugural episode last week and is archived over there. If you dig Funky16Corners and/or Iron Leg I think you’ll dig it. I’ll be on the air every Wednesday night from 10-12, live, so tune in when you get a chance!
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The record I bring you today is the result of a seed planted in my head way back in the 80s, when their name popped up in a spectacular radio station promo from a mid-60s concert in Texas called the Now Sounds Groove In.

The radio spot appeared on a compilation of Texas garage punk, and it became a staple of my mix tapes back in the day.

Hosted by the Houston Post (the spot was narrated by Scott Holtzman of the Fever Tree, who provided an original psychedelic jingle for the ad), the concert featured a bunch of Texas bands, some of which I knew (the Fever Tree, Moving Sidewalks, Countdown 5, A440, Neal Ford and the Fanatics) and some that were new to me (The Glass Can, Coastliners, Sixpence, Thursday’s Children, Dimensions) including the Playboys of Edinburg.

Though I had never heard the group, the name stuck in my head (along with the rest of the commercial) and when I happened upon the 45 you see before you today, I had to grab it.

When I had only heard the ad, I assumed that the name was yet another grab at the British Invasion, a la the Playboys of Edinburgh (Scotland). The band was in fact the Playboys of Edinburg (Texas), a border down in the Southeast part of the state.

The A-side of their 1967 45, ‘Sanford Ringleton the 3rd of Abernathy’ is a kind of Kinks-y pop thing, but the flip, a cover of the Miracles ‘Mickey’s Monkey’ is a smoker.

They really lay into the tune, with some wailing organ and pounding drums (and handclaps) and I’d put their take right up there with the Rascals version.

The group released a handful of 45s for local and national labels between 1966 and 1970 (including a few later on as POE) and their version of ‘Mickey’s Monkey’ was a regional hit in Texas.

It’s a groovy 45, and I hope you dig it.

See you next week.

Peace

Larry

 

PS Head over to Funky16Corners for some soul.

The Cowsills – Anything Changes

The (Bill-less) Cowsills performing ‘Anything Changes’ on TV

Listen/Download – The Cowsills – Anything Changes

Greetings all.

It is always – even in a small degree – my intention that your mind be blown when you visit Iron Leg. Mileage will vary, depending on the proximity of your tastes to my own, but every once in a while I know that I’m posting something pretty much guaranteed to hit the mark.

Today’s selection is one of those.

The Cowsills are one of the truly great, and deeply underestimated pop bands of the 1960s.

Their greatness owes a lot to the vision of the eldest Cowsill brother, and de facto leader of the band, Bill.

Unfortunately, due to his clashing with their father, a volatile individual who was seemingly more interested in marketing his children as teen idols than in nurturing their musical talent, Bill the younger was forced out of the Cowsills in 1968 (though there seem to be indicators that he was clandestinely involved in the group’s records to some extent afterward).

The first album the Cowsills would record after his departure would be 1969’s ‘II x II’.

Today’s selection blew me away the first time I heard it, mainly because it’s one of the heaviest things the Cowsills ever recorded.

‘Anything Changes’, written by Bob and Paul Cowsill, opens with what sounds like a Hammond organ being pushed into a giant reverb tank, followed by fuzz guitar and heavy bass.

The sound is a lot closer to the kind of thing Stephen Stills was doing toward the end of his tenure with the Buffalo Springfield and on into CSNY, and the really groovy thing is, that on top of all this heaviness is a nice, juicy layer of those patented Cowsills harmonies.

Though Bill co-wrote a few songs on the album, I have no idea if he managed to play on it at all.

In the years after he was ousted, he recorded a very cool solo album for MGM (‘Nervous Breakthrough’) and did some freelance production work for Bodine (featuring ex-members of the Daily Flash) and Lightmyth.

He would eventually make a brief reconnection with the Cowsills, and then do a one-off (and rare) single in 1974 with a band called Bridey Murphy, composed of Barry, Paul and Bill Cowsill as well as Waddy Wachtel, who along with his girlfriend Judi Pulver had been in the oribit of the Cowsills for a few years as songwriters.

Fortunately, all of the Cowsills albums are excellent, cheap and plentiful, and if you don’t have them, you should go out to one of your finer garage sales or flea markets and scoop them up.

Dig the sounds, and I’ll be back next week with a new episode of the Iron Leg Radio Show.

Until then

Peace

Larry

 

PS Head over to Funky16Corners for some soul.

Rocky and the Border Kings – Michoacan

J.J. Light aka ‘Rocky’

Listen/Download – Rocky and the Border Kings – Michoacan

Greetings all.

If you have been coming around Iron Leg for a while, or you know me in the real world, you already know that I am a huge, lifelong fan of Doug Sahm and the Sir Douglas Quintet.

Their music is a cornerstone of my listening, and I was lucky enough to see them live, meet Sir Doug and even hoist a beer and share some conversation with him back in the day.

Way back in the 80s (I think) Mercury did a CD comp of the Doug and he SDQ’s Smash/Mercury stuff, and one of my favorite songs on the disc was a tune called ‘Michaocan’.

Flash forward about two decades and I find today’s 45 and grab it instantly, assuming that it was an SDQ joint.

So, I get it home and the version of the song is clearly different that the one on the comp, and the singer doesn’t sound like Mr Sahm. I found this especially puzzling since the 45 says that the song comes from the soundtrack to ‘Cisco Pike’, a great movie in which Sir Doug appears.

So, off to the interwebs I go, trying to track down some more info, and what do I find but an interview with Kim Fowley (producer of the track) at the WFMU Rock and Soul Ichiban blog (all roads lead back to WFMU) where it is revealed that ‘Rocky’ is in fact one-time SDQ member JJ Light (I had originally thought it might have been longtime Sahm sideman, horn player Eraclio ‘Rocky’ Morales).

Now, I wouldn’t be surprised if the rest of the SDQ appears on the 45, but it doesn’t seem that anyone out there has ever gone into that much detail on the track.

As it stands, ‘Michoacan’ is a happy, grooving piece of Tex/Mex rock and roll, chugging full steam ahead with that Augie Meyers style organ, pumping bass and guitar and a great melody.

Light recorded a bunch of stuff under his own name, but I am not familiar with it (though it comes highly recommended).

I hope you dig the tune, and I’ll see you all next week.

Peace

Larry

 

PS Head over to Funky16Corners for some soul.

Iron Leg Radio Show Episode #73

Why hello there!

Playlist

ILRS#73

Murmaids – Paper Sun (Liberty)
Super Dupers – Mickey Mouse March (Design)
The Unknown – All Over the World (La La) (Cinema)
Owen B – Nowhere To Run (Janus)
Free Ferry – Friend (Date)
Michael J James – Love’s Funny (Uni)
Twiggy – When I Think of You (Capitol)

Margo Guryan – Take a Picture (Mala)
Margo Guryan – What Can I Give You (Mala)
Gary McFarland – River Girl (Prestige)
Freda Payne – Lonely Woman (Impulse)
Trombones Unlimited – Sunday Morning (Liberty)
Claudine Longet – Think of Rain (A&M)
Julie London – Sunday Mornin’ (Liberty)
Julie London – Come to Me Slowly (Liberty)
Spanky and Our Gang – Sunday Mornin’ (Mercury)
Margo Guryan – Spanky and Our Gang (Mala)
Astrud Gilberto – Think of Rain (Verve)

Wanted – In the Midnight Hour (The Detroit Sound)
Del Shannon – Move It On Over (Amy)
Animals – We’re Gonna Howl Tonight (MGM)
Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers – Got To Get You Into My Life (Parlophone)
Mikos Theodorakis – Jet Rock (20th Century)
Mikos Theodorakis – Let’s Dance the Jet (20th Century)
Grass Roots – Beatin’ Around the Bush (Dunhill)
Grass Roots – House of Stone (Dunhill)
Mel Street – Green River (GRT)

Listen/Download -Iron Leg Radio Show Episode #73 – 157MB/256kbps

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Greetings all.

Welcome to this month’s episode of the Iron Leg Radio Show.

This time out we have even more new and recent arrivals, as well as a long set of music recorded and/or written by Margo Guryan.

As always, I hope you dig it, and I’ll see you next week.

Make sure you subscribe to the podcast in iTunes!

Peace

Larry

 

PS Head over to Funky16Corners

Best of Iron Leg: Captain Beefheart- Zig Zag Wanderer

The Original Cap’n Crunch…

Listen/Download – Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band – Zig Zag Wanderer

Greetings all.

The fam and I spent the last week reworking our abode, a major part of which was relocating the entire Funky16Corners Record Vault and Blogcasting Nerve Center downstairs into the basement. It was – as you can imagine – a major undertaking. As a result I didn’t have the time/energy to work up a new post, so I dipped into the archive and resurrected a winner.

I hope you dig it, and I’ll be back next week with a brand new episode of the Iron Leg Radio Show.

Until then…

Peace

Larry

Originally posted 3/22/15

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I’ve been hanging on to today’s selection – one of my all-time favorite records – for a long, long time.

As is often the case with a piece of music that hits me in the deepest possible places, I often circle the record warily, looking for the right time to approach.

‘Zig Zag Wanderer’ by Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band is an absolutely perfect example of an artist in transition, from a place where they have at least a tenuous grasp on conventional musicality, through something strange, and on into something extra-double strange.

You can locate this sweet spot on mid-60s records by Frank Zappa (who’s later work holds almost no appeal for me), and the Fugs.

In these cases it is almost as if the artist decided to dip their toes into rock and roll, made a record or two while they were getting comfortable (or until they thought no one was looking) and then went, if not batshit, some approximation thereof in relation to their early work.

I’m one of those poor slobs who unwittingly – led on by early 70s rock critics – went out and bought myself a copy of ‘Trout Mask Replica’, utterly unprepared for the sounds packed into its grooves.

Naturally, this put me off of Beefheart for quite a while, until sometime in the mid-80s someone on the garage scene hepped me to Cap’s first 45, of ‘Diddy Wah Diddy’ (you heard it here a while back) and then a little bit later, offered me a tape of his first long-player, 1967’s ‘Safe as Milk’.

‘Safe as Milk’ is the perfect place for someone who wants to know what Captain Beefheart is all about, yet isn’t quite ready to rewire their brains.

You get all the components of the Beefheart sound, i.e. heavy blues influence, weird time signatures, surreal lyrics etc, yet they are all filtered through the rest of 1967, so you get it all couched in garage/psyche energy and frameworks.

The finest track on the album – in my opinion, anyway – is the mighty ‘Zig Zag Wanderer’.

Opening with a guitar riff that sounds as if it’s charging at you down a narrow hallway, followed by the whispered ‘Zig Zaaaaag!’, the song blows wide open, sounding like a psychedelic buffalo stampede, wherein all the buffalo are the bastard spawn of Howling Wolf and a Caterpillar bulldozer.

You also get (for this album only) the guitar wrangling skills of young Ry Cooder, who wails.

The good Captain hollers in a way that must have seemed good and freaky to the heads, probably scaring off more than a few, but at the same time pulling a few new converts into the cult.

If you dig ‘Zig Zag Wanderer’ you will probably like the whole album. I can’t say how you’ll feel about the later stuff, since that usually requires a whole lot of work, that not everyone is willing to put in.

So dig it, and I’ll see you next week.

Zig Zaaaaaaaag…….

Peace

Larry

 

PS Head over to Funky16Corners for some soul.

Joe South – A Million Miles Away

“This is Joe South. Put Nixon on the line!”

Listen/Download – Joe South – A Million Miles Away

Greetings all.

The song I bring you today is a very far-out and somewhat uncharacteristic (yet very groovy) effort by one of my all time favorite artists, the mighty Joe South.

South, one of the preeminent songwriters of the 1960s with a criminally overlooked recording career of his own (his Capitol LPs are essential) is known mainly for that intersection of rock, soul, R&B and pop that was all over the American south in the 60s, with folks like Tony Joe White, Bobbie Gentry and South himself crossing all kinds of stylistic borders.

Though South’s oeuvre was marked with occasional psychedelic touches (though no more so than most pop artists of the day) the track I bring you today is a full-on, trippy soundscape.

‘A Million Miles Away’, which appeared on the 1969 ‘Don’t It Make You Want To Go Home’ LP sounds like it had it’s genesis in a studio guitar jam, and grew into something a lot weirder.

Here we have South’s guitar, aided by percussion, dancing from stereo channel to stereo channel, wrapped in reverb and echo, and culminating in a recorded phone call where South himself calls the White House, asking to leave a message for President Nixon from the “hip community”.

It’s unlike anything else on the album – which is packed with great songs, including the hit ‘Walk a Mile In My Shoes’ – or pretty much anything else South ever did.

The cool thing is, that the song/sound collage is genuinely trippy.

I hope you dig it, and I’ll see you all next week.

Peace

Larry

 

PS Head over to Funky16Corners for some soul.

Aerial Landscape – Proposition 13 b/w Are You Sleeping

Traces of existence, yet nary a picture of the group…

Listen/Download – Aerial Landscape – Proposition 13

Listen/Download – Aerial Landscape – Are You Sleeping

Greetings all.

I picked up the record you see before you years ago on a trip to Pittsburgh, which proved to be both an interesting city, as well as fertile digging ground.

I know little more about Aerial Landscape now than I did when I first pulled this 45 out of box and bought it “blind”.

The group apparently released two 45s for RCA in 1968, both produced by Rick Jarrard and arranged by George Tipton (both of whom had worked on Harry Nilsson’s records for RCA during the same period, which is why I bought the record).

Their brief discography includes three originals and a cover of Joni Mitchell’s ‘Both Sides Now’.

The Aerial Landscape sound is a mix of sunshine pop and folk rock, with the vibe straying into Free Design territory, especially on the first track I bring you today, ‘Proposition 13’.

Though there are singers of both sexes, the female singers are more prominently featured and the arrangements by Tipton are typically stylish.

The flipside of the 45, ‘Are You Sleeping’ has a slightly dreamier feel, with an opening guitar figure that sounds like it was lifted from ‘Guinnevere’ by Crosby, Stills and Nash.

Other than a single chart appearance – where they fit into the milieu quite nicely – and brief reviews in Record World and Cashbox, the Aerial Landscape seems to have left nary a trace.

Review From Cashbox:
AERIAL LANDSCAPE (RCA Victor –

9432)

Proposition 13 (2:32) [Pune’s Polo, £
BMI-McEntyre, Leiren] West Coast-y |
group vocal session backed by a fetch-
ing trumpet lick from time to tome [
make for an infectious track that V)
could grab bright play on pop stations. *
Up-tempo smoothie for material and j
a grand session give the team a shot 1
at hit ratings. Flip: “Are You Sleep- ,
ing” (2:41) [Same pub, BMI-Hansen]

That said, it’s a groovy 45, and I’ll be on the lookout for the other one.

I hope you dig it and I’ll see you next week.

Peace

Larry

 

PS Head over to Funky16Corners for some soul.