Happy Halloween all you crypt kickers, freak-beaters and fangomaniacs. Hell comes to your house early this year with a three part posting for this week's Freaky Funky Friday including ...a seventy minute monster mix - Youtube treat - and a right ol' Carry On (plus some chilling tunes on C-Mondo too)
Mondo Mania This years collection of Halloween themed hits and howlers (in a good way) have been alchamixed into 'Mondo Mania'. Some of the ingredients may not seem immediately obvious witch-way winners but....
'Barabajagal's mutterings and mantras about Hammer Horror herbalism, seems to suit the mood of the moment
And 'Who Do You Love's imagery of "tombstone hands, graveyard mines, "cobra snake neckties" and "chimney, a-made out of human skull" qualifies it for dead-cert selection..
After getting blog-busted last week, I was almost tempted to put the this list in the comments - but nevermind that cobblers, here's the tracklisting..
The Playboys - Whatizit Ruth Copeland - Gimme Shelter The Preachers - Who Do You Love The Strangeloves - In The Nighttime Alder Ray - My Heart Is In Danger Carl Douglas - Sell My Soul To The Devil Tom Jones - Chills And Fever Tony Jackson Group - Fortune Teller Paul's Disciples - See that My Grave Is Kept Clean Zoot Money - The Mound Moves Affinity - Three Sisters Dusty Springfield - Spooky Tony Joe White - Stud-Spider Klaus Doldinger - Back In The Dark Cream - Strange Brew Donovan - Barabajagal The Rattles - The Witch Tom Jones - Witch Queen Of New Orleans Georgie Fame - Seventh Son The Coasters - Love Potion No9 The Exciters - Blowing Up My Mind John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers - I'm Your Witchdoctor The N'Betweens - Evil Witchman Jimi Hendrix - Fire The Sonics- Psycho
If you were the age to be out, about and shaking a leg (or flapping an arm) in Southend's early 80s alt.clubs and shady places like Crocs, Chesters and The Monkey House - or whatever your regional variation was - these two tunes should be more time-trippy than test driving the TARDIS, take you right back to the dry ice-age, and have your phantom senses tasting the 'snakebites and black', smelling the 'Hard Rock' hairspray (or Boots green, gunky, 'Country Born' setting gel), and perhaps feeling the itch of a black mohair jumper if you were ever a proto goth-monster or grebo-warrior...
At the time, there were shifty whispers that Red Lipstique were actually the Bollock Brothers in disco disguise.
You can see more about the Southend scene (including my live pics of The Damned, The Sweet and Lords Of The New Church - and my punk top 50) at the always excellent Southend Punk site
I found a load of old scraps and cuttings like this in the loft recently
There's a gallery of grotesques to choose from when you get to glam related rocky horrors...
Alice Cooper - The New York Dolls 'Frankenstein' - Iggy's 'Death Trip' and 'Your Pretty Face Is Going To Hell' - Suzi Q's 'Devil Gate Drive'- Bolan's 'Mystic Lady', 'Demon Queen' (or his earlier John's Children tune ''Desdemona'' banned because of it's "lift up your skirt and fly" line)- Bowie's 'Width Of A Circle', 'Please Mr Gravedigger', 'Beauty And The Beast' - Roxy's 'Bogus Man' or Eno's 'Spirit's Drifting' and 'Everything Merges With The Night' are just a handful of the Halloween themed hits and howlers available from the spangle age..but I thought these few tunes could do with being reanimated as pre-season of the witch friendly..
Blockbuster could well have been inspired by the Batman bruiser Blockbuster(DC's answer to The Hulk) Which brings us back to Bowie who referenced Batman in Uncle Arthur
"Uncle Arthur still reads comics Uncle Arthur follows Batman"
Better know as 'Grotbags' from the Rod Hull and Emu show.
Carol was something of a cabaret legend before crossing over to TV, working with stars like Max Wall, Arthur Askey, Morecambe & Wise, Ella Fitzgerald and Tommy Cooper - there's an cabtastic interview with her here - on the Licorice Soul website. I first picked up on this tune via the mighty Licorice Soul Working Mans Soul album, a cracking comp' of classic cabaret turns.
Well Pop pickers - it’s something a bit diff’ for this week’s Funky Friday..
Can you work out who’s who on this tricky trio of mystery tunes? Can You do it? Of course you can. The prize of an exclusive ‘Tronik Youth’ shredit of a Northern Soul Classic will go to first past the post(ish)
I ran these three nugg's past Marmite when I bumped into him on the Fenchurch Flyer earlier this week - he managed a healthy crack at it and was certainly in the right territory for all tracks...so I reckon it's doable, but will give one clue for starters. All artists are British
Now, you could go a’Googling for clues – but do you really want to live with the head-a'hanging shame of knowing you’ve had a dodgy ace up your internetty.
I knew that this Soup Dragons tune was a rework of this Stones obscurity, and the bass line on this nineties floor-filler was lifted from this sixties soundtrack.
But until a couple of weeks ago, and thanks to the 'Play Any Track' option on my trusty Creative Zen Xtra, I never knew that ....
*mis-spelt as 'Beaver Control' by the ripping software. My favourite example of rock typo's in my MP3 collection is The Sweet's 'Burn On The Flame' re-titled by the Russian download service ALLOFMP3 to 'BUM On The Flame' - ouch!!
* see also Lord Of The Lungbusters, The Prince Of Wails, The Sultan of Boomei
I remember seeing someone (can't remember who) that had once duetted with Tom saying how they'd been blown away by the pure blockbusting bellow of his voice and although it projects well on TV ( and it does), not in any way can it capture the raw ear-quaking experience of having 'the Jones' belting out his full pelt decibel yell just a few feet away. Which is possibly why in duets like these with CSNY and with EMF - Tom seems to be sharing a stage with giddy gurners and grinners as he lets rip.
So, ladies and gentleman 'This Is Tom Jones....' Treat Her Right - with some spectacular frugging and a'flailing
Show Me
See Saw
And some early seventies shakedowns including the tricky to track down 'Sugar Sugar'
Like John Peel I can remember my first earful of The Undertones 'Teenage Kicks'. I was off school on a not-strictly-legit' 'sickie' - and applying my trusty 'convalesence' technique of staying firmly tucked up in bed until middayish with a pile of comics (Whizzer and Chips, Krazy and anything Marvel or DC), a packet of chocolate digestives and my trusty tranny radio (with mono earplug).
It was during one of these recovery bed-ins that Paul Burnett cranked 'Teenage Kicks'. Burnett, or his producer, always had healthily punky playlist - Sham 69, The Strangers, Ian Dury album tracks and the Sex Pistols/Tenpole Tudor 'Rock Around The Clock' (with it's discreet effing and jeffing) were all fed to his lunchtime listeners.
However the first Undertones single I paid a few pocket money pence for was the Power-Pop meets Parka-Punk 'You've Got My Number', heard by way of Radio Luxembourg's Thursday night New Wave chart rundown.. It's a sizzling piece of guitar riffery that I still clonk out on my SG today -so after picking up the recent Undertones Anthology (loaded with one full disc of rarities and demos), being the cheeky blogger I am, thought I'd get in touch and fire off a few questions, and Tone me I only got a reply didn't I ....from Mr Damian O'Neill himself....
Was there one song, album or artist that made you pick up a guitar and go from passive listener to active learner? Quite a few actually...Van Morrison and Them doing Bob Dylan’s ‘It’s All Over Now Baby Blue’, John Foggerty’s solo on ‘I Put A Spell On You’, Keith Richards piercing guitars on Beggars Banquet, Johnny Thunders on ‘Babylon’, Wilco Johnson.
How did you first become aware of the growing punk scene, and if being Undertone hadn't worked out, where would you have ended up? I remember reading Neil Spencer’s review of the Sex Pistols at the Marquee in the NME in early ‘76. People forget how provocative it was then to call your group ‘The Sex Pistols’. We then heard the brilliant ‘New Rose’ by the Damned, followed by Anarchy in the U.K and I also remember cutting out an Observer article from Dec. ‘76 which talked about the English punk scene.
Was there a long term plan with the band - and did you expect to still be going in 2008? Are you kidding! You couldn’t plan anything in the Undertones as usually someone would quit every couple of weeks/months (except me of course)
No and neither do I expect to be going in 2058
Are you listening to any albums or artists in 2008 that you wouldn't have expected to (or admitted to) back in the seventies? Plenty! Joni Mitchell, Fairport Convention, The Incredible String Band, Faust, Can, Brian Eno, Free (are all these people hairy enough for you?)
I can hear The Undertones influence in a ton of other bands from seventies new wavers to noughties US punks - is there anyone you've ever heard and recognised an echo of The Undertones tone in? Supergrass, Blur, Ash, Sigur Ros (only joking)
Any plans for a complete album gig? No.
Excepting That Petrol Emotion, have you ever been tempted to do an album or selection of acoustic tracks, covers or dance tunes? No.
What's the breakdown of an Undertones audience? Supermodels, wags, A-list celebs and fat baldy old fellas with beer bellies slam dancing at the front.
The first Undertones single I bought was ‘You've Got My Number’ which features a blistering riff (and great cover on the B-side too) - do you feel other 'Tones tunes get overshadowed by ‘Teenage Kicks’? Absolutely and it’s all John Peel’s fault!
Do you know how often 'Teenage kicks' gets aired per day on radio or TV, and if so what's an average day’s play? No, maybe you should ask my brother’s accountant!
Given a second chance is there anything you'd do differently - or any advice you'd give to aspiring groups or songwriters? Well, I wish that I gave my tuppence worth in all those dreaded group meetings I’ve had over the years instead of nodding my head in silent agreement.
What’s your most pinch-yourself rock ‘n’ roll moment? Just recently, playing on stage again with That Petrol Emotion at the Electric Picnic festival in Ireland....amazing cos I never thought it would happen again.
The Undertones - 'You've Got My Number'
The B-side of 'Number' was 'Lets Talk About Girls' - a cover of a Chocolate Watch Band tune featured on Lenny Kaye's legendary Nuggets comp'
I only know a limited amount about each of these performers, and I think I'll keep it that way. It's actually quite liberating enjoying these songs for the songs sake - and not having the added baggage of facts and figures or being weighed down with the relative worth worked out on some ready reckoner of rock, pop and soul, which would burst the mystery bubble and take the gloss of the goodies anyway.
And for more funky nuggets why not check out what's a popping on all new That Black Magic blog
Judy Clay 'Private Number' the duet with recorded William Bell, was her only UK hit. Judy Clay - 'It Ain't Long Enough'
Dee Dee Warwick Is Dionne's elder sister. Dee Dee Warwick -Rescue Me
Dee Dee also does a belting version of 'Monday Monday' - I'm desperate to get any version of this - so I'd be eternally grateful if anyone could slip a 'Monday Monday' MP3 my way.
Who is Sonny King? Sidekick of Jimmy Durante, flatmate of Dean Martin, writer of Rat Pack gags and star of this piece of Mondo Bizarro Video - that's who.
Sonny King "I Cried For You"
An extraordinary amount of my mate's dads still had this Sonny 'sports-casual' look going well into the seventies.
Most of the Stones uptempo output comes with a fully formed stomp in it's step, created by a combo of Charlie's pumping pulse-beat drums, Keef's louche grooves and Mick's swishery (check out 'Bitch' or 'Monkey Man' for examples of all three in perfect synch'), so it only takes a touch of extra heat under the tunes to clonk them up a groovy gear...
Recording possibly the most influential "ooh-ooh's" ever (kicks in at 1:18)
Thelma Houston - Jumpin' Jack Flash
A beaut' of a belter
Otis Redding - Satisfaction
Otis's (backed by Booker T and The MGs)entire Monterey set is explosive, but this track is unrelenting - listen out for 'Duck' Dunn's piledriving bass runs.
Happy Halloween all you crypt kickers, freak-beaters and fangomaniacs. Hell comes to your house early this year with a three part posting for this week's Freaky Funky Friday including ...a seventy minute monster mix - Youtube treat - and a right ol' Carry On (plus some chilling tunes on C-Mondo too) 
