A quick ode to a beautiful and enigmatic tune: Glen Campbell‘s hit version of Jimmy Webb‘s Wichita Lineman. Surely one of the most haunting and even creepy of all love songs and packed with unanswered questions. Has he gone mad, hearing voices in the static of the power lines or has he tapped her phone ? When I hear this song I actually can picture myself up a lonely telephone pole on some bleak and empty highway somewhere, my heart full of longing. Plus: A tasty Fender VI solo !
Calling a woman a “ho” has negative connotations, obviously, but it doesn’t seem to bother rappers Smokahontas Jones and Memphis Blac: It’s their day jobs! Yup, apparently they’re actual streetwalkers who rap on the side. Their song Got Dat Work has recently become a viral video hit on YouTube. From an interview at Street Carnage:
How do you feel about the response to Got Dat Work?
MEMPHIS BLAC: We really never expected so much attention from the video. But you know what I’m saying.… What I say, a lot of people don’t want to be heard. I will tell the truth and speak my mind. On the video we got a comment from some person and he said he was staying at the Loeb Hotel on Collins Avenue, he said that he had never seen anybody walking the streets or any prostitutes — but he couldn’t be any further from the truth because I was on Collins three weeks ago and it’s all good. I’ve got a lot of things to say … I’ve been out in the streets, I’ve been pimped, I’ve done everything there is, you know what I’m saying. I standing here on my own, I got a clear head, I ain’t dead. I thank god I don’t have AIDS.
What’s next for you two?
MEMPHIS BLAC: We are going to drop my first solo album and my new video. I just filmed Hoe Money — this is the one. Everybody talking shit that have something negative to say will see this video and won’t say shit.
SMOKAHONTAS: It’s quite frankly going to shut them the fuck up.
Video below featuring “celebrity crackhead” Dope Fiend Pimpin’ Jerry:
Interview with rapping street prostitutes (Street Carnage)
At your next Tea Party event impress your friends with the “Teabagging Tea Bag.” It’s made out of muslin (that’s muslin, not Muslim) and it’s reusable! Available from The Cheeky.com
Richard’s “Tokyo Beatles” piece inspired me to dig up a video from one of my favorite Bollywood films Janwar, which feature’s The Indian Beatles and stars Bollywood legend Shammi Kapoor. Shammi’s the cat with the moptop and the cheesy looking white Beatle jacket and black bowtie. Kapoor was known as the Elvis Presley of Hindi cinema, but in this clip, he looks more like Shep of the Three Stooges.
The song in the clip is Dekho Ab Tu and the music and lyrics are credited to Shankar Jaikishan, Hasrat Jaipuri and Shailendra. But, you’d have to be deaf not to recognize it as I Want To Hold Your Hand.
Lots of Beatles on the blog of late, but that’s okay, you can never have enough Beatles, can you? Of course not!
The Tokyo Beatles were a cover band with a couple of twists (and shouts) that set them apart from other Beatles tribute acts. First off, they were, obviously, Japanese, and sang horribly mangled Japanglish versions of Lennon and McCartney’s compositions. There were also only three of them and their arrangements were kinda, almost jazzy, considering what they were setting out to do. I have a copy of their only album, Meet the Tokyo Beatles, which came out on RCA in 1964. I got it as a gift from Pizzicato Five’s Yasuharu Konishi back in 1994 when I was in Japan.
There is hardly any information on these guys anywhere, either in English or in Japanese. I found an old LIFE magazine article (from an amazing (for its vintage) “Youth in Japan” theme issue) that mentions them and has a pic, but the only real information it imparts is that the Tokyo Beatles were making only $85 dollars a month, in marked contrast to the incomes of the real Beatles and that they had more hair than talent! Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce to you, The Tokyo Beatles!!
Sorry for the lazy post, but the only thing I can think of to say about this guy and his sidekick is: What fucking assholes. In the video above, a “man of God” deludes himself that he’s fighting demonic forces (that would be teh gays) at a National Organization for Marriage (NOM) tour stop on 18 July, 2010. What an ugly, hateful display of ignorance and superstition! Jesus wouldn’t want anything to do with them.