Ken Nordine’s 1966 album Colors is the perfect marriage of the beat poetic impulse and good ol’ regular American advertising. Ken Nordine was asked to produce a series of radio spots for the Fuller Paint Company, and how the heck do you promote color on the radio anyway? Nordine did 10 commercials, each playfully extolling one of the colors in the spectrum—actually it was 9 colors and an additional one for the spectrum—and, much to everyone’s surprise, people called in and asked to hear the commercials again. So an album was cut, this time with 34 colorful poems set to music.

These delightfully square light-jazz classics will instantly turn any six-year-old into a finger-snapping hepcat. If you’re putting together an mp3 mix for a party, throw in a few of these Nordine classics, they’re short and everyone will notice them.

True to the bebop impulse, according to Nordine, the music was pretty much improv’d on the spot:
 

A fellow by the name of Bob Pritkin, a very strange and talented man, worked at an advertising agency, called me up and wanted me to do the Fuller Paint commercials. The assignment was to take nine colors, and then one would be all colors—spectrum. From that I wrote the ten commercials, starting with “The Fuller Paint Company invites you to stare with your ears at yellow,” and then we would do yellow or blue or green. What I did was I wrote this out, and then I got a group of musicians together to depict—free form—as we were recording it. For example, “The Fuller Paint Company invites you to stare with your ears at yellow”: “In the beginning” (whatever the musicians thought “in the beginning” sounded like) “or long before that”—and it would continue as light was deciding who was going to be in or out of the spectrum—“yellow was in serious trouble.” Well, that was one. We also did another one which was a yellow canary, or a yellow lemon drop, or y’ello, can you hear me?—a lot of light-hearted things. At any rate, I wrote the ten commercials and was very pleased. They were only on the air for thirteen weeks, and then they went off. People would call up and say, “Hey—play that again,” and they couldn’t, because they were commercials. And so, they caused quite a stir. They won an International Broadcast Award, which was wonderful, you know—something to dust. Very strange to win this big award, and that was the end of it. I thought, “God, how ephemeral. That was so much fun, doing that, and now it isn’t going to be heard anymore.” So I added about thirteen more colors—we did forty-four, all told—and I went back to Universal Recording in Chicago, and did the whole series of the colors, taking out the name of the Fuller Paint Company and just doing the colors as you hear them on the record. Yellow is different, but the rest are pretty much the same as they were.

 

 
Here’s a sample lyric, from the album’s opener “Olive”:
 

Olive, poor thing
Sits and thinks
That it’s drab
Sure does

Sits and sits and sits and sits and thinks
About it’s olive drab drab
Doesn’t know that it is about to be named
Color of the year
By those with the nose for the new
By the passionate few

Yeah
Olive is definitely in
Everything that can possibly mean anything
Anywhere
At least for a year
Has got to be olive
Did you hear that, olive? Did ya?
Know what it means?

Oh, olive
There’ll be olive cars
and olive trucks
and olive chickens
and olive ducks
and olive socks
and olive garters
and olive breaks
and olive starters

Olive sorry
Olive please
Olive whatnots
and olive trees
Olive trees?
What a quaint notion
Olive trees

Here are the first five tracks of the album—if you want to listen to all 34 of them (almost all of them are in the 1:34 area in terms of length), then you can go here, I’m not going to clog up this page with 34 embeds.
 
“Olive”

 
“Lavender”

 
“Burgundy”

 
“Yellow”

 
“Green”

 
Here’s a cute kinetic type animation inspired by “Green”:
 

 
Even a heavy metal tourist such as myself holds the late Ronnie James Dio in reverence. He was an early pioneer of the genre, with bands Elf and Rainbow. He sang for Black Sabbath for a while, and he managed a 30-year career with his own band, Dio. He’s even widely credited with the creation of the infamous “devil horns,” though he insists he merely cultivated the gesture from his Italian grandmother’s attempts to ward off the “evil eye.”

But like I said, I’m merely a casual observer of the genre. I am however, pretty well-versed in early rock ‘n’ roll teeny-bopper fodder—at least, enough so to say that Ronnie James Dio’s early pop crooner career is totally worthy of cranking up on the AM radio when you’re making-out at “Make-Out Point.” He started making music in 1957—it only makes sense that Ronald James Padavona had a few family-friendly incarnations before finding his place in the black hearts of a million Satan-loving heshers. And honestly? The dude was just really talented, with incredible musical instincts and an all-around great voice.
 

Ronnie Dio and The Prophets, looking wholesome
 
Below is just a smattering of teen dream Dio’s early recordings. The first (my favorite) is Ronnie Dio and The Red Caps’ 1960 gem,  “An Angel is Missing”—very Ricky Nelson. The second one is Ronnie Dio and The Prophets’ rendition of “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow,” probably from 1962. This is literally one of my favorite songs of all time—I am ruthlessly protective of it, and I approve. The third is Ronnie Dio and The Prophets again, doing “I Told You So.” I saved this one for last, because it’s the darkest one, and its ominous sound may have predicted what was to come!!!!
 

“An Angel is Missing”
 

“Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow”
 

“I Told You So”

 
Fans of brutal music, here’s a chance to own a piece of history. Swans sold one of their master reels from their Holy Money sessions in 2010, and, citing a friend’s financial hardship, the buyer is offering it for sale once again. View the auction here.

This is my prized possession, but a friend is in a dire situation so I’m listing this for sale.

This the original master reel for Swans’ masterpiece, “Holy Money”. It’s one of a kind (obviously) and you will never see this again unless whoever purchases this one decides to sell it. The majority of these master reels are still in the possession of Jarboe, from whom I purchased this particular one.

This is an 1/4 track Ampex 406 reel. It has no inner sheet but the box has the full info written on it. Michael Gira’s handwriting is what is on the outside of the box. The reel box has “Swans” etc in black marker in Michael Gira’s handwriting. You are getting an attached signed letter of authenticity from Jarboe. It is stamped in blood.

To PLAY this reel (and it is 25 years old) you would have to do what is called “bake” the reel. And sometimes that works and other times it doesn’t work. It just depends on the condition of a particular old reel. I don’t know what kind of equipment is used to bake reels but some engineers know how to do it.

This reel has been stored for years in NYC and was at one time in Swans rehearsing studio on the lower east side. It is a part of history.

 

 

 
There you have it. If you wanted it four years ago and lost out, your second chance is here.

Holy Money came at a pivotal period in Swans’ development. Their debut EP was a straightforwardly No-Wave record, and they quickly morphed from that into a monstrously brutal machine, with menacing tribal drumming and punishingly slow and noisy guitar riffs underscoring the horrifically self-abasing lyrics of singer/visionary Michael Gira. The Young God EP is representative of the period, and is completely awesome (it contains the notorious “Raping a Slave”).

But perhaps feeling painted into a corner, Swans began casting about for new sources of inspiration. Bassist Algys Kizys and singer Jarboe were added to the band, and the new lineup experimented with keyboards, tape loops, acoustic instruments, and frankly, restraint. Holy Money and its sister/predecessor LP Greed were both recorded in the same sessions, and contain alternate versions of some of the same songs—there’s a very good reason both albums were reissued on CD as a single package (bargainously, along with Young God and the Cop album). These are transitional albums leading to the stunning fruition of the band on Children Of God, which was THE must-have Swans recording until the recent The Seer. But often, transitional albums are the most interesting, and Holy Money remains my favorite by the band. Check out the four tacks from the reel for sale:
 

Swans - “Fool (#2)”
 

Swans - “Another You”
 

Swans - “Money is Flesh (#2)”—the track that permanently cemented me as a fan
 

Swans - “Coward”

The live shows from this era were documented and released as the 2xLP Public Castration Is a Good Idea. And here’s some footage of the utterly bleak experience, from the A Long Slow Screw VHS tape.
 

 
More live Swans after the jump…

 
Last week, DM treated you to the high school talent show set by Mike Patton’s Mr. Bungle, who would go on to become a proggy art-metal phenom in the ‘90s. Today, we bring you such a set from Ween, a duo of high-as-fuck, genre-hopping, weirdo rock homagistes who found completely unexpected MTV success in 1992 with “Push th’ Little Daisies,” and went on from there to find a Deadhead type following among fellow marijuana enthusiasts.

Ween’s first three albums, GodWeenSatan: The Oneness, The Pod, and Pure Guava, are hilarious, rambling affairs full of sophomoric stoner humor—there’s no telling how many bongrips and inane giggles met their maker during the zillion or so times I listened to stuff like “Pollo Asado,” and “Don’t Get 2 Close (2 My Fantasy)” on repeat—and genre-savvy nods to basically any and every kind of music they happened to like. For Chocolate & Cheese and 12 Golden Country Greats, they narrowed their focus to explorations of soul and country, respectively. They returned to the unpredictable with 1997’s The Mollusk, and after that, I can’t tell you much, as by then I fell off of the weed—and Ween—wagons. I’ve really only skimmed their later output (thank you Martin Schneider and Spotify), though I found quite a lot to like about what I heard. They made well-regarded albums for very, very high people until 2012, when singer/guitarist Gene Ween announced the end of the band.
 

 
But that unlikely career arc began at New Hope-Solebury High School in lovely New Hope, PA, right across the Delaware river from Lambertville, NJ, where young Dean Ween (Mickey Melchiondo) and Gene Ween (Aaron Freeman) collided with destiny and possibly a Graffix bong (for tobacco use only) with a Dark Side of the Moon sticker on it. Melchiondo was kind enough to share some old footage with us:

I saw you posted a video of Mister Bungle at their high school talent show so I thought I’d mail you this equally awful clip of Ween at our talent show (which we won). It’s me (Deaner) on guitar, Aaron (Gene Ween) on bass, Christina Serino on drums, and our friend Scott Lowe (who is now a nationally syndicated DJ) on vocals. After losing for 3 years we finally won this year, our juinior or senior year, I can’t remember? It’s “Boys” by the Beatles.

Before the predictable commenters injure themselves by speed-typing while hyperventilating, yes, many, many people are aware that the song was originally recorded by The Shirelles.

So here’s that video. Why not watch it with a bud?
 

 
Some smartass/genius has procured a sign-language video, evidently produced by Jehovah’s Witnesses, meant to instruct the deaf on why it’s important to avoid the evils of masturbation, and set it to the music of rapper/actor 50 Cent (that’s pronounced “FIDDY Cent,” in case you didn’t know, he said, whitely), of Get Rich Or Die Tryin’ fame.

I really wish there was something… anything I could add to this, but the sign language gestures for tossing one off turn out to be pretty much what you’d expect.
 

 
Although the Grateful Dead had already played one memorable gig in France in June of 1971 at the (“Honky”) Château d’Hérouville recording studio, that was more of a spontaneous hippie “happening” than a concert performed in front of a ticketed audience. It wasn’t until 1972 that the group properly toured Europe. By then there was a lot of pent up demand to see the Dead and the band was inspired by the reception they received from their non-English speaking fans.

One stop, well two, along that legendary trek occurred at the Tivolis Koncertsal in Copenhagen. The band played the Tivolis on April 14 and then three days later they returned for a second concert that was broadcast live—part of it, at least—on Danish (some sources say French) television, with the remainder of the material shot that night getting an airing in August of that year.

As “formal” visual recordings of earlier Dead shows in their entirety (or close to it) are not exactly in abundance, this show has long been prominent among tape traders in varying levels of quality (As seen here it’s very, very fine). It’s probably the final professionally videotaped show of Pigpen playing with the band.
 

 
Although it starts off slowly—the group’s improvisational nature seems hampered slightly due to having to fit their set into the allotted TV time frame—stay with it,  the energy level rises as the set goes on.

Me And Bobby McGee
Chinatown Shuffle
China Cat Sunflower >
I Know You Rider
Jack Straw
He’s Gone (first time for this onstage)
Next Time You See Me
One More Saturday Night
It Hurts Me Too
Ramble On Rose
El Paso
Big Railroad Blues
Truckin’

Eventually all of the Grateful Dead’s 1972 European tour was released as the 73 disc box set, Europe ‘72: The Complete Recordings. It ain’t cheap…
 

 
Simon and Garfunkel’s 1969 television special “Songs of America” shows the two on stage, in the studio and on a concert tour across a turbulent country. Their ambitious Bridge Over Troubled Water album had yet to be released and the glorious title song was heard here by the general public for the very first time. The program showed news clips of labor leader/activist Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers, the Poor People’s Campaign’s march on Washington, the assassinations of Martin Luther King, JFK and Robert Kennedy and other events that were emblematic of the era.

“Songs of America” was originally sponsored by the Bell Telephone Company, but the execs there got cold feet when they saw what they’d paid for—legend has it that they looked at the footage of JFK, RFK and MLK during the (powerful!) “Bridge Over Troubled Water” segment (approx 12 minutes in) and asked for more Republicans! (Not assassinated Republicans, just more Republicans...you know, for balance!) The special was eventually picked up by CBS.

It was directed by the comedic actor, writer and later talk show host Charles Grodin, a friend of the duo. Grodin had already been in a bit part in Rosemary’s Baby (he was the obstetrician), but had yet to gain notoriety with his role in Catch-22.

Songs heard include “America,” “So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright,” “Bridge over Troubled Water,” “Scarborough Fair,” “El Condor Pasa (If I Could),” “Punkys Dilemma,” “Mrs. Robinson,” “Mystery Train,” “The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy),” “The Boxer,” “Homeward Bound,” and “The Sound of Silence.”
 

“In the town where I was born, lived a man who sailed to sea, and he told us of his life, with his Yellow Submarine Vans…”

As a lifelong wearer of Vans, I’m not entirely sure I’d wear these psychedelic puppies. I can appreciate them, though, as a novelty item and Vans fan.

Perhaps if one of the classic styles showcased the Blue Meanies, then I might seriously have to reconsider…

The Yellow Submarine-themed shoes are around $65 + shipping at the Vans website.

 

 
Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Mick Jagger makes his TV debut with some sensible shoes

Nick Cave and David Bowie hi-top All Stars sneakers

Footwear with bite: Fancy shoes with teeth soles

Foot Fetish: Freaky faces in old, discarded shoes

h/t Nerdcore

 
When the mashup phenomenon hit remix culture a dozen or so years ago, I found the whole business exhilarating. DJs were gleefully combining a capella tracks with instrumental beds from often wholly incompatible songs and making it work, sometimes giving valuable new context to classics, sometimes even creating tracks that improved on both of their sources. People like dsico, Freelance Hellraiser, and the massively gifted and almost frighteningly prolific Go Home Productions were fashioning technically impressive and admirably witty pop-song syntheses.

What I’m sharing with you today isn’t nearly as advanced as all that.
 

 
Some clever or stupid person (it’s such a fine line) using the nom de YouTube “machined01” has mashed up Lou Reed‘s immortal noise prank Metal Machine Music with Brian Eno’s groundbreaking Ambient 1: Music for Airports. Not a dazzling technical feat, surely, but the results, surprisingly, are really lovely.
 

‘Metal Machine Music For Airports 1
 

‘Metal Machine Music For Airports 2
 

‘Metal Machine Music For Airports 3
 

‘Metal Machine Music For Airports 4

Feel free to kick the concept up a level and play all four at once.

Here’s a fantastic TV clip of Eno talking about Music For Airports, and how he arrived at the ideas that would codify just about all of the ambient music that followed. It’s not very long, and well worth the few minutes of your time.
 

 
A big ol’ hat tip is due to Pitchfork/The Wire scribe Marc Masters (who also co-wrote the book on No-Wave, as it happens) for this find.

 
Doonesbury fans will already be familiar with the character of “Jimmy Thudpucker,” Garry Trudeau’s device for commenting on the then-new archetype of the big-time 70s rock and roll star. As Wikipedia has it, “He is generally seen as a combination of Bob Dylan and John Denver (and to some extent, Loudon Wainwright III), and became a rock star in the seventies, when he was only 19. Others have compared Thudpucker to a young Jackson Browne.” To my way of thinking, Jackson Browne is generic enough to serve as an ideal model for Thudpucker; that seems about right.

Dangerous Minds readers will remember the recent post we did about the 1977 Doonesbury TV special. It turns out that there was a similar cross-pop culture injection around the same time—I refer to the Jimmy Thudpucker LP release: Jimmy Thudpucker’s Greatest Hits, released on John Denver’s Windsong label in 1977.
 

 
“Jimmy” was accompanied by “the Walden West Rhythm Section”—in the Doonesbury universe, “Walden” is Trudeau’s stand-in for Yale University.

The Walden West Rhythm Section featured some of the best session musicians available—and crazily enough, the ad-hoc outfit may have included Keith Moon for at least a little bit. Let’s look at the evidence. What’s crystal clear is that the core of Thudpucker’s backup band was made up of some very familiar names such as the album’s producer, Steve Cropper, who also played guitar; bassist Donald “Duck” Dunn; guitarist Jay Graydon; legendary session drummer Jeff Porcaro. Of course, Cropper and Dunn are both legendary figures from Booker T and the MGs; and Porcaro was a member of Toto, which formed around the same time; whereas Jay Graydon awesomely nailed the guitar solo on Steely Dan’s 1977 song “Peg.” (In fact, a number of 1977 Doonesbury strips centered on a character called Jay “Wah-Wah” Graydon.)

So far, so good, right? Still no evidence of Keith Moon. But wait. The ninth track on the album is “Ginny’s Song”—it was released as a single and (I think) came out a year or so before the album—on Warner Bros., not Windsong; that is, it may have been an entirely different session. (“Ginny” was a reference to “Virginia Slade,” an important African-American character from the early years of the strip.) Here’s a screenshot from the video linked below, of a YouTube user playing the “Ginny’s Song” single and also showing the sleeve artwork.
 

 
Well, well! Another clue is that Steve Cropper was listed as one of the producers of Keith Moon’s 1975 solo album Two Sides of the Moon.

True to Thudpucker’s essence as a cobbled-together stand-in to represent any number of actual musicians, the tracks on Greatest Hits are all over the map. Sometimes, as on “You Can’t Fight It,” the music has a sultry, funky edge; “I Do Believe” is a pure Dylan parody; “Ginny’s Song” is white soul/pop hybrid.

The voice of Jimmy Thudpucker was actually James “Jimmy” Brewer, who, due to the in-joke nature of pretending that Thudpucker’s album was a real thing, à la Spinal Tap, was denied his due credit for his singing performance for, well, several decades. Here’s Brewer’s account, from a message board in May 2008:
 

I’m James “Jimmy” Brewer, the singer/songwriter who co-wrote the tunes and provided the voice for “Ginny’s Song,” the single for Warner Bros.; the film, “A Doonesbury Special,” and the LP, “Jimmy Thudpucker’s Greatest Hits,” released on Windsong Records.

For reasons still unknown to me, when all three projects were unveiled, Mr. Trudeau had completely removed my name from everything and had given the credit for my work to “Jimmy Thudpucker.” There was a “rumour,” circulated via many newspapers that regularly ran Doonesbury, that Trudeau was indeed secretly Jimmy Thudpucker. A number of the songs, including the two that were used in the film, were written before I ever met Mr. Trudeau.

I was the sole participant in all three projects whose work went totally uncredited. Twenty-five years later, after countless inquiries, he acknowledged me on his website.

 
“Ginny’s Song”

 
After the jump, all 10 tracks of Jimmy Thudpucker’s Greatest Hits…...