Slim Gaillard was a wonderful jazz performer and inventor of his own groovy dialect he called Vout. He was notably immortalized in the following passage from Jack Kerouac’s On The Road:

‘... one night we suddenly went mad together again; we went to see Slim Gaillard in a little Frisco nightclub. Slim Gaillard is a tall, thin Negro with big sad eyes who’s always saying ‘Right-orooni’ and ‘How ‘bout a little bourbon-arooni.’ In Frisco great eager crowds of young semi-intellectuals sat at his feet and listened to him on the piano, guitar and bongo drums. When he gets warmed up he takes off his undershirt and really goes. He does and says anything that comes into his head. He’ll sing ‘Cement Mixer, Put-ti Put-ti’ and suddenly slow down the beat and brood over his bongos with fingertips barely tapping the skin as everybody leans forward breathlessly to hear; you think he’ll do this for a minute or so, but he goes right on, for as long as an hour, making an imperceptible little noise with the tips of his fingernails, smaller and smaller all the time till you can’t hear it any more and sounds of traffic come in the open door. Then he slowly gets up and takes the mike and says, very slowly, ‘Great-orooni ... fine-ovauti ... hello-orooni ... bourbon-orooni ... all-orooni ... how are the boys in the front row making out with their girls-orooni ... orooni ... vauti ... oroonirooni ...” He keeps this up for fifteen minutes, his voice getting softer and softer till you can’t hear. His great sad eyes scan the audience.

Dean stands in the back, saying, ‘God! Yes!’—and clasping his hands in prayer and sweating. ‘Sal, Slim knows time, he knows time.’ Slim sits down at the piano and hits two notes, two C’s, then two more, then one, then two, and suddenly the big burly bass-player wakes up from a reverie and realizes Slim is playing ‘C-Jam Blues’ and he slugs in his big forefinger on the string and the big booming beat begins and everybody starts rocking and Slim looks just as sad as ever, and they blow jazz for half an hour, and then Slim goes mad and grabs the bongos and plays tremendous rapid Cubana beats and yells crazy things in Spanish, in Arabic, in Peruvian dialect, in Egyptian, in every language he knows, and he knows innumerable languages. Finally the set is over; each set takes two hours. Slim Gaillard goes and stands against a post, looking sadly over everybody’s head as people come to talk to him. A bourbon is slipped into his hand. ‘Bourbon-orooni—thank-you-ovauti ...’ Nobody knows where Slim Gaillard is. Dean once had a dream that he was having a baby and his belly was all bloated up blue as he lay on the grass of a California hospital. Under a tree, with a group of colored men, sat Slim Gaillard. Dean turned despairing eyes of a mother to him. Slim said, ‘There you go-orooni.’ Now Dean approached him, he approached his God; he thought Slim was God; he shuffled and bowed in front of him and asked him to join us. ‘Right-orooni,’ says Slim; he’ll join anybody but won’t guarantee to be there with you in spirit. Dean got a table, bought drinks, and sat stiffly in front of Slim. Slim dreamed over his head. Every time Slim said, ‘Orooni,’ Dean said ‘Yes!’ I sat there with these two madmen. Nothing happened. To Slim Gaillard the whole world was just one big orooni.’

 
So with that in mind here are a handful of clips. He has so many great songs, it was hard to narrow them down !
First a few live clips from his mid-40’s heyday. A young Scatman Crothers on drums:

 
More Slim after the jump…

 
Hmmmm. Really, Diddy???

Update: Aaron AuBuchon says, “He’s like a horrible ATM.”
 
(via BuzzFeed)

 
This is indescribably surreal. Just watch.

Film footage from 1970 Czech film Na Komete (On The Comet). Moog music by Jean Pierre Decerf and Marc Saclays from the album Pulsations (1980).

 

 
I first discovered Brit rockabilly wildman Vince Taylor when I saw him and his band in some French Scopitones. I was blown away by his over-the-top stage moves and fetishy black leather outfit. The cat was ultra-cool in a synthetic sort of way, a simulacrum composed of bits and pieces of Elvis, Gene Vincent and interstellar tonup boy. Vince had a string of hits and was a mega-star in France. But, LSD, alcohol, and being absolutely convinced he was Jesus, brought Taylor’s musical life to a loopy end.

Vince Taylor may have lost it (or found IT), but before he flamed out he managed to record two of the best rockabilly songs ever recorded, Jet Black Machine and Brand New Cadillac (later covered by The Clash). He was the inspiration for David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust persona and provided the fashion proto-type for Elvis circa 1968. He opened for the Rolling Stones, copped his first hit of acid at a party for Bob Dylan and slept with Brigitte Bardot. Morrissey used footage of Taylor dancing as a visual backdrop during his 2007 tour.

Vince’s moment of fame may have been brief but it was action-packed and he left an indelible jet black impression.

In this fascinating BBC documentary, Taylor’s story is told by his former drummer (the wonderfully animated Bobbie Clarke), David Bowie and people who helped guide his brief but amazing career. Enjoy.

 
Rock journalist Steve Krakow (Plastic Crimewave) is blogging about forgotten musicians of Chicago. The Secret History Of Chicago Musicians sheds light on a number of bands I’ve never heard of and it’s a fascinating read.

Krakow went in search of the Windy City’s equivalent of Anvil, a band that flirted with fame but ended up in the cutout bin of history, and he found Amulance.

Amulance’s story is filled with your typical rock band nightmares. Formed in 1984, the group suffered through shady management, bad record deals, tours that fell through and even a murder. It’s another tale of speed metal gone off the rails and heavy metal heartache.

In compiling the reasons Amulance never made it, I’d put the vocalist’s and the lead guitar player’s fashion sense some place close to #1. Fortunately, the band has revamped it’s look for it’s recent re-union gigs. Good luck guys, it’s a jungle out there….but you already know that.

 
More heavy metal thunder after the jump…

The women of Crass: Gee Vaucher, Joy DeVivre, Eve Libertine 1982
 
A couple of Crass things of note this week:  The first fruit of their long planned remastering/repackaging program aka The Crassical Collection emerges this week (although I can’t find anybody selling this in the states yet, unfortunately) with the first Crass LP The Feeding of the 5000.

After many years of being out of print, this legendary album has been been restored from the original analogue studio tapes, repackaged and bolstered by rare and unreleased tracks, and stunning new artwork from Gee Vaucher, who has lovingly created what could only be considered a real artefact. Included in this package is a 64-page booklet featuring all lyrics along with extensive liner notes from band members Penny Rimbaud and Steve Ignorant, which shed light on the making of the record. Also included is CD-sized recreation of the iconic original fold-out poster sleeve.
‘Five thousand’s a crowd (four thousand nine hundred and ninety nine more than I imagined were going to buy the record), but two’s company (I knew for certain that my Mum would want one), so it was on the plate, ready to serve, The Feeding of the Five Thousand’. ‘We were setting out as purists: hard, uncompromising and utterly bemused’. ‘On one thing we were very clear, in bringing a prosecution of Criminal Blasphemy against us the authorities would have been giving us the kind of publicity which overnight would have made us a household name. They were aware of this, and so were we. It was a situation that allowed us carte blanche to say pretty much whatever we wanted without any real fear of incrimination, a situation which over the next seven years we exploited to the hilt’.

Epic want ! The other epic thing is this lengthy new interview with Penny Rimbaud which reveals some surprisingly bitter battles between the players accompanied by some fantastic, never before seen photos (two of which I used in this post).
 

 
Below: a fan vid for one of the most striking tunes on Feeding of the 5000

 
ANARCHY AND PEACE, LITIGATED:A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE IDEALISTIC PUNK ICONS CRASS, AND WHY IN 2010 THEY ARE GOING TO COURT OVER SOME TOTAL BULLSHIT (Vice Magazine)
 
THE FEEDING OF THE FIVE THOUSAND - REMASTERED EDITION (picadilly records)
 
Crass previously on Dangerous Minds here, here and here

 
Well, maybe 40 years ago…

Update: Jimmy Lee Wirt points out, “Obviously, she is experienced.”

(via Das Kraftfuttermischwerk)

 
Wow ! I had never seen this animated/live action film for the mini-song Sleeping In A Jar from the epic 1969 double LP Uncle Meat before. If this was, as I suspect, created as a TV ad for the LP then it’s no wonder it was never shown (except this one time on Swedish TV in 1971), given the none-too-subtle 7-UP bottle fellatio seen in the clip. As always, FZ brought the wholesome family entertainment.
 

 
Thanks Tony Coulter !

 
Rachel Bloom wrote and stars in Fuck Me, Ray Bradbury and embodies just about everything I love about women. As Dr. Tim said, “intelligence is the ultimate aphrodisiac.” A woman with a well-stacked bookshelf is my idea of bliss. And anyone who wants to fuck Ray Bradbury is a friend of mine.

Ray’s 90th birthday is on August 22nd. There’s a groovy article on the master at the L.A. Times website. Click here.

 
Don Letts made a documentary about the great Sun Ra? Yup, apparently so. I know what we’ll be watching tonight! How did this one slip past me???

Born in perhaps the most segregated place on Earth – early 20th-century Alabama – Herman Poole Blount rejected his name, his origins and the conventions of the time (or any other, for that matter), re-creating himself as Sun Ra, emissary from Saturn (“planet of discipline”) and musical genius. Blending Egyptology and Space Age imagery, he projected a philosophy of radical empowerment for the entire cosmos; keeping a big band on the road for decades through independence and communal living, he became a patriarch of jazz and an avatar of freewheeling space music. Turning from the punk and reggae with which he’s most closely associated to one of the key figures in 20th-century sound, famed DJ/filmmaker Letts presents the Sun Ra story in all its glory, combining powerful footage of Ra and his legendary Arkestra, interviews with band members shot at their famous group house in Philadelphia and testimonies from sax great Archie Shepp, Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore and other admirers.

-Keith Jones/musicfilmweb

Via Pathway To Unknown Worlds. Note that there is a download link.
 

 
Thanks William Meehan!