Since we can’t all make it to Stonehenge, here’s Dangerous Minds muse, Marianne Faithfull, to welcome in the longest day of the year! Summer Nights was released two singles after As Tears Go By, and the below performance dates from Faithfull’s September, ‘65 appearance on Shindig. Ahh, such a sweet voice back then coming from the great great niece of Venus In Furs scribe, Leopold von Sacher-Masoch!
Swiss Miss and mayonnaise and marshmallow fluff, that’s what little Americans are made of! If you spend any time at all in the “middle aisles” of most American supermarkets, you may not be surprised by what the below traveler discovers in a German grocery store:
(via Sociological Images)
Here’s a rare and probably fleeting chance to see what’s routinely called one of the worst films ever made: The Phynx (1970). Essentially a musical comedy vehicle for a cavalcade of stars such as, ahem : Dick Clark, Xavier Cugat, Ed Sullivan, James Brown, Richard Pryor, and (wait for it…) Colonel Sanders ! The synopsis : An athlete, a campus militant, a black model, and an American Indian are picked by a female-shaped computer to form a rock group and go on tour in Albania where American show biz people have been kidnapped by Communists. Natch ! You can watch the whole thing in pieces on the ‘Tube from the same user, but I’ve selected this astonishing early scene in which a Spector-esque record producer guides the band through the recording of their first sure-fire hit: A hilariously clueless attempt at hipster rock written by none other than Lieber and Stoller. A bad trip is guaranteed for all !
The Phynx-Worst Movie of All Time? (Booksteve’s Library)
thx Jimi Hey !
Here’s a clever Doctor Who and Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy mashup.
(via Nerdcore)
A fascinating look at what Jimi Hendrix was listening to at home can be seen at the Record Mecca blog. A collector acquired several of Jimi’s “well loved” (i.e. played to shit) albums in an auction from Kathy Etchingham, Jimi’s longtime girlfriend:
I thought people might enjoy knowing—and seeing—what Jimi was listening to during his London years. The collection I purchased included Jimi’s copies of these albums:
Robert Johnson “King of the Delta Blues Singers”; Muddy Waters “The Real Folk Blues”; John Lee Hooker “Drifting Blues”; Wes Montgomery “A Day In The Life”; The Roland Kirk Quartet “Rip, Rig and Panic”; Ravi Shankar “India’s Master Musician” and “Portrait of a Genius”; The Jimi Hendrix Experience “Electric Ladyland”; The Dream “Get Dreamy”; Howlin Wolf “The Howlin’ Wolf Album” and “Moanin’ In The Moonlight”; Bob Dylan “Greatest Hits” and “Highway 61 Revisited”; Elmore James “Memorial Album”; James Brown “Showtime”; Clara Ward “Gospel Concert”; Acker Bilk “Lansdowne Folio”; The Beatles “Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band” Various “Chicago The Blues Today”; Various “American Folk Blues Festival ‘66” and Bill Cosby “Revenge.”
The copy of “Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits” has some psychedelic doodling on the back, clearly by Jimi. Somehow Bonhams didn’t notice this for the auction description—a very happy discovery for me.
The copy of Dylan’s “Highway 61 Revisited” has some of Jimi’s blood on the cover—according to Etchingham, the result of a wine glass accident.
Jimi Hendrix’s Record Collection (Record Mecca)
Thank you Michael Simmons!
Shot over the course of eighteen months, Julien Nitzberg’s amazing documentary film, The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia follows the often comical, sometimes tragic antics of the hell-raising hillbilly White family of Boone County, WV. The Whites engage in a mind-blowing array of anti-social and criminal activities with barely concealed glee. This must-see film is unlike like any documentary I’ve ever seen and finally, a year after this interview was taped, it’s getting released theatrically and on iTunes and Amazon.
“Perversion for Profit links pornography to the Communist conspiracy and the decline of Western civilization.” The producer, Citizens for Decent Literature, Inc. was the organization of crooked banker Charles “Mr. Clean” Keating, one of the central figures in the savings and loan scandal of the 1980s. Clearly Keating and his cohorts seemed to know an awful lot about the pornography available at the time.
Let’s remember jazz saxophonist Eric Dolphy, who would have turned 88 today. Over his 30 albums as a bandleader, Dolphy showed an amazing versatility and development, emerging from his be-bop roots into some wonderfully accessible avant garde creations, like his last, Out to Lunch, for Blue Note.
People celebrate that album as a classic of new jazz for good reason. It’s innovative and gritty instead of abstract and simply free for its own sake, as Dolphy seems to transfigure the idea of melody rather than rejecting it out of hand. It’s simply beautiful and compelling, and worth having in your library if you don’t yet.
Dolphy’s death at 36 from diabetes in 1964 in Berlin was especially tragic because it wasn’t from typically regarded circumstances—he was substance-free and didn’t even smoke.
“He was a musical centipede,” notes drummer Han Bennink in the documentary below. “I could hear that he could do everything.”
Get: Eric Dolphy - Out To Lunch (The Rudy Van Gelder Edition)
‘Mickey Mouse and the Medicine Man’ is taken from a 1951 Mickey Mouse comic book. The plot goes something like this: Goofy (obviously so-named because he was always hopped up on goofballs) brings over some “Peppo” for Mickey to try. Mickey likes it. I mean he really, really likes it.
Mickey decides to become a brand evangelist (pusher) for the product and guess where they send him? Why, to Africa of course!
Read the whole thing—it’s crazy—at All That’s Interesting.
Thank you Brian Tibbetts!
