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Two Christmas ago, I did a 2 CD (actually 4 CD) mix made up of covers. I wanted to dip back into that since covers, especially when they’re more of a reinterpretation than a straight cover, are always fun.

For this mix, I’ve decided to focus on one particular artist: Syd Barrett. Syd was a founding member of Pink Floyd, playing on all their early singles, the first and some of the second album. At the start he was their vocalist, guitarist and principle song writer.

Due to drugs and a going a bit crazy, he left/was kicked out of Pink Floyd. He still performed and put out two albums over the next few years before “retiring.” Though his musical output lasted barely over five years, he is still seen as in influential legend.

I got into Syd Barrett in the late 80s after I got into (then) current Pink Floyd. After dipping into their back catalog, discovered Piper at the Gates of Dawn (Floyd’s first album) and snatching up Barret’s Madcap Laughs and a few bootlegs courtesy of the guy who used to sell bootlegs at the Frackville Mall, I was hooked.

Living in central Pennsylvania, I was the only person I knew who was into Syd. Towards the end of high school, with the explosion of “alternative music” finally bubbling its way into Mifflinburg, others got into him too.

Somewhere along the way, I picked up a Syd Barrett tribute album at a record shop in Williamsport. Beyond the Wildwood had a bunch of great songs on it, some of which have made it to this mix. Most of this mix, however, comes from research.

To be honest, I hadn’t heard most of the songs (or even most of the bands) prior to making this mix. Sure, I had heard of Jesus and Mary Chain, David Bowie and Robyn Hitchcock, but who are Dream Divers, Midnight Movies and Carnival Act? Beats me! But everybody here, all 46 bands, have been influenced by Syd Barrett enough to cover one of this songs.

I wanted to do something fun with two discs full of music, so I have the same 23 songs done twice by two different artists. For example, “Long Cold Look” is done by both Fat & Limo as well as Dolphins.

Some of the songs are pretty straight forward. Robyn Hitchcocks “Dominoes” sounds almost exactly like Syd. I can hardly tell the difference between Paul Roland’s “Matilda Mother” and the original. Other songs, however, are drastically changed. The Polka Floyd Show does a polka cover of “See Emily Play,” while Fortran 5 does a very liberal interpretation of “Bike.”

Some other new found favorites are: “Terrapin” by Big Blood & The Bleedin Hearts, “Arnold Layne” by a very European-sounding Etienne Daho, an instrumental version of “Vegetable Man” by Larsen that really does need to be listened to intently and a dance version of “Rats” by What Noise.

Oh there’s quite a lot of fun to be had here.

This is the whole track list…

Want to hear some samples?

Big Blood & The Bleedin Hearts – Terrapin

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Gloves Leeches – No Good Trying

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Chandeen – Apples and Oranges

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The Polka Floyd Show – See Emily Play

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Larsen – Vegetable Man

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Etienne Daho – Arnold Layne

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Kevin Blechdom and Eugene Chadbourne – Chapter 24

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The Soup Dragons – Two Of A Kind

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Just click on the link and save the zip file to your desktop. Then open the zip file with WinZip (or whatever program you use to open zip files). Add to your MP3 library or burn it to a CD-R. Easy as pie!

Check out my other mixes right here…

Ok, it’s really not as impressive as it sounds. Originally, Jimmie Rodgers released everything on 78s. I don’t have those. But what I do have now (thanks to a lucky find at the local Everett record shop) is the late 50s, early 60s LPs that reissued all of his songs over an eight year period.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Jimmie Rodgers is known as the father of country music. He recorded from 1927 to 1933. In just over six years, he laid down 110 songs. Before his music career, he worked on the railroad, making ends meet for his family. In 1924, at the age of 27, he contracted Tuberculosis. Because of the illness, he had to quit the railroad, but was somehow able to organize a traveling roadshow (basically a tour) which went well until a tornado destroyed his big top.

He returned to working on the railroad in Miami and Tuscon, but lost both jobs due to his illness. Trying to find work in North Carolina, he was finally able to record his first two songs on August 4, 1927. These were “The Soldier’s Sweetheart” and “Sleep, Baby, Sleep.”

Over the next few years, he worked with other country personalities like the Carter Family, jazz musicians like Louis Armstrong, toured with Will Rogers and recorded in New York City.

In fact, that’s where his final recordings were made. In May of 1933, growing weaker and weaker due to his TB, he traveled to New York to record, completing four songs on the first day. He took a day off to recover, returning to the studio the day after. He rehearsed a few songs and recorded one – he was unable to stand and returned to his hotel room to again recover. A few days later, joined by a couple of session musicians, they recorded another song, Jimmie having to lie down on a cot in between takes. For his last song on May 24, 1933, he recorded “Years Ago” by himself. Two days later, he was dead at the age of 35.

I got into Jimmie Rodgers when I was living in West Virginia. The local library had a small record collection and I found a wonderful compilation called Country Music South And West, which featured two Jimmie Rodgers songs (“Blue Yodel No. 11″ and “Dreaming With Tears In My Eyes”). I’m not sure what drew me to them, but I had to hear more.

Thankfully, the library also had a Jimmie Rodgers “Greatest Hits” compilation. I don’t remember which one is was, but it had 15 or so songs on it and I loved every one of them.

When the file sharing thing took off, I download all 110 songs (plus some outtakes and some stuff Chet Atkins overdubbed in 1955). But as I got into vinyl, mp3s became mere shadows of what music should be. That’s when I discovered at all 110 songs were released by RCA Victor from 1956 to 1964, spread across seven LPs. The songs are out of chronological order (which does bug me a bit), but they’re all there from “The Soldier’s Sweetheart” to “Long Ago.”

The releases are:

Never No Mo’ Blues (1956)
Train Whistle Blues (1958)
My Rough And Rowdy Ways (1960)
Jimmie The Kid (1961)
Country Music Hall Of Fame (1962)
The Short But Brilliant Life Of Jimmie Rodgers (1963)
My Time Ain’t Long (1964)

They followed it up the next year with The Best Of The Legendary Jimmie Rodgers which contains 12 of his best songs including “T for Texas” and “Mule Skinner Blues.” Ten years later, they put out a double LP of songs and the year after that a split release by Jimmie and Hank Snow called All About Trains, which highlighted five songs by each artist all about trains.

I’m sure there have been other greatest hits comps over the years, but now that I’ve got all 110 songs on vinyl, I guess I don’t have much need for them.

Would you like to hear some of my favorite Jimmie Rodgers songs? Take a listen…

The Soldier’s Sweetheart (his first song)

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Mother, Queen of My Heart

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T for Texas (Blue Yodel No. 9 with Louis Armstrong on trumpet)

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Frankie and Johnny (this one’s pretty violent!)

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Dreaming With Tears in My Eyes

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In the Jail House Now

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TB Blues

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Hobo Bill’s Last Ride

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Long Ago (his last song)

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These are but a small sampling of my favorites. I hope you enjoy them.

Get the mix here and now and/or continue reading… (173MB)

Here it is! The second volume of the Flip That Bastard series, which is pretty much just the B-sides of The Bastard Love Child of Punk & Disco series, which is (or will be) three mix CDs full of first singles of bands that are commonly thought of as 80s bands, but actually started in the 70s.

Got it?

Well, in March I released Volume 2 of The Bastard Son…, which featured the first singles of Joy Division, PiL, Simple Minds, The Cars, B-52s, The Fall, Magazine, OMD, Ultravox and many more. This CD contains the b-sides to all of those singles.

I’ve always been a huge fan of b-sides, especially when they we non-album tracks and even more so when they were weird. Weird is something that we get here. Take, for example, PiL’s first b-side, “The Cowboy Song.” Weird, huh? And how about the amazingly unexpected “Circus of Death” by The Human League?

Not all is weird, of course. Some songs are just good songs. Magazine’s “My Mind Ain’t So Open” and OMD’s “Almost” are every bit as good as their A-sides. The Buggle’s “Kid Dynamo” even rivals “Video Killed The Radio Star” (or surpasses it if you’re really sick of hearing that one).

The Fall’s “Repetition” is all about truth in advertising. The Fall’s “Repetition” is all about truth in advertising. The Fall’s “Repetition” is all about truth in advertising. The Fall’s “Repetition” is all about truth in advertising. The Fall’s “Repetition” is all about truth in advertising.

One little oddity shows up here. The A-side mix featured The Specials first single “Gangsters.” The B-side was actually by The Selector – it was a split 7″. Fun!

The song that really blew me away was the B-side to Men At Work’s “Keypunch Operator.” It’s called (and basically is) “Down Under.” This is the song that would eventually give them worldwide super stardom. However, this is a very early version and very different from the tune we all know (and love?). You’ll definitely recognize it.

Remember, many of these songs were only available on the first 7″s. Sure, some were slapped on remastered CDs as bonus tracks, but many were not.

Ok, ready? Here’s the track list…

And now, how about some sample songs?

Men At Work – Down Under

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PiL – The Cowboy Song

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The Human League – Circus of Death

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The Fall – Repetition

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OMD – Almost

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Magazine – My Mind Ain’t So Open

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Just click on the link and save the zip file to your desktop. Then open the zip file with WinZip (or whatever program you use to open zip files). Add to your MP3 library or burn it to a CD-R. Easy as pie!

Check out my other mixes right here…

There are a billion songs about summer. From Duran Duran to Blue Cheer to Peter Gabriel to The Beach Boys. And when it comes to hip hop and summer, most folks immediately jump to DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince’s “Summer Time.” Sure, it’s a fine song, but long before that was “Hot Hot Summer” by the Sugarhill Gang.

You’d probably know the Sugarhill Gang from their song “Rapper’s Delight” – it was the first “hit” rap song. And you’ve probably only heard it performed by the “Rappin’ Granny” on the movie The Wedding Singer. Anyway, Sugarhill had a bunch of other songs, including a really fun one called “Hot Hot Summer Day.”

And so, for this, the first day of Summer, I’d like you to take a listen to “Hot Hot Summer Day” by Sugarhill Gang. It’s over seven minutes long, which makes it sort of a short early rap song. Back in the late 70s, some hip hop songs were anywhere form 15 to 20 minutes long. Sugarhill summed it up nicely here, so check it out.

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The internet sometimes gives us wonderful things. If it weren’t for the internet, I wouldn’t be blogging, I couldn’t see apparently countless photos of cute kitties, ugly Wal-Mart shoppers and new music that would otherwise remain unheard.

For instance, the internet was recently captivated by Insane Clown Posse’s new song. Though really into hip hop, I somehow have been lucky enough to have never heard a single ICP song. In fact, whenever I hear “ICP,” I think of root beer, not what I can only image is some really amazingly bad rap. I even know that it’s ICB, not ICP. That’s how much I don’t care about Insane Clown Posse.

The Insane Clown Posse is a group of hardcore rappers who dress up as clowns. That’s so cRaZy!! But as we grow up, have kids, families – things change. That’s ok. It’s how life works. But when your job is dressing up as a clown and tossing out some totally bad ass hardcore rhymes about the 19 levels of hell, doing a song about the joy, magic and beauty of having a child doesn’t really usually cut it.

Or, as Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope “prove” in their newest song, it may just work afterall.

No, I’m kidding, it totally doesn’t cut it.

“Miracles” is about nature stuff and about some normal everyday life stuff that totally blows the minds of ICP. Now, don’t get me wrong, most of the things they rap about are actually beautiful and amazing. Childbirth, the heavens and rainbows are all wonderful things. But, as ICP insists, this “shit” doesn’t exactly “blow your mutha fuckin’ mind.” It’s just normal stuff that, while pretty neat, doesn’t really qualify as a miracle.

But then consider the source: “Water, fire, air and dirt / Fuckin’ magnets, how do they work?” He says it like he’s really angry that he just doesn’t get the concept of magnetic fields. That’s okay too.

The rest of the song lists other “miracles” like their kids looking similar to them, ghosts, butterflies and crows (seriously, they love crows). Maybe I’m not a Juggalo (that’s hardcore street slang for an Insane Clown Posse fan), but if I were, I’d be pretty upset by the abrupt change from hardcore rap/metal to what can only be described as the rap world’s equivalent of Alice Cooper becoming a semi-professional golfer.

What this song did do was remind me of The Coup’s song about having a child. The Coup is an extremely political rap group most famous for the original, but unreleased album art for their Party Music LP. It featured band members Boots and Pam standing in front of the World Trade Center as its being blown up. The art work was created in June of 2001 (three months before 9/11, mind you) and was scheduled to be released in mid-September. Due to the obvious reasons, a new cover was made and the old one scrapped. The original art still got out there, of course, and enraged tons of people. No such thing as bad publicity, I guess.

Anyway, on that album, Boots wrote the song “Wear Clean Draws” for his daughter. It’s based around the age-old advice of wearing clean underwear just in case something bad happens. It’s cute and serious and full of actually useful advice, hopes, dreams and lines like:

Your face is just like the sun when it raises
Thank you for adding beauty to my phrases

Check that out…

So, thanks, ICP for making me remember a really great song. And in what I can only describe as a miracle on the level of magnets, rainbows and various invasive bird species, I found a copy of The Coup’s Party Music on vinyl right after hearing “Miracles.” How does that work?

As a few of my more recent posts will reveal, I’ve come down with a bad case of wanderlust. As far as I can tell, there’s no cure for this ailment, once you’ve got it, there’s no getting rid of it. The only recourse is treatment, which is wandering.

You’d think that traveling would cure this problem, but when wandering from place to place, the wanderlust is still not satisfied. In fact, the more you wander, the more you need to wander.

Of course, the opposite isn’t true, either. If you think that once bitten by this bug you can simply settle down and it’ll just go away, you don’t understand the drive of someone who needs to travel, needs to be on the open road logging mile after mile of endless beauty.

There is no destination for the wanderer, just as there can be no real home. The journey does not end in some far off town, just as it doesn’t begin where he last laid his hat and kicked off his shoes. For this rambler, life is one long, wonderful journey.

So often before, I’ve told you to travel and see the world. Now, however, I’m telling you to not travel, because if you do, you might catch this bug and never want to settle down. This is true, if you catch it, you won’t be able to settle down. Even if you get yourself a fine job with good pay and benefits, a nice house with a yard, you’ll soon feel that tugging, that itch and the temptation to scratch it will be too strong to resist.

And one scratch, one short stretch of two-lane will lead to another and then another and soon you’ll be crossing state lines and you’ll have no recollection of where you started, let alone where it’ll end.

You know… that reminds me of a song by my good friend, Roy Acuff, called “Railroad Boomer.” Why don’t you take it from here, Roy?

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Railroad Boomer by Roy Acuff

Come and gather all around me,
Listen to my tale of woe.
Got some good advice to give you,
A lot of things you ought to know.
Take a tip from one who’s traveled:
Never start to ramblin’ ‘round.
You might get the wand’ring fever
And never want to settle down.
And never want to settle down.

I met a little gal in Frisco,
I asked her if she’d be my wife.
I told her I was tired of roaming,
That I’d settle down for life.
Then I heard a whistle blowing;
I knew it was the Westport train.
I left her standing by the railroad.
I never saw that gal again.
I never saw that gal again.

I’ve traveled all over this country,
Guess I’ve traveled everywhere.
I’ve been an every branch and railroad
And never paid a nickel fare.
I’ve been from Maine to California,
Canada to Mexico.
I never tried to save no money:
I’ve got no place to go.
Got no place to go.

Now listen to a boomer’s story,
And don’t forget the things I say.
I hear another train a-coming,
And I’ll soon be on my way.
If you want to do me a favor:
When they lay me down to die,
Dig my grave beside the railroad
So I can hear the train go by.
So I can hear the trains go by.

So you folks take warning, stay at home, ok? There’s nothing to see out here, just turn on the Travel Channel and that should take care of you just fine.

There’s an old folk song called “Cotton Eyed Joe.” Most folks have heard it, but sadly, most seem to have heard a dance version of it by some crappy Sweedish band called Rednex. The original version, however, dates back to before the Civil War.

The version that I know well, done by Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys, tells a bit of a different story. It proves that over the years, the narrative suffers and can morph into an indistinguishable (but really fun) mess.

The Rednex version uses some of the same lyrics, so you might recognize them.

Here’s the song….

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Let’s review the lyrics, shall we?

Don’t you remember, don’t you know
Daddy worked’a man they called Cotton Eyed Joe

Ok, so this author’s father worked with a man named Cotton Eyed Joe. So far, so good.

Had it not been for Cotton Eyed Joe, I’d a been married a long time ago.

And here we arrive at our chorus. This line repeats throughout the song, thus sharing with us its importance. It is because of this Joe fellow that the author is not now married and was not married “a long time ago.” This is important, we shall return to this idea.

Down in the cotton patch down below
Everybody’s singing to Cotton Eyed Joe

Very well. Joe (and presumably the author’s father) works in a cotton field. For some reason that is not stated, all of the employees enjoy singing to Joe. This, however, fails to explain the ways in which Joe halted the author’s marriage.

Nevertheless, the author again repeats:
Had it not been for Cotton Eyed Joe, I’d a been married a long time ago.

Continuing,
I know a gal, lives down below
Used to go and see her, but I don’t no more.

Here may be our first clue. Could this be the girl the author was to marry before Joe stepped in?

Again, he repeats:
Had it not been for Cotton Eyed Joe, I’d a been married a long time ago.

Perhaps the next verse will shed more light on this tender subject.
I fell down and stubbed my toe
Called for the doctor Cotton Eyed Joe
Had it not been for Cotton Eyed Joe, I’d a been married a long time ago.

Or perhaps not. Here is evidence that Joe is not only an employee of a cotton farm, but also a physician or perhaps even a podiatrist. Still, the author again states that Joe is the reason he hasn’t yet married. This seems a little ungracious since Joe is doctoring the author’s toe.

Tune my fiddle and rosin my bow
Gonna make music everywhere I go
Gonna play a tune called Cotton Eyed Joe

Here we slip into a strange dream-within-a-dream segment where the author talks about playing the song that he is currently playing. This may hint at dissociative identity disorder. Perhaps the author does not realize he is already playing the song.

While this verse doesn’t clear up exactly how Joe is responsible for the author’s thwarted marriage plans, it does open up other possibilities. Perhaps the author was “crazy” and there never was a girl to marry. Or perhaps Joe stepped in on the bride-to-be’s behalf, saving her from what would be a very strained marriage – having a spouse with an acute psychological disorder is no easy task.

A conclusion can be reached that whatever the reason the author was not married a long time ago, Joe was probably not to blame. The author was the cause of his own heartbreak and is using Cotton Eyed Joe, a fellow that everyone in the cotton patch seemed to adore, a long family friend and even a doctor to the author, as a scapegoat.

A lesson can be learned here: stop blaming kindly old black men for your problems and deal with whatever it is that keeps driving the gals away. Or something like that.