April 7, 2012

An 18th-century hymn done with soul

Did you know George Harrison wrote “My Sweet Lord” but that Billy Preston recorded it first in 1970?

Neither did I until I read Matthew Bolin’s fine piece, “The 10 Best Cover Songs (You Didn’t Know Were Covers)” over at Popdose earlier tonight.

Not to get all preachy on you, but as I listened, it seemed an appropriate selection for this weekend. It has a nice gospel vibe.

I’m far from knowledgeable about gospel music, and I’m not particularly reverent, but I do enjoy exploring the funk and soul aspects of gospel music.

However, the progressive but predominately white mainstream church we attend rarely explores gospel music, and when it does, it rolls out the same few songs on the same few occasions. Apparently we can dig gospel music only when Martin Luther King Jr. Day draws near. But that is another issue for another day.

Perhaps some day we’ll hear this. It’s been one of my favorites for years. It still delivers chills.

“Oh Happy Day,” the Edwin Hawkins Singers, from “Let Us Go Into The House Of The Lord,” 1968. The LP is out of print, but the song is available digitally. This was recorded live in 1967 at Ephesian Church of God in Christ in Berkeley, California.

Dorothy Combs Morrison is the lead singer. She was in her early 20s at the time. The rest of the Edwin Hawkins Singers also were young, ranging from their late teens to mid-20s.

The LP originally was to be released only locally, but it got a worldwide release after “Oh Happy Day” became a smash on San Francisco radio in 1969.

Did you know “Oh Happy Day” is a reworking of an English hymn that dates to the 18th century? Neither did I. Here’s another version.

“Oh Happy Day,” Aretha Franklin with Mavis Staples, from “One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism,” 1987. This LP also is out of print, but the song is available digitally. This was recorded live at New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit in late July 1987.

(Curiously, my copy of this song is from “Joy To The World,” a 2006 CD that was marketed as a Christmas release. However, only half of its 10 cuts are really Christmas songs. Go figure.)

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March 14, 2012

Dave’s not here. Neither is Rodney.

A furlough week over, we’re back at work.

More importantly, we’re being paid for it.

That said, our mantra remains: If we couldn’t laugh, we would all go insane.

Life in the newsroom is no less absurd this week than it was when I last worked two weeks ago. It often goes a bit like this.

“Dave,” Cheech and Chong, from “Cheech and Chong,” 1971.

Barely a minute long, this is about as good as a comedy bit gets. It’s fairly simple, yet it fires up your imagination as you envision Dave one one side of the door and the stoner on the other side.

There are plenty of days when your boss is as clueless as the stoner, aren’t there? You feel a little like Dave, don’t you?

Some days, you get no respect, I tell ya.

Head over to The Midnight Tracker for our take on that.

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March 9, 2012

Furlough week, Day 5: Happy hour

Our mantra this week: If we couldn’t laugh, we would all go insane.

Did you know George Carlin started out as a DJ? So did his first partner, Jack Burns, who eventually teamed with Avery Schreiber. There’s no shortage of DJs who cut comedy records.

In the early ’70s, the hottest such comedy team was Bob Hudson and Ron Landry, who worked mornings on KGBS in Los Angeles. Their on-air act was so good that they did four records.

The Hudson and Landry albums were recorded live at the Pomona National Golf Club, most likely in the bar. Judging from the gales of laughter, it sounds like a well-oiled crowd.

(They also filmed an episode of “Get Smart” there in 1969. That’s where this screen grab is from.)

Having listened to three Hudson and Landry albums, I’m not sure there was four records’ worth of material. Even so, some of their bits deserved all those big laughs from the friendly folks in the lounge. Here are two. Not sure you could do the latter today, but things were different in 1972.

“Ajax Airlines” and “Bruiser La Rue,” Hudson and Landry, from “Losing Their Heads,” 1972. It’s out of print, but both cuts are available digitally.

Bob Hudson retired from radio in 1988 and was 66 when he died in 1997.

Ron Landry became a TV comedy writer, working on “Flo,” “Benson,” “The Redd Foxx Show” and “Gimme A Break” among others, in the late ’70s and into the ’80s. He was 67 when he died in 2002.

Speaking of passings: Peter Bergman, another Los Angeles radio guy who became a comedian, died today. He was 72. To those hoping to hear some Firesign Theatre here, my apologies. Neither I nor my friends ever got into it.

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March 8, 2012

Furlough week, Day 4: The news

Our mantra this week: If we couldn’t laugh, we would all go insane.

It’s been a long day. A road trip with my dad, who is 86. Three hours down, six hours visiting, three hours back.

It’s time for …

“The 11 O’Clock News,” George Carlin, from “FM & AM,” 1972. Recorded live at the Cellar Door in Washington, D.C., in late June 1971.

This is Carlin’s third record, but the first on which he starts to move from mainstream comedian to caustic counterculture observer.

This is one of my favorite Carlin bits, complete with Al Sleet, the hippy-dippy weather man, and a partial score.

It’s one my dad and I heard Carlin do on television back then, and one we still could enjoy together today. You can’t say that for some of the Carlin bits that followed. Only one of us dug those.

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March 7, 2012

Furlough week, Day 3: This side

Our mantra this week: If we couldn’t laugh, we would all go insane.

The other day, I was listening to an old record from the ’70s and realized we usually played just one side of it, over and over, and rarely the other side.

It was this record.

It was one of the records we listened to in Jerry’s basement when we were in high school in the mid-’70s. But as I played it again the other night, it became clear that the most memorable bits were on the first side, which was called “This Side.” I flipped it over and listened to “That Side,” which again didn’t measure up to “This Side.”

Richard Pryor’s salacious, profane comedy was mind-blowing for a bunch of white kids from the middle of Wisconsin. Pryor may have been from Peoria, Illinois, not all that far from where we grew up, but his was a much different world than ours. Pryor had a keen eye and ear for those differences. His world was black and white, and he drew some sharp distinctions.

“White folks do things a lot different than niggers do. …
Black families be different.”

Here are two examples, recorded live in early 1974 at Don Cornelius’ Soul Train nightclub in San Francisco:

“Black And White Life Styles” and “Exorcist,” Richard Pryor, from “That Nigger’s Crazy,” 1974.  That LP is out of print, but both bits are available on “The Anthology, 1968-1992,” a 2002 compilation that also draws more from “This Side” than “That Side.”

A few words about the N Word: It’s used here only in the context of the time, as Pryor himself used it at the time.

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