Robert Palmer's Adventures in Tropical Music

Please welcome art58koen with the first of what will hopefully be a series of posts. In the tradition of Willard's Wormholes, he has assembled an updated "faux deluxe" version of a Robert Palmer compilation from 25 years ago.  Take it away, Koen...

On this blog, Robert Palmer has been the subject of a post before, resulting in a cool live version of his 1980 Clues album.

For the average music fan, Palmer is mainly seen as the "Addicted To Love" superstar with sexy video clips and therefore "not really relevant". Big mistake, as he was a musician’s musician, knew what he was doing in the studio, and played various instruments too! Checking out his albums showed that almost every one had one or two "odd tracks" that are not the usual rock music at all. Fact is that Palmer was seriously interested in all kinds of music, and that showed particularly in those tracks: African highlife, calypso, samba, reggae, etc. Apparently, Chris Blackwell (head of Island Records) ranked Palmer as the most knowledgeable music nut he'd ever encountered, acquiring a taste for obscure sub-genres and new trends long before anyone else.

Palmer's preferred medium for enjoying music were self-made mix tapes which would be stuffed with everything from Fred Astaire to African folk, and his albums ran a similar course!

In the 1990s Gerald Seligman, the founder of the Hemisphere world music label, suggested the initial idea for Woke Up Laughing, but Palmer wasn't interested in a simple compilation, preferring instead a rethink and a fresh approach. The result was that several tracks got remixed, new vocals, and even a hybrid of an earlier and new version: Woke Up Laughing 79/89 [latter portion of track (1:49-5:32) recorded in 1989]. The CD liner notes included an in-depth interview with Palmer in which he provided lots of details in the making of the chosen tracks, talk about an eclectic artist!

While working on this post, I played Woke Up Laughing again and it still sounds excellent, a great flow of different kinds of music.

The subtitle of the CD is Adventures in Tropical Music: 1977 - 1997, and that gave me the idea of expanding it, as Palmer continued doing this all throughout his career, from rock to new wave, swamp funk, soul, rhythm & blues, American Songbook, proto-techno, disco pop, and finally blues! Even his final blues album, Drive, had a surprise calypso song on it…

Also it seemed a good idea to include the unmixed original tracks as long as they followed the ‘tropical music’ line. The collaboration with Adrian Belew on guitar (& Palmer on everything else!) is probably bordering on tropical madness, but he sings it in French and it’s one of my personal favorites!

The pdf contains all artwork, incl. the extensive interview with Seligman, plus additional pics of album covers, labels, etc. The single Lee Perry track (warning: vinyl rip, poor quality!) warranted adding another interview with Palmer to the pdf about the working conditions in Kingston, Jamaica during his time there. Most other artists probably would have packed their suitcases and left the same day, but Palmer hung on for a while -- impressive.

Zip, Zip, Zip, Zip, Zip

 

Zip It #5 is here, so be of good cheer.  In this series, Prof. LePew and I continue our exhaustive survey of the history of popular music, searching for songs about people puttin' people down.  

It isn't always a putdown to suggest that someone keep shtum. Sometimes the kindest advice is to hold one's tongue.  Honest Abe once said that it is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.  Michelle Shocked wrote, "Silence is golden/ And words are made of lead/ And in the alchemy of love, you know/ Some things are better left unsaid." And she knows a lot about paying the price of silence.

Back to the music: in the zip file for today's Zip It!, you'll find punk rock, country, soul, R&B, a couple of pop idols, and even some of that grrrungy "complaint rock" that was all the rage in the mid-90's.  But only a little!  

The wonderful Dubhed blog was the inspiration for two of the tracks, as Khayem suggested the mashup "Shut Up Let's Hook Up", and Stinky fell in love with The Anchoress' version of "Enjoy The Silence" (which was featured on Dubhed).  "Honey Hush" appears once again (this time by Johnny Burnette's Rock & Roll Trio).  I think I suggested "Don't Start Me Talkin" and the "Shut Up" songs by the Drive-By Truckers, The Coathangers, and Jr. Walker's All-Stars.

In the words of the internet's favorite music blogger, "Gitit! (no pw)" -- and stay tuned for another episode of Zip It!  Or something entirely different.  We're flexible.

NOT At Budokan

Stinky has shared a number of Homemade Live Albums on this blog, seeking out great live performances to recreate a studio album in track-by-track order.  He's created almost two dozen of them!  I suggested that he do the opposite: assemble the studio versions of one of the best-known live albums in rock music.  

We posted a compilation last year of OTHER artists who have performed at Japan's famous Budokan arena.  The boys from Rockford (as you may know) didn't plan to release their live album outside Japan, but it sold well as an import, and their live performance had an energy that the studio albums seemed to lack.  (Did you know that it was actually recorded in Osaka?  The Budokan audience was so enthusiastic that they drowned out the band!)

Having said that, why post the studio versions?   First, because casual fans may not have heard them.   At Budokan was the first Cheap Trick album in many record buyers' collections (and for some, it remained their only purchase.)  Back then, a live album was like a greatest hits collection: all the songs you wanted to hear by Peter Frampton or Kiss (for example), with none of the filler -- although Pete did stretch out some of his songs with those long talk box solos.  

Another reason for today's post: the studio recordings have greater subtlety and variety than the concert versions.  Though many live albums are "sweetened" after the fact, the studio versions benefit from layers of vocal harmonies, guitars and other instruments, and arrangements that may be difficult to reproduce in concert.

We discovered that Cheap Trick never released a studio version of "Ain't That A Shame", so Stinky found a great performance from the American Music Awards.  And you don't just get the ten tracks from At Budokan.  He also found a terrific live version of "The House Is Rockin (With Domestic Problems)".  At my request, he added "Writing On The Wall" (a personal favorite) and the 1997 recording of "Brontosaurus" (which Cheap Trick interpolated into "California Man" on Heaven Tonight).  "Dream Police" is here without strings, as well as a sample from the Albini sessions and a few other rarities.  

First in a Series of Firsts

Three summers ago on this blog, Stinky shared a compilation called LAST.  It's a collection of final performances. 

FIRST is a companion, a younger and more cheerful sibling to the somber LAST, which featured a number of artists who are no longer among the living.  

So here's the first FIRST.  There are plenty of firsts in music history, and Stinky has chosen a  variety of them.  Some are first televised appearances (by U2, Janet Jackson, and others), and Elvis Presley's first appearance on the "Louisiana Hayride" radio show.  Others are the first bands of performers who achieved fame later on, such as Suzi Quatro and Randy Meisner.  

There's the first single released on Def Jam Records.  The first hit song of the bubblegum genre.  The first song played live after Dave Grohl joined Nirvana. The Stones' first single without Charlie Watts.  Steve Ferrone's audition as the new drummer for Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers.

There are also first versions of songs: Shel Silverstein's own recording of "A Boy Named Sue",  Chuck Berry's first take of "Rock & Roll Music", and the Beatles taking a run through "Band On The Run".  Coincidentally, "Band On The Run" also appears on LAST as the final song performed live by Wings.

There will definitely be more FIRSTS, and the first LAST won't be the last LAST.  But for today, the first will be first.  You read it here first: it's the first FIRST!

The Comprehensive Cub Koda

 

Here's a terrific addition to our Gnarly Guitarists series of six-string slingers. 

The Comprehensive Cub Koda opens with Cub's version of "I've Had It", which listeners like me will recognize from the Alex Chilton album Like Flies On Sherbert.  Cub also covers "Cadillac Walk" by Moon Martin, "Round And Round" by Chuck Berry, and a host of other great tunes.

Cub formed his first band (The Del-Tinos) in 1963, at age 14.  He became famous in the 70's as the frontman for Brownsville Station.  Cub was also an obsessive record collector and professional music writer.  In the words of Tiesco Del Rey, "Mr. Smokin' In The Boy's Room was passionate about American music, preferably the raw, wild, lunatic-fringe variety."

As the members of Brownsville Station saw it, "rock 'n' roll had taken a left turn straight into hell. We thought that concept albums, drums solos, and wah-wah pedals were a spit in the face of our musical forefathers." Instead, they took inspiration from the blues, early rock and rockabilly, and from the loud volume and brash style of their Detroit contemporaries.  "The ground breaking work by Motor City bands like Mitch Ryder and the MC5 upped the performance ante in our neck of the woods; standing up there and pretending to be a Beatle just wasn't enough." 

The two dozen tracks on Stinky's compilation include nine by Brownsville Station (two of them live recordings that give a hint of his manic Motor City stage presence).  Brownsville broke up in 1979. The self-titled debut by Cub Koda & The Points came out in 1980, and his first album fronting the Houserockers was released in 1982.  Those bands are also represented in this compilation, as well as Cub's self-recorded solo material (on which he plays all of the instruments!)

Stinky and I learned a thing or two about Cub while he was compiling this set.  For example, I didn't know that Cub Koda  played harmonica on Blackfoot's popular 1979 song "Train, Train" until I started writing this post today.  Stinky was not aware that Cub "played" sax and "sang" on the decidedly less popular records by King Uszniewicz & His Uszniewicztones until I asked if they would be included.  According to this detailed article, Cub's first instrument (which he taught himself) was the drums.  But it's as a guitarist and vocalist that he really shines, and the depth and range of his musical interests are evident on The Comprehensive Cub Koda.

One Of Our Halloweens Is Missing

Forgot about this compilation I made, and now Halloween is over.  But you're still celebrating, right?  Eating the leftover candy, taking down the decorations, putting your masks and costumes away, but still listening to spooky soundtracks and Halloween mixtapes, right?  And you're still going to Frisco for the weekend while they install the hot tub? I knew you were!

Here's a variety of songs that share the lyrical theme of creeps, creepers, and creeping.  Not the most brilliant concept, I'll grant you.  But the songs are all good, and Stinky was kind enough to create a cover image.  I would be some kind of creep if I let that go to waste, just because I was a day late -- or maybe 364 days early for Halloween 2024!  As I write this, it's approaching the midnight hour of Dia de los Muertos.  It's the most creepiest time of the year, and who's to say we can't continue celebrating for another day or so?

Halloween MADNESS 2023!

 

It's almost Halloween!  It's beat time, it's hop time, it's goblin and ghost time!  And your ghost host with the most is Spooky Stinky LeBOO!

There's a whole lotta Halloween hijinks afoot in this creepy compilation: vampires, wolfmen, ghosts, skeletons, headless horsemen, heffalumps and woozles.  Bela Lugosi, Norman Bates, Casper the Friendly Ghost and Boris the Spider are among the ghoulish guests at this freaky fest!

The big names may impress you (The Who, The Damned, Elvis Costello, Little Richard, Brian Setzer, and Commander Cody among them).  But it's the lesser-known gems that (for me at least) make Stinky's Homemade Records a truly unique treat.  Are you familiar with the works of the King Dapper Combo?  The 69 Cats, the Gravediggers 5, and the 4 Flops? Angry Johnny and the Killbillies?  

And check out that tracklist!  Where else can you find "I Work In A Graveyard" by Norman Bates and the Showerheads? Or "Blood-Suckin' Son Of A Gun" by the Stone Coyotes? 

If all of this Halloween Madness seems a bit too intense for your holiday needs, we're still hosting a set of kid-tested and uncle approved Halloween tunes that are suitable for young listeners and the faint of heart.

If you're trick-or-treating around the blogosphere this year, be sure to stop by Groovy Library, Boss Radio 666, Down Underground, Moozler Music, La Dimension de Trastos, Themes From Great Cities, Music Hoarder's Record Vault, Fantastic Retrovision, and Opium Hum (where every day is Halloween).  You can also wax nostalgic with the swinging soundtrack to It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown at PP's Halloween Heckhole!