Bring Out Your Dead 2008 – Volume 2

Be sure to check out volume 1 of this project before you wade too deep into volume 2. Originally titled “Dirt Nap”, volume 2 was compiled by Blind Joe Death, and is brought to you by the HAL-9000 computer, built for your wants and needs, and even your own extermination, if you are not careful. Take my advice, this machine has feelings – sensitive ones, so be careful what you say in its presence. And oh yes, it can read lips, and probably your body language, so watch your every move. Aren’t machines wonderful?

I was just a kid when I first saw Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 production of 2001: A Space Odyssey, by Arthur C. Clarke. The long sequences and the proper silence of space likely bored many viewers, but I found the movie spell-binding. The sets and acting were all stellar (pun intended), but it was the glowing red eye – and voice in particular – of the HAL-9000 computer that fascinated me the most. In my youth, home computers and the internet were still fantasies on the horizon. The very concept of a talking computer with “feelings” was cutting-edge in those days.

I first learned about Bo Diddley and his electric square guitar through The Story of Bo Diddley, a song by The Animals that pays tribute to the godfather of the rock and roll rhythm. Ben Ratliff put it best in his New York Times memorial when he said that Bo’s “original style of rhythm and blues influenced generations of musicians. And his Bo Diddley syncopated beat — three strokes/rest/two strokes — became a stock rhythm of rock ’n’ roll.”

By the time I was introduced to The Kingston Trio, their music stylings were already considered tres passé – a relic band from the generation of my parents (I guess I just dated myself). But I’ve always enjoyed a healthy mix of traditional music and comedy (my generation enjoyed the vaudevillesque antics of Steve Martin and his banjo), and so for me, The Kingston Trio have always been one of those cross-generational bands that “everyone can enjoy.”

The original trio (Bob Shane, Nick Reynolds and Dave Guard) emerged from San Francisco’s North Beach club scene in 1957, becoming an overnight success and playing a pivotal role in the “folk revival” of the early 1960s. It was this revival that led to the successes of Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, The Byrds, and later, Crosby, Stills and Nash.

In 1961 Dave Guard left to pursue a different musical direction. Several musicans were given serious consideration to fill the opening, including Roger McGuinn of Byrds fame. Nick and Bob agreed on John Stewart as the new member.

I have several of Stewart’s solo albums, but I didn’t know about the connection to The Kingston Trio until I was informed by Blind Joe Death. The 1979 smash hit “Gold” – a duet with Stevie Nicks – went to #5 on the Billboard charts.

When it comes to social and political commentary, few have been as sharp and direct as comedian George Carlin. From his rants on our consumer culture and rampant narcissism to the hypocrisy of our so-called leaders, and the “tyrannical owners” who run America, Carlin told it like it was:

“If you have selfish ignorant citizens, you’re gonna get selfish ignorant leaders.”

For the folks of her generation, Earth Kitt will be remembered as the 1950s jazz singer with the perrrfect voice, but for me she will always be “Catwoman the second”, replacing sex-kitten Julie Newmar in the Batman TV series in 1967 – an act Kitt had no trouble following, despite being 40 years old. According to her bio, “Kitt was ostracized at an early age because of her mixed-race heritage. At eight years old, she was given away by her mother and sent from the South Carolina cotton fields to live with an aunt in Harlem.” That must have been tough for her, but it worked out well for us!

A friend introduced me to the sleek, cool-swinging style and magical flutterings of trumpet player Freddie Hubbard, by lending me a live album Hubbard recorded with tenor saxophonist Stanley Turrentine in Chicago and Detroit for Creed Taylor’s CTI label in 1973. The performance includes Herbie Hancock: piano, Eric Gale: guitar, Ron Carter: bass, and Jack DeJohnette: drums. Eventually I discovered his classic Blue Note sessions and have been a fan ever since.

Yma Sumac has been called the Queen Diva of Exotica. She was also known as the “Xtabay” – which literally means ‘Female Ensnarer’ – the Mesoamerican demon who seduces and kills. Wowie zowie baby! With her five-octave voice and the incredible talents of Les Baxter (who arranged and produced her work for Capitol records) you have one incredible combination. The Sumac/Baxter combo produced an operatic form of exotica that is truly out of this world! Here’s what happens when opera meets mambo:

Born on 13 September 1922 in the high mountains of Ichocan, Peru, little Zoila Augusta Emperatriz Chavarri Del Castillo, had dreams of being a great singer. However, such a dream was deemed almost impossible in Peru and especially for a “proper lady.” But the girl was unstoppable. Around the age of 9 she could often be seen high atop a mountain in the High Andes singing ancient Peruvian folkloric songs, to a group of rocks, which she pretended was her audience. Entranced by the beautiful birds that sang nearby, she began to imitate them, by incorporating their high pitched sounds into her “repertoire.” Her voice matured somewhat by age 13 and local Peruvians took notice. Much to the unhappiness of her parents, she was invited to appear on Argentinean radio. Soon enough South America was quite enchanted with this amazing voice. More on Yma Sumac can be read here.

Born in Detroit in 1936, Levi Stubbs formed “The Four Aims” in 1954 with his friends Abdul “Duke” Fakir, Renaldo “Obie” Benson and Lawrence Payton. In 1956 they signed with Chess Records and changed their name to the Four Tops to avoid confusion with the then-popular Ames Brothers. The Four Tops signed to Motown Records in 1963, and became one of the label’s flagship artists, with more than a dozen hit records.

Losing Jeff Healey was a big deal here in Toronto. The blind Healey not only re-invented guitar fingering, he opened his own nightclub (originally on the southwest corner of Bathurst and Queen in Toronto), and helped support so many struggling Canadian music artists.

Not one to be slowed down by his blindness, Jeff was always re-inventing himself, and after several years as a blues-rock “guitar god”, he added the trumpet to his instrumental talents and began playing old time jazz with his Jazz Wizards. Like his blues-rock band, the Wizards toured the world, but when they weren’t on the road, they played a regular free matinee gig on Saturday afternoons at Jeff’s club. It is one of my greatest regrets that I never made the time (I just kept putting it off) to go down to the club and see them play.

I did catch Healey once near the beginning of his career, as a guest performer with The Allman Brothers Band and Little Feat at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. After two incredible sets of music by the Feat and the Allman’s, Jeff was guided out on stage to join the band. A few minutes later he began running around the stage during a wailing solo, bumping into stage equipment and making the stage crew very nervous. He will be sorely missed.

Kenny MacLean got his start with The Deserters in 1979, but will be most remembered for his guitar and vocal work as a member of the multi-platinum selling new-wave band Platinum Blonde. The Canadian band first worked the Ontario bar circuit playing songs by The Police. Their first full length LP, Standing In The Dark, was released in 1983. In 1985, the band released a second album called Alien Shores, featuring the addition of a fourth member, Kenny MacLean. The LP went quintuple platinum, the group’s high-water mark of success. The hit “Crying Over You” received heavy radio rotation here in Toronto. I was never a fan of PB, but I enjoyed Rain On Me from their failed 1990 comeback album as The Blondes.

I first discovered Rush via the LP collection of a friend’s older brother who had “moved out west”. The first album I heard was called A Farewell To Kings, followed by Moving Pictures, which solidified my position as a life-long fan of the band. The role of drummer Neil Peart was so pivotal, that many forget (or may not have known) that he was Rush’s second drummer.

John Rutsey played drums in Rush from the summer of 1968 until July 1974. According to the Rush biography Contents Under Pressure: 30 Years of Rush at Home & Away, written by Martin Popoff, Geddy Lee (bass) and Alex Lifeson (guitar) both acknowledged that during the writing and recording sessions for the band’s debut album Rutsey was given the role of chief lyricist, however, come time to record the songs Rutsey did not deliver any lyrics. In interviews, Lee and Lifeson have both said that Rutsey was dissatisfied with what he had written and tore up the lyric sheets. Soon after the band released its debut album: RUSH, Rutsey left the band, apparently due to health concerns related to diabetes, which may have posed potential problems with extended tours.

Working Man featured Rutsey’s drumming and was an air-guitar favourite when I was in high school. I recall this song being cranked up in more than a few basement nooks, acting as the soundtrack to never-ending games of snooker.

The U.S. had the Ramones, the U.K. had The Clash and the Sex Pistols, and Canada had Teenage Head. The band was formed out of Westdale High School in Hamilton, Ontario in 1975, by Frank Kerr (vocals) and Gord Lewis (guitar). They added Steve Mahon (bass) and Nick Stipanitz on drums, with Kerr changing his name to Frankie Venom. Like their British and American counterparts, Teenage Head quickly formed a reputation, but without the same border-crossing success. Their history reads like the script of rock and roll mockumentary.

After gaining a cult following from the Ontario bar scene, they made national headlines in June 1980 when their performance at Toronto’s Ontario Place Forum sparked a riot. The incident led Ontario Place to ban rock concerts for several years afterward, but the headlines led to a massive increase in record sales, and thus the Attic label took them to New York city, hoping to sign them into a U.S. distribution deal. Two days before the trip the band was involved in a serious car accident, causing the cancellation of U.S. gigs. Three years later the band made another attempt at the U.S. market via an EP release on MCA, but the execs tried to tame down the sound and image of the band, even forcing them to change their name to Teenage Heads. The process was a miserable failure, and the band returned to Canada to continue as one of the country’s best-loved bar bands.

By the end of the 1980s, reliability problems with lead singer Frankie Venom (Frank Kerr) led to his departure, which was pretty much the final nail in the coffin, as his voice was part of their signature sound. In 1995 Venom, Lewis and Mahon reunited and the band began to re-hone its chops. In 2003 they were joined by Marky Ramone on drums and recorded an album which was released in April 2008. Naturally, the Ramones link brought new attention to the band, but their bad luck returned when Kerr died of throat cancer on October 15th.

Both of Jimi Hendrix’s drummers died in 2008. Holy double-jeopardy! What a terrible loss. Everyone knows the Jimi Hendrix Experience and the incredible drumming of Mitch Mitchell, but even after decades of the global Hendrix legend industry, the contributions of Buddy Miles and the Band of Gypsies tend to be an afterthought, which is a shame. Some critics might find Miles’ style a bit lacklustre compared to Mitchell, but his classic “less is more” approach was not due to a lack of experience.

Buddy began banging on the skins at age 9 and by 12 he was playing in his father’s jazz band, the Bebops. In his teen years he backed various jazz and R&B outfits, including the Ink Spots, and the Delfonics. He Joined Wilson Pickett’s outfit in 1966 where he met Mike Bloomfield, who would soon leave the Paul Butterfield Blues Band and form Electric Flag, with Miles in tow. The Flag didn’t wave long for Bloomfield, and Miles took over the band for a brief period before forming the Buddy Miles Express.

Jimi Hendrix produced BME’s 1968 debut: Expressway to Your Skull. In exchange, Miles played on Hendrix’s Electric Ladyland album, and later took part in an all-star jam session that resulted in Muddy Waters’ Fathers and Sons album. Hendrix also produced the Miles Express’ follow-up, 1969’s Electric Church, and formed Band of Gypsies with Miles and bassist Billy Cox after the Experience disbanded.

Johnny Griffin (aka, The Little Giant) might be one of the best ever examples of a “musician’s musician”. Despite being an accomplished tenor sax player who could easily maneuver through various forms and tempos, Griffin’s name isn’t exactly a-list. Which is odd when you consider that he has played with nearly everyone.

Griffin started on alto as a teenager, working with bluesman T-Bone Walker, switching to tenor after graduating from high school, when he toured with Lionel Hampton’s big band in the 1940s. After that he played in countless line-ups, including various Thelonious Monk outfits, a short stint with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, and a Detroit sextet he formed with Pepper Adams and Donald Byrd.

A complete Griffin discography would require some serious study, as he played with various artists on close to a dozen labels. Notable collaborators include Bud Powell, John Coltrane, Hank Mobley, Kenny Clarke, Dizzy Gillespie, Count Basie, Dexter Gordon, Woody Shaw, Slide Hampton, and Klaus Doldinger’s Passport.

I only met Merl Saunders once (while videotaping a Toronto concert for Barry Flast of Kingfish), but it was immediately apparent that he was a very sweet and approachable person. Just look at that smile! Apart from being a grand musician, he was also a long-time environmental activist and promoter of the vegetarian diet. For Saunders the two worlds were inseperable and he did his best to promote his beliefs in his music and on tour. His musical activism (and sense of humour) were featured in a 1996 album with his Rainforest Band, Save the Planet So We’ll Have Someplace to Boogie.

Saunders’ 1973 Berkeley performances with Jerry Garcia at the Keystone are now legendary. I was a hardcore Deadhead by the time these shows made it to CD on the Fantasy label, and they were in heavy rotation on my player in the early 1990s. The performance of Blind Lemon Jefferson’s “One Kind Favor” was a particular favourite and is especially fitting for this compilation:

One Kind Favor ~ by Blind Lemon Jefferson

Just one kind favor I ask of you
One kind favor I ask of you
One kind favor, I ask of you
To see that my grave is kept clean

If you ever hear a church bell toll
If you ever hear a church bell toll
If you ever hear, a church bell toll
You’ll know by that I’m dead and gone

Dig my grave with a silver spade
Dig my grave with a silver spade
Dig my grave, with a silver spade
Mark the place where I would lay

Just one kind favor I ask of you
One kind favor I ask of you
One kind favor, I ask of you
See that my grave is kept clean
See that my grave is kept clean
See my grave is kept clean

I was a fan of soul-men Sam & Dave long before I had ever heard of Isaac Hayes. Like most kids growing up in the 1970s, I discovered Hayes via the blaxploitation cult film classic, Shaft, during one of its many late night TV reruns. Hayes (and Stax label peer David Porter) penned most of the Sam & Dave hits, including “Soul Man”, “I Thank You,” and “Hold On I’m Comin’”.

Hayes’ genius is similar to that of Allen Toussaint, in that their biggest hits made other people famous. This fact is even more perplexing when you consider that Hayes and Toussaint were both great singers and instrumental performers. “Never Say Goodbye” features Hayes in his prime as an arranger, producer and performer.

LeRoi Moore is best known as a founding member of the Dave Matthews Band (DMB). He studied tenor saxophone at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia and helped found the Charlottesville Swing Orchestra (1982), and the John D’earth Quintet. The latter played at Miller’s, a Charlottesville bar, every Thursday night in the late 1980s, where Moore first met Dave Matthews in 1991.

Moore had a large collection of wind instruments and on 14 June 2008 at a DMB show in Hartford, Connecticut he played bass, baritone, tenor, alto, and soprano saxophones, as well as the flute, bass clarinet, the wooden penny whistle, and the oboe. Two weeks later on 30 June 2008, he was injured in an ATV accident on his farm outside Charlottesville, Virginia, breaking several ribs and puncturing a lung, and was hospitalized at UVA for several days. On 19 August 2008, the official Dave Matthews Band website reported that Moore died of complications from his injuries in the ATV accident.

“This is the last stop!”

R.I.P.

Track Listing:

1) I’ve Got a Bad Feeling About HAL – 0:42
2) Bo Diddley – Who Do You Love? – 2:25
3) The Kingston Trio (John Stewart) – Oh Sail Away – 3:03
4) John Stewart – Gold – 4:22
5) George Carlin – The Planet is Doomed – 0:06
6) Freddie Hubbard – Philly Mignon – 5:26
7) Eartha Kitt – Catwoman Gets Busted – 0:55
8) Yma Sumac – Bo Mambo – 3:18
9) The Four Tops (Levi Stubbs) – Keeper of the Castle – 2:57
10) Jeff Healey – As The Years Go Passing By – 6:47
11) George Carlin – I Like People! – 0:27
12) The Blondes (Kenny MacLean) – Rain On Me – 4:26
13) Open The Pod-Bay Doors HAL! – 0:47
14) Rush (John Rutsey) – Working Man – 7:09
15) Teenage Head (Frankie Venom) – Drivin’ Wild – 3:51
16) George Carlin – Soldiers, God and War – 0:20
17) Jimi Hendrix (Buddy Miles) – Ezy Ryder – 4:07
18) Does HAL Have Emotions? – 0:17
19) Yma Sumac – Llulla Mak’ta – 2:24
20) Art Blakey and Johnny Griffin – Krafty – 6:38
21) Merl Saunders – One Kind Favor – 6:33
22) Say Goodbye HAL – 0:37
23) Isaac Hayes – Never Say Goodbye – 3:39
24) Dave Matthews Band (LeRoi Moore) – The Last Stop – 6:57