Oh baby look what you done for me

Oh baby you set my heart free

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I had a request to repost the Rittenhouse Square EP.

So here it is.

Rittenhouse Square was a short lived band that featured Mitch Easter, Chris Stamey, Peter Holsapple and Bobby Locke. The band formed sometime in 1971, played a few shows, recorded some songs and then broke up in 1972.

Without the other members knowledge, Locke pressed up 100 copies of an EP containing 6 Rittenhouse Square songs on his R-Squared Records in 1972. The record was packaged in a paper sleeve. Peter Holsapple says the record is a “considered a collector’s item by people that have obviously never heard it”.

I think it’s pretty good. There are still rumors of a re-issue. I sure hope there is one, all I have are these mp3's I got a while back.

Can you point your finger?

Can you prove your loyalty?

Birds sing out of tune

Patty Duke's first record made it all the way to thetop ten in 1965. Could've been because of her TV show or because people thought it was Lesley Gore. The first time I heard it on the radio I thought it was a Lesley Gore record that I'd never heard. And I liked it enough to buy the LP when I found a used copy a short time later (as always it helped that the record was only a buck).

Then I played LP.

The second single sounded like Gore too but people must've been catching on because the record only made it to #22. Gore's records are much better.

A couple of other songs aren't too bad. Saved by the decent arrangements mostly, Duke's singing sure doesn't help the songs much. Worst of all are the cover songs when you can compare her voice to the original singers.

And I never did care much for her TV show either.

I know someone who knows someone

who knows Alan McGee quite well

Now I see

how dark my shadow's grown

And it's high time...

About 2:30 this morning, I woke up from a strange dream. In the dream, I was trying to remember the name of a Pink Floyd song. I remembered all sorts of stuff related to the song - it was on the MORE soundtrack and also on the KQED Studios tape. Hawkwind recorded a version. So did The Royal Purple. The name ended in '-ine'. I kept thinking it was called Evangaline which fit but still wasn't right. Crystaline didn't work either.

I could not remember the name. This went on for a half hour. Everytime I started to fall asleep, I'd hear the chorus in my mind. So I'd start trying to get the whole name again.

Finally I gave up and got out of bed to find out what the name was so I could go back to sleep. "Cymbaline". Oddly enough, it's a song about a man having a nightmare.

By then, I was wide awake. It was 4:30 before I went back to bed and 5 before I fell asleep again.

And here's the Hawkind and Royal Purple versions too.

Sleep tight!

Everytime I call your name

I get such a thrill I can't explain

"We can't sell that!"

A long time ago, I worked at Cat's records in Chattanooga as the import record buyer. They gave me free rein - I could pretty much order whatever I thought would sell. Hillbilly compilations, Japanese pressings, Butthole Surfer videos, Throbbing Gristle & Rocky Horror box sets. As long as somebody would buy it, I could order it.

The boss even let me put Big Black's final LP and The Leaving Trains second album for SST out on the racks.

The whole time I was at Cat's there were only two things I was told not to put out for sale. GG Allin's YOU GIVE LOVE A BAD NAME was the top of the banned list. The only other record on the list was Bad Trip's FLUSHES THE VAULTS 7".

How did a teenage garage band get on a list with GG Allin? By putting out a record with this (NSFW!) cover.

Since we couldn't display the record in the store, the copies were sold to employees only. We only got two or three in anyway. The record was Bad Trip's second and last record. It's a rocking little 7" with three Texas garage covers. It's not bad as long as you don't look at the cover.

I don't want nobody to give me nothing

(open up the door I'll get it myself)

Joys

The joy of man's desiring.

Or if you prefer - just Joy.

Lots of things, other things,

too many things on my mind

You'll wish

that you were dead


Heads up!

Thomas Function are playing a few shows this month:

Jan 16 - Huntsville, Alabama - The Tavern
Jan 17 - Mobile, Alabama - Alabama Music Box
Jan 18 - Montgomery, Alabama - Club 322
Jan 19 - Atlanta, Georgia - 529 Bar
Jan 20 - Asheville, North Carolina - The Admiral
Jan 21 - Charlottesville, Virginia - Old Star Music Hall
Jan 22 - Poughkeepsie, New York - Vassar College
Jan 23 - New York, New York - Other Music in-store
Jan 24 - New York, New York - The Cake Shop
Jan 25 - New York, New York - The Mercury Lounge
Jan 26 - Boston, Massachusetts - The Church
Jan 27 - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - The Khyber
Jan 28 - Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania - Gooski's
Jan 29 - Bowling Green, Ohio - Grumpy Dave's
Jan 30 - Columbus, Ohio - Cafe Bourbon St.
Jan 31 - Athens, Ohio - The Union

No one ever heard the song again

A while back I had a request to repost this:

Jennifer Warnes third LP is a lost classic. It didn't sell when it was first released and has not been available since 1973. JENNIFER was produced by John Cale who would start work on his own PARIS 1919 album right after finishing this one. Warnes is a great singer, Cale & Warnes chose some terrific songs, the playing is excellent. Cale wrote a song for the LP. He also used several of the musicians on both JENNIFER and PARIS 1919, listen to both LPs back to back sometime. If you've ever wished that Cale had made another record like PARIS 1919, you need to find a copy of JENNIFER.

Warnes cover choices are interesting. How many artists cover Procol Harum and Donovan, and Jackson Browne? Warnes is friends with (and worked as a backup singer for) Leonard Cohen in the early seventies but none of his songs are included on JENNIFER. Warnes made up for that when she recorded FAMOUS BLUE RAINCOAT.

JENNIFER has never been reissued. Several songs from JENNIFER are available on compilations. I have heard that Rhino is planning a deluxe reissue though. I hope that are a lot of outtakes.

No sleep

night after night

How many different ways

can you reach that city?



R.I.P. Claude Jeter.

She calls me up

and I come over

Music is fun for everyone

Hit Records was a Nashville based label that specialized in recording cover versions of hit records. The label would sell the singles (cheap – only 39 cents!) in drug and grocery stores through out the south.

Record collectors never pick up anything on the Hit Records label. The serious collector will sniff that "it's not the original artist" or "it's a bunch of Nashville session musicians". So what? BLONDE ON BLONDE was recorded with a bunch of Nashville session musicians and turned out well. OK, it probably wasn't these particular session musicians in the studio with Dylan.

Quality wasn't a high priority. The band didn't let a thing like not knowing the words to a song stop them from recording it. But the acts could be creative. I bet that the Count Five probably never even considered using a lonesome train whistle harmonica on "Psychotic Reaction". The Jalopy Five did.

That's why I'll usually get anything with the Hit name on it. Where else are you gonna hear a garage stomp through "Bernadette" sung by punkish singer with a voice that is almost the complete opposite of Levi Stubbs. Sometimes they turn out to be pretty good.

Sometimes the records really are good. The kind of records that serious collectors would drool over. If they hadn't been released on Hit Records.

Some of the performers that worked at Hit Records before going on to bigger things were Sandy Posey, Herbert Hunter, Latimore, Ray Stevens, Buzz Cason and Bobby Russell. As far as I know, Sammie Moore has never been confirmed to be Sam Moore from Sam & Dave.

Sad news.

R.I.P. Ron Asheton.

Crap.

When the Lord gets ready

You gotta move

It's where the dwarves lived

Last night, we watched The Fellowship Of The Ring. And just like I do every time we watch that movie, I got out my copy of LEVEL 6 ½ by Khazad Doom.

If you couldn’t guess by the name of the Tolkien inspired names of the band and LP, Khazad Doom was a late psych/early prog band. Another clue is the 3 part suite spread across both sides of the LP. The band is compared to the Beatles and The Doors but I don’t hear either of those two bands. I do hear King Crimson on the lovely “Narcissus”, easily my favorite song on the LP. The also appear to have been Iron Butterfly fans.

Khazad Doom was from Morton Grove, Illinois. You can read more and see some pictures here. If you want to read even more, guitarist Jack Eadon wrote a book called Got To Make It about the band.