Due to a crashed hard drive, this volume was delayed and Vol. 8 was posted first, but now our series exploring mid-20th-century kool kulture is sequentially correct. In this volume, former nightclub accordionist-turned-killjoy preacher Jack van Impe warns us of the dangers of that devils' music, thusly illustrated by riotous, ridiculous, rhythm-and-blues, rock'n'roll rekkids (ever notice that Satan is often depicted as smiling and laughing? He's apparently having much more fun than The Other Guy). Lots of ludicrous novelties this time out, by artists gleefully unconcerned with making Profound Artistic Statements. You'll have fun fun fun even after - and I want to make this perfectly clear - even after Daddy takes the T-bird away.
But this time, let's add "style" to our usual mix of "sin," "sex" and "sleaze". Publisher V. Vale of the legendary RE/Search books has been bemoaning the state of his home city lately, e.g: "We think it’s necessary to read as much humor as possible these days to keep our morale up, as San Francisco daily becomes more inundated with a tsunami of “techies” proud of their acultural normcore barbarism (trendy new martinis, trendy new restaurants—is that all there is?!)
Loud clothes - clothes that go up to 11 - need loud music. So once again, we're pouring in your earholes lots of stuff taken from my mostly 45 rpm vinyl discoveries that have not only not appeared on other like-minded compilations (so far as I know), but have never been digitally available...until now! Can find no info on some of these mysterious sides.
Dig the AbnormCore sounds here:
Lowbrow Vol.7: Devil Dance - almost 69 minutes; (69: the dirtiest number in the world!)
1 Jack van Impe - rock music is more dangerous ("From Night Clubs to Christ")
2 Mad Man Taylor - Rumble Tumble
3 Bruce Johnston - Soupy Shuffle Stomp [future "replacement" for Brian Wilson with a
retarded tribute to TV funnyman Soupy Sales]
4 Bobby Peterson Quintet - Mama Get Your Hammer [sick humor + screamin' r'n'b = what all
music should be like]
5 Jack van Impe - rock and roll music
6 Thee Midnighters - Everybody Needs Somebody To Love
7 Spike Jones - Pimples And Braces [yes, The Master novelty bandleader did live long
enough to parody teenagers and rock'n'roll]
8 Grace Chang - I Want You To Be My Baby [famous singing actress of Chinese cinema
swings bilingual]
9 Jack van Impe - commie plans
10 The Lancasters - Satan's Holiday
11 Georgia Gibbs - Kiss of Fire (rock version) [this was originally an early '50s tango-type
hit for Gibbs, but this 45 is apparently a '60s remake, judging by the swiping of Roy Orbison's
"Oh Pretty Woman" riff]
12 Jack van Impe - commie rock beat
13 Morty Jay and the Coney Island Brass - Beef-Eater [one of my absolute fave (fairly) recent instro 45 rpm discoveries]
14 Vince Edwards - Squealin Parrot (Twist) [was very surprised to come across a 45 with such a
wacky title by teen dream actor Edwards, as most of his records are mushy ballads; was even
more surprised to find how wacked-out hilarious it was]
15 ''Handsome'' Jim Balcom - Corrido Rock (Part 1)
16 Jack van Impe - vile filthy dirty
17 Mike Minor - Satan's Waiting [from an alternate universe where Satanists favor
finger-snappin' lounge over heavy metal]
18 Scott Engel - Devil Surfer [future avant-crooner Scott Walker once recorded a satanic
surf instro, under his original name?!]
19 Jack van Impe - gogo pogo
20 The Allisons - Ling Ting Tong [black girl group singing Asian stereotypes, and a way-out (slide?) guitar solo]
21 Bill Lewis - Swim Beat
22 Jack van Impe - naked!
23 The Motions - Long-Hair
24 Rod McKuen - I Dig Her Wig [one would never guess that the man behind this kooky
rocker would go on to become a hugely successful author of sappy poetry]
25 Bobby Gregg And His Friends - The Jam Part 1
26 Jack van Impe - 4 letter word
27 Lou Monte - Elvis Presley For President [Monte was the court jester of the Rat Pack
/Italian-Amercan scene]
28 The Sparkletones - I Dig You,Baby [I'd rather not describe here what makes the
end part of this song, and the entirety of the next song, so, er, 'unique'; you'll hear]
29 Gene Dozier & The Brotherhood - Mustang Sally
30 Bill Haley & His Comets - Straight Jacket (Live)
31 Jack van Impe - baser animal emotions
32 David Houston - One And Only [from the film 'Carnival Rock' (thanks Youtube!);
featuring blistering guitar work by Elvis' string-slinger James Burton]
33 Steve Allen - Memphis [tv comic plays a straight-ahead ahead Chuck Berry
instro...but I thought he hated rock n roll?]
34 Steven Garrick and his Party Twisters - Sister's a Twister
35 The Applejacks - Rocka-Conga
36 Jack van Impe - twisted vile perverted
37 Royaltones - Wail
38 Jack Gale & The Medicine Men - The Sloppy Madison [radio dj's parody of
incomprehensible dance instruction records]
39 Milt Rogers & His Orchestra - Lonely Road To Damascus
Album title and artwork courtesy of burlesque queen Gene Gemay.
5/14/16
ReplyDeleteRobGems.ca Wrote:
Jack Van Impe lives right here in the town of Troy, Michigan, and still has a Sunday morning religious program on TV-WDAL Channel 38 from Mt. Clemens Michigan. He still preaches from the Bible, ogles lovingly at his wife Rexella, and condemns Muslim Americans like a man possessed. He says he's just doing God's work, but that is questionable beyond his bigotry, and he got kicked off a couple of local Detroit networks as a result of his heated opinions. The "Kiss Of Fire" record you mentioned above is a re-make Georgia Gibbs recorded for Al Massey and Larry Utall at Bell records in 1965. It is often referred by record collectors as "Kiss Of Fire '65", and was re-recorded to capture some of the rock market at the time, though Georgia Gibbs was nearly 40 years old at the time. The following couple of months had Bell records issue a full-length album titled "Call Me" (Bell Records #6000) to capture the local success of the single (it was popular in New York, but didn't chart in Billboard's Hot 100.) The Royaltones were from Dearborn, Michigan, and were led by saxophonist/clarinet George Katsaskis, who used the stage name George Kaye. "Wail" was the B-side of their most popular disc, "Poor Boy" (their only Top 40 record.) Originally recording for Harry Balk at the Detroit-based Twirl Records (who also recorded Del Shannon and Johnny And The Hurricanes).the "Poor Boy/Wail" disc was leased to Jerry Blaine at Jubilee Records in 1958 and charted at #17 on Billboard's Hot 100. Legendary Detroit musicians Dennis Coffey and Bob Babbitt later recorded with the band in 1963-67. The Royaltones also backed up Del Shannon on some of his Amy/Berlee/Big Top recordings during the 1960's (most notably on "Do You Want To Dance" and "Keep Searching".)The Applejacks were a studio group organized by Cameo/Parkway head Dave Appell,and are not to be confused with the 1960's British band that recorded for Decca Records. ("Mexican Hat Rock" and the above mentioned "Rocka-Conga" were their two Top 100 hits on Billboard.) I had no idea that Bruce Johnston once recorded a tribute record to Soupy Sales (I believe it was originally recorded for Bob Keane at Del-Fi Records during his "Surfer's Pajama Party" period from 1961-63. I haven't located a copy of this disc, but would like to, and I am surprised this didn't hit in Detroit, where Soupy had (and still has even 6 years after his death) a large following. Soupy was doing his TV show live on the air in New York at the time for Channel 5-WNEW.),but he was still popular in Detroit.
Nicely done, thanks! Yeah, "Kiss of Fire" was one mystery record that particularly intrigued me, but the only info I could find was regarding the orignal version. Was beginning to think no one else knew about this one. I only Bought the record for its title as it sounded rather exotic and sexy, and hence really lucked out then cuz its a much cooler side than the orig (which is fine in itself). Just as I bought "Wail" for its title, hoping it would, well, wail. And it does indeed function as advertised. "Rocka Conga," another one purchased on the strength (?) of its silly song title.
ReplyDeleteThank you!
ReplyDeleteCheers I'm not a robot
You're welcome, Anon, and I wouldn't think any less of you if you were.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteAh, you had me with the word "Lowbrow" and today's number: 69
Thanks again, Mr Fab!
Seems like tracks 4 through 10 are missing. Am I doing something wrong?
ReplyDelete