gts145 “illish”
01-01 Martha Tilton & Ben Pollack And His Orchestra – RCA Soundie (with The Slate Bothers) – A Little Jive Is Good For You (1941)
— 78rpm discs were impractical to play in a machine, so before the jukebox was invented, there was the Panoram, a coin-operated video machine. 10 cents for a song, with eight 3-minute songs on a single loop of film, so you couldn’t choose which music video to see, it just played the next one in the loop. However, since soundies were not subject to the censorship imposed on movies, you could see some pretty racy ones with scantily-clad ladies. Just like “Video Killed The Radio Star”, television killed the soundies.
01-02 Joey Prophet – Joey Prophet 101 (unreleased) – Fever (196x)
— late 1960’s, Joey only had one album released, and this one ain’t it.
01-03 DJ Shadow – Endtroducing….. 09 – Organ Donor (1996)
— album has copious notes about where the samples originated, used on nearly every track, except this one. DJ Shadow (Josh Davis) reportedly has a personal collection of over 60,000 records so…. your guess is as good as mine where this organ piece came from!
01-04 Judge Dread – Sire 4028 – Ska Fever (1979)
— seminal London ska, fresh from when ska was birthed from punk. A welcome innovation for punks who were tired of breaking ribs while dancing.
01-05 The Sylvers – Capitol 4179 – Boogie Fever (1975)
— I think it’s going around.
01-06 Moon Mullican – King 1198 – Rheumatism Boogie (1953)
— typical story in Corrigan Texas, Aubrey Mullican played gospel on the organ until his Black friend Joe Jones introduces him to “country blues’. Subsequentially dubbed the “King Of The Hillbilly Piano Players”.
01-07 Doctor Ross – Sun 212 – The Boogie Disease (1954)
— like the Moon Mullican one above, a recording right in the sweet spot to be released on both 45rpm and 78rpm platters.
02-01 Brad Marino – Basement Beat 05 – Sick Sick Sick Sick (2022)
— punk is dead, so punk never dies, long live punk! My pick for best album of 2022.
02-02 Cake – Showroom Of Compassion 07 – Sick Of You (2011)
— it’s got everything you want from Cake: artful bass, smart fuzzed lyrics, everyone gets into the vocals.
02-03 Bleeker Ridge – Small Town Dead 08 – Sick Of You (2010)
— Canadian angst is just… nicer.
02-04 Jerome & Charlott Boss – Kontor Records 4251603255212 – Sick Of You (2020)
— real names: Charlotte Bühler and Marcel Jerome Gialelés, German dance power Jerome is more famous for “Thong Song” with Audiosonik.
02-05 Adelitas Way – Home School Valedictorian 02 – Sick (2011)
— always surprised how an artificially contrived city like Las Vegas can produce original artists. But often surprised thus, so my gut impression of Las Vegas is likely incorrect.
02-06 Lou Reed – New York 202 – Sick Of You (1989)
— crazy how much the lyrics are relevant 36 years later. Lou Reed was be genius. Says someone “died of the mumps” which was silly in 1989, but now it’s 2025.
03-01 The Blasters – The Blasters 103 – I’m Shakin’ (1981)
— the cover artwork was polarizing, half of record store shoppers saw it and had to have it, the other half were frightened.
03-02 Blue October – Up/Down Records – The Chills (2011)
— wah uh uh ah oh oh, that’s what rock ‘n roll is made out of.
03-03 Cab Calloway – St James Infirmary (Lofi Boom Bap Remix)
— no idea who warped this into a fun dub, but the original was the B-side of 78rpm Brunswick 6105 in 1931.
03-04 Betty Boop – Ker-Choo OST – I’ve Got A Cold In My Nose (1933)
— Ker-Choo is a short cartoon, the song was “I’ve Got A Code In My Doze” from 1929 by The Tin Pan Paraders (78rpm Supertone 9418). Betty Boop here is played by Mae Questel, not (as everyone assumes) by Helen Kane.
03-05 Teresa James – The Whole Enchilada 11 – She’s Got The Bug (1998)
— naturally, the backing vocal is by Sweet Pea Atkinson.
03-06 Mary Gauthier – Cold And Bitter Tears (The Songs Of Ted Hawkins) 04 – Sorry You’re Sick (2015)
— pronounced her name wrongly for a long time, until hearing Mary introduced on an episode of Mountain Stage. Speaking of which, Mountain Stage will be recording an episode in Rochester tomorrow, March 21 2025, for later broadcast. Headliner: Loudon Wainwright III, Also local blues legend Joe Beard, and someone named Ali McGuirk, which was the name of my insurance agent… nawww, couldn’t be.
04-01 Paul Robeson – Spirituals 102 – Balm In Gilead (1946)
— he recorded a session of spirituals in 1945, released as an album of four 78rpm’s in 1946. This is taken from the 1968 re-release of the set on side two of an LP named for the other re-release of a 1943 four-78 album on side one: “Songs For Free Men”… which put him on the FBI’s watchlist of dirty red commies.
04-02 Buck-O-Nine – Barfly 01 – Callin’ In Sick (1995)
— the kind of job open to a ska band member: the kind of job worth calling in sick to.
04-03 Allen Ginsberg – First Blues 202 – Sickness Blues (1976)
— the 1983 double-album’s liner notes are not fully granular, songs 104, 105, all of the second side, and 301 and 302 were recorded across March 23 1976 and June 1-2 1976. Produced by John Hammond, who “discovered” people from Robert Johnson, Bessie Smith, Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin to… Bruce Springsteen.
04-04 Huey “Piano” Smith And His Clowns – Ace 530 – Rockin’ Pneumonia And The Boogie Woogie Flu Part 1 (1957)
— don’t worry, you’re not missing anything, the “Part 2” on the B-side is an instrumental version. Notable for being pressed on styrene plastic, not vinyl. There is a good reason nobody uses styrene anymore, thus copies with ‘good sound’ are worth a lot more today. Not credited with the nickname “Piano” until the 1972 re-issue on Cotillion Records (on vinyl!)
04-05 Sherie Rene Scott – Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown OBC 04 – Lovesick (2011)
— a rare Broadway production working the other way, from a 1988 movie of the same name. Also starred Patti Lupone but considered a flop, closing after only 69 performances. But this song is a pearl.
04-06 John Valby – Compact Dirt Digital Ditties 06 – Leprosy (1989)
— “Doctor Dirty” calls Rochester home, much to its chagrin, and now at age 80 has NOT retired. Playing next Thursday March 27 2025, at Frog Alley Brewing in Schenectady NY. On this CD you can find “Leprosy” nestled between the American Songbook classics “Shithouse Blues” and “Yank My Doodle”.
04-07 Beatallica – Beatallica 05 – Leper Madonna (2004)
— this required so many bleeps. So many. It was a massacre. But worth it, to make a couplet for the ages.
05-01 Lonesome Wyatt & The Holy Spooks – Ghost Ballads 07 – October 1347 (2013)
— over 2 years since I did a “sick” themed show, and a bloc of Bubonic tunes is now possible.
05-02 Eric Burdon & The Animals – Winds Of Change 104 – The Black Plague (1967)
— all Black Death songs owe their timbre, arrangement, and instrumentation to this one.
05-03 Meredith Monk – Book Of Days 12 – Plague (1990)
— just my interpretation, but sounds like this is taken from the point of view of the rats.
05-04 Nick Cave & Lydia Lunch – Drunk On The Pope’s Blood 06 – The Plague (1982)
— lyrics come from the book “King Ink”.
05-05 MC Frontalot – Final Boss 07 – Diseases Of Yore (2008)
— the other vocalist is Jonathan Coulton.
06-01 Mel Robbins – Argo 5340 – Save It (1959)
— only released three singles on his own, bulk of his keyboarding was in sessions for others. Melvin was his middle name, which he favored over his real name, Hargus. Can’t blame him there.
06-02 Merry Macs & Victor Young Orchestra – Decca 4265 – Breathless (1944)
— in the USA this was the B-side to “Hey Mabel” but on the UK release it was the A-side, backed with “Jingle, Jangle, Jingle”.
06-03 Easy Star All-Stars & Sluggy – Dub Side Of The Moon 101 – Speak To Me, Breathe (2003)
— Andrew “Sluggy Ranks” Gregory was killed in a car crash in Jamaica in 2012. They also do an album covering Sgt. Pepper.
06-04 Buckethead – Albino Slug 03 – Pink Eye (2008)
— said it before and sayin’ it again, any excuse to play Buckethead is good enough for me.
06-05 Jerry Jordon & Walter Smith – Supertone 9407 – The Cat’s Got The Measels- The Dog’s Got The Whooping Cough (1929)
— original release is Gennett 6825, Walter Smith’s vocals uncredited on the label.
06-06 The Hollies – Hollies 105 – The Air That I Breathe (1974)
— the band’s second eponymous album, long after Graham Nash left but now with Allan Clarke returned to the fold. Hit #6 on Billboard, with Alan Parsons engineering, fresh off his work on Dark Side Of The Moon. According to Parsons, Eric Clapton said the first note of this tune “had more soul than anything he had ever heard.”