gts163 “shpecks”
Easier to breathe with a fork.
01-01 Bob Lawrence & Paul Whiteman And His Orchestra – Victor 24455 – Smoke Gets In Your Eyes (1934)
— Lucky Strike Mother Fucker Turtle?
01-02 Lillie Bryant – Swan 4029 – Smokey Grey Eyes
— Lillie’s sister Anita Bryant got much more famous, as the spokeswoman for Florida orange juice and an advocate for locking up the gays.
01-03 Sanford Townsend Band – The Sanford/Townsend Band 101 – Smoke From A Distant Fire (1976)
— I loved this song, shortly before discovering The Beatles.
01-04 Ka’ikena Scanlan – Smoke All Day (2019)
— he’s a language teacher in a Hawai’ian school, surprised him this was a giant hit in the islands.
01-05 Dread Zeppelin – The Fun Sessions: Tortelvis Sings The Classics 05 – Smoke On The Water (1996)
— great cover, but prefer my own lyrics:
She’s comin’ home late at night now,
Hangin’ with her hoodlum friends
Like Montrose, Ozzy, Tony Iommi
Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention
She don’t smell like beer, but there’s
Smoooooke on Your Dau-uuuuuughter
(and fire in her eyes)
02-01 Hundred Seventy Split – The World Won’t Stop 05 – The Smoke (2010)
— a nightspot nobody knows about but those who know.
02-02 The Mooche – Pye 7N17735 – Hot Smoke And Sasafrass (1969)
— a different arrangement makes this more fun.
02-03 ChasBeats – Nostalgic Breeze 05 – Smoking All Day (2021)
— a fine interlude, just long enough for a smoke break.
02-04 Redman & Melanie Rutherford – Remixxes 19 – Smoke All Day (2013)
— of there’s bleeps, it’s Redman. But love the callback to 70’s Stevie Wonder.
02-05 Kenny Lynch – His Master’s Voice 1057- Puff (Up In Smoke) (1962)
— Kenny struggled to compete with the Beatles in UK, then lost the global war for pop ears.
02-06 Michael Sands – Too Rock For Country 09 – Second Hand Smoke (2013)
— Oh Canada, what’re you sending me, eh?
03-01 Rose Maddox – Glorybound Train 201 – Smoke, Fire And Brimstone (1960)
— Adam “shoved her up” a tree? Can’t get away with that today, boys!
03-02 Bill Peyton – Stewart 1001 – Don’t Smoke In Bed (1965)
— you don’t get a pass on this if you sleep on the couch.
03-03 Vivian Stanshall – Teddy Boys Don’t Knit 206 – Smoke Signals At Night (1981)
— starts torchy, morphs to a show-tune, ends up catchy.
03-04 Les Paul & Mary Ford – Capitol 2123 – Smoke Rings (1952)
— lots of versions of this, but Mary Ford is what’s always pops to my mind. Think it appears in a movie, maybe Lynch or Tarantino?
03-05 Anton Fier – Dreamspeed 10 – Smoke And Mirrors (bonus track) (1993)
— from the 2003 double album re-issue, this one an extra not included on the 1993 CD.
03-06 The Courettes – Back In Mono 01 – Want You Like A Cigarette (2021)
— she’s stubbing him out like a sooty butt.
04-01 Liz Tilton & Buddy Rogers And His Famous Swing Band – Vocalion 4408 – While A Cigarette Was Burning (1938)
— like Lillie Bryant above, Liz had a more famous sister: Martha Tilton.
04-02 TV Girl – Who Really Cares 03 – Cigarettes Out The Window (2016)
— d00d, judging from your whiny lyrics, when she disappeared for a couple hours, she wasn’t just out smoking.
04-03 Car Seat Headrest – Twin Fantasy 03 – Stop Smoking (2018)
04-04 Bubble Tea And Cigarettes – There’s Nothing But Pleasure 06 – He Asked Me To Stop Smoking (2022)
— how divine.
04-05 San Salvador – Music To Stop Smoking 101 – Stop Smoking Or Else Blues (1964)
— album doesn’t open with reasoning or pleading, but right out of the gate with threats.
04-06 Tucker Sterling Jensen – We’ve All Been There 08 – When The Smoke Clears (2012)
— might be my favorite of the show.
05-01 A.J. Rowe – Cave 5839 – Smoke My Pipe (The Sign Ain’t Right) Parts 1 and 2 (1971)
— caregiver/murderer.
05-02 Mr. Grabstein – Psychedelic Gems 3 02 – Smoke (1975)
— appears to be the band’s only recorded evidence of ever existing, release info beyond this compilation is nil. Even the date is uncertain, might have been recorded in 1974.
05-03 Blues Pills – Blues Pills 04 – Black Smoke (2014)
— or maybe it IS the end of the world, who knows?
06-01 Jimmy Eat World – Invented 06 – Coffee And Cigarettes (2010)
— the Dead at Fillmore and Otis Redding’s Greatest Hits, who would ever need any other tapes?
06-02 Tex Ritter – Smoke, Smoke, Smoke That Cigarette
— search engine’s dubious AI insists that Ritter never recorded this, that it was only Tex Williams. But found two versions of the tune, one labeled for each Tex, and they’re different. Who knows, this might be an alternate take by Williams?
06-03 Ren & Stimpy – You Eediot 08 – Smokin’ (1993)
— subversive, remember that this was a kid’s Saturday morning cartoon. Ahhh, the Nineties. It’s supposed to be anti-smoke, but that music is the epitome of cool.
06-04 Michele Miko Cantu – Letters Never Sent 06 – Been Smoking Too Long (2019)
— don’t go round unless you want to get burned.
06-05 Arctic Monkeys – Demo 04 – Cigarette Smoke (2005)
— later released on an album as “Cigarette Smoker Fiona” but 4 out of 5 doctors agree: the original version is smoother.
06-06 Gene Autry – Columbia J-148 – Smokey The Bear
— unable to find the year this was released, but it spawned a round of parodies called “Smokey The Bar”
… and a bonus track…
07-01 Ralph George – Caribbean Voyage: Grenada, “Creole And Yoruba Voices” 04 – This Is The Smoke, Fire Behind (Piké [Piqué]) (1962)
— another one collected by Alan Lomax, perhaps the 20th Century’s most important historian.