gts196 “mooosh”
“I’ll carve off what I want, then ride the rest home.” — Denis Leary
01-01 Rob Barrett Jr. & Terry Esau – It’s A Cow Christmas 107 – Deck The Stalls (With Oats And Barley) (1991)
— amazingly, they kept the shtick up for a full cassette, more amazing: it’s pretty good stuff.
01-02 The Turtles – White Whale Records 273 – Can’t You Hear The Cows (1968)
— maybe that’s what they meant by “Happy Together”?
01-03 Big Jack Johnson & The Cornlickers – Katrina 07 – Po’ Cow Boogie (2009)
— this benefits from being played quite loud.
01-04 Elvis Presley – Sun 215 – Milkcow Blues Boogie (1955)
— again, an old swampy blues song trotted out to white audiences by Elvis doing things on stage, which if done by a Black performer in front of Whites, he would have been simply tossed in jail. This was still early enough, that it was released both on 45rpm vinyl and a 10-inch 78rpm shellac by Sun Records.
01-05 Tommy Tallarico – Earthworm Jim Anthology 15 – The Moo Tango (2006)
— yes! It’s the soundtrack album to a very weird (but fun) video game.
02-01 The Ventures – Wild Things 205 – How Now Wild Cow (1966)
— if the hooves were cloven they could at least hang eight, but cows can only “hang four me-a-bunga!”
02-02 The Dead Milkmen – Bucky Fellini 206 – Surfin’ Cow (1987)
— a band with an innate sense of cow humor, this is also featured on their best-of album: “Death Rides A Pale Cow”.
02-03 Weezer – Mad Kow (2002)
— intended to be on their 5th album, which never even got a title, because the project was completely abandoned when an idiot at the studio leaked all the songs. Thus unmastered, but still good. It would’ve been a great album.
02-04 Chucko – Tu Ta’ Loco 01 – La Vaca Loca (2021)
— one thing that gets less play on this show, relative to how much I like it, is the genre “cumbia”.
02-05 William Barnes Brown – Sesame Street S01E01 OST – Hey Cow (1969) [excerpt]
— only the last part of a 6:35 song, it accompanied a film about cows during the very first episode of Sesame Street. Yes, when commissioning the song, the producers instructed Brown to make it sound like Simon And Garfunkel.
02-06 Friends Of Distinction – Grazin’ 101 – Grazing In The Grass (1969)
— past week, this is one that kept popping into my head at random times. The intro used here is from the 1970 year-in-review countdown broadcast of top 1969 songs, put out by the Armed Forces Vietnam Network. This made their list at #60.
03-01 Robert Johnson – Vocalion 03665 – Milkcow’s Calf Blues (1937)
— maybe a god, maybe anti-god, certainly a master. Recently, evidence came to light that he may have lived into the late 1950’s. So much about Johnson is mystery, which gins up its own mystique.
03-02 The Band Of Heathens – The Double Down Live In Denver Vol1 02 – Golden Calf (2012)
— yes, there are two volumes of the band’s 2011 Denver invasion. There exists a “box set”, which I put in quotes because it literally is packaged in a cardboard box. Beyond the LP’s of the live shows, the Box Set contains (deep breath): “three double Personal Vinyl Edition Series for a total of 5 LP’s and one 10”; two digipack CD+DVD; one tote bag; one tee shirt; one sticker; one can holder; one badge; two digital EP’s with nine more songs of the shows from October 7 and 8, 2011 at Cervantes’ Other Side. The “Double Down Covers EP” contains 5 classic BoH cover songs recorded on October 7 (except Hurricane recorded on October 8); The “Double Down Dead EP” contains 4 Grateful Dead tracks recorded on October 8.”
Whew, that’s a lot of swag! But… today it’ll cost ya five hundred bucks, so yeah, make sure ya get what ya pay for. Heck, I’d pay 8 bux for just the can holder. As it is, as soon as we’re done here, me gonna scour the ‘net for their version of “Hurricane”.
03-03 Green Jellö – Cereal Killer Soundtrack 101 – Obey The Cowgod (1993)
— out of Buffalo, the band originally touted theyselves as The First Video-Only Band. Dropped that pretension with this album on vinyl and CD, admitting to fans “Now we’re liars as well as jerks who have no talent.” The disc came with a 4-page comic illustrating the origin story of The Cowgod.
03-04 Android Sisters – The Land Of Zoots Part2 10 – Sacred Cows (1998)
— udderly weird, expect nothing less from the ZBS comedrama series.
03-05 The Arrogant Worms – Dirt! 08 – I Am Cow (1999)
— Canada’s finest, this disc has a dig at the pretender to that title, Celine Dion, as well as “Scary Ned” which we’ve heard on this show before, and “Winnebago” which we’ll hear here someday.
03-06 Harry Lee – Stampede
— no info on this release, but Harry recorded “Rockin On A Reindeer” on his hometown Igloo Records in Anchorage Alaska in 1959.
03-07 Norton Buffalo – Desert Horizon 101 – Echoes Of The Last Stampede (1978)
— album produced by Mickey Hart of the Grateful Dead, backing vocals on some tracks by the late Nicolette Larson.
04-01 Ella Mae Morse & Freddie Slack Orchestra – Capitol 102 – Cow-Cow Boogie (1942)
— second release, on 78rpm shellac, by Capitol Records. Ella also did Capitol’s first record, after which she immediately burst out in tears when they told her it was perfect (it was), because she thought they were just doing a run-through.
04-02 Citizen Bravo – Return to Y’Hup The World Of Ivor Cutler 04 – Mary’s A Cow (2020)
— a weird collection of remakes of Ivor Cutler tunes, astoninshingly none as weird as Ivor’s originals.
04-03 Doja Cat – Amala Deluxe 16 – MOOO! (2019)
— third of three bonus tracks on the “deluxe” version, a line just cracks me up: “get out my hay, bitch.”
04-04 Mudwimin – Skiz 13 – Cow For You (1992)
— drums here by Marianne Riddle, who went by the name Bambi Nonymous. Out of San Francisco, three singles, three albums, then they were gone.
04-05 Ben Hall And The Country Drifters – Cord Records 101 – Moo Mama (1955)
— only release by this band, and the only known release by this Texas label.
04-06 Cow Bop – Swingin’ Out West 03 – I’m Afraid Of Cows (2004)
— husband/wife team of Bruce and Pammy Forman on their first album.
04-07 The Stiffs – I Wanna Whip Your Cow (1977)
— not a real band, made up by radio promo vendors TM Productions. Yet, it was eerily prescient in predicting the future genre ‘psychobilly’. He may not even have known it, but Reverend Horton Heat began right here.
05-01 John Gorka – Before Beginning 08 – Winter Cows (1985)
— released 30 years after his debut album “I Know”, full of ‘demo’ versions recorded in Nashville.
05-02 The Mothmen – Pay Attention! 101 – Afghan Farmer Driving Cattle (1981)
— two albums out of Manchester UK in the early 1980’s, this is the 1st track of their debut. Formed when the band The Durutti Column broke up, and if you know who The Durutti Column were, I want to shake your hand!
05-04 Bob Luman And The Shadows – Rare Live & Studio Recordings – Milk Cow Blues
— obviously a radio transcription, unable to pinpoint where or when, but the appearance opened with “My Baby Walks All Over Me”. Suspect this is from 1960 or 1961.
05-05 The Go-Betweens – Before Hollywood 201 – Cattle And Cane (1983)
— out of Brisbane Australia, this tune got logged as one the “Top 30 Australian Songs Of All Time”, at least as far as 2001.
05-06 Reece Shipley and the Rainbow Valley Boys – Kingsport 104 – Milk Bucket Boogie (1952)
— brief label from the early 1950’s, out of… yes, Kingsport Tennessee.
06-01 The Blues Rockers – Excello 2062 – Calling All Cows (1955)
— only mustered three 45rpm singles 1950 to 1955, here’s their final song. They were: Earl Dranes, Eddie Ell, James Watts, and Willie Mabon.
06-02 O.B. Jackson – Hollerin’ 201 – Old-timey Hollers, Calling Cows [excerpt] (1976)
— Recorded in 1975 & 1976 in Spivey’s Corner, North Carolina. Release by Rounder Records, comes with a 21-page booklet, which if I had read it all, I might know more about O.B. Jackson. But he WAS Champion Hollerer in 1972.
06-03 Tex Ritter And The Dinning Sisters – Capitol AD-96 48027 – Cattle Call (1948)
— yes, dad of the 70’s sitcom star John Ritter. Started his career on Broadway, in “Green Grow The Lilacs”.
06-04 The Electric Amish – A Hard Day’s Work 08 – All Right Cow (1999)
— made famous on the Bob & Tom Show, whose unfortunate cackling colors this recording. Like The Ramones, The EA all have stage surnames “Goodman” although they’re actually Metcalf, Grayson and Grayson.
06-05 “Little” Jimmy Dickens – Columbia 20786 – Bessie The Heifer (1951)
— this is the fellow who Hank Williams nicknamed “Tater”, to whom he once replied “Much obliged, Hiram.” His actual stage name arose because he maxxed out at 4-foot 10-inches.
06-06 Johnny Ragsdale and the Sundowners – Columbia 21232 – Ten Thousand Cows (1954)
— out of Houston Texas, where he did a weekly radio show on KNUZ and popped up on KPRC tv.
06-07 Kitty Noble – Herald 422 – ‘Til The Cows Come Home (1954)
— after this record she became half of the act Mickey & Kitty. Real name: Katherine Killingsworth. From Youngstown Ohio, Kitty often sang in French.
07-01 Warren Storm – Crazy Cajun 518 – My Far Away Cow (1966)
— a storm across the Gulf Coast from Texas to Louisianna for 20 years, Warren was called The King Of The Dance Halls. Real name: Warren Schexnider, which explains the switch to a stagename!