New Orleans is the kind of place where the garbage man might be the best drummer you ever heard.  Its hard to be a big fish in that small pond.  There are musical monsters that are household names in no other city than New Orleans. Eddie Bo is one those legends.  Over his 50+ year career, the only NO musician that recorded more 45s than Eddie was Fats Domino.  He recorded for more than 40 record labels, was influential in the 50s, 60s and 70s playing a swinging piano and shaping rock n roll and the NO funk sound that made the Meters famous.  He died in 2009 a musical giant without ever having a commercial success.  Now put on your dancing shoes and press play.

Enjoy a few clips of this amazing band from 1976-81. Find out why the Capt. named his first born after them.

There is something pretty fascinating about the way different cultures affect each other. And it is truly amazing to see how American Rock-n-Roll changed the entire world. In the 50’s it became a calling card for an English subculture called the Teddy Boys. Teddy or Ted was short for Edward or the Edwardian-style clothing that these guys donned. Drape jackets, stovepipe pants, brothel creepers, DA hairdos and cracked teeth were the look. I’ve never figured out how the English manage to pull off the bad-assed Dandy look, but these guys were a fearsome bunch rioting with police and blacks. (more…)

Municipal Waste reminds me of all the reasons Metal is good.

From Nashville, the town of weird music tales comes the weird tale of Jimmy Ellis, better known by Orion.  Ellis was a struggling musician who couldn’t get any play because the DJs just felt that he was a second rate Elvis impersonator.  But he wasn’t an impersonator.  He was a sound-a-like.  in the late 70’s Record producer Shelby Singleton knew there was something there with Ellis and came up with a crackpot scheme.  Shelby had purchased Sun Records from Sam Phillips in the 1968 and decided to put Jimmy Ellis out on Elvis’ original label.  Not under his own name however.

Singleton had some  unreleased masters from Jerry Lee Lewis acquired in the Sun purchase. He recorded Ellis’ vocals over the original recording and released it as Jerry Lee Lewis and Friends.  Elvis had recently died and fans were so desperate for more that they really wanted to believe that this was an undiscovered Elvis  recording.  It sounded so much like the King that RCA was close to suing Singleton as they bought the rights to all of Elvis’ Sun recordings in 55.  SIngleton saw the light and was able to convince Ellis that he would conceal his identity and record under the name Orion.  The first album was released with a picture of a closed white casket on the cover.  After retailers complained, it was replaced with a picture of Ellis with Elvis’ last hairdo and a crappy Mardi Gras mask.  He never implied it was Elvis, didn’t look anything like Elvis’ lower face, and at first, he wasn’t recording Elvis songs, but people wanted to believe. Orion was popular enough to make onto the country charts a couple times and at his height, had a 15000 member fan club.  But in 1981, the rouse proved to be too much for Orion and in a moment of frustration pulled off his mask in front of his audience and reveled that he truly looked nothing like Elvis.  And that was it.  SIngleton immediately dropped and released him from his contract wanting nothing more to do with him.  Without the gimmick, Ellis was reduced to just another Elvis impersonator.  He tried to make a name for himself performing under his real name and when that didn’t work, he returned to the Orion persona and began to perform more and more as an Elvis impersonator, mimicking the moves and donning the rhinestones.  The magic was gone.  The singer turned out to be cursed with Elvis’ voice.  He just could never shake that he sounded too much like Elvis.  In 1990 he told a reporter, “I just wanted to perform, to use the talent that I had.”

In 1998, he was behind the counter in his pawn shop when a robber bust through the door and began firing killing Ellis and his fiance.

In 1972, the same year the Beetle passed the Model T in sales, a concert was held in LA’s Coliseum to commemorate the 7th anniversary of the Watts riots of ‘65.  The concert was organized by the Memphis R&B label, STAX and tickets were only a buck, a move to guarantee a packed stadium.  A double album was recorded and an Oscar-winning documentary was filmed.  The clips here are all from the documentary.  The flimakers were worried about making “just another concert film” so they took to the streets and filmed man-on-the-street interviews with African-American Los Angelinos.  There are priceless shots of the neighborhoods and churches around the city as well as a long interview with a fairly unknown Richard Pryor.

The true star of the show is the music.  Genuine Soul music played by Stax’s amazing lineup .  There is a 55 year-old Rufus Thomas, making concert goers jump the fence, to dance in the field.  Isaac Hayes at the peak of his powers.  Even Jesse Jackson seems in awe of the Black Moses.  The Emotions singing in church.   The Staple Singers. The Bar Kays. The Dramatics.  Truly an ultimate snapshot of what soul looks and sounds like.

In honor of the SF premiere of the new movie La Mission, this Friday’s Music comes from the ultimate collection of West Coast cruising oldies.  East Side Story are almost standard operating equipment in a lowrider.  Kind of like Bob Marley’s Greatest Hits is to freshman college dorm rooms, cruisers just seem to be required to own them.  They are for sale at every car show and swapmeet and people have all 12 volumes memorized front to back.  So charge your batteries, fill your cooler with Bud Light, dust off to trunk mural and head over to the park to the sound of East Side Story.

A second day of Malcolm. Malcolm McLaren’s life is measured in the wake that he left. Some have called him him an opportunist, or a parasite, but people just don’t find themselves in the right place at the right time like that. Malcolm paved the way in a couple of the classical elements of punk. Kill Your Idols and Reinvention. Ideals almost impossible to hang on to your whole life long, but Malcolm made it further than most. He was never scared to tear it down and start over. Not many would have booked the Sex Pistol’s first American tour through the redneck South, bypassing New York and L.A. or make a New Wave version of Madame Butterfly narrated by a fake-accented cowboy. In the end he became some sort of classic in Punk, Hip Hop and New Wave and that’s the legacy. Fuck it up, stick it back together and some of it will change the world. The flops are forgotten but the ripples remain.