Benny Bunter
Well-known member
First saw this footage on that famous Bob Dylan documentary and was blown away. Its a terrifying and literally explosive performance
Odetta - The Waterboy (1959)
Odetta - The Waterboy (1959)
Benny B's Nursing Home Gramaphone Listening Club
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Benny Bunter
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Bo Diddley - Who do you love (1957)
Here's that amazing slapback echo effect all over everything again. Bo Diddley was definitely a big sonic innovator in other songs with the tremelo guitar and distortion, homemade guitars and amps etc. All the 60s beat groups did covers of his songs or ripped off his signature rhythm. But I choose this one cos I love the lyrics as well, that super dark sense of humour thats in a lot of these songs.
I walk 47 miles of barbed wire
I use a cobra snake for a necktie
I got a brand new house on the roadside
Made from rattlesnake hide
I got a brand new chimney made on top
Made out of a human skull
Now come on take a walk with me Arlene
And tell me who do you love?
Who do you love?
Who do you love?
Who do you love?
Who do you love?
Tombstone hand
And a graveyard mine
Just 22
And I don't mind dying...
Here's that amazing slapback echo effect all over everything again. Bo Diddley was definitely a big sonic innovator in other songs with the tremelo guitar and distortion, homemade guitars and amps etc. All the 60s beat groups did covers of his songs or ripped off his signature rhythm. But I choose this one cos I love the lyrics as well, that super dark sense of humour thats in a lot of these songs.
I walk 47 miles of barbed wire
I use a cobra snake for a necktie
I got a brand new house on the roadside
Made from rattlesnake hide
I got a brand new chimney made on top
Made out of a human skull
Now come on take a walk with me Arlene
And tell me who do you love?
Who do you love?
Who do you love?
Who do you love?
Who do you love?
Tombstone hand
And a graveyard mine
Just 22
And I don't mind dying...
Benny Bunter
Well-known member
Here's another one with that feel from 1959, though it's quite hard to categorise. It's ostensibly sort of a lounge/easy listening version of a standard, but the lap steel guitar is fierce, moaning and crying like a human voice, and the whole thing has such a great atmosphere.
Benny Bunter
Well-known member
Tremelo is a big 50s innovation.
Staple Singers - Uncloudy day
'Pops’ playing is the foundation of the tracks the Staple Singers cut for Vee-Jay between 1955 and 1961. As Greg Kot describes it in his Staples book: “His style created an atmosphere that was immediately distinctive, a hypnotic swirl of reverb, repetition, and riff. Chords were implied as much as articulated, notes were blurred, tones and overtones were carefully layered like the bricks Pops used to cement into place at his construction jobs.”'
Staple Singers - Uncloudy day
'Pops’ playing is the foundation of the tracks the Staple Singers cut for Vee-Jay between 1955 and 1961. As Greg Kot describes it in his Staples book: “His style created an atmosphere that was immediately distinctive, a hypnotic swirl of reverb, repetition, and riff. Chords were implied as much as articulated, notes were blurred, tones and overtones were carefully layered like the bricks Pops used to cement into place at his construction jobs.”'
Benny Bunter
Well-known member
I can't hardly stand it - Charlie Feathers (1956)
This was covered by the Cramps and its in a Tarantino movie I think. The spooky 3 note guitar riff and demented hiccuping make for an unsettling listen, like its constantly jolting you out of your chair or jabbing at you with an electric cattle prod
This was covered by the Cramps and its in a Tarantino movie I think. The spooky 3 note guitar riff and demented hiccuping make for an unsettling listen, like its constantly jolting you out of your chair or jabbing at you with an electric cattle prod
Benny Bunter
Well-known member
With only one lung!
Benny Bunter
Well-known member
Link Wray was years ahead of his time, wasnt he? Amazingly raw and aggressive and distorted for 1959
You don't really find much else with that sort of punk attack till 1964 with the kinks you really got me
You don't really find much else with that sort of punk attack till 1964 with the kinks you really got me
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IdleRich
IdleRich
Weirdly that song was in my dream this afternoon.
IdleRich
IdleRich
I read something about how these kinda bragging lyrics were quite common at the time and they would recycle all this stuff about wrestling alligators or whatever from appearance to appearance.
Such a great great track.
Something about the strange eeriness of 50s music that eventually was ironed out by the 60s.
here’s another one in that vein
Benny Bunter
Well-known member
That's amazing, never heard that before. I know very little about doo wop aside from that flamingos thing and a couple of others, I bet theres load of eerie stuff.
Benny Bunter
Well-known member
Yeah the recycling and adapting of lyrics in the folk tradition gets passed on into rock and roll in the 50s. He was big fan of westerns (bo diddleys a gunslinger) so I guess in this one he's taking the typical bragging lyric and placing in that setting, with the 47 miles of barbwire and rattlesnakes.