Dec 14

YouTube 2014

YOUTUBE – 2014

 

There are several Ron Franklin songs on YouTube; here is a live performance of "The Elocutionist" from the album that I have, Ron Franklin:  www.youtube.com/watch?v=-job_-MxAZE .  "Dark Night, Cold Ground" is a little tougher, and this song comes directly from that album:  www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSWAXfpXVxM .  "Pontiac", from that album, is also available, apparently as a live track at:  www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHDt66toxAM .  There is an older gentleman also named Ron Franklin who has many more videos on YouTube than the UARA does. 

 
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I had to dig around some, but I did find some classy Ja Ja Ja videos on YouTube .  This is their classic "Katz Rap" ("Cat Rap"), the first female rap song released in Europe:  www.youtube.com/watch?v=lf5410itOkU .  I found a post by Julie Jigsawnovich on the Internet saying that this song, "Graffiti Artists International" is the first rap song that was completely about graffiti:  www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEp__hk3Gi0 .  Those two are audio-only, but this is a perfectly delightful video performance of "I Am an Animal", featuring lots of face painting, cool clothes, Stegosaurus costumes, and neat dance moves:  www.youtube.com/watch?v=allIpI84D_0 . 
 
(February 2014)
 
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As the only UARB thus far to be a disco band, I was not surprised to find several tracks by Stratavarious; in fact, at least 5 of the 6 tracks on the album are given on YouTube.  The full-length version of their hit "I Got Your Love" is available (all of these are audio only) at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=07v4UNWVqkU .  There are others for this song:  "Part 1" and "Part 2" plus a "special disco version".  "Let Me Be Your Lady Tonight" can be heard – evidently as taken from the album – at www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqKXY6VmUDE; this song also has a "disco mix" available.  Here is one last song, "Touching" that has more tempo and mood changes than are normally encountered in the disco world, plus some lovely harp:  www.youtube.com/watch?v=2X8V9MJOvNc .  As far as I know, there are no synthesizers on this album; these are all "real" instruments. 

 

 (March 2014)

 

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YouTubehas several songs by Linda Pierre King, including her best, "Hard-Lovin' Babe" that was recorded with some band called the Outcasts, but not the Outcasts that I talked about above that included Galen Niles.  This song can be heard here, as taken from the new CD that has a somewhat cleaner sound than my copy:  www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CF_BWyxfNg .  "Who Cares?" is in a protest mode; it starts off a little shrill but has very thoughtful lyrics:  www.youtube.com/watch?v=NODAnSALWFo&list=PLLGiu5j6kwN9PiUPApFH1W74mu6R3aQXy . 
 
Someone else put "Hard Lovin' Babe" on YouTube and disputes what I wrote about her in my UARA post:  "Don't believe the BS on the web about LPK, no one has come forth to know her biography.  She didn't get into Any Rand (sic), nor end up in Greenwich Village, etc, and she wasn't from Houston, either."  Fine by me if you don't believe what I wrote, but considering that there are only gripes there, I will stand by what I said.  (See below).
 
However, the same person also added two previously unreleased songs by LPK; here is one of them, "More" (the theme from the unusual 1960's movie Mondo Cane):  www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3hLC5iOMLg .  This recording of "Autumn Leaves" is also unreleased; this includes some chatter during the recording session and two false starts:  www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbzLHAje0Zw . 
 
(April 2014)

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Oh, this is a fun band.  Tina Lucchesi had previously been a member of the all-female Trashwomen, and she fronted an otherwise male band in this venture.  YouTube has several songs by Tina and the Total Babes, all audio only.  One of the standout cuts on their sole album, "Why Do I Like You" can be heard at:  www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPqJTgsC-oI&list=PLNTskUNB9DGXsgdwqFx6RZ8KBidGExicL .  The faster "All About Makin' Out" is at:  www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwqDIZvLfnA&list=PLNTskUNB9DGXsgdwqFx6RZ8KBidGExicL&index=2 .  Tina and the Total Babes slow it down for "Christy":   www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFfldG78C_o&list=PLNTskUNB9DGXsgdwqFx6RZ8KBidGExicL&index=3 .  Officially or unofficially, these are ranked as the most popular songs on YouTube by the band, but there are several more. 

 

(May 2014)

 

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YouTube has a music video for "Fire with Fire" by Wild Blue at:  www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGpO-2gr6PU .  The person who posted the video said that this was included in the soundtrack for a 1986 film, Fire with Fire.  The video intersperses color clips from the film with both color and black-and-white shots of the band in performance.  Wikipedia has an article on the film, whose cast include Virginia Madsen.  Based upon a comment that was posted with the video, bandmembers Renee Varo and Joe Zanona married and raised a family.  

 

A better-quality audio-only version of the song is at:  www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiY1p2cNF0c .  Unfortunately, "Fire with Fire" is the only song by the band that I could find on YouTube, but this is probably their best song.  

 

(June 2014)

 

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I first learned of Dead Hippie from their appearance on the late-night L.A. punk rock showcase  New Wave Theatre; I later was able to find their only album, Living Dead.  The meticulous discography website discogs lists the album under the categories:  Punk, Goth Rock, Deathrock, Hardcore, Psychobilly, and Psychedelic Rock. 
 
Songs by Dead Hippie are rather hard to turn up on YouTube, but I have found some.   "Big Train", the song that I quoted in my UARB post can be heard at:  www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDVyiZeL3ss .  A little more mellow song, "Slave Babies" is available (also audio only) at:   www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9EEDyANTIw .  Here's one more, the title song from the album, "Living Dead":  www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_80zoOxyew .
 
The full-length (half-hour) New Wave Theatre episode that includes the Dead Hippie performance that I saw is also on YouTube at:  https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=dead+hippie+new+wave+theatre .  I can't find the excerpt anymore that only shows Dead Hippie. 
 
 (July 2014)
 
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Phil and the Frantics are best known for their evident plagiarism of a Zombies song for their minor hit "I Must Run", though to these ears, it isn't nearly as obvious as everyone else seems to think.  See what you think of this song on YouTube (audio only) as taken from the LP where I first heard the song, Pebbles, Volume 2:  www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLK9wV-NfzQ .  Here is another song called "What's Happening":  www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDC-6wWl7bs .  One more, from the flip side of "I Must Run", called "Pain":  www.youtube.com/watch?v=cm_nRU-lYWc . 

 

 (August 2014)

 

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Including one of the founding members of the new wave band the Motels, Code Blue released a couple of albums that had only limited success; that doesn't stop their music from being terrific, however.  From YouTube, here is one of their best songs, "Face to Face":  www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUWxDrhTu3Q .  A total of nine songs by the band is available here:  www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsVx5tvLCg8&index=6&list=PLmycY91Rv1ymUrfYUujetZUzifwZVVxE7 . 
 
 (September 2014) 

 

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So who is she? Linda Pierre King is a native of Houston and moved to New York in the mid-1960's.  She became active in the folksinging circuit and spent a lot of her time at a beatnik coffee house called Beanie Baby's Java Hut.  Apparently the recordings featured on the Heart Beats CD were made in New York but had never been officially released before this. 
 
Meanwhile, Norm Wooster was adrift in the Big Apple after seeing his musical career evaporate.  The self-styled "king of barbershop" had numerous hit songs in the 1950's and later became a talent scout for Play-Tone Records.  After a bitter dispute in 1962 with Play-Tone chairman Sol Siler, the #1 hit "Lovin' You Lots and Lots" was released in 1964 under the name Norm Wooster Singers, though Wooster did not perform on the record and had his songwriting credits excised.  This song was also the opening track on the soundtrack album for the 1996 Tom Hanks movie That Thing You Do! about a one-hit wonder rock band called (naturally) the Wonders. 
 
Norm Wooster then immersed himself in the folk music world in New York and saw Linda Pierre King perform at the Beanie Baby club.  He fell in love with her, and they were later married.  Through her, Wooster eased his way back into the music scene and performed in a variety of styles from psychedelic rock to disco to country. 
 
Linda Pierre King might also have helped moderate Norm Wooster's right-wing political beliefs; he had been friends with members of the notorious House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), whereas King was a follower of philosopher and author Ayn Rand.  The HUAC connection had exacerbated the falling-out with Sol Siler, since HUAC was investigating actress Suzanne Pleshette, whom Siler was dating at the time.  (See below).
 
(April 2012)

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Well, apparently I got fooled by some of the back story that was created for the 1996 Tom Hanks movie called That Thing You Do!, about a one-hit wonder rock band called the Wonders; I have never actually seen the film.  There is no such person as Norm Wooster or Sol Siler, and Play-Tone Records was the fictitious record company that released the single by the Wonders.  The supposed hit song by the Norm Wooster Singers, "Lovin' You Lots and Lots" was actually written by Tom Hanks.  Linda Pierre King evidently remained in the Houston area and never moved to New York City. 
 
I ran across the biography in more than one location that appeared to be reliable, such as the post on last.fm that gave a biography called "Norm Wooster: The Myth and the Legend" (and several Amazon.com and YouTube items, though one YouTube video disclaimed the New York City connection).  Birth dates, parents' names, recordings, and name dropping peppered the entry; besides Linda Pierre King and Suzanne Pleshette (who was apparently not ever investigated by HUAC), the biography also mentions white soul singer Timi Yuro, Jerry Murad and the Harmonicats, Bob Dylan, and Kurt Cobain.  Turns out that last.fm is a wiki like Wikipedia; the real story can be found in several entries on Wikipedia.  It sure seemed legit to me at the time; I figured, how many people named Linda Pierre King could there be in the world who were folksingers?  
 
Anyway, sorry about that, and I apologize for my part in propagating this nonsense.  But that doesn't make Linda Pierre King's music any less wonderful.  
 
 (October 2014)

 

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The song "Give Me Your Money Honey" that is taken from Trillion's debut album, Trillion can be heard on YouTube at:  www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qb2JLZb-NU .  The title song "Clear Approach" from the band's second album, Clear Approach is available at:  www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlHJFWZUMF8 .  Here is a song called "In My Blood" from the band's planned third album, Trillion III (the video was uploaded in 2011, but the album apparently remains as yet unreleased):  www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KTpfIGPUzQ . 

 

Several more Trillion videos are available, though they are all or mostly audio only.  There are some practice sessions on YouTube by a band called Trillion, but I am not sure that it is the same group.  

 
(October 2014)
 
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Unfortunately I cannot find anything by this particular Thomas Anderson on YouTube.  I guess it is true what Village Voice has said of him:  "Thomas Anderson is clearly the greatest unknown songwriter on the planet."  

 

(November 2014)

 

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There are several videos by the Invisible Eyes on YouTube; only "Monster Beat" though has been viewed much – at www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rns3nc0vSs – and evidently I was the first to view "Mother of Mystery":  www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEVVa8omw8g .  I have difficulty with searches on YouTube, and maybe others do as well.  Additionally, numerous videos (maybe the majority) don't have any sound on my computer at home for some reason.  I just updated Flash Player, and it helped get ones by Cyrus Erie to play, but not these for the Invisible Eyes.  

 

(December 2014)

 

Last edited: March 22, 2021