Category Archives: American culture

Island Records @50

Island Records celebrates its 50th in May. Props to Simon Reynolds for summarizing Island’s succes as managing “in its heyday to achieve that rare feat: combining commercial success with artistic integrity.”[1]

In other words: not selling out.

Padlock EP, one of my most prized Island Records releases

Click the footnotes to hear all four tracks.

The Padlock EP is a compilation of 4 musical compositions written for Gwen Guthrie. The rhythm section to the studio project consisted of Sly and Robbie, keyboards were by Wally Badarou, and mixing and remixing was done by Larry Levan. The Padlock mini-LP was released in 1983 on the Garage Records label and included “Hopscotch“[1], “Seventh Heaven“[2], “Getting Hot“[3], “Peanut Butter“[4] and ends with the title track “Padlock”[5]. The sleeve of the German Island pressing was designed by Tony Wright, the illustrator who was also responsible for the artwork to Lee Perry‘s Return of Super Ape album.

Clyde Barrow @100

Clyde Barrow by you.

Mug shot of Clyde

Bonnie Parker (October 1, 1910 – May 23, 1934) and Clyde Barrow (March 24, 1909 – May 23, 1934) were notorious outlaws, robbers and criminals who travelled the Central United States during the Great Depression. Their exploits were known nationwide. They captivated the attention of the American press and its readership during what is sometimes referred to as the “public enemy era” between 1931 and 1935.

Bonnie and Clyde (1967) is a film about their lives. It is regarded as the first film of the New Hollywood era, in that it broke many taboos and was popular with the younger generation.The film was controversial on its original release for its supposed glorificaton of murderers, and for its level of graphic violence and gore, which was unprecedented at the time. Bosley Crowther of the New York Times was so appalled that he began to campaign against the increasing brutality of American films, although one has to add to that Crowther was very puritan about sensationalization.

Cecil Taylor @80

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cP5L8tjnB6w]

Excerpt from Ron Mann‘s 1981 “Imagine the Sound” documentary.

Cecil Percival Taylor (born March 15 or March 25, 1929 in New York City) is an American pianist and poet.

Along with saxophonist Ornette Coleman, he is generally acknowledged as on of the innovators of free jazz. Taylor’s music is cited by critics, however, as some of the most challenging in jazz, characterized by an extremely energetic, physical approach, producing exceedingly complex improvised sounds, frequently involving tone clusters and intricate polyrhythms. At first listen, his dense and percussive music can be difficult to absorb, and his piano technique has often been likened to drums and percussion rather than to any other pianists, and resembling modern classical music as much as jazz.

RIP Claude Jeter (1914 – 2009)

Maurice Bottomley says: RIP Claude Jeter.

Click for credits

Listen to him here[1] on “Stand By Me“.

Claude A. Jeter (October 26, 1914 – January 6, 2009) was an African American gospel music singer.

Jeter was best known for his falsetto with the Swan Silvertones in which his graceful high melodies served in contrast to the rougher voices of the group’s other members. The group recorded for the several different labels, but never achieved financial success, despite its widespread influence. (I have a very special fondness for this category of artists, the ones whose influence osmotically make their own name disappear).

During the 1950s the group was popular and many of the elements of the group’s style resembled the then-prevalent rhythm and blues vocal group style. Jeter received many offers to perform R&B or rock and roll, but rejected them all, citing a commitment he had made to his mother that he would always sing for the Lord.

Elements of his performances in songs were picked up by later singers such as Al Green and Eddie Kendricks of The Temptations and another of his songs served as Paul Simon‘s inspiration to write his 1970 song “Bridge over Troubled Water“. Paul Simon subsequently gave Jeter a check for $1,000 for inspiring Simon to write “Bridge over Troubled Water”. See for this last trope: cultural appropriation in western music.

Young Lust (1971-1972)

The Young Lust Reader (1974) [Amazon.com]
[FR] [DE] [UK]

Young Lust is an underground comics anthology series co-founded by Bill Griffith and Jay Kinney.

Young Lust (1971-1972), an underground comics anthology series co-founded by Bill Griffith and Jay Kinney.

It featured stories and art by Bill Griffith, Jay Kinney, Art Spiegelman, “Pap Schmeer” (Landon Chesney), Roger Brand, Justin Green, Jim Osborne, Ned Sonntag, Spain Rodriguez, Nancy Griffith, R. Crumb, Gilbert Shelton, and Jay Lynch.

For more visuals see[1][2][3] (that last one is the best one).

From the back cover of its reader:

“Once you have experienced YOUNG LUST you’ll never be able to look at another “True Love Romances” in the eye again without cracking up. To have all three YOUNG LUSTS under one cover is almost too much to take!” – Ed Ward, City Magazine

“Occasionally something comes along that too good not to mention like YOUNG LUST, the series of mock-sexploitation comic books that parody perfectly the picaresque sexuality of teenage female cartoon fantasies!! – Howard Smith, Village Voice

“In this world there are three things we can be sure of debt, taxis and YOUNG LUST!!” – David Ossman, Firesign Theatre

“YOUNG LUST is almost impossible to read. You get halfway through the first story when suddenly you are rolling on the floor laughing your head off! Affords the whole family endless hours of pants-pissing entertainment!!” – Dean Latimer, East Village Other B&W

Frank Gehry @70

Frank Gehry@70

Dancing House Prague by Frank Gehry by ccwrks

Dancing House, Prague by Frank Gehry and Vlado Milunić (photo by ccwrks)

Frank Gehry (born 28, 1929) is a Canadian-American starchitect based in Los Angeles, California, primarily associated with a strain of postmodern architecture, known as Deconstructivism.

His buildings, including his private residence, have become tourist attractions. Many museums, companies, and cities seek Gehry’s services as a badge of distinction, beyond the product he delivers.

His best known works include the titanium-covered Guggenheim Museum in Spain, Walt Disney Concert Hall in the United States, Dancing House in the Czech Republic, and his private residence in California, which jump-started his career, lifting it from the status of “paper architecture“, a phenomenon which many famous architects have experienced in their formative decades through experimentation almost exclusively on paper before receiving their first major commission in later years.

The Killing of America (1982) by Sheldon Renan

L’Aventure hippie brings The Killing of America

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA4M04prVK8]

“… a new breed of killer appeared …”

Above is the Charles Whitman episode, in 1966 he was the first instance of the “senseless killings” sniper variety.

Youtube has the whole film in parts at [1]

Here is another interesting episode, the case of Mark Essex:

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiU0Tc0EIwU]

“… three black snipers set fire to this hotel in dowtown New Orleans …”

The Killing of America (1982) is an American documentary film tracing the origins of gratuitous violence in the United States. Directed by Sheldon Renan and narrated by Chuck Riley, the film was written by Leonard Schrader and his wife Chieko Schrader, with music by W. Michael Lewis and Mark Lindsay.

It featured notorious multiple killers such as Tony Kiritsis, Ted Bundy, Mark Essex, David Berkowitz, Kenneth Bianchi, Mark Essex, Jim Jones, Charles Manson, Herbert Mullin and Charles Whitman.

RIP Philip José Farmer (1918 – 2009)

Philip José Farmer (January 26, 1918 – February 25, 2009) was an American author, principally known for his science fiction and fantasy novels and short stories. Farmer’s works often contain sexual themes, and some of his early works were notable for their groundbreaking introduction of such to science fiction. Farmer’s first published science fiction story, “The Lovers,” which won him the Hugo Award for most promising new writer in 1953, was the first sf story to deal with sexual relations between humans and aliens. It instantly put Farmer on the map. His collection of short stories Strange Relations (1960) was a notable event in the history of sex in science fiction. He was one of three dedicatees of Robert A. Heinlein‘s 1961 novel Stranger in a Strange Land, which was also noted for breaking sexual taboos. Fire and the Night (1962) is a non-science-fiction novel about a love affair between a white man and a black woman that features some interesting sociological and psychosexual twists. Witness to that are these French translation covers. [1][2][3][4][5][6]

Fred Katz @90

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrFE1NMtgAs&]

Katz on cello on gay anthem jazz standard “My Funny Valentine” by the Chico Hamilton band.

Fred Katz (born February 25, 1919) is an American composer, songwriter, conductor, cellist, and professor, perhaps best-known as the composer and lyricist of “Satan Wears a Satin Gown“[1].

Folk Songs for Far Out Folk (1958)

Katz was classically trained at the cello and piano and began his career in a number of classical and swing orchestras. In the early 1950s, Katz accompanied singers such as Lena Horne, Tony Bennett and Frankie Laine. From 1955 through 1958, he was a member of the Chico Hamilton Quintet. He also recorded several solo albums such as Folk Songs for Far Out Folk[2] labels including Pacific Jazz, Warner Bros., and Decca Records.

In the late 1950s and 1960s, Katz scored a number of films for Roger Corman, including A Bucket of Blood, The Wasp Woman, Creature from the Haunted Sea and The Little Shop of Horrors. He also composed a number of pieces of classical music. Katz went on to become a professor of cultural anthropology at the University of San Fernando, specializing in ethnic music.

His cello can also be heard on Ken Nordine‘s Word Jazz projects, on Dorothy Ashby‘s The Rubaiyat of Dorothy Ashby, and Billy Bean‘s Makin’ It.

Jack Palance @90

Jack Palance would have turned 90 had he not died 3 years ago.

Like so many American actors — some of them had fallen on hard times, though I do not know if this is the case for Palance — they had a second life in European cinema, see for example the recently featured European career of American sex kitten Carroll Baker [1].

My father was nuts for Shane, and I’m sure he alerted me and my brother of that movie and had us see it, but my first conscious experience of Palance was in the cinematic fable Bagdad Café.

Back to the European career of Palance.

Palance starred in Godard‘s Contempt and Breathless, Jess Franco‘s Marquis de Sade: Justine, as well as in the poliziottesco Mister Scarface.

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHFK2mTDd3M]

I leave you with a scene from Bagdad Café, I loved that film when it came out, not in the least because of the brilliant loungy Jevetta Steele track, “Calling You.”

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyU1R50_Nc8]

Jahsonic

Aantekeningen uit Dodenstad.