Monday, August 1, 2011

Something Different, Part 97....

Welcome to Aug, my favorite month -- my birthday & all, ya know.
In the continuing effort 2 find Something Different musically, over the past few Sun nites while working I've bn catching bits & pieces of "Little Steven's Underground Garage," which in the Seattle area runs from 10 pm-midnight on 103.7 FM "The Mountain." I trust it's also broadcast nationwide.
Little Steven -- who if I remember right was a guitarist/vocalist, member of the E Street Band & 1 of Bruce's buddies, among other things -- hosts 2 hrs of off-the-wall rock&roll, lotsa cool overlooked or forgotten stuff from the '60s & '70s, & a suprising amount of more recent retro-sounding stuff. There's also music trivia & stories about the artists & the folks behind the tunes.
The music is all pretty great -- & there's A LOT of stuff I've either never heard before or never heard of.
The stuff that's hit me hardest so far is Julie Driscoll's "I Know You Love Me Not," which sounds like some forgotten mid-'60s Dusty Springfield tune, complete with over-the-top orchestrations; & the Shangri-La's "Heaven Only Knows," which sounds just like them. ... & Dylan's "Maggie's Farm" is hilarious!
But there's LOTS more: Obscure tunes by Bruce, the Stones, the Kinks, New York Dolls, silly-&-strange-but-good retro stuff from Sweden & Norway.... Also some old standbys like the Beatles' "The Night Before," Vanilla Fudge's "You Keep Me Hanging On" (which I hadn't heard in years), & "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" (ditto).
Also, 2 name a few: Steve Winwood & Steve Cropper's "Thirty Second Lover"; Curtis Mayfield & The Impressions' "I'm a Fool for You" (which I thot was an old Smokey Robinson & The Miracles tune); Garland Jeffreys' "35-Millimeter Dreams" (which sounds like an old Van Morrison song); The Yardbirds' "Smile On Me, Baby," & more....
Steven also profiles great behind-the-scenes folks in an ongoing series called "Freaks of the Week" -- recent Freaks have included Shadow Morton, Al Kooper, Kim Fowley....
It's all really cool, 2 use 1 of Steven's fave descriptive terms. His low, kinda growly voice reminds me of The Boogie Monster, who I useta hear on Denver Oldies radio back in the mid-'80s. & some of his comments just make me laff out-loud, like when he described The Stones' "Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadows?" as being "full of Freudian, Jungian psychological STUFF ... It was written by Freud and Jung, actually ... and produced by Andrew Loog Oldham, who knew both of them VERY well...." & it's always a hoot when he starts laffing....
Quite cool if you're in2 the Different -- & who isn't, with radio being what it is these days? You might wanna C if U can track it down. I'll B listening more in the future. It's certainly made my Sun nites EZer 2 get thru.... Hopefully, You Out There already know about this show & I'm the 1 who didn't get the memo about it....
More soon....

2 comments:

Perplexio said...

I dig me some Al Kooper man. That cat had/has some monster talent. I dig the material he did with Mike Bloomfield back in the 60s. Those 2 cats worked together like Peanut Butter & Jelly or Grilled Cheese Sandwiches & Tomato Soup. I'm happy to hear that someone out there is recognizing his talents.

R S Crabb said...

hay Tad, Little Steven's Underground Garage is broadcast on the finer radio stations, which means we don't get it :(