Freddie King – Going Down
Freddie King – Palace Of The King
Freddie King – Keys To The Highway

With the return of Eastbound & Down, and the return of its dysfunctional anti-hero Kenny Powers, it makes good sense to post up this album from Freddie King. “Eastbound” uses the opening of King’s “Going Down” to great effect (as if the show wasn’t cool enough on the merits of Danny McBride’s work as “KFP”, Wayne Kramer of the MC5 is the music director!) in the opening credits and seeing it there reminded me of what a powerful and distinctive song it truly is.

Of the three “Kings” of the blues, Freddie King is probably the most underrated, producing a few hits (“Hideaway” perhaps the biggest), but never reaching quite the same heights as B.B & Albert King. But sweet Jesus, Holy Christ almighty did he and the crew hit the ball way out of the park with “Going Down” on this album, his debut for Leon Russell’s Shelter Records in 1971.

Under the direction of Don Nix and Russell, King fronts a band that includes Donald “Duck” Dunn from Booker T & the MGs and two drummers on virtually all tracks, for that extra bit of bottom. I’m not sure I’ve heard a better, more driving, funkier blues song in my life than “Going Down”. There is simply no way to control the head nodding that this song produces driven by those twin drummers, that furious pounding on the piano by Russell, that underlining fuzz and those cutting notes from Freddie King. Back in the early 1990s when I used to host a blues show on Album 88 called “Crossroads” this was one of the few tracks that I simply had to play every couple of months, its just such a monster of a track, it needs to be heard and heard as loud as possible.

In addition to badly needing a reminder of just how exceptional “Going Down” is, I was also reaquainted with a couple of other funky tracks from this LP. “Palace Of The King” sounds almost like a Funkadelic production from the same era, with upbeat rhythm punctuated by the fuzz guitar as Freddie runs down a story of how much the world loves his blues, but no place is quite like home in Texas. “Keys To The Highway” has a slower tempo, but remains heavy thanks to those twin drums and those slicing guitar lines from King.

Cheers,

Michael

Mel Brown – Swamp Feet
Mel Brown – Ode To Billie Joe
Mel Brown – African Sweets

I can’t remember exactly where I first got a copy of this record, back in the mid 1990s. I’m thinking it was either at Red, Beans & Rice or Wuxtry records. At the time I was really into jazz and was working on collecting Impulse records. The copy I used to own was super cheap, maybe $5, but it also wasn’t in particularly great shape, but I just loved the colors, design and the title. It just seemed like it might be a really great soul-jazz record. I was more than happy with the results when I finally dropped the needle on the scratchy wax and had been looking for a better conditioned copy ever since. Finally tracked down a minty one at Amoeba Hollywood and now I can share it with you.

Mel Brown was a blues guitarist, primarily, spending sometime with Johnny Otis before releasing a series of very solid albums on Impulse in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Towards the end of his stint on Impulse he became associated with Bobby “Blue” Bland. The Wizard is his best of the 6 or 7 records he cut for Impulse (though a couple tracks from 1971’s “Fifth” might be his best work). It’s got a really sensational sound, in Brown’s guitar, but especially in the percussion and drums, which I am fairly sure must be provided by “Pretty” Purdie. The production keeps things very, very punchy with a slight echo too. It’s that sound that draws you in immediately with “Ode To Billie Joe.” I’m not too big on jazz covers of “pop” tunes, but, as Frank Kofsky mentions in the notes, this is a great cover of the original, something just dying to be sampled. Also included above are “Swamp Fever” and “African Sweets” which feature some pretty samplerific drum breaks too, making this perhaps the funkiest record that was ever cut on Impulse.

Cheers,

Michael

Peter Thomas Sound Orchestra – Returning To The Stars
Peter Thomas Sound Orchestra – Popular Myth and Destruction of Sodom
Peter Thomas Sound Orchestra – Valley Of The Gods
Peter Thomas Sound Orchestra – Stars and Rockets/Gods from Strange Planets

If you have ever wondered what kind of music David Axelrod and Ennio Morricone would have made, circa 1970, if they made it into a studio after taking massive amounts of acid…look no further than this tripped-out soundtrack from the Peter Thomas Sound Orchestra.

“Chariots Of The Gods” is a mostly discredited piece of historical analysis that claims that aliens are responsible for much of the ancient world’s science, technology and religion. The ideas didn’t carry much weight in the 1960s when they were introduced, but it was intriguing enough for some Germans to get together and produce a documentary based off of the book. In the US this film was later released as “In Search of Ancient Astronauts,” but to my knowledge the soundtrack always carries the original name. This soundtrack originally was released in 1970, along with the original film, as two long themes spread out over two sides. This particular version is the 1974 edition, that instead of presenting the music as long-form pieces, cuts them up into little bite size tracks, which may be frustrating in reference to the original spirit of this music, but does make it much easier to quickly find the better moments in this score.

The first time I came across the LP was at Groove Merchant, Cool Chris played me about 20 seconds of a song and I was hooked. At the time I don’t think I fully appreciated the rest of the record and I vaguely remember trading it for something else within a month of getting it. More recently I dug this copy up at Atomic, sealed for $5. After a couple of failed attempts to trade it, all based off of my original feeling that it wasn’t all that, I decided to unseal the record and really consider whether or not I should get rid of it. Having a few years away from it and being in a much different musical mind set gave me a totally different impression of these sounds and I now think it’s one of my best finds of the year (especially at the price).

Many of the songs recycle a couple of themes, as is often the case with soundtrack records. The better tracks have one of two elements, both of which I really really dig. On the one hand you get tracks like “Returning To The Stars” with these very punchy and crisp drums paired with lush strings, horns and wordless voices. The sound is totally fitting for a film about space travel, since it has a very flighty vibe to it.

On the other hand, many of these tracks will include very odd or bizarre embellishments and at times some real 100% freakouts. The best example of this is the ticking time bomb that is “Popular Myth and Destruction of Sodom” the song begins as if you’re located in some kind of strange alien paradise surrounded by singing children, there’s something that’s whimsical about it for sure, but also it’s a bit off-putting, like something is just not quite right with this situation. Suddenly, just after the 30 second mark, it’s as if you’re under attack (perhaps from “space invaders”??? couldn’t resist) and you’re on the run from massive drums, screams and waves of fuzz guitar and before you’ve even had a chance to comprehend what has just happened to your ears, it’s all over. “Valley Of The Gods,” “Stars & Rockets” and “Gods From Strange Planets” (here the latter two are included together on the same track), similarly includes all these strange elements into a wild strings, drums and horns break-fest.

Though I know a fair amount of producers use this soundtrack for beats, taking small elements and choping them into their own musical collages, I really hope more people openly rework elements of this soundtrack into something new. All it may require is taking a deeper look at your local record store’s soundtrack bin, you never know when you might find a true gem like this for a steal of a price.

Cheers,

Michael

Joao Donato – Straight Jacket
Joao Donato – Malandro
Joao Donato – Lunar Tune

I’m about to jet to a secret location for a little bit of well deserved vacation, but I wanted to make sure to get my weekly “Dig Deep” post up before I go.

The first time I ran into this record was at Groove Merchant, it was one of my choice records that I ended up selling back to Cool Chris back in 2004 during my big wedding sell-off. Since then I’d been on the lookout for a “reasonably” priced copy and finally tracked it down over at Atomic in Burbank (though I did have to trade a copy of Perez Prado’s “Latin Hustle” to get this one, I’m more than happy to have it back in my collection).

The owner there was saying that one of the guys who worked on this record had been in the store recently and mentioned that the “real” Donato was more like the picture on the back than the picture on the front…I’m not sure really, but the important thing is Donato was not playing around on this record. It’s one of the few I’ve come across where every single track is a winner, a psychedelic mix of brazilian percussion + soul jazz that doesn’t really sound like anything else from this period I can think of. Super duper deepness…

And with that, I’m out until mid-week, next week…However, be sure to definitely tune into the radio show this Sunday on KPFK, filling in for me will be Oliver Wang of Soul-Sides.com!!!

Cheers,

Michael