It's interesting how the younger generation is coming to embrace psychedelic music. Are the psych bands dropping acid? ;-) Hope they have learned from history, and take it easy with that VERY dangerous drug. We don't wanna see anymore Syd Barrett's, Skip Spence's, Peter Green's, and Brian Wilson's.
The last of the black Rock 'n' Roll pioneers?
I just learned Huey "Piano" Smith passed away in his sleep on February 13th.
Rock ’n’ Roll doesn’t seem to be that popular with participants on this sight, but many of the artists who are revere Huey and his contemporaries: the black songwriters, singers, musicians, and bandleaders who created the music that led to the Big Bang that is Rock ’n’ Roll. And by Rock ’n’ Roll I am speaking of the music that came out of Memphis, Muscle Shoals, New Orleans (Huey’s hometown), Kansas City, Chicago, Los Angeles, and a few other hotbeds of musical activity in the late-40’s and early-50’s.
Guys like Dylan, Springsteen, John Fogerty, John Lennon & his bandmates, the glimmer twins (I hate that term, but okay ;-), Dave Edmunds, Robert Plant, Leon Russell, even Elton John (shudder ;-) owe a LOT to the originators. One such guy was Huey Smith, who can be heard in the recordings of Little Richard (McCartney’s favorite singer), Lloyd Price, Fats Domino, Smiley Lewis (for a shot of intense Rock ’n’ Roll, listen to Dave Edmunds’ recording of Lewis’ "I hear You Knocking". Phew!), Dave Bartholomew (I named my son after him), a bunch of others.
Have you ever heard Huey’s "Rockin’ Pneumonia And The Boogie Woogie Flu"? (The Flamin’ Groovies do a great version of the song on Supersnazz, their 1969 debut album on Epic Records). How about "Don’t You Just Know It"? SO cool! Surely you’ve heard "Sea Cruise", but most likely the hit version by Frankie Ford. Guess who wrote the song and recorded it first? Ace Records decided a version by a white singer would sell better, so replaced the original vocal by the singer of Huey Piano Smith And The Clowns with that of Ford.
I can’t think of another Rock ’n’ Roll originator who is still living. I treasure the memory of backing Don & Dewey (Specialty Records label mates of Little Richard, Lloyd Price, Sam Cooke, John Lee Hooker, many more)---both now gone---when they played The Continental Club in Los Angeles in the late-90’s (the great Earl Palmer played drums on many of their recordings). I couldn’t believe it: on the bandstand with Rock ’n’ Roll Royalty!
Honor the man; play some of his music tonight.
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Very sad state of affairs indeed @bdp24 :-(
Not this band ... Management contract specifically states, "ice cold Ales and Lagers." As for others I can only speculate and if so, I pray in the form of caps & stems with a (big emphasis in / on moderation). |
For one, this “psychedelic” label can be very nebulous (what qualifies as ‘psychedelic music’ often leaves me perplexed - I suppose ‘space-y,’ heavily-phased, strobe-y/tremolo-heavy music is ‘psychedelic’) and also by no means mandates that the creators are avid hallucinogen consumers. Further, demonizing hallucinogenics is unfair. Anything is bad if abused or administered unwisely. The positive impacts of hallucinogens are scientifically proven. Due to a silly, ignorant and power-hungry government, we have halted what should have been a greater effort in studying this further. These studies are now (finally) occurring again in earnest. “…this VERY dangerous drug…” we could also say about alcohol and cigarettes. |
Uh, yeah @tylermunns, that’s why I said ".....and take it easy with that very dangerous drug." George Harrison said he and the others tripped only a handful of times, and were fine. Syd Barrett, Skip Spence, Peter Green, and Brian Wilson didn’t, and look what happened to them. I saw first hand what LSD can do. A girl I first met in 7th grade got involved with an older guy when she was 16, and in the summer of ’67 the two of them killed themselves together in a cabin in the Santa Cruz mountains. They had taken a lot of acid, which those who had remained close to her said drove her crazy. I’ve known a fair number of heroin addicts, including my sister. While heroin addiction (and alcoholism) is not pretty, it doesn’t do what acid can. I've known a few guys who died of liver failure (the great guitarist/singer/songwriter Evan Johns for one), and even more of lung cancer. It killed them, but it didn't drive them insane. Acid can, and has. |
Title of a Spacemen 3 album: Taking Drugs To Make Music To Take Take Drugs To. ;-) I was into Psychedelic music only fairly briefly: from the Summer of ’67 (I saw The Grateful Dead and The Airplane live that Summer) until the Summer of ’69. In the Spring of ’68 my best friend and I dropped together, unknowingly haven gotten a hold of some bad acid (it must have been cut with speed, ’cause I was buzzing like a chainsaw!). That was the end of tripping for me. Weed too, as from that moment on getting high made me very paranoid. Been a (light) drinker ever since. I think of that as getting low. ;-) When I moved to L.A. in October of ’78, my God coke was everywhere. You’d go to a party and instead of joints being past around (as was common in Northern California), a mirror with lines of coke was. A very fun drug, unless you have enough dough to overdo it. Nobody I knew did, except for a dame I briefly dated, who told me she sold her car to buy as much of the stuff as she could get her hands on. Coincidentally, she was an absolute animal in.....hmm, perhaps I should leave the rest to your imagination. ;-) |
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