Norma Kelly — Siga aquele carro (Follow that car)
b/w A Canção Que a Guitarra Não Tocou (Mocambo 1968)
Lil’ pop gem from Brazil circa 1968. Can’t find much else about Norma Kelly, but this is one groovy little dancefloor ditty.
First heard this on Give the Drummer Some a while back… download link in the comments!
Shankar Jaikishan & Rais Khan — Raga Kalavati
from Raga Jazz Style (1968)
Still combing through the Megaupload-related carnage among the blogs..and so, so bummed to see that the great (now mythical) Holy Warbles is among those fallen. Such a brimming archive of the world’s sounds… now silenced.
I grabbed this mind-blowing album some time ago from Holy Warbles… let this post serve as a sort of impromptu wake for one of the greatest music blogs on the internet. May it be reincarnated somewhere soon.
Doug at WFMU’s Give the Drummer Some played a full three-hour warbling tribute set this morning—check it out. (audio should be up later today)
Lincoln Chase — You’ve Got to Be a Little Crazy
from Lincoln Chase ‘n’ You (1973)
Ladies and gentlemen, Lincoln Chase. The mad man, the jazz man, the storyteller, waxing poetic for 36 captivating minutes, after he smokes a joint. I’m not embellishing. The first track starts with Chase inhaling deep…holding it in…hold it, hold it!…and exhaling. And giggling. It’s called ‘Wooshp, Oom, Sff … Ahhhh!’ Yeah.
From there things devolve in a wonderful way, the guitar player pulls out the stops and the band rolls on, unstoppable, while Lincoln rides the musical wave, recounting history, telling riddles and letting loose observations about the way the world works. Guy’s an entertainment genius, and this is the kind of album you just put on and LISTEN to. No distractions. It’s impossible to do anything else.
Which brings us to the track in question - ‘You’ve Got to Be a Little Crazy.’ Musically, it’s one of the catchier tunes on the album, and one of the most traditional jazz progressions, with comical Herb Alpert horns. But the lyrics, and the timing of their delivery, are pure genius. The bit about the cameraman makes me laugh every time.
Take a little box
Point it at people, get ‘em inside
Take ‘em in the darkroom
Bring out the people again
Some of them smiling some of them crying
Some of them living some of them dying
You’ve got to be a little bit crazy to be a cameraman
The song finally unravels into chaotic overdubs about harmony, crazy, who’s crazy, who knows who’s crazy and who’s sane and what’s what and who’s who. And Lincoln screams, and the ladies doo-wop, and it’s over.
Thanks to WFMU’s Doug Schulkind, who DJs the show Give the Drummer Some, for including this classic in his weekly post on the best downloads of the blogosphere, Mining the Audio Motherlode. (which you should check religiously for gems like this if you don’t already…you can find a vinyl rip there)
