Some Girls Resented 'Drag Queen' Smear
The original Some Girls LP (COC 39108) from The Rolling Stones featured the famous die-cut cover and a picture sleeve insert that included face shots of Lucille Ball, Farrah Fawcett, Raquel Welch, Judy Garland and Marilyn Monroe. The ladies still living at the time, and the estates of those deceased, objected to the drag queen context of the layout. The amended version that then came out was faceless.
As mentioned before in this blog, Bakersfield is given a nod in the first cut on the B-side, "Far Away Eyes," with Ronnie Wood's searing country lead on the guitar.
...
Monday, June 22, 2009
Friday, October 10, 2008
Denver jazzman knocking out rhythms
Gigging With Colin Gieg
by Bryce Martin
Colin Gieg was born in San Mateo, Calif., and moved to the Bakersfield region around age five when his father took over Ken's Chevron, a family-owned business in Mettler.
He graduated from Bakersfield High in 1960. At age seven, Jimmy Thomason invited him to play piano for one of his radio shows. Gieg took piano lessons from Ralph Yaw, first at a place on Chester Avenue and later in a back room of Yaw's music store in East Bakersfield. Yaw, he remembers as "having a mustache, short and with stubby fingers." He credits Yaw, a former arranger for Stan Kenton, as being a fabulous instructor.
"I still have an old chart where he wrote out all the notes. For the first six months, I never had anything printed. He wrote out every note. He taught me so much and really inspired me to make music a big part of my life."
He played guitar, piano and accordion and at age 15 took up the upright bass, taking lessons from a member of the Kern Philharmonic. In high school, he played bass in coffee houses around Bakersfield and in school assemblies.
"While in high school my last two years, I played as much as four nights a week sometimes at The Bamboo Room on East California. The manager, Charles Strong, played drums. A tenor sax, and an organ player, Ted Shirley, would come up from Los Angeles."
One musician he worked with was guitarist Paul Raley.
"Paul Raley was such a great guitar player. He was left handed but played the guitar right handed. Since he was left handed, he started practicing left handed so he could convert. So, he was practicing all day left handed and then he'd come and play at night right handed. He was finally able to make the transition to playing left handed. He was a great player either way."
Gieg remembers just one occasion where he was involved with Bakersfield's country music scene.
"Jimmy Thomason got my name from somewhere and called me to work a show with him. I reminded him about being on his radio program when I was really young. We went to Tehachapi and did a show at the prison. It was a lot of fun."
In the late 1960s, after a tour with the U.S. Army, he played for a time with the Charles Strong Trio at the Penthouse on Union Avenue.
Gieg lives in Denver where he has long been a prominent fixture on the local jazz scene.
He has played on many recordings. One of his first was when he contributed on bass to a chart album issued in 1965 from female trendsetter Rusty Warren, one entitled More Knockers Up! (Jubilee JGM-2059). The LP was a followup to Warren's smash party record from 1960, the "sin-sational" Knockers Up! (Jubilee JGM-2029), an album that managed to stay on the charts for three years running.
-30-
by Bryce Martin
Colin Gieg was born in San Mateo, Calif., and moved to the Bakersfield region around age five when his father took over Ken's Chevron, a family-owned business in Mettler.
He graduated from Bakersfield High in 1960. At age seven, Jimmy Thomason invited him to play piano for one of his radio shows. Gieg took piano lessons from Ralph Yaw, first at a place on Chester Avenue and later in a back room of Yaw's music store in East Bakersfield. Yaw, he remembers as "having a mustache, short and with stubby fingers." He credits Yaw, a former arranger for Stan Kenton, as being a fabulous instructor.
"I still have an old chart where he wrote out all the notes. For the first six months, I never had anything printed. He wrote out every note. He taught me so much and really inspired me to make music a big part of my life."
He played guitar, piano and accordion and at age 15 took up the upright bass, taking lessons from a member of the Kern Philharmonic. In high school, he played bass in coffee houses around Bakersfield and in school assemblies.
"While in high school my last two years, I played as much as four nights a week sometimes at The Bamboo Room on East California. The manager, Charles Strong, played drums. A tenor sax, and an organ player, Ted Shirley, would come up from Los Angeles."
One musician he worked with was guitarist Paul Raley.
"Paul Raley was such a great guitar player. He was left handed but played the guitar right handed. Since he was left handed, he started practicing left handed so he could convert. So, he was practicing all day left handed and then he'd come and play at night right handed. He was finally able to make the transition to playing left handed. He was a great player either way."
Gieg remembers just one occasion where he was involved with Bakersfield's country music scene.
"Jimmy Thomason got my name from somewhere and called me to work a show with him. I reminded him about being on his radio program when I was really young. We went to Tehachapi and did a show at the prison. It was a lot of fun."
In the late 1960s, after a tour with the U.S. Army, he played for a time with the Charles Strong Trio at the Penthouse on Union Avenue.
Gieg lives in Denver where he has long been a prominent fixture on the local jazz scene.
He has played on many recordings. One of his first was when he contributed on bass to a chart album issued in 1965 from female trendsetter Rusty Warren, one entitled More Knockers Up! (Jubilee JGM-2059). The LP was a followup to Warren's smash party record from 1960, the "sin-sational" Knockers Up! (Jubilee JGM-2029), an album that managed to stay on the charts for three years running.
-30-
Friday, September 19, 2008
1930s to 1950s
Matchbook covers were the way to advertise:
Witham's Appliances, M & M Smoke Shop, Penny Fine Foods, Snyder's Evinrude, Doctor's Ambulance Service, McCoy Tire Recap Co., Rod's Enterprises, Union Ave. Gift Shoppe, The Old River Dept. Store, Yosemite Ice Cream, King's Cleaners, Stop N' Shop Variety Store, Walt's Orchids, Frazer Service Co., M & M Smoke Shop, Cliff Greenleaf Used Cars, Sanitex Cleaners, Permanente Cement Company, Fraternal Order of Eagles, Aerie no. 93, Maurice Coiffure, Seiler's Mens Store, Jack Landson Drugs, Robert Hill's Save More Drug, Bail Bond Binger, Richardson's RCA radios, Bewicks Flowers, Union Ave. Smoke Shop, Trones Gas & Electric, Chevrolet Motor Center, Aaron Liquor Stores, Derrick Liquor Store, Joe's Meat Processing, Joe Bertolaccini, Headlight Shrunk Overalls, M.L. Myers Texaco, Jones' Body & Fender Shop, Kimball & Stone Druggists, El Adobe Motel, Gorman Motel & Cafe on Ridge Route US 99, Dew Drop Inn Union Ave., Desert Inn, Motor Court, The Cawelo Motel, Motel Inn Union Ave., Motor Court, The Desert Inn (cowboy scene), Sierra Vista Motel, Hotel El Tejon, A Home away from Home, Tegeler Hotel, Bakersfield Motor Hotel.
-30-
Matchbook covers were the way to advertise:
Witham's Appliances, M & M Smoke Shop, Penny Fine Foods, Snyder's Evinrude, Doctor's Ambulance Service, McCoy Tire Recap Co., Rod's Enterprises, Union Ave. Gift Shoppe, The Old River Dept. Store, Yosemite Ice Cream, King's Cleaners, Stop N' Shop Variety Store, Walt's Orchids, Frazer Service Co., M & M Smoke Shop, Cliff Greenleaf Used Cars, Sanitex Cleaners, Permanente Cement Company, Fraternal Order of Eagles, Aerie no. 93, Maurice Coiffure, Seiler's Mens Store, Jack Landson Drugs, Robert Hill's Save More Drug, Bail Bond Binger, Richardson's RCA radios, Bewicks Flowers, Union Ave. Smoke Shop, Trones Gas & Electric, Chevrolet Motor Center, Aaron Liquor Stores, Derrick Liquor Store, Joe's Meat Processing, Joe Bertolaccini, Headlight Shrunk Overalls, M.L. Myers Texaco, Jones' Body & Fender Shop, Kimball & Stone Druggists, El Adobe Motel, Gorman Motel & Cafe on Ridge Route US 99, Dew Drop Inn Union Ave., Desert Inn, Motor Court, The Cawelo Motel, Motel Inn Union Ave., Motor Court, The Desert Inn (cowboy scene), Sierra Vista Motel, Hotel El Tejon, A Home away from Home, Tegeler Hotel, Bakersfield Motor Hotel.
-30-
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Takin' the country boy out of the country...
We all live in a big ol' world
By Bryce Martin
Pop music was never more groovier than in 1969, and no song better exemplified that than the hippie anthem, "Aquarius." Let the sunshine in, by all means, yes. Kenny Johnson provided vocals for a Gary Paxton budget album in the works aimed for Alshire Records. Johnson's moon was in the seventh house and all was copasetic while he got through on such lines as "no more falsehoods or derisions," but the country in him was exposed when he got around to another song, "Yellow Submarine," which he sang as "yeller" submarine. I asked him about it and he straighforwardly replied, "I thought it was yeller."
-30-
By Bryce Martin
Pop music was never more groovier than in 1969, and no song better exemplified that than the hippie anthem, "Aquarius." Let the sunshine in, by all means, yes. Kenny Johnson provided vocals for a Gary Paxton budget album in the works aimed for Alshire Records. Johnson's moon was in the seventh house and all was copasetic while he got through on such lines as "no more falsehoods or derisions," but the country in him was exposed when he got around to another song, "Yellow Submarine," which he sang as "yeller" submarine. I asked him about it and he straighforwardly replied, "I thought it was yeller."
-30-
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Wolfman Jack mortalized at KAFY
When Wolfman Jack didn't rule the airwaves
by Bryce Martin
Wolfman Jack, late at night crusin' down a quiet, moonlit highway with The Wolfman bayin' and howlin' from rebel stronghold XERB ("in Rosa-lita, Ba-ha Calefornya"), fading in and out between mountains and offering a delightful radio fare found nowhere else on the dial.
Who was this guy anyway? Then, the movie American Graffiti showed us and he lost much of his mystic appeal because of it.
But the worst was still to come. He showed up in Bakersfield and went on the air for KAFY, a station whose days in the sun were in the past. No fault of KAFY's, mind you, it was just that time and taste had moved beyond the Golden Years of music and radio for all America. No fanfare. No media hype. Just another DJ on the DJ Scene. No rebel in the night. America's DJ was relegated to the backyard of radio history.
He even drove a dilapidated van. Times must have been rough. You knew he wasn't going to get rich dj-ing in Bakersfield. What a comedown, for me. I hated to even think about. Still do.
Goodnight, Wolfman.
-30-
by Bryce Martin
Wolfman Jack, late at night crusin' down a quiet, moonlit highway with The Wolfman bayin' and howlin' from rebel stronghold XERB ("in Rosa-lita, Ba-ha Calefornya"), fading in and out between mountains and offering a delightful radio fare found nowhere else on the dial.
Who was this guy anyway? Then, the movie American Graffiti showed us and he lost much of his mystic appeal because of it.
But the worst was still to come. He showed up in Bakersfield and went on the air for KAFY, a station whose days in the sun were in the past. No fault of KAFY's, mind you, it was just that time and taste had moved beyond the Golden Years of music and radio for all America. No fanfare. No media hype. Just another DJ on the DJ Scene. No rebel in the night. America's DJ was relegated to the backyard of radio history.
He even drove a dilapidated van. Times must have been rough. You knew he wasn't going to get rich dj-ing in Bakersfield. What a comedown, for me. I hated to even think about. Still do.
Goodnight, Wolfman.
-30-
Bitched-on Schlock
A nod to (Wendy) Carlos Williams
by Bryce Martin
What do you do when you have a new recording studio and you've plunked down several thou for some kind of gizmo that makes funny sounds?
A wacky Moog concept album of Buck Owens tunes played on that newfangled synthesizer dumaflogy thingie.
Ten tracks include "I've Got a Tiger By the Tail," "Buckaroo," "Sam's Place."
Switched-On Buck
Jeff Haskell
Capitol ST-679
1971
How Long Will My Baby Be Gone; I've Got a Tiger by the Tail; Under Your Spell Again; Where Does the Good Times Go; Buckaroo/ It Takes People like You; Sam's Place; Raz-ma-taz Polka; The Kansas City Song; We're Gonna Get Together
-30-
by Bryce Martin
What do you do when you have a new recording studio and you've plunked down several thou for some kind of gizmo that makes funny sounds?
A wacky Moog concept album of Buck Owens tunes played on that newfangled synthesizer dumaflogy thingie.
Ten tracks include "I've Got a Tiger By the Tail," "Buckaroo," "Sam's Place."
Switched-On Buck
Jeff Haskell
Capitol ST-679
1971
How Long Will My Baby Be Gone; I've Got a Tiger by the Tail; Under Your Spell Again; Where Does the Good Times Go; Buckaroo/ It Takes People like You; Sam's Place; Raz-ma-taz Polka; The Kansas City Song; We're Gonna Get Together
-30-
Monday, June 30, 2008
Non-Country Music Bakersfield recordings
Bakersfield private, vanity and indie longplay pressings
by Bryce Martin
From the thrills of the smokin' burnouts from careening dragsters on legendary Bakersfield race tracks, to the vinyl tracks of the Cal State Bakersfield jazz stage band and its smokin' arrangements, here is an all-too-imcomplete look at some recordings other than those associated with the Bakersfield's country music heritage.
Bakersfield High School Driller Band
A two-record set, 100-plus member band under the direction of Wesley Moore and issued in colored vinyl. Performed at Harvey Auditorium on March 14, 1960, two and a half weeks after Martin Luther King gave an address there (February 25).
Title:?
Catalog No.: ?
1960
+++
Bakersfield Smokers
Albums such as these were issued during the hot rod craze of the early to mid-60s. They are found under the rock or exotica genre in today's listings. No music on this one, "songs" are strictly the sounds of stock cars, hot rods and dragsters in action at Bakersfield. The 16 cuts offer racing sounds from cars and motorcyles. Recorded, produced and edited by rod enthusiast Griff Borgeson. NHRA drag racing legends on hand include "TV" Tommy Ivo, James Warren, Tom McEwen and Camfather Ed Iskenderian.
Griff Borgeson Presents Hot Rod Heaven
Riverside Records RLP 95509
1961
+++
5th Annual United States Fuel & Gas Championships
Bakersfield, California
Bakersfield '63
Fleetwood Records FLP4004S
1963
+++
6th Annual United States Fuel & Gas Championships
Recorded March 6-7-8 at the Famosa Drag Strip,
Bakersfield, California
Bakersfield '64
Fleetwood Records FLP4017
(Lynn, Massachusetts)
Recorded by Richard Blake
Narration by "The Voice of Drag Racing" Jon Lundberg
Side 1: Eliminations, Hot Cars, Fuel & Gas Dragsters
Side 2: Final Eliminations, Hot Cars, Fuel & Gas Dragsters
1964
+++
Bakersfield College Choir
In Concert 1964-65
Century Custom Recording (label No.?)
Joseph Huszti, Director
1965
+++
Bakersfield College Choir
In Concert
Century Custom Recording 23983
April 15, 1966 at Civic Auditorium
Joseph Huszti, Director
1966
+++
Honor Orchestra, Honor Chorus and Honor Band
Bakersfield City Junior High Schools 26th Annual Concert
Century 6623
1982
+++
CSB Jazz
Yes, We're Open
Writer's Album 1983/84
KM Records KM12575
(Burbank, Calif.)
Groups include: Sanctuary; Five Options; Not Ready For Coffeehouse Players; Over-Easy.
Titles include: Cancion Para Dona Pancha; All's Afire; Mark's Supreme Solo; Four Hours in Carlotta; Supreme My Holdings; Marie, Katwalk, Waltz For Pam.
1984
+++
Cal State Bakersfield Big Band
This is a double-album that includes tracks from the Sanctuary ensemble, originally formed by the college's Doug Davis. The cover artwork is similar to a 1972 LP as done by Humble Pie.
Smokin'
(record label and No.?)
1988
+++
BC
Renegade Sounds
Century Custom Recording 19919
Ca. early 1960s
Tracks; Fight Song (Band and Choir); Alma Mater (Band and Choir); Ray Newman (BC Football Coach); Alma Mater (Small Choir); George Washington March (Band); Fight Song (Band); Sounds From the Stadium; Stars and Stripes Forever.
+++
Calvary Chapel Bakersfield
The album's long title and equally long catalog number is a hint that long song titles will follow.
Let All Who Hath Breath Praise The Lord
(Label?) SPCN-7-100-03472-8
Ministry Resource Center
Inner liner sleeve has "The Making of a Praise Abum"
1984
Tracks: Lord I Lift Up This Day; Living Sacrifice; I Just Wanna Be Like You; Your Will is he Wish of My Life; Humbly Trust; Holy Wind; Sing Unto the Lord / The Lord is My Shepherd; Thank You Lord; There is Healing in the Wings of Jesus; Praise Him; We Bow Our Hearts Before You; We Lift Our Voice; Let All Who Hath Breath Praise the Lord
+++
George Leonard and His New Orleans Stompers
The Second Bakersfield Concert, 1954
(Storyville label)
Released on CD January 20, 1998
Tracks: Panama; Tin Roof Blues; Lord, Lord, You've Sure Been Good to Me; Burgandy Steet Blues; The World is Waiting for the Sunsrise; Caldonia; Muskrat Ramble; Sensation Rag; Bill Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home; Old Man Mose; When the Saints
+++
Cradle of Thorns
A gothic rock group with Ty Elam, David File, Kris Kohls, Scot Elis, Tamera Slayton. Their eponymous album was produced by Alex Woltman and engineered by Mikey Davis.
Cradle of Thorns
1994
+++
Relating to Bakersfield
Society For the Preservation and Encouragement of Barbershop Quartet Singing in America (SPEBSQSA)
1979 Fall Convention
at Bakersfield, California
October 13, 1979
Shelex Records SHX-79-41
1979
+++
Leroy Jenkins
Songs and Sermons in Bakersfield
LJEA 1009
19??
He prays for the sick, preaches and sings, pretty much what the LP's title says. Jenkins was a former Georgia businessman who turned to religion and became a reverend after being cured of an injury to his arm, all according to him, after going through the healing line of a tent revival in Atlanta. Man of Faith is the title of a movie based on his life,
+++
Bootleg:
Neil Young
The Last Album
Bakersfield, California, 1973
American tour (with Crosby and Nash)
Tracks: Sugar Mountain; Sweet Joni; Look Out Joe; Time Fades Away; Don't Be Denied; New Mama; Last Dance; Southern Man; Improvisation
+++
Mickey Kalis and The Bakerfield Blues Band
A single from August 1969. The custom pressing was neither country or blues but garage rock. United Audio was a small independent from Youngstown, Ohio. The singer was still issuing singles in the early 1980s on his own Mickey Kalis Records.
2:10 to Yuma b/w Got No Time
United Audio 6003
August 1969
+++
-30-
by Bryce Martin
From the thrills of the smokin' burnouts from careening dragsters on legendary Bakersfield race tracks, to the vinyl tracks of the Cal State Bakersfield jazz stage band and its smokin' arrangements, here is an all-too-imcomplete look at some recordings other than those associated with the Bakersfield's country music heritage.
Bakersfield High School Driller Band
A two-record set, 100-plus member band under the direction of Wesley Moore and issued in colored vinyl. Performed at Harvey Auditorium on March 14, 1960, two and a half weeks after Martin Luther King gave an address there (February 25).
Title:?
Catalog No.: ?
1960
+++
Bakersfield Smokers
Albums such as these were issued during the hot rod craze of the early to mid-60s. They are found under the rock or exotica genre in today's listings. No music on this one, "songs" are strictly the sounds of stock cars, hot rods and dragsters in action at Bakersfield. The 16 cuts offer racing sounds from cars and motorcyles. Recorded, produced and edited by rod enthusiast Griff Borgeson. NHRA drag racing legends on hand include "TV" Tommy Ivo, James Warren, Tom McEwen and Camfather Ed Iskenderian.
Griff Borgeson Presents Hot Rod Heaven
Riverside Records RLP 95509
1961
+++
5th Annual United States Fuel & Gas Championships
Bakersfield, California
Bakersfield '63
Fleetwood Records FLP4004S
1963
+++
6th Annual United States Fuel & Gas Championships
Recorded March 6-7-8 at the Famosa Drag Strip,
Bakersfield, California
Bakersfield '64
Fleetwood Records FLP4017
(Lynn, Massachusetts)
Recorded by Richard Blake
Narration by "The Voice of Drag Racing" Jon Lundberg
Side 1: Eliminations, Hot Cars, Fuel & Gas Dragsters
Side 2: Final Eliminations, Hot Cars, Fuel & Gas Dragsters
1964
+++
Bakersfield College Choir
In Concert 1964-65
Century Custom Recording (label No.?)
Joseph Huszti, Director
1965
+++
Bakersfield College Choir
In Concert
Century Custom Recording 23983
April 15, 1966 at Civic Auditorium
Joseph Huszti, Director
1966
+++
Honor Orchestra, Honor Chorus and Honor Band
Bakersfield City Junior High Schools 26th Annual Concert
Century 6623
1982
+++
CSB Jazz
Yes, We're Open
Writer's Album 1983/84
KM Records KM12575
(Burbank, Calif.)
Groups include: Sanctuary; Five Options; Not Ready For Coffeehouse Players; Over-Easy.
Titles include: Cancion Para Dona Pancha; All's Afire; Mark's Supreme Solo; Four Hours in Carlotta; Supreme My Holdings; Marie, Katwalk, Waltz For Pam.
1984
+++
Cal State Bakersfield Big Band
This is a double-album that includes tracks from the Sanctuary ensemble, originally formed by the college's Doug Davis. The cover artwork is similar to a 1972 LP as done by Humble Pie.
Smokin'
(record label and No.?)
1988
+++
BC
Renegade Sounds
Century Custom Recording 19919
Ca. early 1960s
Tracks; Fight Song (Band and Choir); Alma Mater (Band and Choir); Ray Newman (BC Football Coach); Alma Mater (Small Choir); George Washington March (Band); Fight Song (Band); Sounds From the Stadium; Stars and Stripes Forever.
+++
Calvary Chapel Bakersfield
The album's long title and equally long catalog number is a hint that long song titles will follow.
Let All Who Hath Breath Praise The Lord
(Label?) SPCN-7-100-03472-8
Ministry Resource Center
Inner liner sleeve has "The Making of a Praise Abum"
1984
Tracks: Lord I Lift Up This Day; Living Sacrifice; I Just Wanna Be Like You; Your Will is he Wish of My Life; Humbly Trust; Holy Wind; Sing Unto the Lord / The Lord is My Shepherd; Thank You Lord; There is Healing in the Wings of Jesus; Praise Him; We Bow Our Hearts Before You; We Lift Our Voice; Let All Who Hath Breath Praise the Lord
+++
George Leonard and His New Orleans Stompers
The Second Bakersfield Concert, 1954
(Storyville label)
Released on CD January 20, 1998
Tracks: Panama; Tin Roof Blues; Lord, Lord, You've Sure Been Good to Me; Burgandy Steet Blues; The World is Waiting for the Sunsrise; Caldonia; Muskrat Ramble; Sensation Rag; Bill Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home; Old Man Mose; When the Saints
+++
Cradle of Thorns
A gothic rock group with Ty Elam, David File, Kris Kohls, Scot Elis, Tamera Slayton. Their eponymous album was produced by Alex Woltman and engineered by Mikey Davis.
Cradle of Thorns
1994
+++
Relating to Bakersfield
Society For the Preservation and Encouragement of Barbershop Quartet Singing in America (SPEBSQSA)
1979 Fall Convention
at Bakersfield, California
October 13, 1979
Shelex Records SHX-79-41
1979
+++
Leroy Jenkins
Songs and Sermons in Bakersfield
LJEA 1009
19??
He prays for the sick, preaches and sings, pretty much what the LP's title says. Jenkins was a former Georgia businessman who turned to religion and became a reverend after being cured of an injury to his arm, all according to him, after going through the healing line of a tent revival in Atlanta. Man of Faith is the title of a movie based on his life,
+++
Bootleg:
Neil Young
The Last Album
Bakersfield, California, 1973
American tour (with Crosby and Nash)
Tracks: Sugar Mountain; Sweet Joni; Look Out Joe; Time Fades Away; Don't Be Denied; New Mama; Last Dance; Southern Man; Improvisation
+++
Mickey Kalis and The Bakerfield Blues Band
A single from August 1969. The custom pressing was neither country or blues but garage rock. United Audio was a small independent from Youngstown, Ohio. The singer was still issuing singles in the early 1980s on his own Mickey Kalis Records.
2:10 to Yuma b/w Got No Time
United Audio 6003
August 1969
+++
-30-
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