Zero G Sound

Pete Seeger - The Essential (Vanguard, 1978, vinyl rip)

2009-07-08T19:36:00.004+02:00

.
Pete Seeger is the sort of person who has become the stuff of legend for all the best reasons. As a musicologist, he's been a passionate archivist of folk songs of all sorts from around the world for most of his life, and thousands of people (perhaps millions) would not have heard songs such as "Goodnight Irene," "This Land Is Your Land" and "Wimoweh" (aka "The Lion Sleeps Tonight") had he not championed them. As a songwriter, any man with "If I Had a Hammer," "Where Have All the Flowers Gone," "I Come and Stand at Every Door" and "Turn, Turn Turn" in his catalog (among many, many others) has created a truly impressive repertoire. As a musician, it's hard to count how many people picked up the guitar or banjo from his example, and he's always been a pithy and compelling player. And as an activist, Seeger has bravely put his ideals of peace, justice and equality ahead of his career in a manner few musicians of any stature have ever dared or even imagined.

"The Essential" is an odd compilation. Pete Seeger usually recorded for Folkways and Columbia, but this collection, recorded between 1950 and 1974, comes from Vanguard's vaults. Many of the songs, including "The Bells of Rhymney," "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?," and "Wimoweh," have long been associated with either Seeger or his group, the Weavers. He's also frequently performed numbers like "Come All Ye Fair and Tender Ladies," "I Shall Not Be Moved," and "Oh What a Beautiful City." But other essentials like "The Hammer Song" and "Turn, Turn, Turn" - perhaps his most essential songs - haven't been included.

Pete Seeger - The Essential (Vanguard, 1978, vinyl rip)

(192 kbps, front cover included)

Bertolt Brecht - Flüchtlingsgespräche (Berliner Ensemble, LITERA 1970)

2009-07-08T14:34:00.003+02:00

.
This is the classic Berliner Ensemble recording of Bertolt Brecht's "Flüchtlingsgespräche" ("Conversations in Exile")

Side 1:

I. Über Pässe / Über die Ebenbürtigkeit von Bier und Zigarre / Über die Ordnungsliebe

II. Über niedrigen Materialismus / Über das Überhandnehmen bedeutender Menschen

III. Schwierigkeiten der großen Männer / Ob der Wieheißterdochgleich ein Vermögen besitzt

IV. Trauriges Schicksal großer Ideen / Die Zivilbevölkerung ein Problem

Side 2:

V. Die Schweiz, berühmt durch Freiheitsliebe und Käse / Vorbildliche Erziehung in Deutschland / Die Amerikaner / Frankreich oder der Patriotismus / Über Verwurzelung / Dänemark oder der Humor / Über die Hegelsche Dialektik

VI. Ziffel erklärt seinen Unwillen gegen alle Tugenden

VII. Kalles Schlußwort / Eine ungenaue Bewegung

Bertolt Brecht - Flüchtlingsgespräche (Berliner Ensemble, LITERA 1970)

(192 kbps, cover included)

You will find the original liner notes in the comment section.

Hanns Eisler - Lieder und Kantaten im Exil - Songs and Cantatas in Exile

2009-07-06T17:42:00.000+02:00

These previously little known songs and cantatas from exile are oetic and musical commentaries on exile. They are unique testimonies to the way Bertolt Brecht and Hanns Eisler in particual,who had to leave theri homeland on account of their political beliefs, reacted as Communist and anti-Fascist artists to the new situation facing them and Germany after Hitler came to power on January 30, 1933 - the poet in countless little poems, the composer in many miniatures of vocal chamber music.

Eisler continued in established genres while in exil e- the functinal mass song (e.g. "Eineheitsfrontlied"), film and stage music (e.g. "Die Rundköpfe und die Spitzköpfe"), choral and orchestal works (e. g. "Gegen den Krieg") - but the songs and cantatas represent a new element in his creative work, emerging only after 1937 and in particular between 1942 and 1944.

We´re glad Verde called our attention to the 111 birthday of Hanns Eisler, which we like to clebrate with this posting.

Hanns Eisler - Lieder und Kantaten im Exil - Songs and Cantatas in Exile (cd 1)

Hanns Eisler - Lieder und Kantaten im Exil - Songs and Cantatas in Exile (cd 2)

(192 kbps, front cover inlcuded)

Fela Kuti - Why Black Man Dey Suffer (1970)

2009-07-05T22:40:00.005+02:00

.
"Why Black Man Dey Suffer" was recorded in 1970, but went unreleased at the time — EMI, Fela's label, felt it was too controversial given its political overtones. It was finally brought out in France in 1986 by Decca's Afrodesia imprint.

"Why Black Men Dey Suffer" (with its B-side "Ikoyi Mentality Versus Mushin Mentality") is more classic Fela Kuti, with its pulsating grooves, lengthy instrumental build ups, honking horn riffs and the leader's booming baritone.

Fela Kuti - Why Black Man Dey Suffer (1970)

(192 kbps, front cover included)

Fela Kuti - No Bread (1982)

2009-07-05T22:17:00.005+02:00

.
The Fela Kuti album "No Bread" was released in Nigeria in 1982 on Soundwork Shop Records with the catalogue number SWS1003.

Tracks:
1. No Buredi (No Bread)
2. Unnecessary Begging

Fela Kuti - No Bread (1982)
(192 kbps, front cover included

Erich Kästner - Muttersohn im Vaterland

2009-07-04T23:01:00.001+02:00

.
Erich Kästner (February 23, 1899 - July 29, 1974) was one of the most famous German authors, screenplay writers, and satirists of the 20th century. His popularity in Germany is primarily due to his humorous and perceptive children's literature and his often satirical poetry.
Kästner was a pacifist and was opposed to the Nazi regime in Germany. Unlike many of his fellow authors critical of the dictatorship, Kästner did not emigrate. The Gestapo interrogated Kästner several times, and the writers' guild excluded him. Fanatic mobs burnt Kästner's books as "contrary to the German spirit" during the book burnings of 1933.

"Muttersohn im Vaterland" is a literary and musical voyage through the time, life and dreams of Erich Kästner.
With it´s well selected collection of the satirists poems, notes and fragments of novels this lecture by Ulrich Ritter leads us authentic and in a high tempo through Erich Kästner´s world.

Erich Kästner - Muttersohn im Vaterland (fresh link)
(192 kbps, ca. 88 MB)

Bertolt Brecht - Lehrgedicht von der Natur der Menschen (Helene Weigel, Ekkehard Schall, LITERA 1967)

2009-07-04T14:34:00.004+02:00

.
These readings of Brecht´s "Lehrgedicht von der Natur der Menschen" were recorded at the 150. birthday of Karl Marx, May 5, 1968.

The poems were read by Helene Weigel and Eckehard Schall.

Tracks:
1. Vorbemerkung
2. Aus dem ersten Gesang „Über die Schwierigkeit, die es bereitet, sich in der Natur der Gesellschaft zurechtzufinden“
3. Der zweite Gesang„Das Manifest“
4. Aus dem vierten Gesang „Über die ungeheuerlich gesteigerte Barbarisierung der Gesellschaft“

You will find the original cover text in the comment section.

Bertolt Brecht - Lehrgedicht von der Natur der Menschen (LITERA 1967)

(192 kbps, cover included)

Paul Robeson - Ol´ Man River

2009-07-03T23:04:00.004+02:00

.
Paul Robeson (April 9, 1898 – January 23, 1976) was an African-American actor of film and stage, professional athlete, writer, multi-lingual orator, lawyer, and basso profondo concert singer who was also noted for his wide-ranging social justice activism.

A forerunner of the civil rights movement, Robeson was a trades union activist, peace activist, Phi Beta Kappa Society laureate, and a recipient of the Spingarn Medal and Stalin Peace Prize. Robeson achieved worldwide fame and recognition during his life for his artistic accomplishments, and his outspoken, radical beliefs which largely clashed with the colonial powers of Western Europe and the Jim Crow climate of pre-civil rights America.

Paul Robeson was the first major concert star to popularize the performance of spirituals and was the first black actor of the 20th century to portray William Shakespeare's Othello on Broadway. His run in the 1943-45 Othello production still holds the record for the longest running Shakespeare play on Broadway. In line with Robeson's vocal dissatisfaction with movie stereotypes, his roles in both the American and British film industry were some of the first parts ever created that displayed dignity and respect for the African American film actor, paving the way for the likes of Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte.

Here´s the compilation "Ol´ Man River", released in 1987 on Conifer Records.

Paul Robeson - Ol´ Man River

(192 kbps, front cover included)

Die Dreigroschenoper Berlin 1930 (Bertolt Brecht)

2009-06-28T16:36:00.000+02:00

.
"Die Dreigroschenoper" took all of Germany by storm soon after its premiere in 1928 until 1933 when it was banned by the Nazis, along with Weill and the entire Berlin entertainment scene.

Of course we all know that eventually the rest of the world was hooked on the tuneful ballad of "Mack The Knife" or "Mackie Messer", which in America took on a life of its own in the versions popularized by Louis Armstrong, Frank Sinatra and (in a departure from the usual performance by a male singer) Ella Fitzgerald.

The version of "Die Dreigroschenoper" (or "Threepenny Opera") on this digitally remastered CD was recorded in Berlin in December 1930 under the Ultraphon (and later, Telefunken) label. The first ever recording of what later became Weill's most popular score features highlights of the original 1928 production and - with only one exception - the original cast, including Weill's wife, the actress Lotte Lenya , who in an alteration of the original performance sings both the roles of Jenny and Polly. The role is sung in a child-like high soprano , exemplifying Weill's "roaring twenties" song style.
Another alteration is the spoken text that Brecht later wrote to introduce each highlight.
While the very whistleable tunes were a product of Weill's musical imagination, the character of Mack, the knife (or Macheath) goes back to 1728 - to John Gay's "The Beggar's Opera".
This iconoclastic "ballad opera," in wittily depicting the low-life of the criminal world, poked fun at (the then fashionable) Italian opera seria - bringing it down and with it the mighty house of Handel. Weill and Brecht's high-art adaptation 200 years later transported Macheath to the low-life of thieves, whores and hooligans of 1920s Berlin - musically attacking the pompous grandeur of Wagner-like music-theatre while unsettling the bourgeoisie and the self-appointed arbiters of German culture. French versions of some of the songs likewise recorded in 1930 are also included.
The CD, which celebrates Teldec's Telefunken Legacy, also includes other songs from the period, notably two selections from Weill and Brecht's true opera, written for opera singers, "AUFSTIEG UND FALL DER STADT MAHAGONNY" ("The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny"). The work is an anti-capitalist satire about men stranded in an American desert who decide to build themselves a city of pleasure founded on the guiding philosophy of "every man for himself" - inevitably leading to corruption, chaos and self-destruction. Musically, it is a potpourri of operetta, ragtime and pop.
This newly remastered CD is a delightful celebration of a musical genre created by legendary musicmakers from a bygone era, and even only for the experience of hearing what the composer himself actually heard in his day, worth having in one's collection. It is handsomely packaged in digipak / booklet form containing the complete lyrics of the songs (in three languages) and loaded with information, pictures and drawings from the period that can only enhance one's enjoyment of the music.

Fresh link:
Die Dreigroschenoper Berlin 1930 (Bertolt Brecht)
(192 kbps)

Kurt Weill & Bert Brecht - Rise And Fall Of the City Of Mahagonny (re-up)

2009-06-27T20:32:00.000+02:00

.
In the 1920´s Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht worked togehter on the "song-play" "Mahagonny", based on poems taken from Brecht´s "Hauspostille". They interrupted adapting the song-play into a "Mahagonny" opera in May 1928 so that they could concentrate on a new version of the classical "Beggar´s Opera", which enjoyed its premiere performance as "The Threepenny Opera" in autumn 1928 in Berlin. The piece took the rest of Europa by storm and Brecht and Weill were alredy working on their next project - The "Mahagonny" opera.

This opera tells the story of three criminals (Leokadja Begbick, Trinity Moses and Fatty) creating the city of Mahagonny. Drinking, gambling, prize-fights and similar activities are the sole occupation of the inhabitants, and money rules. The implications for a society organized on such a value system is the overarching theme of the opera, which explores scenarios of greed, gluttony, lust, and a justice system in which a murderer can buy his way to freedom, but inability to pay a bill results in conviction and a death sentence.
There are only two main characters, Jenny, a prostitute, and Jim Mahoney, a lumberjack. Mahagonny is threatened by a hurricane at the end of Act 1, which despite much anticipation & causing much distress simply bypasses the city. In Act 2 following the hurricane nothing is forbidden and various scenes of debauchery occur. Jenny and Jim try to leave but Jim cannot pay his debts and is arrested. Another character arraigned for murder, bribes his way out of it, but Jim has no money and is condemned to death for not paying for his whisky. The opera ends with discontent destroying the city, which burns as the inhabitants march away.
The music uses a number of styles, including rag-time, jazz and formal counterpoint, notably in the "Alabama Song" (covered by The Doors and later David Bowie).
The lyrics for the "Alabama Song" and another song, the "Benares Song" are in English (albeit specifically idiosyncratic English) and are performed in that language even when the opera is performed in its original German language.

This opera enjoyed its premiere performance in 1930 as "The Rise And Fall Of The City Of Mahagonny". This event became one of the greatest theatre scandals in the history of the Weimarer Republic. Organized groups of Nazi troublemakers attended the performance and caused such tumultuous scenes that the performance could only be completed with the greatest of effort. The reaction of the right-wing press also made it clear that "Mahagonny" was not only considered an opera but also a political issue. Weill left Germany in 1933.

Fresh links:
Kurt Weill & Bert Brecht - Rise And Fall Of the City Of Mahagonny pt 1
Kurt Weill & Bert Brecht - Rise And Fall Of the City Of Mahagonny pt 2
(192 kbps, cover art included)

B. B. Seaton - Gun Court Dub (1975)

2009-06-26T14:03:00.008+02:00

.
"Gun Court Dub" is the first of a series of three wonderful "Gun Court"-dub albums produced by B. B. Seation

The great producer was backed on this albums by The Revolutionaries, The Conscious Minds and by Skin, Flesh & Bones.

Tracklist:
Gun Court
Babylon Out Former
No Escape
Dread Rehabilitation
Sweet Callie
Sam Sharp Rebellion
Folly Folly
Forward To Mount Zion
Beat Down Sentence
Dub Of Justice
House Of Jah Dread
Tribute To Selassie
.
B. B. Seaton - Gun Court Dub (1975)
(192 kbps, front cover included)

Ranking Trevor & Friends - Roots Of All Roots (Micron, 1979)

2009-06-23T21:30:00.003+02:00

.
Ranking Trevor has been largely ignored by the archivists, a peculiar oversight, as the DJ was a major force in the sound systems on both sides of the Atlantic during the roots age. Most of his recordings remain infuriatingly out of print, and his singles and albums, now with hefty price tags attached, are much sought after by collectors. Born Trevor Grant in Jamaica on January 20, 1960, the toaster to be fell under U-Roy's spell in childhood. He never completely shook the Originator's influence, but no matter, for Ranking Trevor had an equally sharp sense of timing and relaxed delivery that never went out of fashion in this period. Eager for success, Grant was barely into his teens when he began professionally DJing, honing his skills at the Socialist Roots Sound System. He was all of 15 when Jo Jo Hookim took him into the studio for the first time, where he cut 1975's "Natty a Roots Man." Over the next few years Trevor recorded a steady stream of singles for Hookim, all backed by the Revolutionaries, with his popularity increasing proportionally.

By 1977, the teen star was shaking up the British reggae chart as well, with "Cave Man Skank," "Three Piece Chicken & Chips" (a humorous riposte to Trinity's "Three Piece Suit"), and "Anti-Lulu" all hitting the Top Ten. "Pure & Clean" and "Rub a Dub Style" followed them up the chart in 1978. By then, the DJ had signed a deal with Virgin's Frontline imprint, the resulting "In Fine Style" album, which arrived that same year, proving wildly popular. Beyond hits like "Rub a Dub Style" and "Masculine Gender," it also included splendid versions of "Satta Massa Ganna" and "Queen Majesty." Meanwhile, back in Jamaica, Hookim also unleashed the "Three Piece Chicken & Chips" split set, which set Trevor head to head with Trinity himself. The former won that round, as Hookim stuffed it with Trevor's latest hits - the title track, "Lulu," "Love Yu Sister," and, best of all, "Answer Me Question," a retort to Lone Ranger's "Question."

In 1979, Trevor linked up with singing producer Linval Thompson, resulting in the following year's "Repatriation Time", a set again recorded at Channel One and backed by the Revolutionaries. The following year, Prince Jammy remixed a clutch of Thompson, Wayne Jarrett, and Trevor recordings for the simmering "Train to Zion Dub" set. For Repatriation, Trevor took on a new moniker, Ranking Superstar, which explains why producer Sugar Minott titled the DJ's excellent next set Presenting Ranking Trevor. Both Minott and Thompson were featured alongside the DJ on the "Roots of All Roots" set released by Micron later in the decade.

Ranking Trevor & Friends - Roots Of All Roots (Micron, 1979)

(192 kbps, front cover included)

Lin Jaldati - Jiddische Lieder - Live, Köln, 3. Juli 1987

2009-06-22T20:27:00.005+02:00

.
This is a concert recording from 1987, July 3, in Cologne, West Germany. Lin Jaldati performs both traditional and composed Yiddish songs, accompanied by her husband Eberhard Rebling on piano and by their daughters Kathinka Rebling on violin and Jalda Rebling, vocals.

Lin Jaldati was sent to concentration camps when the Nazis occupied Holland. She didn't speak Yiddish, but learned Yiddish songs from her fellow prisoners. Jaldati survived Auschwitz; being a communist, she came to East Germany to help establish a socialist German state. She married Eberhard Rebling, a German communist who later became a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, and started to perform Yiddish songs for a German audience with Rebling accompanying her on piano.

Later they were joined by their daughters Katinka and Jalda. Lin Jaldati dedicated her art and her life to communist East Germany. This didn't prevent her from being banned from performing in the late sixties; the hysteria had gone so far that even performing Yiddish songs was interpreted as a pro-Israel statement. For a long time Lin Jaldati, who was highly accepted by what later became the East German Yiddish and klezmer scene, was the only Yiddish performer in East Germany.

Lin Jaldati - Jiddische Lieder - Live, Köln, 3. Juli 1987
(192 kbps, front & back cover included)

B. B. Seaton - Revolutionary Dub (1976)

2009-06-19T22:40:00.005+02:00

.
B. B. Seaton is a singer with a soulful voice, a qualified musician, producer and one of the most prolific song writers in the history of Jamaican music. He had his first big hit in Jamaica when teaming up with Delano Stewart and Maurice Roberts to form "The Gaylads”.

Tracklist:

Tribal Dub

Riot In Soweto

March Back To Africa

Havana (Fidel's) Dub

Forward To The Battle Dub

Revolutionary Dub

Emporor's Theme

Nationalist Dub

Dread In Johannesburg

Liberation Dub

B. B. Seaton - Revolutionary Dub (1976)

(192 kbps, cover art included)

Mikey Dread - Evolutionary Rockers (1979)

2009-06-19T22:15:00.004+02:00

.
Mikey Dread (real name Michael George Campbell) was born in Port Antonio, Jamaica on June 4th 1954.

Mikey Dread was a producer, broadcaster and an artist. He created an innovative Reggae style. In the late 70's Dread got a job being an engineer for the JBC (Jamaican Broadcasting Corporation). Mikey would eventually get his own radio show that would be titled "Dread At the Controls". His show focused on nothing but Reggae music at a time when people weren't really playing that type of music in Jamaica. The show would become the most popular show on the JBC, but eventually Dread would quit (in protest) due to the conservative management of the JBC.

Around this time Dread was already well known in Jamaica as singer/producer (working with the likes of The Mighty Two and Lee Scratch Perry) and he started to record his own material too. He is also known for his work with King Tubby and Carl Patterson. The Clash would gain interest in Mikey Dread and he would produced the song "Bankrobber" for the band. The song was initially a Ska song, but Dread producing the song would make it more of a dub track. Dread would also tour with The Clash. He also did his own even more dub version of the song "Bankrobber", it was titled "Rockers Galore...UK Tour".

On March 15th, 2008 Mikey Dread passed away.

Here´s Mikey Dread´s debut album "Evolution Rockers" (released in the UK as "Dread At The Control"):

Mikey Dread - Evolutionary Rockers (1979)
(192 kbps, cover art incuded)

Jimi Hendrix - Electric Ladyland Outtakes

2009-06-18T22:14:00.006+02:00

.
"Electric Ladyland" was the third and final album by The Jimi Hendrix Experience, released in 1968 on Reprise Records. Written and produced by Jimi Hendrix, the album is seen as the peak of Hendrix's mastery of the electric guitar, and is frequently cited as one of the greatest rock albums of all time. It is not only the last of his albums released as the Jimi Hendrix Experience, but also the last of Hendrix's studio albums to be professionally produced under his own supervision. After "Electric Ladyland", Hendrix spent the remaining two years of his life attempting to organize a new band and recording a breadth of new songs.

The "Electric Ladyland Outtakes" features demos/studio outtakes/rough mixes that were recorded during 1968 and 1969 plus some Drake Hotel Demos, New York City, NY April 1968. This album offers an excellent insiders' view at how Jimi worked and how he developed his songs in the studio.

Tracklist:
1. Have You Ever Been To (Electric Ladyland) [instrumental backing track]
2. All Along The Watchtower [basic track without overdubs/effects]
3. Ain't Nothing Wrong With That [unreleased track with Noel Redding on vocals. Based on an instrumental called My Little One]
4. Come On (Part 1) [alternate take]
5. Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) [an early studio-take - a breakdown because Jimi makes a mistake for once!]
6. Room Full Of Mirrors [an early version]
7. Gipsy Eyes [an early rehearsal take with onnly guitar and drums]
8. Gipsy Eyes [rough mix with different guitar overdub]
9. House Burning Down [rough mix]
10. Cat Talkin' To Me [instrumental backing track of an unreleased song]
11. Cat Talikn' To Me [track 10, different take, with overdubbed Mitch Mitchell vocals]
12. Taking Care Of No Business [a real Jimi Hendrix oddity - complete with horn arrangement. Unreleased.]
13. Angel [demo recorded at Jimi's apartment - just his voice and electric guitar]
14. 1983... (A Merman I Should Turn To Be) [same as track 12]
15. 1983... (A Merman I Should Turn To Be) [early studio take]
16. 1983... (A Merman I Should Turn To Be) [a "vocal" mix - no bass and drums]
17. Valleys Of Neptune...Arising [unreleased song - a session - like runthrough with only Jimi on guitar/vocals and Mitch on drums]
18. Valleys Of Neptune...Arising [a gentle, flowing instrumental version of the song. A Fleetwood Mac "Albatross"-like-arrangement showing that Jimi really could play]
19. Freedom [an early rehearsal take]

Jimi Hendrix - Electric Ladyland Outtakes
(256 kbps, cover art and tracklist with comments included)

Johnny Cash - The Sun Demos & Outtakes

2009-06-17T22:37:00.001+02:00

.
Though Johnny Cash went from total unknown to Number 1 charting artist (“I Walk The Line”) during his time with Sun Records, it’s easy to forget that it all happened pretty quick and he was only with the label for two years, from 1955 to 1957, before he moved on to greener pastures at Columbia Records. The music that he made during this time, however, is truly timeless and in its grit and fatalism marked a new kind of country music with songs more than embracing sadness and loss, songs that turned a cold, brooding eye on the stark realities of life and love.
Before massive fame and excess and later producers got their hands on Cash’s songs and sound and tricked up the accompaniments and arrangements, for the most part it was just Johnny and the Tennessee Two, Luther Perkins on guitar and Marshall Grant on upright bass with added drums and maybe piano or pedal steel. This collection of demos and more polished and complete outtakes—which should be named “Some Sun Demos & Outtakes” because there are quite literally hundreds of hours of extant recordings from the time—is a priceless snapshot of a pivotal period in the history of popular music. Artwork is included.

Tracklist:

1. Wide Open Road (Cry, Cry, Cry)
2. Rock & Roll Ruby
3. You're My Baby
4. Get Rhythm
5. I Walk The Line
6. Train Of Love
7. One More Ride
8. Folsom Prison Blues
9. Wide Open Road (Cry, Cry, Cry)
10. Goodnight Irene
11. My Treasure
12. I Love You Because
13. Leave That Junk
14. Country Boy
15. Come In Stranger
16. Oh Lonesome Me
17. You're The Nearest Thing To Heaven
18. Don't Make Me Go
19. Give My Love To Rose
20. The Ways Of A Woman In Love
21. Thanks A Lot
22. Fools Hall Of Fame
23. I Just Thought You'd Like To Know
24. I Forgot To Remember To Forget
25. Always Alone
26. The Story Of A Broken Heart

Johnny Cash - The Sun Demos & Outtakes
(320 kbps)

Willie Dixon - "The Quiet Knight" - Live Chicago, January 24, 1974

2009-06-15T20:57:00.003+02:00

.
Willie Dixon's life and work was virtually an embodiment of the progress of the blues, from an accidental creation of the descendants of freed slaves to a recognized and vital part of America's musical heritage. That Dixon was one of the first professional blues songwriters to benefit in a serious, material way — and that he had to fight to do it — from his work also made him an important symbol of the injustice that still informs the music industry, even at the end of the 20th century. A producer, songwriter, bassist, and singer, he helped Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter, and others find their most commercially successful voices.

He probably wrote some of the most common known blues songs. To name a few, most of them included here: "Spoonfull", "Little Red Rooster", "Hoochie Coochie Man", "Down in the Bottom", "Back Door Man" & "Wang Dang Doodle".

His songs have become standards for blues players of all stripes and generations and you could argue that bands like Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones wouldn’t have existed as they did if it wasn’t for the great big Chicago bass player. He is to blues what George Gershwin is to jazz.

Here´s a classic, exellent sounding Blues show of the great Willie Dixon with his Allstar Band, broadcasted by WXRT-FM Chicago & recorded by Bob Craig to reel.

Setlist:

01-Intro Boogie

02-Crazy ´bout my Baby

03-Rock Me

04-I don´t trust nobody(when it comes to my Girl)

05-29 Ways

06-Wang Dang Doodle

07-Hoochie Coochie Man

08-Little Red Rooster

09-I think I got the Blues

10-My Baby

11-Spoonfull

12-Closing Boogie

Willie Dixon - "The Quiet Knight" - Live Chicago, January 24, 1974

Woody Guthrie - Archive Of Folk Music (1966, vinly rip)

2009-06-12T16:24:00.001+02:00

.
"A folk song is what's wrong and how to fix it or it could be
who's hungry and where their mouth is or
who's out of work and where the job is or
who's broke and where the money is or
who's carrying a gun and where the peace is." - Woody Guthrie

Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie (July 14, 1912 – October 3, 1967) is best known as an American singer-songwriter and folk musician, whose musical legacy includes hundreds of political, traditional and children's songs, ballads and improvised works. He frequently performed with the slogan "This Machine Kills Fascists" displayed on his guitar.

In the spring of 1944, fresh off a torpedoed merchant marine ship, Woody Guthrie began showing up at the offices of Moses Asch´s Asch Records, where the record company owner let him make recordings informally; Guthrie would appear either alone or with a friend, usually his merchant marine partner Cisco Houston, but also Sonny Terry, Bess Hawes, and/or Leadbelly, and they would cut dozens of old folk songs, some with newly written lyrics by Guthrie, plus some of Guthrie's outright originals. The masters quickly piled up into the hundreds, far more than even a major label could release, and Asch had only issued a fraction of them by 1947, when he went bankrupt. That had ominous implications for Guthrie's discography, since some of the masters were retained by Asch's creditors, including his former partner, Herbert Harris of Stinson Records. The two disputed ownership of the material, but neither seems to have had the money for a legal battle. Asch, returning to solvency, put his Guthrie tracks out on his newly formed Folkways Records, while Harris released his on Stinson, and they also turned up on other labels, including the one on which they appear here, Everest. Guthrie sings alone only on "Gypsy Davy," "Pretty Boy Floyd," "Buffalo Skinners," and "Ranger's Command," while Houston provides a tenor harmony on the choruses and sometimes even the verses of the rest, in addition to serving as an instrumentalist. (It's not clear who plays what, although some tracks seem to have two guitars or a guitar and mandolin on them.) Although not credited on the disc, Terry plays harmonica on "Hey Lolly Lolly" and "Lonesome Day." The sound quality is iffy, indicative of possibly second-generation masters, and, of course, the performances have a first-take, near-rehearsal feel. That doesn't keep the music from being stirring on occasion. But folk music fans should note that this isn't really the Woody Guthrie of "This Land Is Your Land." Most of the songs are traditional ones, and the musical approach is closer to that of an old-timey country string band like the Monroe Brothers than it is to the urban folk that took its inspiration from Guthrie.

Woody Guthrie - Archive Of Folk Music (1966, vinly rip)
(192 kbps, front & back cover included)

Doc Watson - Doc Watson (1964, vinyl rip)

2009-06-11T16:24:00.006+02:00

.
In the latter half of the 20th century there were three pre-eminently influential folk/country guitar players: Merle Travis, Chet Atkins, and Arthel "Doc" Watson, a flat-picking genius from Deep Gap, NC. Unlike the other two, Watson was in middle age before gaining any attention. Since 1960, though, when Watson was recorded with his family and friends in Folkways' "Old Time Music at Clarence Ashley's", people have remained in awe of this gentle blind man who sings and picks with a pure and emotional authenticity. The present generation, folkies and country pickers alike, including Ricky Skaggs, Vince Gill, the late Clarence White, Emmylou Harris, and literally hundreds of others, acknowledge their great debt to Watson. Watson has provided a further service to folk/country by his encyclopedic knowledge of many American traditional songs.

Watson's arrival on the folk scene of the '60s was a major event in American music, due mostly to his appearance at the 1963 Newport Folk Festival and the release of this self-titled album the following year. Not only did it revolutionize folk guitar picking, but it set the standard for the rest of his career with its mix of old-timey numbers, blues, gospel, and adapted fiddle tunes. The album is incredibly varied, from the stark, banjo-driven "Country Blues" to the humorous "Intoxicated Rat," and many of these songs became Watson standards, especially his signature song "Black Mountain Rag." His incredible flat-picking skills may have been what initially wowed his audiences, but it was Watson's complete mastery of the folk idiom that assured his lasting popularity.

Doc Watson - Doc Watson (1964, vinyl rip) (link is now working)
(160 kbps)

Cisco Houston - Archive Of Folk Music (vinyl rip)

2009-06-08T16:01:00.003+02:00

.
Cisco Houston is best remembered as a traveling companion and harmony vocalist for Woody Guthrie. But Houston was equally influential as a folk singer in his own right. With his acoustic guitar accompanying his unadorned baritone vocals, Houston provided a musical voice for America's downtrodden — the cowboys, miners, union activists, railroad workers and hobos — that resonated in the songs of the urban folk revival of the 1950s and '60s.

In the early 1950s, Houston recorded several tunes for the Decca label, including several that went unreleased until recently. He also appeared on television shows in Tucson, Arizona. Houston's greatest break when he was hired to host his own three-days-a-week television show, The Gil Houston Show, for the International Network. By January, 1955, the show was broadcast over 550 stations by the Mutual Broadcasting System. He also had his first success as a songwriter when his tune "Crazy Heart," co-written with Lewis Allen, became a minor hit for Jackie Paris.

Things began to fall apart, however, during the red-baiting days of the McCarthy era. Although there is no documentation to show that Houston's radio show was cancelled due to a blacklist, the network tired of his leftist views and gave him his walking papers. Houston returned to California to play concerts.

In 1959, Houston was invited, along with Marilyn Childs, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, to perform during a 12-week tour of India, sponsored by the Indo-American Society and the United States Information Service. After his return to the U.S., Houston served as narrator and performer of a CBS-TV show, "Folk Sound, U.S.A". Broadcast on June 16, 1960, the show represented the first full-length television show on folk music. Later that summer, Houston appeared at the Newport Folk Festival and recorded for the Vanguard label.

Just when it seemed that Houston's career was taking off, he was diagnosed with cancer. His death in the spring of 1961 was mourned throughout the folk community, and memorials were written and recorded by Tom Paxton ("Fare Thee Well, Cisco"), Peter LaFarge ("Cisco Houston Passed This Way") and Tom McGrath ("Blues for Cisco Houston").

Here´s a collection of songs released in the 60s under different names like "Cisco Houston & Woody Guthrie", "Memorial To Woody Guthrie And Cisco Houston" or "More Songs by Woody Guthrie & Cisco Houston":

Cisco Houston - Archive Of Folk Music (vinyl rip)

(160 kbps, cover art included)

Savoy Chart Busters

2009-06-07T23:58:00.000+02:00

.
This is a nice collection of smash hits from the legendary Savoy catalog.

Savoy, the little record company in Newark, New Jersey, was started in 1942. While best known as the incubator of be-bop, along the way, it was also the home of some major rhythm & blues chart hits and stars of the 40s and 50s.
Programmed for your listening pleasure like an old juke box, here are some of Savoy´s most popular treasures.

You will find R & B, blues and jazz blockbusters from Little Esther, Joe Turner, Charlie Parker, Big Maybelle, Billy Eckstine and many others.

Savoy Chart Busters
(320 kbps, front cover included)

Dick Justice - Cocaine and other recordings

2009-06-06T17:02:00.001+02:00

Dick Justice (born Richard Justice in 1906, died September 12, 1962), was an influential blues and folk musician who hailed from West Virginia, United States. He recorded ten songs for Brunswick Records in Chicago in 1929. On four of the ten sides he recorded, he play back guitar to the fiddle of Reese Jarvis.

Unlike many contemporary white musicians, he was heavily influenced by black musicians, particularly Luke Jordan who recorded in 1927 and 1929 for Victor Records. Justice's "Cocaine" is a verse-for-verse cover of the Jordan track of the same name recorded two years earlier. The song "Brownskin Blues" is also stylistically akin the much of Jordan's work but stands on its own as a Justice original.

As Jordan hailed from around Lynchburg, Virginia it is perhaps worth speculating that the two may have been associates. Justice is also musically related to Frank Hutchison (with whom he played music and worked as a coal miner in Logan County, West Virginia) and The Williamson Brothers. His recording of the traditional ballad 'Henry Lee' is the opening track of Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music.

Here’s a one-hour compilation posted originally on http://oldweirdamerica.wordpress.com/ that includes all of Dick Justice’s recordings, a few tracks from his friend Frank Hutchinson and four tracks by Luke Jordan. Check out this really interesting blog using the Folkways Anthology as a roadmap to explore american folk music. Thanks a lot for all your great work!

Tracks list:
1.Henry Lee (Dick Justice)
2.Old Black Dog (Dick Justice)
3.Little Lulie (Dick Justice)
4.Brown Skin Blues (Dick Justice)
5.Cocaine (Dick Justice)
6.One Cold December Day (Dick Justice)
7.Guian Valley Waltz (Dick Justice/Reese Jarvis)
8.Poor Girl’s Waltz (Dick Justice/Reese Jarvis)
9.Poca River Blues (Dick Justice/Reese Jarvis)
10.Muskrat Rag (Dick Justice/Reese Jarvis)
11.The Miner’s Blues (Frank Hutchison)
12.Logan County Blues [1927] (Frank Hutchison)
13.The Chevrolet Six (Frank Hutchison)
14.Cumberland Gap (Frank Hutchison)
15.The Deal (Frank Hutchison)
16.K.C. Blues (Frank Hutchison)
17.Pick Poor Robin Clean (Take 1) (Luke Jordan)
18.Cocaine Blues (Luke Jordan)
19.Won’t You Be Kind (Luke Jordan)
20.My Gal’s Done Quit Me (Luke Jordan)

Dick Justice - Cocaine and other recordings

(192 kbps)

Group 1850 - Agemo's Trip to Mother Earth (1968)

2009-06-05T17:12:00.004+02:00

.
Group 1850 is an interesting, if sometimes exasperating, late-'60s Dutch band who ranks among the most accomplished and original Continental rock acts of the era, though they made little impression in English-speaking territories. Starting as a more or less conventional beat band in the mid-'60s, they had taken a turn for the more psychedelic and bizarre by 1967. Determined to drive into the heart of the psychedelic beast, their songs (performed in English) are quite eclectic for the era, shifting from doom-laden tempos with growling vocals to sunny, utopian passages with breezy harmonies.

"Agemo's Trip to Mother Earth" was one of the most ambitious psychedelic albums to emerge from continental Europe in the late '60s. The LP's nominal concept was, like many early such endeavors, obscure, involving something like the journey of Agemo from a paradise-like planet to the more chaotic imperfection of Earth.

Musically, the record owes a lot to late-'60s British psychedelia (particularly of the Pink Floyd school), with hints of the onset of progressive rock in its less-conventional passages. Although plenty of melodic shifts, celestial organ, wiggling distorted guitar, harmony vocals, Gregorian chant-like singing, Mothers of Invention-like horns, beatific respites (on "Reborn"), and general freakiness entertainingly convey the exploration of new psychic territory, it ultimately lacks the lyrical and musical cogency of, say, late-'60s Pink Floyd. At times the bold weirdness gets self-indulgent, throwing in phased drum soloing, solemnly intoned spoken female romantic exclamations, and multilingual murmuring.

Group 1850 - Agemo's Trip to Mother Earth (1968)

(192 kbps, cover included)

King Tubby's Studio vs Channel One Studio In Dub

2009-06-04T21:36:00.003+02:00

.
This 70s Aggrovators dub album was produced by Bunny Lee and mixed by King Tubby, Scientist and Crucial Bunny.

Tracklist:

Channel One Feel This One

Scientist Mash Up The Boy Crucial Bunny

Another Extra From The King

Knock Them Out King Tubby And Scientist

King Tubby The Dub Ruler

Introducing Crucial Bunny From Channel One

Be Channel One Guest

Straight To King Tubby And Scientist Head

Stricktly Rockers From Channel One

Special Request More Of King Tubby And Scientist Sound Call Earthquake

King Tubby's Studio vs Channel One Studio In Dub

(192 kbps)