This is is the program notes for the corresponding GO Mechanism Number Twenty Six as it premiers on the Luxuria Music web-O-net as a Saturday Night Special on January 18 (or, as a podcast the next day). The GO Mechanism is an audio Odyssey that is hosted by Phast Phreddie. It is scientifically engineered and programed in the secret laboratory of Boogaloo Omnibus Productions incorporating ultra-phonic techniques not available to other broadcast entities. The G stands for GROOVE, and there will be plenty of GROOVE in each GO Mechanism. The O stands for O’ROONY, an intricate and complex attitude that is incomprehensible to those who possess standard-issue precepts. Listen and you will hear.

Half way through the program, there is a segment called The Science Corner in which a musical subject is explored and illustrated with three songs. For this Science Corner we have featured three songs written or co-written by George Clinton but performed by other artists.

George Clinton is known internationally as a pioneering funkateer. His acts, Parliament, Funkadelic, solo recordings, and other assorted side projects, have all been devised to move funk music forward. In the late fifties, George Clinton formed a doo wop group in Plainfield, New Jersey and called it The Parliaments. They cut a few records that went largely unnoticed. At some point, in the mid sixties, Clinton was hired to write songs for Motown. The arrangement didn’t work out, but while in Detroit, he connected with other fledgling Motor City record companies, such as Golden World (who issued a Parliaments single), Ric Tic and Solid Hit. Some of these seemed to share ownerships. Revilot Records signed The Parliaments and were rewarded with a hit called “(I Wanna) Testify.” Clinton wrote and/or produced several records by other artists on these labels and we have a few of them here in The Science Corner.

The first song is “Hey Mama, What’cha Got Good for Daddy” by The Flaming Embers, a local Detroit rock group that first recorded for the legendary Fortune Records Company. This was the first of six singles they issued on Ric-Tic Records in 1967 and 1968. The following year the group signed to Hot Wax Records, a company owned by songwriters Brian Holland, Eddie Holland and Lamont Dozier after they left the Motown fold. In 1970, the group would score a Top Thirty pop hit with “Westbound #9.”

Pat Lewis started her career as a member of Detroit girl group The Adorables that recorded for Golden World. When she went solo, her first five singles featured a song written or co-written by George Clinton. We picked “Look At What I Almost Missed” from 1966. By 1967, she was a back-up session singer at Motown, then worked on the road with Aretha Franklin before becoming a member of Hot, Buttered & Soul, a vocal group that worked with Isaac Hayes. In the eighties, George Clinton enlisted her for several projects that he worked on, including his solo records and an album by The Red Hot Chili Peppers. In 1968, The Parliaments released their own version of “Look What I Almost Missed.”

The last song we have is highly significant in the George Clinton sphere of influence. It’s called “Whatever Makes My Baby Feel Good” by Rose Williams and it marks Clinton’s first use of the word Funkadelic—the record was issued on Funkedelic Records (it’s only release) and shows the backing band as George Clinton and the Funkedelics (note the spelling!). This was released in 1968, when Clinton was in a legal battle over the Parliaments name and the Funkadelic concept was just forming. During the seventies, Rose Williams would join Pat Lewis in Isaac Hayes’ backing band.

During this period, Clinton was also recording his own group—still called The Parliaments—and those records are really good examples of non-Motown Detroit soul music. In 1969, Clinton formed Funkadelic, a sort of separate entity whose music was different from Parliament. Both groups would tour together and become very popular during the seventies.

Liquid Liquid was a product of the art/punk scene of lower Manhattan during the early eighties. Here at The GO Mechanism we enjoy presenting works of folks banging on shit and screaming. The screaming part on this is a bit subtle, but the banging-on-shit is perfect!

Hank Jacobs was a Los Angeles keyboard player who cut some cool records for Sue Records and the Call Me label. He also did some arrangements for artists for Money Records (“Doin’ the Thing” by The Question Marks is a fave.). He cut an album for Sue called So Far Away and that’s where we found his fantastic rendition of “Summertime.” Obviously a talented individual, it’s a shame that he didn’t record more.

Los Sirex was a rock band from Spain, based in Barcelona. Here we have the band’s take on “Train Kept A’Rollin’,” a song first recorded by the R&B bandleader Tiny Bradshaw. In 1956, the song was reworked as a rockabilly raver by the Johnny Burnette Trio. That version became the template for the rendition by The Yardbirds in 1965. Los Sirex version, called “El Tren de la Costa,” also comes to us from 1965, and it is possible that they never heard the one by The Yardbirds or they surely would have copped the boss riff that Jeff Beck came up with—just as every garage rock band has done ever since. Still, Los Sirex delivers an exciting and unique rendition of Tiny Bradshaw’s fabulous tune.

Jon Hendricks came to prominence in the late fifties with his jazz vocal group, Lambert, Hendricks and Ross. He would write lyrics to famous jazz compositions, including the solos, and the group would sing them. In GO Mechanism Number Twenty Two, he was heard singing the Thelonious Monk composition “In Walked Bud.” “No More,” his song selected for our program today, was only released as a single on Verve in England in 1968. Hendricks must have had a fond attachment to the song, because he re-recorded it for albums in 1975 and 1982.

Freek’s Garage is a band made up of musical mechanics who perform mostly organ-driven instrumental music: a sort of cross between Booker T & the M.G.’s and The Meters. They hail from the Kingston/Woodstock area in the Hudson Valley of New York State and they’ll play at any setting they’re allowed to set up at. We’ve seen them at a beer garden in Kingston, a restaurant up in the Catskills and a tavern in Bearsville. The group has also performed at concert venues in Woodstock and at car shows. Recently, Freek’s Garage recorded a few tracks and “Meter Made” is a fair representation of what this band can do.

If you only know about Andy Griffith from watching The Andy Griffith Show, then his appearance as Lonesome Rhodes in the movie A Face in the Crowd will be a revelation. On the TV show he is a warm, good-hearted country sheriff who is kind and thoughtful. In the movie, Griffith plays a clever country bumpkin who becomes mean-spirited and obsessed with power once his schtick becomes popular. “Mama Guitar” is a song from the film—probably re-recorded for single release.

The Street Cleaners were a one-off project by songwriters/producers P.F. Sloan and Steve Barri. Around the same time (1964) they were enjoying a little success as The Fantastic Baggies with a song called “Tell ‘Em I’m Surfin.” The GO Mechanism presents “Garbage City” by The Street Cleaners, the flip-side and remixed instrumental version of “That’s Cool, That’s Trash.” The latter is used as the opening theme song for one of our favorite Luxuria Music programs, No Condition Is Permanent. Hosted by Count Reeshard and his dog Le-Roy, the show is an eclectic mix of rock and rhythm and is produced in an original manner. The show first airs weekly immediately after the Saturday Night Special (which presents The GO Mechanism, when there is one) and it is highly recommended by The GO Mechanism producers.

The GO Mechanism closing theme has always been “Freddie’s Dead” by Curtis Mayfield—a hit song from the movie Super Fly. The GO Mechanism producers recently uncovered an answer song called “Freddie’s Alive and Well” by an obscure funk group called Spirit of Atlanta. So, because The GO Mechanism producers are wisecrackers, they put it in the show preceding the closing theme.

The Dave Clark Five often get lumped in with the so-called British Invasion rock groups of the mid-sixties. Indeed, they are British and their popularity peeked during that period, but to think of them as just another band would be doing a disservice to yourself for not paying attention. The DC5 made a lot of fantastic, exciting records and we close this GO Mechanism with one of them, “I Need Love.” This song was issued as a flip-side to “Nineteen Days” in European and Asian territories, but never in the U.S., where it only appeared on the I Like It Like That album. The song has the same amazing, pounding rhythm that the best DC5 records are known for, thus The GO Mechanism producers consider it one of the Greatest Records Of All Time and it closes the show. (For extra credit, check out this fantastic video of the song!!)

The artist who provided the graphic for our poster is Sunshine Dunham. The GO Mechanism producers first met her in the late eighties when she was employed at the Rhino Records Store in Westwood, CA. They have stayed in touch ever since. During the nineties she ran Fiasco Records that issued records by Congo Norvell, Kendra Smith, The Karl Hendricks Trio and several others. Since then, she’s gotten into other businesses, but she’s always had a toe in the art scene. Her work is unique and exquisite. This particular painting is titled Oil and Cold Wax #8. Dig her website for more information and to view—and perhaps purchase—her work.

The GO Mechanism is produced whenever we feel like it and it incorporates exclusive, copyrighted Vitaphonic, Ultra-sonic and Quasi-Tonal methods in order to provide a higher standard of standardness. Legacy GO Mechanisms may be found on the Mixclouds as well as here in the Boogaloo Bag.

The GO Mechanism originates on the Luxuria Music interweb streaming hustle as a Saturday Night Special. We thank the Luxuria Music powers-that-be for giving us the opportunity to present this program over their deluxe electronic audio delivery system for your edification. Please support Luxuria Music any way you can. We suggest you get as much money as you can—preferably unmarked tens and twenties—load it all into a shoe box and send it to Luxuria Music. Or just go to the Luxuria Music web site and buy something from the store.

Here is a complete list of all the songs played on GO Mechanism Number Twenty Six:

• Earl Bostic—Lester Leaps In (King)
• Charles Mingus—Gunslinging Bird (from LP Mingus Dynasty; Columbia)
• Gentleman June Gardner—Mustard Greens (from LP Bustin’ Out; EmArCy)
• Chuck Berry—Butterscotch (from LP Chuck Berry In London; Chess)
• Junior Byles—Fade Away (from soundtrack to Rockers; Island)
• Liquid Liquid—Bellhead (99)
• Riccardo Chailly: Asko Ensemble—Déserts – 1st Interpolation Of Organized Sound (from album Varèse: Complete Works; London)
• Patti Smith—Oath (February 10, 1971)
• Hank Jacobs—Summertime (from EP So Far Away; Sue; UK)
• Lee Fields—Steam Train (from album Let’s Get a Groove On; Desco)
• Tito Puente—Take the “A” Train (from album The Complete RCA Recordings Volume 1; RCA)
• Lord Buckley—The Train (edit) (from LP A Most Immaculately Hip Aristocrat; Straight)
• Los Sirex—El Tren de la Costa (Vergara; Spain)
• Jimmy Nicol and the Subdubs—Night Train (Mar-Mar)
• Manfred Mann—Last Train to Clarksville (from album The Ascent of Mann; Fontana; UK)
• Bo Diddley—Down Home Special (Checker)
• Big Jay McNeely—Ice Water (from LP Big J in 3-D; King)
• The Lollipops—Busy Signal (RCA Victor)
• The Bar-Kays—A Hard Day’s Night (Volt)
• Climaco Sarmiento y su Orquesta—La Cigarra (from album Cumbias y Gaitas Famosas; Discos Fuentes; Colombia)
• Ernie K-Doe—A Certain Girl (Minit)
• Sam & Dave—I Thank You (Stax)
• Pee Wee Crayton—Do Onto Others (Imperial)
• The Stoned Soul Picnic—Crosstown Traffic (Stoned Soul Picnic; UK)
• The Zodiacs—Caravan (from EP The Primitive Instrumental Sounds of The Zodiacs; Norton)
• Pierre Boulez: Ensemble InterContemporain—Varèse: Intégrales (from album Varèse: Arcana, Amériques, Ionisation, Etc.; Columbia Masterworks)
• Jon Hendricks—No More (Verve; UK)
• The Flaming Embers—Hey Mama (What You Got Good for Daddy) (Ric Tic)
• Funkadelic—Maggot Brain (excerpt) (from LP Maggot Brain; Westbound)
• Pat Lewis–Look at What I Almost Missed (Solid Hit)
• Rose Williams, George Clinton and the Funkedelics–Whatever Makes My Baby Feel Good (Funkedelic)
• Freek’s Garage—Meter Maid (unreleased)
• Freedom Sounds featuring Wayne Henderson—Respect (from LP People Get Ready; Atlantic)
• Wes Dakus—Hobo (Capitol; Canada)
• Lawrence Beauregard—Density: 21.5 (from album Varèse: Arcana, Amériques, Ionisation, Etc.; Columbia Masterworks)
• Nancy Wickwire—I Taste a Liquor Never Brewed (from LP The Poems of Emily Dickinson; Spoken Arts)
• Iron Butterfly—In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (edit) (from LP In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida; Atco)
• The Drifters—If You Don’t Come Back (Atlantic)
• Bobby Land with Ralph Sayho & His Calypso Singers—Knock the Bongos (Tico)
• The Destroyers—Compass (Cotillion)
• Andy Grifith—Mama Guitar (Capitol)
• Ozz & His Sperlings—Somebody to Love (M.I.O.B.)
• The Street Cleaners—Garbage City (Amy)
• Marlowe Morris—Tropical Madness (Epic)
• Lalo Schifrin—End Game (Paramount)
• Les DeMerle—I Am the Walrus (United Artists)
• Spirit of Atlanta—Freddie’s Alive and Well (Buddah)
• Curtis Mayfield—Freddie’s Dead (Boogaloo edit, closing theme) (Curtom)
• Dave Clark Five—I Need Love (Odeon; Japan)

This edition of The Go Mechanism will be available as a podcast on the Luxuria Music website after its initial air-date of January 18, 2025 as a Saturday Night Special. After a few weeks it will be posted on the Mixclouds and then it will magically appear below…

Direct link to the Luxuria Music podcast is here!!! GO 26

Now also on the Mixclouds: