February Do The 45 took place on Valentines Day. There was plenty of love of reet music in the air! All night long, folks at Quinn’s were boppin’ to the boss sounds laid down by host Pete Pop, his co-host Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus and guest DJ $mall ¢hange.
$mall ¢hange is one of the area’s finest and versatile DJs—he can play all kinds of stuff. He recently started a hustle up the river at the Half Moon in Hudson, NY. Plus, he still has gigs down in The City—The first Friday of the month at Studio 151 and the second Monday of the month at Union Pool. We’ve been watching him in action for about 20 years and we can attest that the man can play a record!! At the Do The 45 he played some great ones that kept the kids hoppin’!!
Resident Go-Go dancer Bella Bombora was back in action, often joined by her friend Princess Wow. Also, Miss Nancy made a bunch treats: black velvet cupcakes, chocolate cookies and her special chex mix. Yum-Ola!!!
DJ Pete Pop played his usual mix of excellent rock, latin and R&B jams. For the last hour or so, Pop, ¢hange and Phast traded three-record sets until the club kicked them out. Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus played these records:
Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus returned to the WFMU Rock’n’Soul webstreaming hustle with an all new program: The Monkey Time! This show will not ape The Wipe Out or The Pipeline(Phast Phreddie‘s other R&S shows), it will be an audio experience that will create disturbance in your mind; full of boss jams, heavy messages, simian songs, exclusive track edits, breathtaking beats and astonishing segues. The Monkey Time is lively, provocative and not for the squeamish. The Monkey Time is a trip through an audio jungle that will mess with your fragile egg-shell existence. The Monkey Time will use exclusive aural exciters and sonic sensory soul preceptors that will switch on your super consciousness. The Monkey Time will fill your life with a desirable desire completely unheard of in this modern world. The world premier was heard on the WFMU Rock’n’Soul web-o-net streaming hustle on Saturday February 22 as a DROP IN program at 6:00PM Eastern Time. An hour that will fracture your fragile egg-shell mind!
This sonic safari does not stop to smell the roses. The Phast Man doesn’t like to talk much during the show; for instance, he does not back-announce the records he plays. If you want to know what’s happening, you must follow along with this score card. Halfway into the program, there will be a segment called The Science Corner where three songs are played in order to illustrate a point of some sort. In this edition, The Science Corner will look at a song written by King Curtis and recorded three times as three different songs.
King Curtis
King Curtis was born Curtis Montgomery but changed his name when he was adopted into the Ousley family as a young boy in Fort Worth, Texas, where he went to high school with Ornette Coleman and Dewey Redman. After his graduation, the teenaged King Curtis visited an uncle in New York City where he won an amateur night at the Apollo Theater. Word got out that a hot new saxophonist was in town and soon he was working with some of the top R&B talent around, including Sammy Price, Titus Turner, Sam Cooke, The Shirelles and Wilbert Harrison. He is mostly known for his work for Atlantic Records: The Coasters, Ruth Brown, LaVern Baker, Big Joe Turner and many others. He cut a lot of records under his own name and they were issued on about a dozen different labels. “Soul Twist” was a hit in in 1962 for Enjoy. In 1964, “Soul Serenade” was a minor hit for Capitol, but it has become a classic. By 1966, King Curtis was making records for the Atlantic subsidiary Atco exclusively and also played on some recording sessions for the label.
Most importantly for our purposes here, in 1967 he was a key player on the first album Aretha Franklin cut for Atlantic Records, I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You. That’s his solo on “Respect;” there’s a vocal version of his “Soul Serenade;” and a co-write with Aretha and her sister Carolyn called “Save Me.” This latter song has an outstanding guitar riff that may remind one of “Gloria.” (King Curtis was also a fine guitarist, by the way.) “Save Me” was a re-working of a song King Curtis wrote with fellow Texan Ray Sharpe in 1966. The Ray Sharpe song is called “Help Me (Get the Feeling).” On that version, the band seemed to enjoy playing the riff so much that it lasted more than five minutes and was released as a two-part single on Atco. Before he went to England to become famous, Jimi Hendrix played on several R&B sessions and he is on this record and can be heard briefly at the beginning of “Help Me – Part 2.” Sharp’s song was not a hit. Franklin’s song was not issued as a single in the U.S. (but was a B-side in England). In 1969, King Curtis resurrected the riff and released it under his own name and now called it “Instant Groove.” This version did the best business, as it was a Top 40 R&B hit and the title track of an album. It’s also the best version of the riff, aided by the fabulous drumming of Bernard “Pretty” Purdie and the “Tighten Up”-like bass feature by Jerry Jemmott and with Cornell Dupree on guitar. The only problem with it is that it is too short—you just want that riff to go on forever!
Original Gravity is a British recording company that began around 2018 by Neil Anderson. He runs the company, writes, produces, arranges and plays on nearly all the recordings, which were all made within the last several years, but the aim is to sound as if the recordings are fifty or sixty years old. Ska, reggae, soul, R&B, Latin boogaloo—you name it, Original Gravity makes it and it sounds classic. In this GO Mechanism, we present “El Barrio” by Nestor Alvarez, an authentic sounding Latin soul instrumental that grooves along fantastically. Some of the artists on the label seem to be real, but some just seem to be Neil Anderson working under a pseudonym. It doesn’t really matter because most of the records we’ve heard are great. Expect more Original Gravity action in future GO Mechanisms.
The Jewels got their start working with Bo Diddley at his home studio in Washington, D.C. around June 1961. At the time the girl group was called The Impalas and they sang on Diddley’s “Doin’ the Jaguar.” He then cut two songs by them that were issued on Checker. The record did nothing, so the group was renamed The Four Jewels. A few records were issued on the Start label and there were two more releases on Checker; none of them bothered the charts. The girls dropped the “Four” from their name and as The Jewels had a minor hit with “Opportunity” on Dimension Records in 1964. A year later, the group became part of the James Brown revue and cut “Papa Left Mama Holding the Bag” on JB’s own Dynamite Records (its only release). We are unsure if this was an answer song to “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag” (most likely) or it proceeded JB’s hit before a little alteration. James Brown was known to rework songs that he had given others and then re-record himself (for example: “I Need Love” by Baby Lloyd with regards to “I’ve Got Money.”).
Los Freddy’s were a musical ensemble based in Tijuana, Mexico that was formed in the early sixties and lasted well into the nineties. The group often recorded American hits in Spanish, especially songs by The Beatles, as well as their own original ballads. By the late seventies, the group turned to more traditional Mexican styles. In this GO Mechanism we feature Los Freddy’s’ version of The Beatles “I Feel Fine,” now called “Me Siento Bien.” We’re not sure when it was recorded or released, but it did appear on a 1973 compilation LP called Tercia de Ases with the groups Los Blue Angelsand Los Diablos.
In the mid fifties, Harry Belafonte kickstarted the calypso craze in the U.S. with his version of “Jamaica Farewell.”Belafonte was really a folk-pop singer much like Theodore Bikel. Belefonte dipped into his West Indian roots (his parents are from Caribbean countries) and by 1956 was singing calypso songs—exactly like Bikel, who sang ethnic Hebrew songs. It is debatable whether Belafonte was an authentic calypso singer or not, but his success proved to be a boon for authentic calypso singers such as Cecil Anderson who recorded as The Duke of Iron. In 1957, he released an album called Calypso Carnival from which we pulled “Calypsonian Invasion.” The Duke was a popular nightclub attraction during the forties and in 1948 was filmed singing his song “Wild Indian.” Also, the great saxophonist Sonny Rollins paid tribute to the calypso singer with a composition called “Duke of Iron.” (Rollins’ connection to calypso music may be explored in a future Science Corner.)
“Impeach the President” is a Nixon-era slice of funk that has recently become more popular in the clubs. In 2017, the cost of an original sky-rocketed and the record has been reissued and bootlegged since. We suspect it will be even more popular (and an original more valuable) in the coming months. The Honey Drippers were formed as the backing band for soul singer Roy C (Hammond), whose “Shotgun Wedding” was an R&B hit in 1966. Around 1970, Roy C started Alaga Records for his own releases and The Honey Drippers had two, including this one. The GO Mechanism producers felt it is a timely track that never seems to lose its relevance.
GO Mechanism 27 features two Los Angeles area bands that were quite good, yet few people are aware of them: The Howling Dogs and The Sheiks of Shake.
“(An Exact Farewell To) Sweet Sara Jones” by The Howling Dog is a moody rocker with a guitar riff that reminds us of The Byrds or “(Don’t Fear) the Reaper.” The group was from the South Bay and included Dave Peterson, brother of Vicki and Debbi Peterson of The Bangles. Indeed, The Howling Dogs album, Rock on George for Ringo One Time, was issued on Down Kiddie Records, the company that released the first Bangs/Bangles record.
The Sheiks of Shake were a blues-rock band from Hollywood. They operated from the mid-seventies into the early eighties and played a lot of the usual rock clubs during that period. The temptation to call them a psychedelic blues band is strong, but they were no Canned Heat—more like early Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band. Louie Lista’s vocals and harmonica playing are strong. Unfortunately, the band only released one single. “Bullets in My Gun” is an excellent example of what this band could do. It’s a shame that the flip side was an instrumental version of “Heartbreak Hotel.” Although it featured Lista’s cosmic blowing, the world would have been better served by another one of The Sheiks’ unique originals. As a side-note: The drummer for this band was Paul Body, whose laughter is often heard at the end of The GO Mechanism and it is he who introduces this one.
Duplex Records was a company owned by the R&B legend Jimmy Liggins. His song “Drunk” is a jump blues classic. His big brother Joe had a ton of big R&B hits in the late forties and early fifties. Jimmy didn’t fare as well and around 1958, when he felt his singing career was over, he began the record company. Duplex lasted until the mid seventies but only issued about 30 or so titles. Bobby Williams and His Mar Kings had a couple early releases on the label—fine R&B fare. In 1973, clearly under the influence of James Brown, Williams cut “Funky Superfly,” a two-part funk masterpiece for Duplex, co-produced by Jimmy Liggins and another R&B legend Clarence Samuels. For GO Mechanism Number 27, the producers have artfully grafted the two parts together in order for the song to be played straight through without turning the record over.
This GO Mechanism ends, as they usually do, with one of the Greatest Records Of All Time: “The Peanut Duck” by Marsha Gee. We first heard this record when Mr. Fine Wine played it at an Empire State Soul Club gig in the nineties. We freaked out! Mr. Fine Wine was able to put us in touch with a person in England who was able to part with a copy for some money and a record to be named later. As it turns out, Marsha Gee is not really the singer of the song. In fact, nobody knows who it is. The original record only exists as an acetate—a one-off disc used in the production of records in order to determine how the record will sound—it was never pressed for distribution. The label on the acetate had no artist listed, as it was probably a song demo. A Scottish fellow named Keb Darge—a popular reet music DJ in England—obtained the acetate and played it at his shows where it got a good response. He and a friend decided to press up copies. They named the artist “Marsha Gee” because the real Marsha Gee had a big record on the scene called “Baby, I Need You” at the time. “Peanut Duck” has since become a legend, even appearing in the fabulous 4-CD box set One Kiss Can Lead to Another: Girl Group Sounds Lost and Found that was released by Rhino Records about 20 years ago. “The Peanut Duck” has a great dance beat, a lyric that is timely and a way over-the-top vocal (“big quackie!!”) that will blow your mind. It is without a doubt one of the Greatest Records Of All Time!
Our featured artist for the GO Mechanism graphic above is Gene Sculatti. We first met him when he worked as a liner note writer for Warner Bros. Records in the mid seventies and we were trying to run a little magazine called Back Door Man. Around 1978, Mr. Sculatti hosted a radio show on KPFK called Unprovoked Attack, which was one of the first to feature only punk and new wave records. Later he hosted another influential show on KCRW called The Cool and the Crazy. Mr. Sculatti has also written several culturally significant books of which The Catalog Of Cool is essential reading. As for the artwork, when he was ten years old he started drawing imaginary cities on oversized pieces of paper. Some of them were scrolls dozens of feet long. He continued to draw all his life, even to this day. Over the last few years, he’s been posting some of his city-scapes on the Facedog and we got the brilliant idea to use one of them to illustrate The GO. The artwork we chose is called “Smoking Ordinance”: Seaside power plant, from “Untitled 765” (1975). Also, he hosts another fabulous show called Atomic Cocktail that airs Thursdays on Luxuria Music. Don’t miss it.
Speaking of Luxuria Music, The GO Mechanism originates there as a Saturday Night Special whenever we get around to producing one. Luxuria Music is a wonderful and unique web-streaming entity that has loads of great shows. We strongly suggest that all Boogaloo Bag readers and GO Mechanism enthusiasts give it as much support as possible. Somehow it exists without commercials or the largess of a deep-pocketed oligarch. Soon after this GO airs, Luxuria Music will begin it’s annual fund raising marathon. Please give generously. Thank you.
Here is a complete list of all the songs played on GO Mechanism Number Twenty Seven:
Earl Bostic—Lester Leaps In (King)
Thelonious Monk—Caravan (from album Thelonious Monk Plays Duke Ellington; Riverside)
Googie René—Downtown (Class)
Joseph Gershenson (directed by)—Pompeii Club (from “Sweet Charity) (Decca)
Quintet Plus—Work Song (S.V.R)
The Ventures—Swingin’ Creeper (Dolton)
Willis Jackson—Shake Dance (Atlantic)
Sarah Vaughan—Fever (Mercury)
Nestor Alvarez—El Barrio (Original Gravity; UK)
The Jewels—Papa Left Mama Holding the Bag (Dynamite)
The Feelies—Fa-Ci-La (from album Crazy Rhythms; Stiff; UK)
Los Freddys—Me Siento Bien (Anahuac)
Screamin’ Jay Hawkins—Strange (Roulette)
The Duke of Iron—Calypsonian Invasion (from EP Calypso Carnival; RCA Victor)
Jack Brokensha—The Javelin Beat (American Motors)
Chuck Berry—I Wanna Be Your Driver (from LP Chuck Berry in London; Chess)
The Fleshtones—Theme From the Vindicators (from EP Up Front; I.R.S.)
Freddy King—Onion Rings (Federal)
Funkadelic—Cosmic Slop (Westbound)
Don Sebesky & The Jazz-Rock Syndrome—Meet a Cheetah (from album Don Sebesky & The Jazz-Rock Syndrome; Verve)
The Fifth Dimension—Sunshine of Your Love (Liberty; Germany)
The Honey Drippers—Impeach the President (Alaga)
Science Corner
Ray Sharpe—Help Me (Atco)
King Curtis—Soul Twist (
Aretha Franklin—Save Me (Atlantic; UK)
King Curtis—Instant Groove (Atco)
The Golden Pot—Motive (Disk A-Z; France)
Laika & the Cosmonauts—Surfs You Right (from album Surfs You Right; Texicala; Finland)
The Howling Dogs—(An Exact Farwell To) Sweet Sara Jones (from EP Rock On George For Ringo One Time; Down Kiddie)
Sly & the Family Stone—Underdog (Epic)
Commercial for The Move’s Split Ends album.
Flesh Eaters—Satan’s Stomp (Boogaloo Edit) (from album A Minute to Pray a Second to Die; Ruby)
Riccardo Chailly: Asko Ensemble—Varèse: Déserts – 3rd Interpolation (from album Varèse: Complete Works; London)
***Ogden Nash—Portrait of the Artist as a Prematurely Old Man
Slim Harpo—Te Ni Nee Ni Nu (Excello)
“Chick” Boucher & the Galaxies—Mop Up (Arco)
Rene Touzet and His Orchestra—Ticklish Mambo (Cosquillita) (GNP Crescendo)
The Sheiks of Shake—Bullets in My Gun (Mystic)
Bobby Williams—Funky Super Fly Part I & II (Duplex)
Hal Blaine—Wiggy (November) (from album Psychedelic Percussion; Dunhill)
Supersonics—Straight to Jazz Soul Head 1 (Peckings; UK)
Quincy Jones & His Orchestra—Twistin’ Chicken (Mercury)
Curtis Mayfield—Freddie’s Dead (Go Edit) (closing theme; Curtom)
Marsha Gee—The Peanut Duck (Joker; UK)
This edition of The GO Mechanism will be available as a podcast on the Luxuria Music website after its initial air-date of February 15, 2025. After a few weeks it will be posted on the Mixclouds (where you can find all The GO Mechanisms) and then it will appear below as well…
Pete Pop and Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus swing at the Untouchable Bar
Untouchable Bar is the latest and greatest new watering hole in Newburgh, NY. The owners have asked our pal Pete Pop to bring his record playing show to the club. He did so on December 27, and asked Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus to join him. It went so well, that now Pete and the Phast One will be swingin’ there on the fourth Friday of the month. Thus, they swung again on January 24.
The two DJs had the place jammin’—taking turns playing twenty minute (or so) sets. Their record arsenal included soul, funk, mambo, cumbia, latin, reggae and all sorts of greasy and rhythmic sounds. Miss Nancy made her chex mix and brownies for the event and man, that was good.
Here’s a list of all the records played by Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus at the Untouchable Bar party:
The first Do The 45 of the year took place on January 10 at Quinn’s in Beacon, NY. It was a wild one—and it usually is when one of the guest DJs is Vince Vincent (the legendary DJ from WVKR) and the other is Peter Aaron (a current DJ at Radio Kingston).
When we got to the club, host Pete Pop had finished setting up and was already playing cool records. Around 8:30 or so, Phast Phreddie played a bunch of records. About 45 minutes later, Vince Vincent was spinning. He brought about fifteen fantastically rockin’ records and played all of them. Peter Aaron played a set of boss stuff for about a half hour or so.
Toward the end of the night, Phast and Pete Pop took turns playing three records each—their new DJ format that has been quite successful lately. After a while, it was noted that Peter Aaron brought quite a few records to the dance, and so he was added into the mix. And so it went, with each of the three DJs alternating three-disc sets until around 2:00 AM, long after scheduled closing time. Folks were still in the house, dancing, drinking and carrying on so the club stayed open to capitalize on the gear Do The 45 action! It was a very cold January night—well below the point where water freezes—but it was warm inside Quinn’s and the DJ’s played such hot records all night that the place was burning up!
Here’s a list of all the records played by Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus at the January Do The 45:
On January 4, The Shim Sham Shimmy rolled into the Salt Box in Kingston, NY. Folks, this is the fun one, the one that rocks, the one that swings, the one that bops the one that everyone is talking about. At the Shim, DJs Pete Pop and Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus spin fantastic 45s: R&B, Blues, Soul, Surf, Rock’n’Roll, Rockabilly, Jump Blues and all kinds of nasty, jumpin’, rockin’ and swingin’ trash. On this particular night, things got so hectic that we forgot to take but one photo! You know it was a grand affair when drinks got spilled and glasses got broken!
Although The Shim Sham Shimmy is supposed to take place on the first Saturday of the month, it moves around from time to time. For example, the February Shim will take place on February 8—the second Saturday. With any luck it will return to the first Saturday in March. Stay tuned.
At the Shimmy, Pete and Phast trade mini-sets of three songs each. Sometimes the three songs are related; often they are not. Here’s a list of all the records played by Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus at the January Shim Sham Shimmy:
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.
The Parliaments
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
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)
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…
New Year’s Eve is always a gas; big party night. I mean big PAR-TAY night! Right? Last year, Dj Pete Pop and Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus turned it out at Bar 190 in Newburgh. Although the owners of the joint admitted to Pete Pop that it was the absolute best New Year’s Eve event that they ever witnessed, for some reason the dynamic DJ duo were not asked back!
That’s okay, though, because Pop and Phast were enlisted to DJ a gig at the Bearsville Theater in Woodstock. That’s right, they were the opening act for the fantabulous Lee Fields!!!
Lee Fields has got to be one of the last great classic R&B singers still standing. He’s been around the block several times, having started his recording career in 1969 when he was only 18 or 19 with the single “Bewildered” an old swing era ballad that was made popular by Billy Eckstine and, subsequently, James Brown; (the flip “Tell Her I Love Her” is a very cool funk number). Fields has been working in and out of music ever since. Before the nineties, he had several singles but only one album to his name. Thirty years ago he hooked up with a rejuvenated Ace Records—the company from Jackson, Mississippi that issued boss records by Huey “Piano” Smith and Frankie Lee Sims in the fifties. Mr. Fields reached his full potential soon after that, when he began recording for Desco Records—the Brooklyn label that eventually splintered into Truth & Soul Records and Daptone Records. Since he began this phase of his career, he has been making great soul and funk records for Truth and Soul, Daptone as well as Big Crown Records.
On New Year’s Eve at the Bearsville Theater, Lee Fields was on fire! He is totally a classic soul singer. His ballad singing will melt you. His uptempo R&B numbers will make you jump and shout. Plus, his band was hot and included a couple of our friends, saxophonist Freddy DeBo and bass player Benny Trokan. The show was fantastic. At midnight a bunch of balloons dropped from the stage. It was a wonderful way to spend New Year’s Eve.
For their part, Pete Pop and Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus played a mixture of mostly soul and funk records, along with a bit a reggae and latin boogaloo things, trading mini three-song sets. Here’s a list of all the records played by The Phast One:
Newburgh, New York has a brand new old night club—Untouchable Bar and Restaurant. “Old” because the place has been there for a long time—in fact, it has a bit of a history. “New” because it has been taken over by the folks who own Quinn’s in Beacon. This means that most likely DJ Pete Pop will be playing his records there regularly. That also means there’s a good possibility that Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus will be doing likewise fairly often.
This new Untouchable Lounge—as we like to call it—opened in October. It has a cozy bar in the front and in back is a small concert hall—about as big as The Mercury Lounge, if you know your Big City rock clubs—complete with a stage and sound system. DJ Pete Pop already spun there once—on November 23. On December 5 the local rock band Decent Colors became the first act to appear on the stage. Other acts were scheduled, including one of our favorite surf bands, The Time Surfers, but they all got cancelled and the club had to close for a while as it dealt with red tape before it could reopen. That was all cleared up by Friday December 27, when DJ Pete Pop and Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus worked their magic in the front room.
Pete and Phast kept the attendees boppin’ all night, with their eclectic mix of funk, soul, mambo, boogaloo and reggae. The two traded twenty-minute sets until it was time to close, around midnight.
Untouchable is bound to be a popular addition to the ever-growing scene on Liberty Street in Newburgh, where several new bars, boutiques and restaurants have been popping up lately. It seems the locals are determined to make Newburgh as groovy as Beacon or Kingston. Let’s wish them luck in that regard.
Here’s a list of all the songs played by Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus at the Untouchable Lounge party:
The Shim Sham Shimmy at the Salt Box in Kingston is the newest addition to the Pete Pop DJ hustle. It is supposed to take place on the first Saturday of the month—but for two months it has been on the second, due to conflicting DJ schedules. Mr. Pop is a very busy man. In December it was the Benny Trokan show at Tubby’s. So for this month the event was held on the 14th, the day after Do The 45 in Beacon—another wild weekend!
Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus and DJ Pete Pop swing at the Shim Sham Shimmy!
For the Shimmy, Pete Pop and Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus bring out their rockin’ stuff: early R&B, rockabilly, rock’n’roll, doo wop, rockin’ blues and all sorts of reet music. They trade off playing sets of three records the whole time. Sometimes the three records played are related in some way. Often they are not. However, the music was boisterous and folks were jumping all night long. Somehow the old building didn’t crumble to the ground!
Pete and Phast were pleased that several of their friends came by to swing; plus there were plenty of other locals who ventured up the stairs to the famous Salt BoxRumpus Room and they all joined in on the fun and excitement, which went into the wee hours of the next morning.
Here is a list of records played by Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus at the December Shim Sham Shimmy:
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