The first Shim Sham Shimmy of the year was held on January 3, as always, at the great, stoned building called The Salt Box in Kingston, NY. It was cold outside—REALLY cold! However, DJs Pete Pop and Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus brought the heat in the form of some wild and rockin’ 45 RPM records. Pete Pop was so excited about the Shimmy that he made two posters for it (see below.)
Since the event was so close to New Year’s Eve not much was expected, but folks came out—lots of folks came out—to dig the boss sounds that the DJs were puttin’ down. Miss Nancy baked some Spanish cinnamon cookies, pumpkin bread and chex mix. Needing something a little more substantive, Phast Phreddie ordered some French fries from the adjacent food truck. That was good.
Here’s a list of all the records played by Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus at the January Shim Sham Shimmy:
Santio’s Premiers–Doggin’ the Twine (Candi)
The Yorkshires–Switch Time Part I (Mammoth)
Jerry Cole & His Spacemen–Movin’ Surf (Capitol)
Elliott Shavers and His Blazers–Scratch That Itch (King)
On May 31, The Funky Kingston returned to the Salt Box as scheduled–on the fifth Saturday of the month, when there is one. But first, there was an earlier, must-attend event: one of our favorite local surf music combos happened to appear at a private barbecue party in New Windsor (a town south of Newburgh, NY). Also, it just so happens that our favorite Go-Go dancer, Bella Bombora, is the official Go-Go dancer for the band: The Time Surfers. So we had to check that out.
Bella Bombora swings with The Time Surfers!!
The event was fun enough—however a bit of rain put a somewhat of a damper on it. It was held at someone’s pad that had a basement full of pinball machines (indeed, a pinball contest was going on) and there was a ton of excellent food. Yay. Of course, The Time Surfers once again played an excellent set of their fabulous instrumental music and Bella Bombora danced away as a light rain came down.
From there, we traveled up the New York State Throughway to Kingston where we were able to set up the turntables at the Salt Box around 8:30 or so. Guest DJ was…wait for it… DJ Pete Pop!!!
Pete Pop is known nationally and internationally for his excellent collection of garage rock records; so much so that he was a consultant on Moptop Mike Markesich’s fantastic garage rock bible Teenbeat Mayhem! However, Mr. Pop is no one-trick pony. His vast record collection contains all sorts of reet jams, including some fantastic funk records, and he brought plenty of them to the Funky Kingston. Plus, he mixed it up with a few reggae jams and some hot Latin boogaloo riffs.
Local personality Peter Aaron visits with the Funky Kingston DJs: Pete Pop and Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus!
We are also happy to report that the Bat Signal was in full effect, many of our friends came to hang out and swing with us, and the Salt Box had a very big night. The Funky Kingston is getting to be quite the scene. Make sure you can make it out to the next one—due to take place on August 30.
Here’s a list of all the funky tracks played by Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus at the May Funky Kingston:
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…
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 November Funky Kingston affair was the most fabulous one yet! Funky Kingston is held on the fifth Saturday of the month—when there is one—at the Salt Box in downtown Kingston, NY and hosted by Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus. He encourages his guest DJs to play funk, soul, reggae, ska, boogaloo and assorted rhythmic beats as the Bat Signal is displayed on the ceiling. This particular Funky Kingston featured two incredible guest DJs that most definitely delivered the goods: Jeff the Chef and Nogood Nick.
Nogood Nick and Jeff the Chef swing at the Funky Kingston!
Jeff the Chef is a legend. He was one of the movers and shakers behind the Empire State Soul Club—the grandpappy of sixties soul music DJ nights in New York City during the late eighties and through the nineties and even a bit into the new millennium. The others involved with the ESSC were the late, great Warren Lee, Brother Weems (who is now the official MC of the Keystone State Soul Weekender) and Connie T Empress—who continues her fantastic DJ activities in New York City. This was a coming out party of sorts. Jeff the Chef hasn’t spun his great records for anybody in about eight years, and before that, probably five years. The Funky Kingston hosts were proud of themselves for being able to coax this fellow out of DJ retirement! What a spectacular job he did, too, playing all sorts of extremely funky tracks for the Funky Kingston faithful. Among those in attendance were his ESSC co-hostess Connie T Empress—the Empress of Soul. Glad to see her smiling face in the Box!
Although happy to be out and about and spinning his records again—Jeff the Chef succumbed to geezerdom and insisted on going home early. He was gone before midnight when the original version of our theme song is played. That’s okay, though, because warming up in the bull pen was Nogood Nick.
Nogood Nick has been one of our favorite DJs for a long, long time. He was a regular guest DJ at the Subway Soul Club (in fact, he guested at the last one a month ago) and nearly every DJ night that was hosted by Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus, including The Dynagroove, The Wham-O-Watusi and other assorted events. Nick hosted his own Rip! Rig! Panic! mod jazz night and recently has a show that runs occasionally on the WFMU Give the Drummer Radio web stream called Electric Lazy Susan. He knows his stuff, that’s for sure, and he played some wonderfully funky records for the crowd at the Funky Kingston.
The entire night went very well: Miss Nancy made some yummy snacks, dancing people didn’t knock over turntables, the sound system never cut out and some glasses were smashed! All-in-all, a very successful event.
Here’s a list of all the records played by Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus at the Funky Kingston, including a series of ‘hot pants’ and ‘thing’ records:
The GO Mechanism is an audio Odyssey 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 is always 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.
The GO Mechanism is first aired on the Luxuria Music web streaming hustle as a Saturday Night Special. It will then be available as a podcast on the Luxuria Music web site for a few weeks, then it will sit in that limbo called the Mixclouds. This one will first air on November 16, 2024.
In order to achieve total comprehension of this GO Mechanism, it is strongly suggested that the listener follow along with this blog post as he or she listens to the program. This blog will act as a guiding light, with a track listing and information regarding some of the songs featured in the show.
An hour into the GO there will be a Science Corner—a segment of the trip where we discuss a topic of musical importance. This Science Corner we will listen to three songs that feature Bo Diddley playing the violin.
Bo Diddley actually studied the violin when he was a boy. When he decided he wanted to play that instrument, the parishioners of Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church took up a collection to buy him one. He took lessons, then he joined the Sunday school band. The teacher made him play hymns and classical pieces, but he wanted to see if he can play blues on it. He took violin lessons until he was 15. Around that time he was given a guitar as a Christmas present and that instrument took him places.
We have found three instances where he recorded with his first instrument. The sound he gets out of his violin is eerie, and not like any violin sound you’ve heard. This is clearly not Itzhak Pearlman!
“The Clock Strikes Twelve” starts like a typical Bo Diddley song, with the “I’m a Man” beat, but then soon morphs into a slow blues instrumental with the pianist Lafayette Leake and Willie Dixon on bass, and of course, Jerome Green on maracas. The song was first issued as the B-side to the 1959 novelty hit “Say Man,” then it appeared on his second album, Go Bo Diddley.
“To Each His Own,” was written for the movie of the same name in 1946. At one point that year, the song held five different spots on the Pop Top Ten chart by five different artists. Notably, one of the artists was The Ink Spots, whose version also placed high in what was then called the Most Played Juke Box Race Records chart. Bo Diddley’s violin playing is, again, very eerie, and half way through he plays it pizzicato. This track was recorded in 1959, but not issued—maybe it was deemed unworthy of release because of the plodding beat that the musicians lend to the song. But Bo’s violin playing is unique and may even be called avant-garde, especially for the time.
After that we will hear “Call Me.” It was recorded at Bo Diddley’s home studio in Washington, D.C. in February 1961 and it was issued as the flip-side to “Pills.” For some reason it was called “Bo’s Blues” on the album Bo Diddley Is a Lover. It’s another slow blues, with Bo singing, this time. On this track, Bo’s violin playing almost sounds like Little Walter’s harmonica playing! It really must be heard to be believed, and we will hear it in The GO Mechanism.
Along with B.B. King and Freddy King, Albert King is considered one of the “Three Kings of the Blues.” (People tend to forget the great Earl King, who made tremendous records in New Orleans—but that’s another story; perhaps even a Science Corner). Albert King was born in Mississippi and eventually moved to the Chicago area to further his career in music. He played drums in Jimmy Reed’s band, including on some of Reed’s earliest recordings. King cut a record for Parrot that did not sell well, then he moved to the St. Louis area. It is there that he became a popular draw in the thriving nightclub scene. He cut some records for Bobbin Records, a label partially owned by Little Milton. When his first single, “Don’t Throw Your Love on Me So Strong,” started to make some noise, it was picked up by King Records. The platter topped out at Number 14 on Billboard’s Hot R&B Sides chart in early 1962. In this GO Mechanism, we hear “This Morning,” an instrumental that was the flip side of “Don’t Throw…” The King Records marketing people added a little note on the white label promo copies that went out to radio stations that stated: “Attn: Disc Jocks, This instrumental will be liked by The Teenagers!” Most likely this inscription was placed there because of it’s uncanny resemblance to “Last Night” by The Mar-Keys, a smash hit during the summer of 1961. Interestingly, The Mar-Keys record was issued on Satellite Records—a Memphis company that soon renamed itself Stax Records. Five years later, Albert King was signed to Stax and it is there that his legacy was created.
Mike Laure (pronounced mee-kay loo-ray) was one of the first Mexican musicians to perform cumbia music. In the late fifties, he formed a Rock’n’Roll group and named it “Los Cometas” after Bill Haley’s band. By 1960, he had added tropical rhythms and instruments that are more closely associated with cumbia of Colombia. Laure’s records have a more pronounced beat than most cumbia records, which employed several percussion instruments, but not a drum set. “Tabaco Mascao” is a traditional cumbia, first recorded by the Colombian group Combo Los Galleros in the late fifties. Mike Laure’s version is from 1965 and it swings with an accented beat.
Howlin’ Wolf’s “No Place to Go” is often confused with “You Gonna Wreck My Life.” In fact, one is the alternate take of the other, but with different lyrics. On the original releases—“Place” in 1954 and “Wreck” in 1959—they showed different songwriters, too: Willie Dixon for the former and Chester Burnett (AKA Howlin’ Wolf) for the latter. Confusing matters more is the fact that they both were issued with the exact same matrix number—a number that is usually small on the label and also etched into the dead wax of the record in order that the right label is attached to the correct side when the records are assembled. Usually, a dash after the number will indicate which take is used, but no dash numbers were added to either release so, at this late date, it’s hard to tell which came first. Confusing things further is the fact that when “Place” was issued on 78 it listed Willie Dixon as the writer, but on the back cover of Howlin’ Wolf’s first album it lists the writer as C. Burnett. “Wreck” has always listed Burnett as the writer. In GO Mechanism Number 19, we played Guitar Ray’s version of “You’re Gonna Wreck My Life,” but he sings the “No Place to Go” lyric!
Are we confused yet? If not, consider also that the first line of both songs is “How many more years;” which is also the title of an earlier Howlin’ Wolf song that is only slightly related to these two! Whatever, Howlin’ Wolf is one of the all-time greats of music and we’ll be sure to hear more of his stuff in future GO Mechanisms.
Preston Love, 1943
Preston Love was a saxophonist who came out of the big band tradition. He was born and raised in Omaha, Nebraska and he worked in several territory bands. These were orchestras that barnstormed through the South and the Midwest—many went unrecorded but all contained talented musicians that the name bands would lure to their own bands. One day, Count Basie came calling for Preston Love. During his career, Preston Love played with many of the great jazz and R&B stars of the late forties and fifties. During the sixties, Love hooked up with Motown Records and he led the bands for Motown acts when they played on the West Coast. He also made some great funk records.
Preston Love was close friends with the bandleader Johnny Otis whose long career is legendary. Otis helped Love whenever he could. During the mid fifties, when Love was unable to record, Otis issued a few records under Preston Love’s name just to keep it in the spotlight. “Ali Baba’s Boogie,” heard in this GO Mechanism, is one of those songs. The saxophonist on the record is Jackie Kelso.
Love would eventually move back to Omaha, where he became a local legend. The singer Laura Love is his daughter, his youngest son Richie Love continues the saxophone tradition and Preston Love, Jr. is a civil rights activist and recently ran for U.S. Senator in Nebraska.
Big Jay McNeely was one of our favorite saxophonists in the world. His big, honking sound was very powerful. Also, like Preston Love, he came to prominence with the help of Johnny Otis—McNeely’s first recording was with Otis in 1948. In December of that year, Big Jay recorded “Deacon’s Hop,” which topped out the R&B charts in 1949. Twenty years later, McNeely cut the record again and that’s the version heard on this installment of The GO Mechanism. As fabulous as the original version is, this is much more greasy, the beat is heavier and McNeely’s big fat tone is still in evidence—if not more so! The GO Mechanism producers were hesitant to pick up this record when it was initially offered to them, since it is on the Modern ‘Oldies Series’ label, thinking it was some sort of reissue—a Bozo no-no in the collectors’ world. However, our research shows that this is the only way it was ever available.
The Time Surfers, with Bella Bombora!
Time Surfers are a rockin’ surf-type instrumental trio based out of Newburgh, NY. The GO Mechanism producers recently witnessed one of the band’s shows at the Upper Depot Brewing Company in Hudson, NY and were able to capture its version of “The Peter Gunn Theme” on tape. Bella Bombora, one of the Go Go dancers for Pete Pop’s Do The 45 DJ night, is often seen shaking her tail feathers with the band. The Time Surfers are good and fun and deserve the attention of the GO Mechanism faithful.
Bobby Graham is considered the greatest British drummer nobody has ever heard of. During the sixties, he was the first-call session drummer in London and it is estimated that he played on about 15,000 recordings! Apparently, he’s the drummer on most, if not all, the Dave Clark Five records—not Dave Clark. He also played on records by such artists as Peter & Gordon, The Kinks, Tom Jones, Dusty Springfield, John Barry, Shirley Bassey, Joe Cocker, Rod Stewart, Petula Clark, Brenda Lee, Van Morrison and many more. In the London studios, he often played with Jimmy Page, who also worked as a session musician before he joined The Yardbirds. Here in the GO we present Graham’s super boss record “Zoom, Widge and Wag,” which was co-written with Page and the guitarist provides one of his best solos toward the end.
Freddy DeBoe is another contemporary musician worthy of consideration. He is a saxophonist from Milwaukee who made his way to New York City in order to further his career. He has worked with artists on the Daptone Records roster, including Sharon Jones, Lee Fields, Charles Bradley and James Hunter. His own band has a cool, mod jazz vibe, as heard in “Savage,” a song released on Fine Wine Records—a company owned by our friend Mr. Fine Wine, the popular WFMU disc jockey.
Once again, The GO Mechanism ends with one of the Greatest Records Of All Time: “The Ostrich” by The Primitives. Pickwick Records was a company that made its mark by selling cheesy budget albums to unsophisticated teens. Often, an album would consist of a few songs by a current popular artist, usually recorded before that artist was famous, then fill out the rest of the LP with an unknown singer from the Pickwick stable. Also, the company would issue albums of original material capitalizing on some teen fad, like hot rods or surfing. One of the musicians involved in this operation was Lou Reed. He worked for Pickwick for about a year, starting in September 1964. One of the tracks he worked on was “The Ostrich”—an amazing example of folks bangin’ on shit and screamin’ in a Rock’n’Roll context. One of the things that make this record so unique is that when Reed cut the track, he had all six of his strings tuned to the same note. By the summer of 1965, Lou Reed met John Cale at Pickwick and the two left the company to form The Velvet Underground. This story is best told in issue 60 of Ugly Things Magazine as well as in the Ugly Things podcast, where publisher Mike Stax interviews Velvet Underground expert Phil Milstein regarding this period of Lou Reed’s life. Also note that 25 tracks associated with Lou Reed during his Pickwick period have just been reissued by Light In The Attic Records on an album called Why Don’t You Smile Now: Lou Reed at Pickwick Records 1964 – 65 and it is highly recommended. There is no doubt in our mind that “this”The Ostrich” is the best record Lou Reed ever made!
A very special shout-out and ‘thank you’ goes to our friend Mike Minky, who gave a copy of “The Ostrich” to the Go Mechanism producers about 35 years ago!
Here is a complete track list of all the songs played in GO Mechanism Number 25:
Earl Bostic—Lester Leaps In (King)
Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers with Thelonious Monk—In Walked Bud (from LP Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers with Thelonious Monk; Atlantic)
Michael McClure—For Monk (spoken bit)
Albert King—This Morning (King)
Al Duncan—Bawana Jinde (Stacy)
Billy Larkin and the Delegates—Pigmy (Part 1) (Aura)
Ahmet Koç—Surf Rider (from album Paradoks; Doğan Müzik Dağıtım; Turkey)
Mike Laure y sus Cometas—Tabaco Mascao (Musart; Mexico)
The Ventures—Wack Wack (from LP Guitar Freakout; Dolton)
The Zodiacs—Caravan (from EP The Primitive Instrumental Sounds of The Zodiacs; Norton)
Tito Puente —Eléquana (from LP Top Percussion (RCA Victor)
Jackson Five—I Want You Back—backing track (Motown)
Howlin’ Wolf—No Place to Go (Chess)
Johnny Cale—Shock Hop (Mercury)
Preston Love & His Orchestra—Ali Baba’s Boogie (Ultra)
Jimmy Haskell—James Bond Theme (Capitol)
Susan Lynne—Don’t Drag No More (Capitol)
Beauregard and the Tuffs—Ramblin’ Rose (Decca)
Lee Fields—Let a Man Do What He Wanna Do (from LP Let’s Get a Groove On; Desco)
The Eloise Trio—Anna Ba Coha (from LP The Eloise Trio; Decca)
Big Jay McNeely—Deacon’s Hop (Modern Oldies)
Eddie Kirk—Them Bones (Volt)
Oquesta Monteria Swing—La Pua (Discos Fuentes)
King Kong Itself—The Mothers of Invention (from LP Uncle Meat; Bizarre)
Charles Mingus—Cumbia Jazz Fusion (edit from LP Cumbia Jazz Fusion; Atlantic)
Aaron Neville—Hercules (Mercury)
——Science Corner
Bo Diddley—Clock Strikes Twelve (Checker)
Bo Diddley—Diddling (Checker)
Bo Diddley—To Each His Own (from album Road Runner – The Chess Masters 1959-1960; Chess/Geffen)
Bo Diddley—Call Me (Bo’s Blues) (Checker)
Screamin’ Jay Hawkins—Africa Gone Funky (London)
The Time Surfers—Peter Gunn Theme (live recording)
Captain Beefheart & the Saxons—Golden Birdies Camel Walk (Boogaloo exclusive mash-up)
Bobby Graham—Zoom, Widge, Wag (Fontana; UK)
Symarip—These Boots Are Made for Stompin’ (Harlem Shuffle; UK)
Ornette Coleman—Free Jazz (edit) (from LP Free Jazz; Atlantic)
Dylan Thomas—Should Lanterns Shine (spoken bit)
Johnny Zorro—Bongo Guitar (Infinity)
Freddy DeBoe—Savage (Fine Wine)
Bo Jr.—Coffee Pot (Part 1) (Tail-Gate)
Perez Prado—Moliendo Cafe (RCA Victor)
Curtis Mayfield—Freddie’s Dead (closing theme/Boogaloo Edit) (Curtom)
The Primitives—The Ostrich (Pickwick City)
Peter Case’s important message (edit from Peter Case: A Million Miles Away documentary)
Once again we thank the groovy people at Luxuria Music for allowing us to present The GO Mechanism over their web-streaming hustle. Luxuria Music is a listener supported entity and can not exist without your help. Please visit the Luxuria Music website and figure out how you can send them some money.
This edition of The Go Mechanism will be available as a podcast on the Luxuria Music website after its initial air-date of November 16, 2024 as a Saturday Night Special. After a few weeks it will be posted on the Mixclouds and then it will magically appear below…
DJs Pete Pop and Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus swing at The Shim Sham Shimmy!
Our pal Pete Pop has a new DJ night in Kingston: It’s The Shim Sham Shimmy and it will take place on the first Saturday of the month. For his very first one, which took place on August 3, he asked Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus to be his guest DJ.
We dig The Salt Box. It’s a groovy new bar located in a very old building right in the heart of Kingston, NY. The folks who run the joint are friendly and the bartenders sure know how to pour a drink. It is always comfortable and the clientele are always seen boppin’ their respective heads to the boss sounds that Pete Pop and The Boog lay down. From now on, Pete Pop will be swingin’ his exceptionally fantastic records monthly at The Box. Come on down and get gone!
For this event, Pete Pop thought up a new concept in record selecting: Instead of each DJ spinning for 30 minutes in rotation all night, this time each DJ alternated in playing three records. So, Pete Pop played three 45s, Phast Man played three 45s, Pete Pop played three 45s, then El Rapido followed with three more 45s… and that’s how it went all night. Sometimes the records followed the vibe of the previous three records; very often it did not. Either way, it was a gas and it kept the record selectors on their toes all night.
Here’s a list of all the records played by Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus at the very first Shim Sham Shimmy:
On Friday March 15, DJ Pete Pop was enlisted to provide music for a Friday night at the 190 Bar in Newburgh, NY. Pete Pop then enlisted Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus to aid and abet his activities (although his name was left off the poster!).
Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus and Pete Pop swing at 190 Club.
The 190 Club, for some reason, is located at 190 Broadway in downtown Newburgh. It was the site of the super successful New Year’s Eve party that also had audio stimulation by Pete Pop and The Boog. However, for this particular Friday night happening, Pete Pop decided against a recreation of his Do The 45 in order to present a special evening for the elite crowd that comes to drink at 190; he called for cumbia, boogaloo, soul and funk. Knowing Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus, we knew he would throw in some mambo records as well.
Miss Nancy and Phast Phreddie at 190DJ Pete Pop at 190
The music was originally meant to provide a soundtrack for the nice folks who get together at the club to socialize and swig frosty beverages, but a of couple hours into the night, these nice folks were dancing in the aisles, movin’ and groovin’. It wasn’t New Year’s Eve, but it was a gas.
Here’s a list of all the records played by Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus:
Danny Fields is an unsung, non-musician, heroes of modern rock ‘n’ roll. He is the kind of guy who seems to have been at the right place at the right time and smart enough to know what he was doing. During the mid-late sixties, he was involved with the Andy Warhol scene, which then included Nico and The Velvet Underground; he had a radio show on WFMU during its early days pioneering the free-form format; he was involved with getting rock musicians on the covers of teen magazines; he worked at folk-oriented Elektra Records when it was becoming more involved with rock music; at Elektra, he helped publicize Judy Collins and The Doors (according to legend, it was Mr. Fieldswho suggested to Elektra that an edit of the seven-minute song “Light My Fire” would be a hit), and he got The Stooges and theMC5 signed to the label; he worked with The Modern Lovers; and he discovered The Ramones, even managed them during their early years.
That’s not all. He was a friend of Linda Eastman before she married Paul McCartney. He managed a young folk singer from Mississippi named Steve Forbert. He is an author and a photographer. And now he is the subject of a documentary called Danny Says—titled after a Ramones song that name-checks him. The film was recently completed and had its New York premier on Tuesday September 22 at the Players Theater in the West Village. Check here for more information on the movie.
After the premier, a reception for the movie was held at 49 Grove—an elegant, dimly lit, exclusive nightclub just a few blocks away from the theater. Hosted by the authors of the New York Punk Rock Bible Please Kill MeGillian McCain and Legs McNeil. Asked to DJ the party was none other than Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus, who was honored to do so.
Unfortunately, due to the location of the DJ booth in the club—literally a hole in the wall that could easily be overlooked—The Boog was unable to identify most of the luminaries in attendance—except the tall Mr. Thurston Moore, who towered over everyone in the room. Other notable attendees were a whole bunch of folks who currently DJ at free-form radio station WFMU, including Todd-O-Phonic Todd, Miss Shiela B, Joe Belock and Dave the Spazz, as well as the Boog’s old pal and ex-WFMU DJ The Hound. Danny Fields, of course, was too hip to be at his own movie premier and/or reception! The photos appearing in this post were mostly taken from inside the DJ booth (click on the photos and they will big-o-fi).
For his part, Phast Phreddie played all sorts of records that were appropriate for the evening, which started when he played The Ramones’ “Danny Says”—which was played about three or four more times during the evening, as the occasion necessitated. Here’s a list of all the songs played by Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus at the reception for the film Danny Says:
On September 17, Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus returned to the Beauty Barin Manhattan to swing at Out of Sight—the goovy soul dance party hosted by our pal DJ Xerox every Thursday night. This time his co-guest DJ was Moses Funk.
Mr. Funk is from Boston, where he hosted two fabulous dance nights: Cheap Thrills a’ Go-Go—a montly sex-a-dellic Go-Go party that the Boog once guest DJed at—and the Mambo Beat Club—a bi-weekly soul music event. He now lives in Brooklyn where a few years ago he started the Brooklyn Soul Club, which is currently on hiatus while Moses Funk develops some sort of scientific turntablist project. For Out of Sight, Moses Funk came armed with a box of old soul 45s and he played the hell out of them, too!!
Here’s a list of all the songs played by Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus:
Pieces of Eight–Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (A&M)
Hank Jacobs–Monkey Hips & Rice (Sue)
The Cooperettes–Don’t Trust Him (Brunswick)
Naomi Davis Shelton & the Knights of Forty First Street–Forty First Street Breakdowne (Desco/Daptone)
Martha Reeves & the Vandellas–I Gotta Let You Go (Gordy)
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