Rickey and the Rockets - Wrong End / Every Minute of the Day

I love when I buy a 45 for a side that explicitly is not the side they want you to hear. So mad am I in my lust for instrumentals that I didn't get around to listening to the A-Side until I ripped it just now.

My mediocre detective work points to this likely being a Louisiana group, perhaps even Lafayette. I base this theory on other people on the Jador label, the dealer I bought it from being from Lafayette, and the possibility that this is just a confused release from Randy and the Rockets. I have a Randy 45 here and I don't see any similar names, but I can't find squat on Ricky.

Anyway, Wrong End, LABELLED Harmonica Instrumental, which I personally think is an underrated and surprisingly common form of instrumental, is a fun stompin' tune. Listen for the hidden piano back there, makes it even more fun!


The other side is a swamp pop ballad with cheesy effects on it that make me question when this was made. After all, Swamp Pop hasn't really changed much over the years, and I think a lot of swamp pop musicians would be happy to say that.

The Continentals - Pussy Cat

This has gotta be the best thing I've pulled in a long time. Greasy instrumentals from Lafayette, Louisiana, covered in loud fake cat meows. As evidenced by the Crazy Cajun music (and this site here), this was a Huey Meaux joint, and from a little more internet digging it seems they're entirely separate from the Fabulous Continentals found on the Las Vegas Grind compilations, despite fitting right in.

Pussy Cat Part 1:

And Part 2:

The Uniques - Lady's Man / Bolivar J

The Uniques are a pretty fun Louisiana rock & roll/garagey group, though the more research I do the less they seem like a Louisiana band. Usually the Shreveport Paula label = Louisiana, but it seems the Uniques were formed in Arkansas, according to this website I somehow had never seen before. Interesting, considering that this was produced by Dale Hawkins, often considered a Louisiana artist despite spending the greater part of his life in Arkansas. Whatever I'll take it, I like these guys, I like their more popular single with the cover of All These Things, I like their LP Uniquely Yours though mine has a big chunk taken out of the first track. Maybe otherwise I'd upload it for y'all, until then I'll keep an eye out.

Anyway, these are both pretty upbeat, not quite KILLER but fun. Lady's Man here might be a cover? I haven't been able to find the details, I'm probably missing something obvious


I like Bolivar J a little more with its big stompin' and prominent organ. This one was definitely written by the band



blog note: sorry it's an eternity between posts, the Youtube crowd is just really on top of their game, everything's been gotten to already!

M. E. Rushing and his Dynatone Piano - Let Me See Me

I believe there's great virtue to enjoying the terrible things in life, and I would count M.E. Rushing's Let Me See Me among them. Despite the dinky Randy Newman sung underwater sound, it's just musical enough and dinky enough to be kind of fun, and definitely funny. Which is more than I could say about Hammond, Louisiana on the whole. Though for some reason I think Ernie Johnson of Ronn Records' "Mouth to Mouth Resuscitation" is from there. Maybe I'm wrong.

Whatever, here you go. Just the A-Side, the B-Side is just pure boring religious country that I really get into.

Rene Hall's Orchestra - Twitchy \ Flippin'

EDIT: I've been beaten timewise and (unsurprisingly) info-wise on this one. Check out the Houndblog 

You know what, let's dispense with the hooplah: I have zero reservations about calling Twitchy one of the best Rock & Roll instrumentals of all time. I'm not even going to talk about it just yet, I'm going to post this link and within 5 seconds you'll probably agree that it's a candidate

Twitchy
(this is not my recording. It's made its way onto a few compilation CDs that don't appear to be easily purchased. I have my own recording in the same folder if for some reason you'd prefer record noise)

So what's his deal? Thankfully, Wikipedia's on the ball with this one but if you can't be bothered to open a new window, Born in Morgan City, Louisiana, was a session musician, talent scout and even is credited with arranging Sam Cooke's "A Change is Gonna Come" and Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get it On". And of particular interest to instrumental enthusiasts, worked with B. Bumble and the Stingers (who I have a 45 of if anybody would like to see it up here)

So to sum it up further: Louisiana born musical bad-ass and NEVER let the word "Orchestra" scare you away from a good rock & roll 45. 

So what's the B-Side like? Excellent actually. It's not nearly as unique-sounding as Twitchy but it's a great sassy 50's-style rock & roll instrumental that I would probably put on here even if Twitchy weren't on the same 45

Flippin'

I found some more Jack Hammer

Jack Hammer, the Louisiana native that split to Belgium to make some of the most outrageous twisting records in existence, is probably THEE artist that makes me catch my breath when I come across an album (all two times that's happened). So I did something I don't normally do and hit ebay for an EP. Recorded in Belgium and pressed in Israel, shipping from Israel. So I thought I would rip it for you guys butttttt

apparently there's a little bit more of our boy Jack on the internet since I'd done a good thorough search. I'd seen a few false links, but this one came through and, unfortunately for my slow blog, appears to have all the songs on this EP plus many more.

http://peb.pl/inne-utwory/308843-rapidshare-twist-collection-jack-hammer.html

I don't really mind, the truth is I love owning this EP and I'm thrilled to hear even more songs detailing extreme measures one undergoes in the name of twisting. So I thought I'd give y'all a hand and link to it.

I also came across a few more details but have since lost it. I'll post them here when I find them.

And here's my last post about Mr. Hammer

Clint West and the Fabulous Boogie Kings

Every time I post I repeat to myself "this will not be a surf blog, this will not be a surf blog". Here I thought I had a solution but, well, I'd skip most of the vocal tracks on here.

The Boogie Kings are one of the more prominent swamp pop bands and this is one of their earliest appearances. I've got a lot of headway to make before I could explain swamp pop to you; my current understanding is just a simple "rock & roll made in cajun country" but at least that's a very attractive definition to me. And this is very much a Louisiana album. If you check the back cover, "LA" is included in about every paragraph and only one of the reviews of the group aren't from Louisiana (it's from Texas). My only previous exposure to them was a tape I picked up on a whim that was pretty weak and underwhelming, but this is a totally different beast.

As I've previously stated, the vocal tracks (aside from the last few) on here are pretty worthless to me. I've never been one for ballads and all of them are slow, including the opener "I'm Sorry Pillow" which is really obnoxious. Thankfully, you can pick out the good tracks by name alone and they're all pretty good.

I'd like to clear the air here: I have a huge surf bias having had a surf and instrumental radio show, so it's going to show up here because I've bought a ton of it. But I love vocals. Just yesterday I was screaming my head off to the Fabulous Wailers. I love many types of rock & roll. I love music that isn't rock & roll. HUR HUR Even RAP.

So yeah, the instrumental tracks here are the highlights. They're not surf, no reverb or normal surf staples, just instrumental rock & roll that might even that almost sit just as well next to James Brown as they do the Ventures (I believe this album is from 1963, so think about that for a while). This isn't raw Sonics or '66 garage stuff really and you can kind of pick up on some classical or jazz training on their instruments but they're clearly loving it and getting into it. Makes me wonder what they're thinking for the vocal tracks.

This is a pretty nasty copy and there won't be a single song where there isn't some (or plenty) of noise, but I don't think it ever ruins it. As always, feel free to point towards a better rip or provide your own, but I'd be surprised if there are many copies of this floating around, much less on the internet.

Side A:

1. I'm Sorry Pillow
2. Choo Choo Locomotion
3. Twelfth of Never
4. Trey Me
5. A Tear Fell
6. Boogie Chillun

Side B:

1. Honky Tonk pt. 3
2. It's No Use To Try
3. Okey Dokey Stomp
4. Our Love
5. Night Train
6. Twist and Shout