1. Rootin’ Around Show 29 Script with Playlist
Intro – Jack Kerouac
LARRY – Voice Track 1
That was the voice of Jack Kerouac welcoming you to this week’s episode of Rootin’ Around. I’m
Larry Yurdin and this is listener sponsored taintradio.org. As I’ve mentioned at the start of just
about every show for the last six months, while American roots music of various kinds may be my
jumping off point, I’ve included all kinds of music that I’ve felt fit the feel of the show, regardless of
category. One thing I’ve particularly avoided has been theme shows and even, with few exceptions,
theme sets. I have to admit that I was tempted to break my set rule when, in preparing this week’s
show, I was reminded of a whole slew of great, but largely forgotten, sixties bands and artists. I
decided instead to include most of them, but sprinkle them through the show.
In January 1979, Irish rock artist and social activist Bob Geldof heard the news story about a
sixteen year old girl who fired a gun at children playing in a school playground in San Diego,
California, killing two adults and wounding eight children and a police officer. When asked why
she did it, she said "I don't like Mondays; this livens up the day." Her comment inspired Geldof to
write and record a song about the event which became a hit in the UK and the US. Here Bob
Geldof’s band The Boomtown Rats with “I Don’t Like Mondays”.
1. I Don't Like Mondays The Boomtown Rats
2. I Fought the Law Bobby Fuller Four
3. Authority Song John Mellencamp
4. Lies The Black Keys
5. Grinnin' in Your Face Son House
6. People Grinnin' in Your Face Ruthie Foster
7. Moving Day The Holy Modal Rounders
8. Ragg Mopp Michael Hurley
9. Bonnie Jean Artie Traum
10. Handsome Molly Ralph Stanley
11. Handsome Molly Bill Morrissey
LARRY – Voice Track 2
The old English and Appalachian ballad “Handsome Molly” has been recorded by everyone from
Mick Jagger and Bob Dylan to Doc Watson and Flatts & Scruggs. The second to the last song we
heard was “Handsome Molly,” performed by the great bluegrass artist Ralph Stanley. The
“Handsome Molly” we just heard was written and sung by New Hampshire folk singer and
songwriter Bill Morrissey. It was a completely different song, but inspired by the old ballad. After
the Boomtown Rats, at the top of the set, I played the Bobby Fuller Four’s 1966 “I Fought the Law
and the Law Won”, followed by John Mellencamp’s take on the same theme, “The Authority Song”,
with the refrain, “When I fight authority, authority always wins.” After that, the currently hot alt
blues duo from Akron Ohio, the Black Keys, with “Lies”. Then we heard the great acoustic blues
man Son House with his song “Don’t You Mind People Grinning in Your Face” followed by a great
cover of the same song by Austin’s Ruthie Foster.
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2. In the early sixties, the Holy Modal Rounders, Peter Stampfel and Steve Weber, recorded a
memorably zany version of Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers 1920’s recording,
“Moving Day.” It was the Rounders’ version that I played. Then we heard from Mike Hurley, who
was, himself, briefly a member of the Rounders, with his folkie cover of the 1940’s jump blues hit
“Ragg Mopp”. Also in that set, “Bonnie Jean” by the late Artie Traum.
Let me remind you that you’re Rootin’ Around with Larry Yurdin on listener-sponsored
taintradio.org
African-American poet and musician Gil Scott Heron’s songs from the sixties and seventies like
“The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” and “Johannesburg” were pre-cursors of and influences on
rap and hip-hop. He’s still performing and from his February 2010 album I’m New Here, here’s
“New York Is Killing Me” – Gil Scott Heron.
12. New York Is Killing Me Gil Scott-Heron
13. Yellow Brick Road Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band
14. Be and Bring Me Home Roky Erickson and Okkervil River
15. The Shoals of Herring Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger
16. June Hymn The Decembrists
17. Sigh No More Mumford & Sons
18. Way Down Yonder in the Brickyard Bessie Jones & the Georgia Sea Island
Singers
19. My God Is Real Joe Brown and the Singing Mellerairs
LARRY – Voice Track 3
From the late 1950s through the late sixties, songwriter, musician, producer, and entrepreneur
David Lee released fourteen 45s and two LPs out of his record shop in Shelby, North Carolina.
Among the unknown artists that he produced were Joe Brown and the Singing Mellerairs, whose
recording of the gospel song, “My God Is Real”, we just heard.
Also in that set, from his very first album Safe As Milk, released in 1967, Captain Beefheart and His
Magic Band with “Yellow Brick Road”. Don Van Vliet, who became Captain Beefheart, was a high
school friend of Frank Zappa and the two greatly influenced each other. Then, from the founder of
the Houston Sixties psychedelic band, the Thirteen Floor Elevators – Roky Erickson – together
with the Austin band Okkervil River – with Roky’s 2010 song “Be and Bring Me Home”.
Also in that set, Scottish folksinger Ewan MacColl and his wife Peggy Seeger with “The Shoals of
Herring” followed by the Decemberists, an indie folk-rock band from Portland Oregon with “June
Hymn: and the English nu-folk sensation Mumford and Sons with the title song from their first
and, thus far, only album, Sigh No More. We also heard Bessie Jones and her group, the Georgia
Sea Island Singers in an Alan Lomax field recording, “Way Down Yonder in the Brickyard”.
Let me you remind you that you’re Rootin’ Around with Larry Yurdin. This is listener-sponsored
taintradio.org.
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3. Malian guitarist Boubacar Traore is probably the best loved African guitarist in the world. Here he
is with “Mariama Kaba”.
20. Mariama Kaba Boubacar Traore
21. Tenuousness Andrew Bird
22. Cindy Preston Fulp
23. Tree By The River Iron and Wine
24. When I'm 64 The Del McCoury Band
25. Looking for a Love J. Geils Band
26. Rolling and Tumbling R.L. Burnside
27. Blue and Evil Joe Bonamassa
28. My Kind of Hell Elton John and Leon Russell
29. I Saw the Light Spoon
30. Lights Inside This Dream Julia Stone
LARRY – Voice Track 4
Julia Stone is best known as one half of the Australian brother and sister indie folk duo Angus and
Julia Stone. From her newly released, first solo album, that was “Lights inside This Dream”.
Illinois-based singer-songwriter Andrew Bird has mastered the violin, the guitar, the mandolin,
the glockenspiel, and the art of whistling. After Boubacar Traore, we heard Bird’s “Tenousness”
from his 2009 album.
African-American banjo player Preston Fulp came from a long family line of string band musicians
in Winston Salem North Carolina. When he tried to record in the 20’s and 30’s, the record labels
regarded that kind of music as hillbilly and wouldn’t sign black artists so he went more in a blues
direction so his recordings could be released as race records. We heard Preston Fulp with the old
folk song “Cindy”. After that, alt folkie Sam Beam, who records under the name Iron & Wine with
“Tree by the River” from his brand new album Kiss Each Other Clean and Del McCoury and the Del
McCoury band with a bluegrass cover of the Beatles’ “When I’m 64”.
Also in that set, the legendary Boston blues and boogie J Geils Band with their 1971 single
“Looking For A Love”. Then I played the late North Mississippi hill country blues singer,
songwriter, and guitarist R. L. Burnside with “Rolling and Tumbling”. We heard blues rock
guitarist and singer Joe Bonamassa from his most recent album with “Blue and Evil”. For the last
couple of months I’ve been playing tracks from Elton John and Leon Russell’s hit Union album
which served to bring Russell out of the shadows and back to the prominence he had as a rock star
in the seventies. This time, we heard Elton and Leon with “My Kind of Hell”. Also in that set, the
Austin indie rock band Spoon with a track from their recent album Transference , “I Saw the Light”.
One more hour to go on this week’s Rootin’ Around with Larry Yurdin. This is listener-sponsored
taintradio.org.
In the next two sets we’ll be featuring some once loved but largely forgotten bands and
performers. Love was an LA rock group of the late 1960s and early 1970s led by singer,
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4. songwriter and guitarist Arthur Lee which combined elements of garage rock, folk-rock and
psychedelia. Here’s Love with an alternate mix of “The Red Telephone”.
31. The Red Telephone [Alternate Mix
Version]
Love
32. Only You Know And I Know Dave Mason
33. Flute Thing The Blues Project
34. Black Magic Woman Dennis Brown
35. Mainstreet Uncle Kracker
36. Running Against the Wind Bob Seger
37. Crazy Date The Crazy Teens
38. Gangland Wars Jim Bob & the Leisure Suits
39. Please Kaleidoscope (USA)
LARRY – Voice Track 5
There were two late sixties rock bands called Kaleidoscope, one British and one American. From
the LA folk-rock band Kaleidoscope, featuring David Lindley, Solomon Feldthouse, Chris Darrow,
Chester Crill, and John Vidican, we heard “Please”.
Dave Mason was an original member of the British band Traffic for whom he wrote his hit “Feelin’
Alright”. From Mason’s first solo album, released in 1970, two years after Traffic broke up, we
heard “Only You Know And I Know”. Then, from the New York rock band The Blues Project which
lasted from 1965 to 1967 with their best known song, “Flute Thing”, written by member Al Kooper
and performed on flute by Andy Kuhlberg. After that, a reggae cover of an early Santana hit “Black
Magic Woman”, performed here by Jamaican Dennis Brown. Also, two songs by Bob Seger – the
first, “Main Street”, covered by the contemporary country rock band Uncle Kracker and the
second, “Running Against the Wind”, performed by Seger himself.
In 1959, Dave Reynolds started a rock band in Tuscaloosa Alabama called the Crazy Teens. We
heard their original demo, Crazy Date, followed by another Alabama band, started in Birmingham
in 1979, Jim Bob and the Leisure Suits with “Gangland Wars”.
Four sets down, one to go on this week’s Rootin’ Around with Larry Yurdin on listener-sponsored
taintradio.org. Here’s another great but largely forgotten Los Angeles band from the sixties and
early 70’s, Spirit. From their album, The Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus, here’s “Nature’s Way”.
40. Nature's Way Spirit
41. Strike a Match and Light Another Cat Mother and the All Night Newsboys
42. Buzz the Fuzz Biff Rose
43. (You Got to Have) Friends Buzzy Linhart
44. Omaha Moby Grape
45. Alison Elvis Costello
46. Carolyn Steve Wynn and the Miracle 3
47. Clear Blue Eyes Amos Lee & Lucinda Williams
48. Love And Happiness Al Green
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5. LARRY – Voice Track 6
The great Reverend Al Green with his 70’s soul hit “Love and Happiness”. In a set that started with
the band Spirit, we then heard from Cat Mother and the All Night Newsboys, the house band at
New York’s Electric Circus in the late 60’s with “Strike a Match And Light Another”. Then, from the
same period, I played LA singer/songwriter/comedian Biff Rose with “Buzz the Fuzz”, followed by
a buzz of a different sort – New Yorker Buzzy Linhart who had a strong cult following in the late
sixties and early seventies but never quite made it. We heard Buzzy’s best known song, “(You Got
to Have) Friends”, which he wrote with Mark “Moogy” Klingman. The song was later covered by
Bette Midler and became her de facto theme song. After Buzzy, one of the best of San Francisco’s
so-called psychedelic bands of the late sixties – the Moby Grape with “Omaha”. Also in that set,
Elvis Costello with “Alison”, the hit single off his first album, My Aim Is True – released in 1977.
And from Steve Wynn – not the Vegas casino owner and real estate magnate – but the New York
singer/songwriter Steve Wynn and the Miracle 3 with their 1990 single “Carolyn”. Also in that set,
from Philadelphia singer/songwriter/guitarist Amos Lee’s 2011 album Mission Bell, a duet with
Lucinda Williams, “Clear Blue Eyes”.
As we approach the end of this week’s edition of Rootin’ Around, here’s another bit of novelty, this
time Rick Derringer’s original band The McCoy’s with their number one hit single – Hang On
Sloopy. I’m Larry Yurdin. See Ya Next Week.
49. Hang On Sloopy The McCoys
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6. LARRY – Voice Track 6
The great Reverend Al Green with his 70’s soul hit “Love and Happiness”. In a set that started with
the band Spirit, we then heard from Cat Mother and the All Night Newsboys, the house band at
New York’s Electric Circus in the late 60’s with “Strike a Match And Light Another”. Then, from the
same period, I played LA singer/songwriter/comedian Biff Rose with “Buzz the Fuzz”, followed by
a buzz of a different sort – New Yorker Buzzy Linhart who had a strong cult following in the late
sixties and early seventies but never quite made it. We heard Buzzy’s best known song, “(You Got
to Have) Friends”, which he wrote with Mark “Moogy” Klingman. The song was later covered by
Bette Midler and became her de facto theme song. After Buzzy, one of the best of San Francisco’s
so-called psychedelic bands of the late sixties – the Moby Grape with “Omaha”. Also in that set,
Elvis Costello with “Alison”, the hit single off his first album, My Aim Is True – released in 1977.
And from Steve Wynn – not the Vegas casino owner and real estate magnate – but the New York
singer/songwriter Steve Wynn and the Miracle 3 with their 1990 single “Carolyn”. Also in that set,
from Philadelphia singer/songwriter/guitarist Amos Lee’s 2011 album Mission Bell, a duet with
Lucinda Williams, “Clear Blue Eyes”.
As we approach the end of this week’s edition of Rootin’ Around, here’s another bit of novelty, this
time Rick Derringer’s original band The McCoy’s with their number one hit single – Hang On
Sloopy. I’m Larry Yurdin. See Ya Next Week.
49. Hang On Sloopy The McCoys
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