Music Tonight: If you like your American Roots music with a modern, progressive edge, type "Stanley's Pub" into your GPS system and follow it to the Columbia-Tusculum-area club where local Bluegrass/Folk/Roots/Jazz/Blues/Etc. fusionaires The Tadcasters begin their "Artist of the Month" residency tonight. The band plays a free show at the club every Wednesday this month (getting a bonus gig thanks to it being a leap year) with a rotating cast of cool special guests. Tonight, The Tadcasters are joined by like-minded local crew Hickory Robot, which similarly looks for new ways to put together the raw elements of classic, traditional Americana to create its own musical persona. Click here for more on the ’Casters, and here for Hickory Robot's site. Below, get in the mood for tonight's show with a live clip of Hickory Robot (currently at work on a second album) performing "Wicked Town" last year at Riverbend. —-
Momentous Happenings in Music History for February 1
On this day in 1964, Billboard ran a story about Indiana Governor Matthew Welsh's efforts to stifle the success of a 1963 single called "Louie Louie" because of alleged "pornographic" lyrics. The story quotes the Gov saying his "ears tingled" when he listened to the song, leading him to send a letter to the president of the Indiana Broadcasting Association. Legend (and the original Billboard story) claim Welsh asked that the song be banned, but he later insisted that he merely "suggested" no one play it anymore. (The Governor was allegedly sent a copy of the song by a concerned high school student and concerned college students later sent him the "lyrics"; it was later revealed that the song the Gov slowed down and examined may have not been the Kingsmen's version and the circulated lyrics were not real.)
The reason given for the — ahem — "suggestion" was obscene lyrics, a popular urban legend (the FBI reportedly also investigated). The true source of the rumors (besides the distributed lyrics sheets and whispers) was singer Jack Ely's garbled delivery (and possibly the terrible grammar in the real lyrics). Myth-busting website Snopes.com says Ely blew his voice out the night before recording, had braces and had to stand on his tiptoes to reach the studio mic — certainly not an ideal recording setting.
Snopes also reveals the songs true lyrics, as well as the words from the non-existent "dirty" version that made the rounds.
Real version:
A fine little girl, she wait for me
Me catch a ship across the sea
I sailed the ship all alone
I never think I'll make it home
Three nights and days we sailed the sea
Me think of girl constantly
On the ship, I dream she there
I smell the rose in her hair
Me see Jamaica moon above
It won't be long me see me love
Me take her in my arms and then
I tell her I never leave again
"Dirty" version:
A fine little bitch, she waits for me
She gets her kicks on top of me
Each night I take her out all alone
She ain't the kind I lay at home
Each night at 10, I lay her again
I fuck my girl all kinds of ways
And on that chair, I lay her there
I felt my boner in her hair
If she's got a rag on, I'll move above
It won't be long, she'll slip it off
I'll take her in my arms again
Tell her I'd rather lay her again
Rudeness aside, I kinda like the fake version better.
Born This Day: Musical movers and shakers born Feb. 1 include: Bluegrass legend Del McCoury (1939); late Funk/R&B star Rick James (1952); singer for West Coast Punk pioneers X, Exene Cervenka (1956); daughter of The King and ex-wife of The King of Pop, Lisa Marie Presley (1968); and Hip Hop's Antwan André Patton, better known as solo artist and half of OutKast, Big Boi (1975).
Big Boi just released a video filmed while on tour in Europe (part of a promotion with Crown Royal Black, apparently):
