What is it?
WFMU's On The Download collects MP3s from the fringes once a month: new sounds, obscure audio, found sound, and other sonic stimulants unique to WFMU.
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| June 2009 | ||
| Windows users: Right-click to download. Mac users: Control-click to download. | ||
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"KEEP A-KNOCKIN', JAILHOUSE ROCK, WAKE UP LITTLE SUSIE"
by Unknown Artists
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Budget labels that flogged collections of hits covered by unknown artists flourished from the early '50's until at least the early '70's. Some, like the ones that feature Beatles covers, have appeared on On the Download in the past, but here are three tracks from budget comps that focus on an earlier era of rock 'n' roll. All three demonstrate the inability of those behind these labels to "get it" when it came to rock music. First up, from the Hollywood Label, is a version of Little Richard's "Keep a Knockin'," about as far from Little Richard's original as Pat Boone. The other two songs are from the Allegro/Elite LP "Tops in Pops." The real killer here is their version of "Jailhouse Rock", which features a singer who shouts his way through the thing over a clunky band. But the amazing moment here is when the singer sings a few mistaken words in place of "I sure would be delighted with your company" (about the one minute mark), replacing "company" with something that wouldn't have been allowed on the radio in the '50's or the '60's, and possibly not the '70's. As a bonus, here is the same album's version of "Wake Up Little Susie," in which it becomes apparent that the musicians couldn't quite figure out the key guitar lick. | |
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"SLAP 'ER DOWN AGAIN, PA"
by Arthur Godfrey
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Keeping your daughter in line, 1948 style. | |
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"LAUGHING SONG"
by Allen Ginsberg
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Ginsberg recites William Blake from the 1969 LP "Songs of Innocence and Experience" with backing by heavyweight cats like Elvin Jones, Don Cherry, and Bob Dorough. | |
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"BLUEBERRY PIE"
by Chamaeleon Church
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Here's a track from a pretty cool psychedelic album from 1968 that famously features Chevy Chase on drums, years before he became known as a comedian. | |
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"KEIN KRIEGSSPIELZEUG FUER JONATHAN"
by Heiner Goebbels and Alfred 23 Harth
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A hard-to-find duet recording from 1981 featuring reedman Harth and keyboardist Goebbels early in their careers. | |
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"I'LL KEEP YOUR NAME ON FILE"
by George McCormick
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The Drifting Cowboys kept open for business even after the death of their boss, Hank Williams. Here they are recording with George McCormick. | |
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"SWING OUT, UNCLE WILSON"
by The Three Peppers
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In the late 30s, the Three Peppers pioneered the swing trio format of guitar, bass, and piano years before the King Cole Trio. Their small-group swing records for Variety and Decca are still great examples of the genre. Here's one of them. | |
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"LIVE AT ISSUE PROJECT ROOM"
by James Blackshaw
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Excerpt from a performance recorded on March 7, 2009. The full set can be found on the Free Music Archive at www.freemusicarchive.org. | |
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"BORN FREE"
by The Baja Marimba Band
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They were good enough for Herb Alpert, they should be good enough for you. | |
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"WELCH VS. MCCARTHY: KNOCKOUT"
by Joseph Welch and Senator Joe McCarthy
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"Have you no sense of decency sir, at long last?" The power and beauty of these words—a simple utterance that changed the course of American history—remain undiminished since they were first intoned by elegant, soft-spoken lawyer Joseph Welch on June 9, 1954. Welch calmly delivered this courageous rebuke to Joe McCarthy during televised Senate hearings investigating Communist activities in the U.S. Army. Like a pin prick to the hot-air-engorged witch-hunts of the '40s and '50s, Welch's words initiated the great unraveling of the Red Scare and shook a cowed Cold War nation out of its torpor. Here is this historic 12-minute confrontation between Welch, special counsel to the Army, and Senator Joe McCarthy (R-Wisconsin), who was attempting to assassinate the character of Welch's associate Fred Fisher. | |
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"DIS POLICEMAN KEEP KICKING ME TO DEATH"
by Benjamin Zephaniah
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Short-listed for the poet's chair at Oxford AND Cambridge, this British self-described "Rasta folkie" turned down an OBE from the Queen as a protest over the treatment of his ancestors. His 1982 album "Rasta" featured the first performances from the Wailers after Bob Marley's death. Here's a cut. | |
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"GOD IS COLOR BLIND"
by Vernon Wray
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Link Wray produced the album "Wasted" for his older brother Vernon in the early 70s. It's still unavailable on CD, so here's a sample. | |
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"GROTESQUE SUSPENSE"
by Ennio Morricone
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From the soundtrack of the 1965 film, "Una Pistola per Ringo." | |
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"AYE AYE AYE"
by Li'l Wally
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Li'l Wally Jagiello was the pioneer of the Chicago-style polka, a slower style of Polish polka that was a mainstay of American music for most of the 1950s. During this time, Wally was so popular that he recorded 10 to 15 albums a year! (Take that, Bob Pollard!) Here is a catchy track from one of them, the snappily titled "The Polka Beat for Your Dancing Feet." | |