King Heroin - James Brown

This is hands down one of my favorite track of all times. And here good ol' James doesn't even sing..

A very fine gentleman with excellent musical taste and also one of my best friends in the world once played this tune for me and it totally blew up my mind. A review from the records label explains it the best:

"King Heroin" is one of James Brown’s finest moments, at the time an urgently needed reality check on the growing heroin crisis swallowing much of inner city America, and appreciated today as one of the most breathtaking pieces of haunted funk and conscious soul ever released. Reissued here in all its glory and featuring the impossible to find instrumental reprise on the B-Side, “King Heroin” once again hits the streets to combat the uncertainty of post civil rights era urban malaise. Much more than a “message” record, more than a few of which James Brown & company put out with preachy fervor, "King Heroin" holds no bars in its blunt reviews of addiction and its painful fall-out, all from a man who himself struggled with the beast inside for decades. Beyond the sweet irony remains one of the most disturbing and starkly beautiful downtempo soul records ever, a perfect encapsulation of a lost era only dreamt of in weak blaxploitation Technicolor vision today. An essential piece of eternal soul history'

For years i tried in vain to buy it on vinyl, till this one day while i was living in Brixton (my friend sheltered me over there for months for which i will never be grateful enough) and i got to find a copy in rather good condition in some record store. I didn't have the money on me but i asked the guy to please keep it and promised to be back for it just the very next day. So,.. the day after i run to the shop and... dude is not there and record is not there either. 'What the hell?!' i said, but it didn't change the fact that my record was gone.

Now, a few years later i just happened to find another copy on eBay, at last!!!. The cover was slightly damaged but the record seemed to be in pristine condition so i didn't think it twice and just bought it.

Man, i don't have much.. not a property, not a car.. not even a bike! (it got stolen just the other nite in fact).. but i have my beloved James Brown/king Heroine Polydor 1972 vinyl record. So just in case, If someone is entertaining the idea of putting hands on it he best start considering to live without 'em. And i mean.

A masterpiece of a song by the hardest working man in heaven. Dedicated to here mister Roger Bascho-George, my GURU. You are very missed around and indeed i love you like cooked food.

Cristo Redentor

A Duke Pearson original, and what a great one. Used (stolen?) along with some of Keith Nordine's reading (yeah the man in the previous blog entry) for the soundtrack of a student's project back in San Francisco, late 60's.

May you be wondering..No, i'm not gonna post a link to the short film in question cause brutaly honest it just bored me to death.. too bad for such a dreamy and beautiful tune.

Take your pick, Here in Harvey Mandel's version:

..and here in Donald Byrd's one.




Enjoy it gentlemen. And us ladies, we shall enjoy it too.

Ken Nordine

What a voice.

In case you're not familiar with him here Tom Waits can tell you the best:

"Ken Nordine, yea I know that guy, I heard his voice 1000 times, he's the guy in the bus station that says "go ahead I'll keep an eye on your stuff for you," and you see him the next day walking around town wearing your clothes. He broadcasts from the boiler room of the Wilmont Hotel with 50,000 watts of power. I know that voice, he's the guy with the pitchfork in your head saying go ahead and jump, and he's the ambulance driver who tells you you're going to pull thru. He's the guy in the control tower who talked you down in a storm with a hole in your fuselage and both engines on fire. I heard him barking thru the Rose Alley Carnival strobe as samurai firemen were pulling hose. Yea he's the dispatcher with the heart of gold, the only guy up this late on the suicide hotline. Ken Nordine is the real angel sitting on the wire in the tangled matrix of cobwebs that holds the whole attic together. Yea Ken Nordine, he's the switchboard operator at the Taft Hotel, the only place in town you can get a drink at this hour. You know Ken Nordine, he's the lite in the icebox, he's the blacksmith on the anvil in your ear."

-Tom Waits

Cheval Sombre 'I Found It Not So'

Cheval Sombre.

ANY day of the week. And i mean it.

I got to see him on stage last year, just by casualty. This music mag i used to work for sent me to cover a Festival called Tanned Tin where he'd play along with Spectrum, Dean&Britta,..the Black Lips (..No i cant see the logic on this bit of the lineup either..).

You know, it was one of these times when you think you're just gonna take the typical hit&run pictures of some bands you already shot but lucky enough some unexpected whoever totally blows up your mind. Now that whoever is in my opinion one of the most talented musicians i've ever got the chance to see live in a long long.. very long time.

Damn i even send him Christmas gifts in handmade packages. And hey, you can bet i don't do such a thing for hardly anyone.

No fun city

..hum i think i might be going to Vancouver one of these days..



i smell GOOD pictures.

Honkeyfinger - Running on Empty

I'm gonna shoot this fine gentleman.

Well his doesnt know it yet. But he will.



Go Go John.

WINTER'S BONE (the movie)

Daniel Woodrell is a fucking genius. I DO hope the movie is up to his book or we're gonna have some serious trouble here..

Stay tuned, coming over very very soon..