Saturday Night Live

The Clash live in Tokyo in 1982- fully embracing both much larger arenas and the Apocalypse Now! look. This gig lacks the ragged, close up, immediacy of the 1980 Paris one I posted two weeks ago but is still pretty tasty. Considering Topper would be ejected from the drum stool within the next year for heroin problems he's bang on the beat here. Joe is in full on front man mode and Mick works his way through the guitar handbook and volume control. Pearl Harbour (of And The Explosions and Mrs Simonon) pops up for a bash through Wanda Jackson's Fujiyama Mama, they finish with White Riot and everyone goes home happy.

The Return Of Friday Night Is Rockabilly Night 107

Wanda Jackson is the rockabilly queen, the First lady of Rockabilly no less, and still out treading the boards in her 80s. She released an album last year, produced by Justin Townes Earle, going back to her rockabilly and country roots, and in 2009 Oklahoma City renamed an alley in  her honour- Wanda Jackson Way. Any decent Wanda compilation will be packed full of goodies- Fujiyama Mama, Riot In Cell Block 9, Funnel Of Love, Whirlpool, This Gun Don't Care, Baby Loves Him, Honey Bop... and this one...

Hard Headed Woman

Pour me a gin and tonic, it is Friday, I have not smoked since Sunday and I require alcohol. And music.

Clash Friday

I found this photo of The Clash and various associates I'd never seen before. That's Joe on the far left with his back to camera, next to him fixer and tour manager Kosmo Vinyl, Paul Simonon centre with shirt undone and Pearl Harbour between him and Mick. Not completely sure who the blonde woman sitting on the ghetto blaster is, possibly Joe's then girlfriend (I could probably consult a book and find her name)- the one with the fan I'm pretty sure is Mick's girlfriend Ellen Foley. I also don't quite recognise the man between Paul and Kosmo but by process of elimination guess he's either one of the roadcrew or a member of The Explosions (although he doesn't look like any of The Explosions in the pictures on a Google image search). I'm guessing this is backstage in Japan circa 1982. Pearl Harbour and The Explosions supported them on their Far East tour, and the hair and clobber look very much like their get ups on the cover of Combat Rock. It's anyone's guess where Topper has disappeared off too.

In this extremely grainy, taped from Japanese TV clip Pearl fronts The Clash on Wanda Jackson's Fujiyama Mama and then sticks around adding vocals while they play their cover of The Equals' Police On My Back and White Riot.



Here's that original of Police On My Back by The Equals...

Police On My Back

The Return Of Friday Night Is Rockabilly Night 46

Pfft. Walk, tube, walk, train, tram, walk. Still better late than never eh?
Wanda Jackson, on fire for two minutes with some scathing notes on 'baby'. The guitarist's scorching too.

Nice dress.

Baby Loves Him

Funnel Of Slow

A good while ago DJ Diddy Wah who runs the excellent vintage sounds of the Diddy Wah blog had a short run of posts where he slowed down 45 rpm singles to 33 rpm. This one came up on the way home today and it has to be heard to be believed- Wanda Jackson's classic Funnel Of Love at 33 rpm, slowed down to crawl and sung by a blues wracked man. You'll love it.

Funnel Of Love 33

Thanks to DJ Diddy Wah- hope he doesn't mind me re-presenting it here.

The Wanda Of You

Following on from this morning, not one but two Wanda Jackson items. First up Wanda's classic Funnel Of Love, but not in it's 1961 form. This version is from an album in 2003 where Wanda revisited her early songs with help from various people, including Elvis Costello (boo) and The Cramps (hooray). This version of Funnel is Wanda Jackson backed by The Cramps, and it's good stuff with Poison Ivy's guitar sounding particularly fine. They also did Riot In Cell Block 9 for the same record.

Second, you need to head on over to Diddywah.blogspot (link down and to the right), where DJ Diddywah hosts a goldmine of 50s and 60s singles- mod, psyche, blues, r'n'b, rockabilly, surf and much more. Scroll down to last Thursday and you'll find a post featuring the original version of Funnel Of Love, and Diddywah's 45 rpm Funnel Of Love single played at 33rpm. The results are astounding and have to be heard to be believed. Totally different record and feel. It's well worth a couple of clicks and a few minutes of your webtime. Go on, off with you. Meanwhile I'm going to begin playing all my 45s at 33...

Wanda Jackson_03_Funnel of Love.mp3

I'm Just About To Blow My Top

There's an interesting article by Jon Savage at the Guardian's music blog about pop music in the atomic age, and musicians responses to imminent nuclear destruction from the early 50s through to now. In the article he mentions this fantastic record by rockabilly's first lady Wanda Jackson. Savage writes she 'yokes the explosive power of 1000 suns to her orgasm'. Which isn't a sentence I'd have thought of, or one I can top.

Fujiyama_Mama.mp3

Friday Night Is Rockabilly Night 27

This week's rockabilly rave-up comes from 1981, covered in Clash connections. That's Pearl and Mick Jones in the picture above. Pearl Harbour had fronted what the Americans call a 'new wave' band (Pearl Harbour and The Explosions) who made a mediocre album. By 1980 she had fallen in with The Clash, and recorded a rockabilly inspired album called Don't Follow Me... I'm Lost Too, much of which which sounds surprisingly good today, 29 years later. It bombed at the time. Pearl's boyfriend Kosmo Vinyl (Clash tour manager and self styled 'consiglieri') and Pearl decided she and the album should stand on their two feet, and so there were few credits on the album's sleeve despite it's stellar line-up which would surely have gained it more attention. Produced by Blockhead and Clash touring keyboardist Mickey Gallagher, and with Mick Jones, Paul Simonon, and Topper Headon from The Clash and Wilko Johnson (ex-Dr Feelgood) amongst others playing the instruments. Pearl and Paul Simonon were married for much of the 80s, and she appeared on stage with The Clash. There's youtube footage of her performing this song, Fujiyama Mama, with The Clash in Japan. Fujiyama Mama was a hit in the 50s for rockabilly Queen Wanda Jackson, whose songs have popped up on Friday nights here before. Anyway, take it away Pearl...

02 Fujiyama Mama (Album Version).mp3

Friday Night Is Rockabilly Night 22

Bagging Area is featuring updated rockabilly sounds now at the Friday night rave-up, and we can't get more updated than this. This song is from this year's Fall album, Your Future Our Clutter. One online review I read recently praised MES for writing a song with verses and a chorus, that could be played on the radio. Not quite- it's a Wanda Jackson cover from 1961, one of the rockabilly greats, Funnel Of Love. The Fall's rockabilly covers are always fun (see also White Lightning amongst others). This is great Mancabilly action. Thumbs in belt loops, quiffs drenched by the rain.

08 Funnel Of Love.mp3

Friday Night Is Rockabilly Night 3

Wanda Jackson, self-styled Rockabilly Queen, ripping it up with a Riot In Cell Block 9.

Riot_In_Cell_Block__9.mp3