[extra points go to those who can identify all the samples]

So, what's the sample on Delegates '72 for Kissinger, the "GOTTA FIND A WOMAN, GOTTA FIND A WOMAN"? I think I need that song.

"The Bertha Butt Boogie-Part 1" by the Jimmy Castor Bunch, the same crew who did "Hey, Leroy, Your Mama's Calling You."

And "Troglodyte (Cave Man)."

Jon, do you know about Double Dee and Steinski

Oops. I'll try again (mods, please delete my above post).

And "Troglodyte (Cave Man)."

Jon, do you know about Double Dee and Steinski? Their "Lessons" tracks kind of continue the tradition, and have spawned turntablist imitations from DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist.

(Also, their "The Motorcade Sped On" was included among those Illegal Art songs, and is undoubtedly my favorite song about JFK, and "It's Up To You" is probably my favorite (Herbert Walker) Gulf War song.)

Oh yeah, I've got some of their stuff. I just love weird epiphenomena and media mutations like this. Faddish things can often tell you more about an era than "timeless," things. Long live the ephemeral.

One of these days I'l have to put up my collection of bizarre sitar records.

While I'm at it, I might as well recommend the documentary Scratch, and observe that Brion Gysin and musique concrete composers also have some kind of legitimate claim to poineering audio sampling (though Gysin was just biting Tristan Tzara).

On preview: I want some bizarre sitar records. Besides Lord Sitar and Ananda Shankar, what else jumps out at you? My sitar-music collection mostly consists of '90s Anglo-Indian techno and Bollywood remixes and Bill Laswell projects and whatnot.

Besides Lord Sitar and Ananda Shankar, what else jumps out at you?

Well, the Nirvana Sitar and String Group did a nice version of "The Letter," Bill 'Ravi' Harris & the Prophets did "Funky Sitar Man," Kahuna Kwentzmann did "Go Go Sitar," and V. Balsara and his Singing Sitars did a cover of "Bend me Shape Me."

I by no means mean to imply that the sitar is a faddish instrument, since it's been used to great effect in Indian music for centuries. But, even though it was used to good effect in western popular music by the Beatles and the Stones, and lesser knowns like Joe South in the classic "Games People Play," it's breif vogue made for some wonderully odd moments.

The aforementioned Lord Sitar's covers of "I Am The Walrus," and "Have You seen Your Mother Baby, Standing In The Shadows," actually sound (legitamitely) better than most would imagine, since the chose the songs well. Maybe i'll post 'em later.

Oh, all right, just for you, box:


Nirvana Sitar & String Group - The Letter

V. Balsara & His Singing Sitars - Bend Me Shape Me

and for the uninitiated, here's Lord Sitar:

Have You Seen Your Mother Baby, Standing In The Shadows

jon, you're making my head asplode again...

I thought the peak of the Dickie Goodman (wihtout Buchanan) '70s comeback was a pseudo-political piece titled "Watergrate", along with a Streaking-themed piece (one of several dozen Streaking records overwhelmed by Ray Stevens). Of course, the Jimmy Castor Bunch deserves to be lifted out of the memory dump too... I beleive "Bertha Butt" was actually the follow-up to "Troglodyte", and the "Gottafindawoman" chant was in the first one. But what do I know?

Now, for 500 bonus points and Alex Trebek's old moustache: Name THREE Top 40 singles by Jim Stafford (and if you can name the Shel Silverstein song he did that did NOT crack the upper charts, I will bow to you forever).

Jon, mad props for this post. This is some damn good stuff. Where's that music blog at? Seriously!

However, I MUST nitpick. I have to. It's actually been nagging me in the back of my head for days now:

"They more or less pioneered the concept of "sampling," which is the back bone of hip-hop, electronica and many other modern genres."

My nitpick is specifically with the "back bone of hip-hop, electronica..." part. Both musical forms existed long before sampling was readily or even conceptually available. And in both musical forms, the originators don't even rely on sampling - much less use it as a back bone.

Sure, there's a lot of heavy use of sampling in both of these genres, but. Damn. There's contextual and textural sampling and then there's the ravening hordes of talentless rip-off hacks who think that simply ripping an old funk record into a beat loop makes them less untalented. (Granted, you CAN blatantly rip off a beat loop from even the least obscure sources and make it creatively valid gold, but that's even harder. Jack Dangers and Meat Beat Manifesto, anyone?)

Electronic music probably predates Musique Concrete - in both actual electronic tone generation and pre-Musique Concrete machine and automata music experiments and productions.

Hell, by that yardstick "electronic music" predates rock and roll, which is something I've never really considered before. Without electronic music experimentation combined with electronic recording, amplification and reproduction, electrified rock and roll as we know it never would have happened. (Accessible yet wild, transmittable and sharable via radio and records, and amplified and sharable in concert. Rebellious, but saleable.)

But then again, there wasn't a whole lot of dancing or grooving going on to early electronic music - and other than effects, tech and techniques, it contributed little stylistically to rock. And without rock, would we even have danceable electronic? Probably not. Call and repeat, phrase and refrain, and on and on it goes.

Also, please eliminate "electronica" from your vocabulary. Please. I beg you. I know you're not here to protect my sensibilities, but every time I hear that malformed putative it feels a little like I'm black and someone white and uppity just called me a nigger. Ok, maybe it's not that bad. But, yeah.

Anyway. If we're going to use "electronica", it already has a genre defination that's a subset to or a tangent-branching off of "electronic music".

Electronica is that hideous pseudo-electro-techno-hip-pop like Ace of Base and even perhaps Enya, or in retrospect even stuff like Enigma. It's easy, cheesy listening - "crossover" stuff for timid mall zombies.

Which probably explains why I feel disparaged or profaned when I hear or read it.

But, here I go bitching about the little niggling pedantic things that I felt are wrong with this post.

What's right with it? Shit, man. I downloaded that stuff and stuck it in my archives. I learned something new. My praise doesn't come any more geniune or harder earned than that. Thanks.

Wow. Amazingly articulate comment. And point taken.

I didn't mean to disparage electronic music, since I've been learning more (and enjoying more of it lately) about it. I was just using shorthand to show the unexpected impact of these goofy novelty records on popular music. So no offense intended.

No offense was really taken, except for that dumb primeval sort of offense that just can't really be helped unless you're a zen master in full control of his angry lizard hindbrain..

I mean, I didn't think you were doing it on purpose as a rocker to goad the synthers or something. ;) If I thought that I just would have shown up on your porch with a huge sound system and a bunch of cracked out ravers. Then it would be on, man.