Merv Griffin - I’ve Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts

With The Freddy Martin Band. Griffin's hit of 1950, composed in 1944 by Fred Heatherton, an English songwriter, celebrating the traditional coconut shy of funfairs. For non-British readers, a "funfair" is the English equivalent of a traveling carnival and "coconut shy" is a game of throwing wooden balls at a row of coconuts balanced on posts.

The song was originally sung and a hit for Danny Kaye during the same year.

I spent many an afternoon after school watching The Merv Griffin Show and Griffin regulars such as Arthur Treacher, Jack Sheldon, and perennial audience member, Mrs. Miller. Although usually considered an also-ran against the Carson Tonight Show juggernaut, I'm pretty sure my first exposure to such powerhouse comedians as Dick Gregory, Richard Pryor, and George Carlin was through The Merv Griffin Show. Apropos of nothing except that every one of her appearances stuck in my memory, I also first saw "Moms" Mabley on the Griffin show, pretty much at the nadir of her career by that time, later learning that she at one time had been one of the most successful entertainers of the black vaudeville circuit, earning $10,000 a week at Harlem's Apollo Theater at the height of her career.

I also remember the infamous Abbie Hoffman appearance in April 1970, where censors blacked/blurred out Hoffman's torso, so viewers couldn't see the American Flag shirt Hoffman wore. Interestingly, a thread here indicates that the original tape of that appearance was either, lost, stolen, or purposedly destroyed.

Griffin died this Sunday at age 82.

Fairport Convention - Si Tu Dois Partir/Bob Dylan - If You Gotta Go, Go Now

Here's an obscure nugget, Fairport Convention doing a French/Cajun version of Dylan's "If You Gotta Go..." written in 1965, but never officially released until 1991's The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3. It was covered by Manfred Mann, and appeared as a track on the first rock-and-roll bootleg, Great White Wonder. As to the story behind Si Tu Dois Partir, according to the (Mostly) English Folk Music site:

The story goes that Fairport Convention was playing a gig at the Middle Earth and thought it would be amusing to do Dylan's song in French cajun style, so the band called for volunteers from the audience to help with the translation. Richard Thompson: “About three people turned up, so it was really written by committee, and consequently ended up not very cajun, French or Dylan.”

And here's Mr. D. doing the original...

Timi Yuro - Hurt

While I don't agree with the anonymous commenter's assessment of Janis Joplin in the earlier video, I appreciate his/her opinion - we appreciate anyone taking the time and care to comment, btw, whether we agree with you or not- and for his/her reminding me of the great, underappreciated Timi Yuro (born Rosemary Timotea Yuro).

Here's a clip of Yuro performing her classic Hurt, accompanied by a slide show of photos and album covers. There's also a video of an older Yuro performing Hurt available on YouTube, but I think I prefer hearing her at the height of her powers.

Hurt was originally recorded in 1961 when Yuro was only 21 years old, and charted to #4 in the U.S. In `62 she'd have another hit, What's A Matter Baby (Is It Hurting You?) which went to #12 on the Billboard charts, and was mixed by Phil Spector, although Yuro and Spector reportedly battled throughout the song's creation. Her obituary in the Guardian Unlimited noted that,

A subsequent single, The Love Of A Boy, was arranged and co-written by Burt Bacharach, but she refused to sing a follow-up, What The World Needs Now, in the way he wanted. The song became a hit for both Dionne Warwick and Jackie DeShannon.

In 1963, Yuro released Make the World Go Away, an album of country and blues standards, that includes the title song by Hank Cochran, and songs by Willie Nelson.

Yuro would leave the music business after her marriage in 1969. She'd stage a comeback in the `80s, but would be diagnosed with cancer and eventually succumb to the disease in 2004.

The Makem Brothers

Remembering Tommy Makem, as we have been recently, here is a video from some years back, although it is undated on YouTube. Tommy Makem introduces his sons, Shane, Conor, and Rory, and friend Brian Sullivan to sing sea songs. These days, the Makem Brothers perform with the Spain Brothers at festivals and on record, still carrying on the music.

altan and mary black: green grow the rushes

Mary Black, Altan, and Paul Brady at the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow...that'd be a dream gig, you'd think and it was. This was in January 2006 and I had the good fortune to be there. Mairead, lead singer and ace fiddler with Altan, was losing her voice though, which had Mary stepping in for more singing than she'd planned -- and that's why she's got the lyrics written out on a page here. Burns song in the heart of Burns country as a last minute fill in with someone else's band and arrangement -- it was actually delightfully informal to see her glancing at the lyrics now and then in the midst of this big deal concert and never missing a beat.
A gig not to be forgotten, and this excerpt from the BBC coverage brings bit of it home.

Tom Jones and Janis Joplin - Raise Your Hand

Tom Jones and Janis doing a powerhouse version of Raise Your Hand that feels like it may have moved the studio by a few inches. Erroneously dated "1970" in the roll, it was taped on September 21, 1969 and broadcast December 6th of that year. She'd be gone less than a year later at age 27.

They're backed by the band that Janis formed after leaving Big Brother that never had an "official" name, but came to be known as the Kozmic Blues Band, after the title of the only album they'd record with Joplin. Reports had it that Janis had wanted the full Stax/Motown/Aretha Franklin sort of sound for her new band, but - an untrained vocalist - she had a tendency to try to shout over the horns, and was blowing her voice out in live performances. She'd retire the Kozmic Blues Band and form her final group, Full Tilt Boogie, in May of 1970.

Janis Joplin died on October 6, 1970 in Hollywood, CA of a heroin overdose while cutting her final album Pearl with Full Tilt Boogie. It's useless to speculate what might have become of Joplin had she lived. 37 years from 1970 she'd be 64, maybe a happy retired grandmother, maybe - like some of her peers - still singing the blues to an older, appreciative crowd. But instead we have her frozen on film and tape and disc and vinyl, eternally 25, 26, 27, heading full tilt towards October 6, 1970.

I miss her awful.

Moonshiner - Bob Forrest/ The Bottle Song - The Clancy Brothers

I’ve been a moonshiner
For seventeen long years.
I’ve spent all my money
On whisky and beer.
I go to some hollow
And set up my still,
An’ if whisky don’t kill me
Then I don’t know what will.

I go to some bar room,
And drink with my friends,
Where the women can’t follow
And see what I spend.
God bless them pretty women
I wish they was mine,
Their breath is as sweet as
The dew on the vine.

Let me eat when I’m hungry
Let me drink when I’m dry,
Dollars when I’m hard up
Religion when I die.
The whole world’s a bottle
And life’s but a dram,
When the bottle gets empty
It sure ain’t worth a damn.

I'm not familiar with Bob Forrest, but found his performance of Moonshiner after learning that his version will be included on the soundtrack of the upcoming Dylan biopic I'm Not There.

Sometimes mistakenly attributed to Dylan, Moonshiner is a traditional song known under various titles, including Moonshiner Blues and The Bottle Song. Dylan recorded his bleak, disillusioned arrangement - faithfully replicated by Forrest - in 1962, but the song was not officially released until 1991's Bootleg Series Volume 1. The song also appears on various bootlegs, most originating with the so-called Gaslight Tape of 1962.

Here's a different, upbeat take on Moonshiner, performed by the Clancy Brothers and Robbie O'Connell. It's possible Dylan first heard the song from the Clancys, and decided to come up a 180 degree different arrangement.