Friday, 24 April 2009

The Bojangles Diaries

bojang1.jpgThe following exerts are from a recently discovered "jailhouse diary" kept by a Freedom Rider named Judson Fawley. While a valuable source of information on the Civil Rights Era, they also offer a tantalizing insight into the personality of the individual know as Mr. Bojangles who would later be immortalized in song by the Nitty Gritty Dirt band.


May 26th, 1967:

For the fourth day in a row, I, along with all of the other inmates in Wing 3 of the New Orleans County Jail, am awakened by the sounds Mr. Bojangles' arrhythmic dancing and off-key singing. Since I am Bojangels' cellmate, I am unavoidably awoken first. As the other inmates begin to stir the daily torrent of death threats emanate from their cells and fill the corridor.

"Shut that crazy old coon the fuck up," yells Willers from the adjacent cell to the left before volunteering "or I swear to Christ I'll nail his black ass to the prison floor!"

What am I to do? After all, it was I who implored upon Mr. Bojangles to dance in the first place.

Mahoney, in the cell directly across from ours, begins to hurl paper cups full of toilet water through the bars into Bojangeles and my cell where they miss their intended target and splatter harmlessly on the floor. The commotion invariably summons Kapansky, the guard, who each morning points his baton through the bars of our cell and threatens to split Bojangels head in two should he fail to "Cut that shit out, on-the-double".

May 31st, 1967:

Admittedly, when I first asked Mr. Bojangles to perform I expected to be regaled with a litany of traditional Blues songs and Negro spirituals. To my great dismay, the only song in Bojangels' repertoire appears to be "If I Knew You Were Coming, I'd Have Baked a Cake" and the only lyrics he seems remember from the song are "If I knew you were coming, I'd have baked a cake... baked a cake... baked a cake." Unless interrupted by the appearance of Kapansky and his club, Bojangles' rendition of "If I Knew You Were Coming, I'd Have Baked a Cake" can go on for hours.


June 2nd, 1967:

I may have mentioned earlier that after twenty years Bojangles still grieves for his late dog. Hardly a night has passed wherein the old man hasn't launched into a rambling lament about the animal (Curiously, the dog's name never seems to remain the same. Most of the time it's "Rex", occasionally it's "Spot" and at least once it was remembered as "Jefferson Davis", which is a rather strange name for a colored man o bestow upon anything, let alone his canine companion). Last night, during one of these sobbing breakdowns I placed my hand on Mr. Bojangles' shoulder and said "There, there. He was a good dog, wasn't he?"

"Not really, no. He used to shit all o'er t' place. An' his farts - whooeee" Bojangles sputtered forth along with about a pint of saliva.

"But you really seem to miss him..."

"Hell yeah, I does. Of all the critters I ever did fuck, and I fucked a barnyard full, that mutt had the tightest asshole."

June 3rd, 1967,

Today was a day of revelations: The first being that the Mr. Bojangles with whom I share this cell is not, in fact the Mr. Bojangles. That is to say that he is not, as I had been led to believe, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson. Apparently the authentic Bojangles died of heart failure in New York City in 1949. No, as it turns out, the counterfeit Bojangles is in actuality one Thomas M. Stackpole. Even more shocking is the gossip that Mr. Stackpole/Bojangles is not even a Negro. He is, according to the extremely reliable jailhouse grapevine, a dark-skinned Welshman.

Perhaps most disturbing of all was Bojangles' elaboration on the reason for his incarceration which he had earlier given as "Cause I drinks a bit". This afternoon he expanded upon it, in a disquietingly matter-of-fact manner: "Cause I drinks a bit and then I likes to go down by the schoolyard and show li'l Bojangles to t' purdy children" Bojangles stammered, unbuttoning his fly and exposing his shriveled penis.

Addendum:
Two days later Thomas "Bojangles" Stackpole was transferred to the New Orleans Sate Prison where he tried, unsuccessfully, for five years to be raped in the showers. He was released in 1972.

Wednesday, 22 April 2009

Judy Fox

The hand-painted terra cotta sculptures in Snow White and the Seven Sins mark a new level of mastery by artist Judy Fox. Slumbering Snow White is surrounded by seven anthropomorphic “dwarves,” each representing one of the seven sins. At P.P.O.W. through November 24th.

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(Judy Fox, left: Envy, center: Snow White, right: Anger. All three: terra cotta and casein, 2007. Both Images Courtesy: P.P.O.W.)

Brainticket - Cottonwood Hill (1971)[LP]

I've been looking around the music blogs for a while now and I don't remember seeing Brainticket available anywhere so I figured I'd oblige and provide what I've got of this singularly unique psychedelic outfit. Cottonwood Hill (sometimes referred to as Brainticket as if it were a self titled album although as you can see above the title clearly appears on all the cover art I've seen) from 1972 is the groups debut LP and is hailed as a masterpiece of psychedelic music. This album (especially the side-long piece) is just totally crazed absolutely insane music. Driven mostly by the skilled organ of multi-instrumentalist and band leader Joel Vandroogenbroeck the sound is chaotic yet full of amazing nuances that compel the listener to stay engaged. This is not my favorite LP by the group I think that would be the follow-up to Cottonwood Hill, 1972's Psychonaut (which will be available here soon) dialed down the psychedelic madness quite a bit and focused more on song structure and less on mind melting. At any rate Cottonwood Hill is without a doubt a psychedelic gem, it's abrasive, wild, at times beautiful and of course quite "trippy". If you're a fan of hard/psychedelic rock, Krautrock, or the wilder more experimental side of progressive music, Brainticket will be a revelation.


Password: etk1996
Download Here

Via Rebellious Jukebox

Tuesday, 21 April 2009

Princess (1969)






IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0222299/

IMDB Rating: 5.8/10

Director: Herman Wuyts

Cast:
Jan Bauwens
Polly Geerts
Herman Jacobs
Annie Laurie
Virginia Mailer… Margie / Princess
Franz Marijnen… Walter
Alice Toen
Mariette Van Arkkels… Dame
Jan Van Broeckhoven
Bob Van der Veken… President Sextra
Cara Van Wersch
Herman van Veen… Mark
Manuel Waugh
Gwynne Whitby
Fanny Winkler… Koncierge

Description:
"Princess" is a graphical piece of candy, a playful delirium, perfectly mastered technically, in glorification of the poetic and sexy image rhetoric of the ’60s, and is also a parody of such film genres as the James Bond series. The story is simple: a freelance photographer wants to make a picture novel with his sweetheart as a heroine. The success of this novel, which exploits every possible cliché of sex and violence, jeopardizes their relationship: the actress feels exploited herself.

The only feature film by Herman Wuyts was badly received upon release because the film balances on an unclear boundary of a tribute to and criticism of the genre. This failure abruptly ended the filming ambitions of the director. We can only regret this, because once one accepts that the lightness determines the form and content, "Princess" keeps surprising by its wittiness. By distancing itself from introspection and a degree of reality, by going beyond the point where Antonioni stopped with the development of "Blow Up", "Princess" is an amusement that is shored up by the staging of desire, like in erotic cinema, but where, as opposed to erotic cinema, the object of desire isn’t nudity – while surely present in the film – but the photographic image and its power of seduction itself.


http://rapidshare.com/files/173187507/HWCESSPRICK.part01.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/173192383/HWCESSPRICK.part02.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/173197159/HWCESSPRICK.part03.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/173202585/HWCESSPRICK.part04.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/173208450/HWCESSPRICK.part05.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/173215191/HWCESSPRICK.part06.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/173222299/HWCESSPRICK.part07.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/173229566/HWCESSPRICK.part08.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/173235950/HWCESSPRICK.part09.rar

File size: 848Mb | Dimensions: 662 x 372
Video: 1164kbps XviD | Audio: 192kb/s mp3
Language: Dutch (English .srt subs included)
Black & white | Running time: 87 minutes

Screens/Box Cover:

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[+] 2z401lw.jpg
[+] 33xye5f.jpg

Maureeny Wishfull

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moonshine

Imagine if Jimmy Page never joined Led Zeppelin. Then imagine if, instead, he struck off into the English countryside with a few friends to make a folk record that sounded like a combination of early Donovan and The Incredible String Band with sitar thrown in for good measure. It’d be pretty rad. It’d probably sound a lot like Maureeny Wishfull because, well, that’s exactly what Maureeny Wishfull is.

Released on the Moonshine label with pre-Zeppelin Jimmy on guitar / sitar, this is a very rare privately-pressed album that also features John Williams and Big Jim Sullivan. Rumored to have been just 300 or so copies pressed, this legendary piece is one of the great Page/Zeppelin-linked collectors items. Say what you will about Zeppelin, but this record is damn good.

[ download ] I Know, You Know Too

Maureeny Wishfull

Gypsy Girl and the Poor Boy

[ download ] The Maureeny Wishfull Album

Via Naturalismo

Eden Ahbez

How about a refreshing dish of trendsetting hippie beatnik hermit? Alright then.

Eden Ahbez' (born George Aberle) biggest claim to fame was writing the hit song Nature Boy, loosely based the old Yiddish ditty Schwieg Mein Hertz, for Nat King Cole in 1948. Frank Sinatra later recorded a more well-known verison.

He was ahead of his time in terms of both appearance and lifestyle, he beat the hippies to the punch by at least 20 years. As early as the prim & proper 1940s when most people couldn't even imagine showing themselves in public without a hat and tie, Ahbez practiced Eastern philosophies, stood on street corners and preached Oriental mysticicsm and sported a look that can only be described as Jesus-like.

At the time Ahbez was living a self-chosen barebones lifestyle in southern California. For a time he slept by the Hollywood sign with his family (under one of the L's apparently), lived on virtually no money at all, had very few material possessions and adhered to a strict vegetarian diet.

Nature Boy made him a bit of a celebrity and everyone from Time Magazine to Newsweek covered him and his story. Life Magazine gave their article the intriguing headline "Nature Boy Eden Ahbez Lived On Nuts In A Canyon, Wrote Hit Song".

Throughout the 40s and 50s he kept writing music for people like Eartha Kitt and Frank Sinatra, until he finally made his first and last album, Eden's Island in 1960. A very peculiar mix of exotica (which was quite hip at the time and remains one of my all time favorite styles of music - check out Martin Denny, people. He'll change your life) and spoken word elements in the form of beatnik poetry, no one has recorded anything like before or since. An absolutely brilliant album, a one of a kind masterpiece.

After that album he pretty much disappeared off the radar. He kept in touch with some of his musician friends and released a single or two, but he more or less turned away modern society. He lived a nomadic life with his wife and their son under the stars and apparently they spent most of their time just chillin'.

Sounds pretty sweet to me, wouldn't mind living that way myself. I just need to move to a warmer country first.

Eden Ahbez died in 1995, at the age of 86, due to injuries sustained from a car accident.

(mp3) Eden Ahbez - Myna bird
(mp3) Eden Ahbez - Full moon (highly recommended!)
(mp3) Eden Ahbez - Mongoose

Availabe on Eden's Island (1960) or DOWNLOAD

The Outsider Odyssey presents: Eden Ahbez

Monday, 20 April 2009

Anne Briggs




Anne Patricia Briggs (born 1944), known as Anne Briggs, is an English folk singer. Although she travelled widely, in the 1960s and early 1970s, appearing at folk clubs and venues in England and Ireland, she never aspired to commercial success or to achieve widespread public acknowledgement of her music. However, she was a highly influential figure in the English folk music revival, being a source of songs and musical inspiration for others such as A.L. Lloyd, Bert Jansch, The Watersons, June Tabor, Sandy Denny and Maddy Prior.



[Comment: Jansch was her contemporary. Lloyd, a pioneer of modern folk music and a patron of hers, was a source for many of Anne’s songs. It’s not quite right to call her an English folksinger. She grew up in Nottingham, it’s true, but she was an orphan and reckoned at least part of her stock was Irish. She was on her own well before she was 20, and later on travelled with a tinker band in Ireland for several years in the 70’s. Her voice was pure and true and remarkably supple. Perhaps her greatest contribution was to sing the songs of womens’ experience, and this became a a great inspiration for the next generations. She sang from the heart of the tradition, she loved dogs and hunting and their songs, and she had a knack for setting the original heart of each song free.]



Early in 1973 she recorded a third solo album “Sing a Song For You” with instrumental support from “Ragged Robin”, who were a folk-rock band assembled around Steve Ashley.