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The Tidal Waves, Farmer John, HBR 45 (SVR Records)

The Tidal Waves were a mid 60s Detroit garage band made up of teenagers Bob Slap, Bill Long, Mark Karpinski, and Tom and Jon Wearing.  They scored a number one hit on the local Detroit charts with this 1966 45 (b side She Left Me All Alone).  It was originally released on the SVR label out of Detroit, then nationally by the one pictured above, on HRB.

According to my dad, (who was out attending the bars, teen clubs, and school dances in the 60s where bands like the Tidal Waves, The Rationals, and Bob Seger were playing), the song Farmer John was a staple by many of the bands - one of the songs “they always played.”  Farmer John was originally written by Don Sugarcane Harris, as a 50s rhythm and blues number, but may have been first made into a national hit by a band called the Premiers.  It’s a great, high-energy song, and The Tidal Waves do a fantastic, almost pre-punk version here, Detroit garage style.

to a clip of Farmer John 

We came across this strange funk/soul 12″ single by CJ Surge on Boston Heights a while ago.  We sold it for about $40 to a European DJ.  I couldn’t find any info on it, but someone just commented and said that it was a recording by Charles Johnson aka The Electrifying Mojo of Midnight Funk Association fame.

It turns out, the Electrifying Mojo was a Detroit DJ who was instrumental in turning people on to the Detroit techno sound that is now legendary and has influenced the entire genre of the music.  This DJ - real name Charles Johnson - aka The Electrifying Mojo - aka CJ Surge, ran the late night segment of The Midnight Funk Association, an “eclectic” program that aired on Detroit stations WGPR, WHYT, and WJLB (I got the tour of WJLB’s studio and met Bushman when I worked briefly for Clear Channel) that blended funk, soul and techno. 

The intro to the show was given by The Electrifying Mojo, over a track called Momento by the art of noise.  It went like this:

“Will the members of the Midnight Funk Association please rise. Please go to your porch light and turn it on for the next hour to show us your solidarity. If you’re in your car please honk your horn and flash your lights, wherever you are. If you’re in bed, get ready to dance on your back, in Technicolor. And get ready for the MFA. The word is… Don’t say no, say triple-whammy-whoa. Hold on tight, don’t let go. Whenever you feel like you’re nearing the end of your rope, don’t slide off. Tie a knot. Keep hanging, keep remembering, that it ain’t nobody bad like you. This session of the International Midnight Funk Association is being called to order. Electrifying Mojo presiding. May the Funk be with you. Always…”

Anyway, I had no idea this was CJ Surge.  Whoever left that comment - thanks for the info and shedding light on this historical radio show and Detroit techno pioneer.  It aired from 1977 through the mid 80s - so I was just a youngster then.

There is a website, vinyl by request dot com / blog, who has been stealing our entire posts on this blog and re-publishing them as their own.  They’re also running google ad-words, so they’re profitting off our work.  Not only that, but they aren’t even linking back to our site or saying that Cousins Vinyl is the original authors.

Not only is this a blatent copyright infringment, it’s straight up wrong.  It’s not even close to reasonable, fair use.  I emailed my friend Mark Maynard, who runs the blog MarkMaynard.com, and he suggested doing a few things, including contacting google ad words to let them know, and sending the site a legal letter.

After doing more research and consulting with some legal friends, there’s a bunch more that we can and will do, but it’s just amazing to me that there’s people out there that would do something like this.  I spend a considerable amount of time on some of the posts on here, carefully doing research, taking pictures, and relying on my knowledge of records and music that has taken years and years for me (and Justin and Josh) to develop.  We don’t even run ads here - except a link to our own store. 

I also noticed that this same site is stealing from other blogs too, including a vinyl siding company out of New York that has a blog.  It’s an attempt to gain traffic and climb up the google rankings for them to earn money on google ad words.

I have to say that at the same time I’m slightly flattered that someone would want to steal Cousins Vinyl’s posts, but still, it pisses me off.  They still haven’t removed the posts - about two or three weeks worth - so they’ve got something coming to them if they don’t.

I’m anxious to see if they’re running some sort of program that automatically lifts the content, and if so - will this post appear?

Anyone have any further suggestions?

*Note* This post is property of Cousins Vinyl and is not permitted to be re-published in any way, without our consent or proper fair use guidelines!!!!

I’ve been back on a blues kick lately, listening to nothing else but the blues on the old turntable.  Nothing else can do it for me right now like the blues can.  I’ve been digging through my blues row, which makes up the biggest part of my collection.  The first blues record I ever bought was Lighting Hopkins, Sings The Blues, on the Score label.  Oh, what a record.  From there my blues record collecting exploded - and it’s turned into a nice collection now.  The blues are the roots of all American music - and there’s nothing else I can do to explain it.  It either tugs at your soul or it doesn’t.  You either feel it or you don’t.  And if you feel it, there’s nothing quite like it when compared to another musical genre.  I admit, I’m not always in the mood for the blues, but when I am, I think I enjoy it more than anything else. 

Cousin Justin agrees.  The blues are the one genre where we both meet with our musical tastes.  We also meet with 50s and 60s rhythm and blues and soul but then we split where I go more with jazz, 70s funk, reggae, bluegrass and roots music and Justin gets heavy into rock - 60s garage and all kinds of sub-genres (and cruise-ship calypso records).  But the blues, the blues are where it’s at with both of us.  It’s where we got our start in our love for record collecting.

We were talking today about things in general up at the office and Justin asked what I’ve been listening to.  I said I’ve been back in the blues stacks, and I just couldn’t seem to stop listening or get past Luther Allison’s Love Me Mama on Delmark.  Justin replied without hesitation, “Yeah, to me that’s the best blues record ever.”  I think I agree (modern anyways - it was put out in 1969)- you just have to listen to it to appreciate it - it expodes with the west-side Chicago soul sound but remains nitty and gritty, down and dirty.  Luther’s high pitched voice wails and his guitar wails along too.  It’s rockin’ yet laid back - the perfect mix of the blues.  It bridges the gap between old style delta stylings and modern Chicago electric - and incoroparates the Motown influenced soul style of singing that Chicago’s West Side was known for - along with such greats as Magic Sam, Otis Rush, Fenton Robinson, Son Seals and others. 

Although Magic Sam’s West Side Soul album is right up there and perhaps as good, nobody captured it quite like Luther did on this album, his debut and only recording on the Delmark label.  Delmark was THE label in the late 60s and early to mid 70s for blues, particularly for Chicago artists, who were producing the most innovative and immortal music the genre may have ever seen.  Heavily influenced by early electric Chicago pioneers such as Muddy Waters and Little Walter and others who came from the south to Chicago to make money recording and playing in blues bars, (and who were themselves influenced by the delta country greats and especially by T-Bone Walker, who revelotionized the modern electric guitar blues style), the new guys took it to the next level.  Following this period, to me the blues died a bit.  There were labels like Ann Arbor’s own Blind Pig (Ann Arbor has always loved Chicago blues - all the early Ann Arbor blues festivals showcased the best Chicago blues guys) who signed some of these Chicago guys in the late 70s and early 80s to record some albums that were really good, but it wasn’t quite the same.

I’m sure there were blues records that were much more influencial, and plenty more rare and historically important, but to us Cousins, it doesn’t get much better than this.  If you can find a copy - pick it up.  If you’re new to the blues, start here and see where it leads you. 

Cousin Justin turns 28 today.  In honor of his birthday I have posted this funny picture of him dressed up as Rod Stewart last Halloween.

Happy Birthday Justin!

Ends tomorrow around 5 or 6.  Check it out!

Jess and I watched a documentary the other night on the history of breakdancing, called The Freshest Kids.  I highly recommend it - they had it at the Ypsi public library.  It gives a great history on breakdancing, known as b-boying to the true old schooler, including how it started in New York City and how the dance actually shaped the entire art of hip-hop. 

The movie runs a soundtrack all the way through and has amazing footage of street breakdancing.  The art itself is fascinating; both athletically and creatively.  Many of the early pioneers are interviewed, including Crazy Legs and Ken Swift from the Rock Steady Crew.  I also found out the historical significance behind the New York City Breakers, who have a poster insert on how to breakdance inside my electric Breakdance album pictured above.

I can’t say enough about the movie.  It was very inspirational - for some reason it made me want to go outside and play basketball.  You learn all about how b-boying started with 70s funk - with the break being the climax of the getdown in the dance - hence break-dancing.  From there the disco era of the late 70s ruined the breaks with the continuous beat and groove - so hip-hop started with DJs, spinning old records and prolonging the breaks to give the dancers more time to do their thing, rapping over the beat.  The dancing was always the big thing, the main attraction, the true art form - the rapping just went along with it.  But then the record industry, unable to capatilize on an intangible thing such as dancing, pushed rap to the forefront.  Breakdancing blew up commercially in 1984 (the year my record came out), but was soon forgotten and swept under the rug as being too old school.

But b-boying went back to it’s roots - underground - and remains so today.  The Freshest Kids shows thew new up-and-comers and some unbelievable moves that they do.  Many of the old schoolers say they’re disgusted with today’s brand of hip-hop, complaining that instead of booty-dancers in videos there should be b-boys.

I remember breakdancing from when I was in elementary school and middle school - the cardboard on the cement in the playground, a boombox blaring, kids gathered ’round in a circle as the freshest kid jabbed and spun to the claps, ahhhs, did-you-see-thats, and high fives of the rest.

January 10, 1924 - August 16, 2007

It’s the Ypsilanti Heritage Festival this weekend.  That means it’s time to start talking about Lee Osler again.

I went to the Ypsilanti Public Library the other day and checked out the book, “Down by the Depot In Ypsilanti” by Tom Dodd and James Thomas Mann.  There was a section in the book that printed out the lyrics to several Ypsilanti themed songs, including the much talked about on this site, Back to Ypsilanti. 

The book also mentioned that Lee had another song, released in 1986, about homeless people called How Would You Feel?  The lyrics put to light the issue of homelessness and how much the people suffer.  I would really like to hear it if anyone has a copy out there.

I also was told that Lee had a song about a quarterback, but that’s all the info I got about the song.  I’m sure Lee had other material that wasn’t released or was just for demo.  And then there’s the B side to Back to Ypsilanti, Tarnished Love Affair, and the B side to How Would You Feel? 

In any event, I had an idea to contact Lee to do an interview and also to gather all the songs to put together a Lee Osler Greatest Hits album.  The cover would somehow be Ypsi themed.  Maybe Lee could even do another version of Back To Ypsilanti, this time collaborating with a current Ypsi band. 

For more Ypsilanti songs, there’s the Ypsi Songs compilation CD that was released recently.  There’s also the song Ypsilanti by Nancy Adams that I found on 45 on the Phillips label from 1967, which is kind of like the bizzarro Ypsilanti song when compared to Lee Osler’s. 

And then, of course, there’s my favorite - my remix of Sammy Kaye’s Makin Love Ukulele Style, with Lee’s vocals dubbed in, titled Makin’ Love Ypsilanti Style.

Mark Maynard had a post a while back proposing a vote on a new city theme song.  Back to Ypsilanti was named official song of Ypsi by the city council back in ‘83.  I know there’s a lot more out there, including current songs as well as the recordings of the others in the book I talked about, including: Ypsilanti Comic Song, A Depot Town Rag, Alibi Guy (About Aubree’s), The City Song, and Everything’s Up To Code in Ypsilanti.

Have I missed any?

We got soul soul soul 45s.

fresh auctions

buy it nows

not to mention Motowns

You don’t have enough soul 45s!  Don’t wait - buy some more - put ‘em in the box - be ready!

One of my yearly birthday rituals is procrastinating renewing my license plates until my actual birthday or the day after. I am punished by being forced to wait in line for an hour or more just to pay a fee. I am waiting right now, writing this post on my blackberry for something to do. It is the worst thing in the world. Maybe if they handed out complimentary cans of cold beer it wouldn’t be so bad. But they don’t, and it is.

In the sports and music world…

August 9th Birthdays:

Jack DeJohnette, jazz drummer

Kurtis Blow, rap pioneer

Barbara Mason, 70s soul singer

Dion Sanders, two sport star

Bob Cousy, all-time great Boston Celtics point guard

Ken Norton, boxer

Troy Percival, baseball closer

(Geoff Anderson, record store co-owner, ski-jorer and disc golfer)

Happy Birthday to me!  Cousin Justin’s is coming up on the 27th.  He is also a record store co-owner and disc golfer but not a ski-jorer.  For a birthday present please buy lots of records from us, or send us free disc golf discs (hint-hint Discraft).  Thank you.

For now, the sweet blues sounds of 89.1 WEMU playing on the radio while I eat my fried egg, ham and cheese sandwhich and watch the rain is enough for me.  God bless Ypsilanti, Michigan.

*Note* I switched the song on the player to the Detroit Lions song because not only is it my birthday today, but it’s the Lions pre-season opener tonight.  Calvin Johnson is going to play heavy minutes which means that the Lions will score at least 100 points.

I’m working on 200 classic rock LPs to go up Monday night.  Mostly the classics - Stones, The Who, Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, Pink Floyd, The Clash, The Doors, ect…But as always there will be some rarities and odd balls mixed in, including the Triumverat - Illusions on a Double Dimple LP that Josh did a review on a year ago and still gets more hits than almost anything else on this blog.  

I’m glad it does, because Josh is such a talented writer and it was great to have him write reviews for us for a while.  He still drops by and leaves a comment every now and then - but he’s still busy gettin’ situated out in California these days.  Josh and I actually went to high school together at Ann Arbor Huron but didn’t really know each other too well.  Then I started picking up Current magazines mainly just to read Josh’s rock column every month.  One day I emailed him and Justin and I met him for beers at the 8 Ball, downstairs from the Blind Pig bar in Ann Arbor.  He wrote reviews for us and actually created the concept and beginning of this blog.  We also hung out and became friends - so I was sad to see him move to California - but excited for him nevertheless. 

Josh is a super great guy who is full of life and energy and is very knowledgable and enthusiastic about music.  He is also an extremely talented writer and I am sure he’ll make a good name for himself in California as the cream always rises to the top.

We found the Dennis Coffey album, Finger Lickin’ Good on Westbound, in a collection that came in today.  I kept it, rather than sell it.  I was hoping it would be more Scorpio-like, but it was a little disco-y for my taste.  Side 2 is better though, more funkish and featured more of Dennis’s guitar.  Overall it’s still good.  Did you know that Dennis Coffey was one of the original Funk Brothers?

We once had a Dennis Coffey and Lymon Woodard Organization LP but we sold it - I doubt if we’ll see it again.  We haven’t gotten this one before so I thought I’d better keep it.  Justin got to keep a rough but playable Contours first album in exchange.  We also got to draft some records on yesterday too - some reggae and sowetto albums.  So I got to add to my local section, my funk section, and my reggae section. 

When is a record collection complete?  Justin and I are pretty selective these days - but we do have a gazillion records at the shop.  Still, it’s never enough.  The new records I brought home will get filed away and then I’ll want more.  It’s always the thrill of the new find, of the new collection.  I wonder when I’ll stop and say - that’s it - no more records!  Probably half of my records at home I’ve listened to once.  It is nice, though, to browse through and say, oh yeah! and put something on that I’ve forgotten about.

I do keep it under control though - it’s more fun to add to my collection little by little and be fairly selective.  That way each record means something.  That’s something we always hear when buy a collection - “there’s a lot of memories in there.”  Some people have a hard time parting with them - other people just want to get rid of them. 

So when is a collection complete?  I guess it’s when the desire and interest fades away.  There’s just too many possibilities of undiscovered and hard to find music to have a complete collection of anything.  And there’s so many different ways to go about record collecting - I go after genres and certain areas of interest - but there’s others who collect labels or artists.

I guess the whole fun of record collecting is that it isn’t ever complete.  Maybe when the interest stops, that collection is then complete.  And it becomes complete when the interest stops.

I know mine isn’t complete yet so I’m still having fun.

I brought home this LP a few weeks ago.  I thought the cover was great - and I loved the concept: a happy white guy singing reggae/calypso/country songs.  The back of the album showed him with another white guy and three natives.  It also had an ad for Toyota, Cayman’s No. 1 selling car.  The liner notes come from the Galleon Beach Hotel, a resort which was then home to the Barefoot man, where he played a nightly gig.

Despite all these promising signs, I didn’t really expect much out of the album.  I brought it home, showed my wife the cover, plopped it in and we were blown away.  We love it!  It’s by far the most played record that I’ve brought home this summer.  It’s happy and carefree: a cross between Jimmy Buffett and Arrow.  It’s funny, a bit cheesy, but undeniably catchy and good.  We know most of the words to all the songs - and every song on the album is excellent.

One of the standouts on the album is the song Ching Ching - it’s about ol’ Barefoot falling in love with a chubby Island girl.  The chorus has the lyrics:

 She’s as black as a Ching Ching, oh but she’s sweet, built like a breadfruit, she’s got plenty of meat, but that’s how we like ‘em, the bigger the better, lots of woman there, she’s got curlers in she hair. 

At first we found the words to be borderline inappropriate or racist - but I found that “black as a ching ching” is a common expression, with ching ching referring to a native bird found in the Carribean. 

It also turns out that Barefoot Man is still alive and well and playing and living in the Cayman Islands.  His voice is deeper and more weathered now - but he’s still loving life and singing about it, barefoot as ever. 

What a life, huh?

to Ching Ching