I was asked to post this video clip to YouTube, so here it is for the world to see…

If get any opportunity to see the Comets perform, run, do not walk to see them in concert. They are absolutely worth seeing. Marshall Lytle, Dick Richards and Joey Ambrose were there when Bill Haley made musical history, and they are still at the top of their game, delighting audiences all over the world. They outlasted many of their peers, and they ain’t goin’ to be around forever, you know?

If you want to see a really fun website, check Marshall Lytle’s “Crazy” page at Rockabilly.com. There’s also a Comets MySpace page.

As this is a website that celebrates “all things LOUIE,” I figured I might have a little fun sharing his interpretation of Paul McCartney doing “Tis There Was LOU (or LOO).” This is really silly stuff…

Truth be told, I think Stevie does a better job impersonating Ringo Starr, but he also does an uncanny version of John Lennon, Neil Young, Elvis Costello, Freddie Mercury, David Bowie, and lot of other famous rock stars.

The first I ever saw Stevie on YouTube, was a performance of “How Do You Sleep” doing his impersonation of John Lennon AND Paul McCartney.

I’m hoping he’ll do John Lennon singing “Cheese and Onions,” which would be such a hoot! According to what I’ve heard, a fan once asked Lennon what he thought of The Rutles, and he responded by singing “Cheese and Onions”…..

I’ll blame Phil Dirt for finding a rare 1965 recording of LOUIE LOUIE by a band from Dallas, Texas. This week’s LOUIE of the Week goes out to The Rain Kings. Here’s a little description from their webpage:

If you go to see live music often, from time to time you will come across a kind of act that knows they’re bad, that emphasizes their deficiencies and makes their ineptness the center of the show.

The Rain Kings from Dallas were such a band. Luckily for us they lived in a time when rock music was by its very nature amateur and obnoxious. Despite their best efforts to muck it up, they still managed to create listenable music, at least, listenable to my ears.

You can download their version of LOUIE LOUIE by scrowling down to the bottom. Look for “Lewis Lewis.”

http://www.garagehangover.com/?q=RainKings

After ten years of monthly internet postings, Dick Stewart, publisher of the Lance Monthly decided to cease operations. A supporter of the type of music that the LOUIE REPORT eagerly devours as part it’s regular diet, this internet publication was described as “The Internet Source for ’50s Rockabilly, ’60s Garage Band Music, and Surf and Modern Guitar Instrumentals.” The publication always free, but supported by donations, sales from auxiliary products, and the enthusiasm of a dedicated audience.

The final issue, will feature: Up Close with TLM Editor, Dick Stewart (Lance Monthly’s tenth anniversary; let the hiatus begin); Tenth Anniversary Comments (from TLM’s most ardent fans); Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekender (A report by Sonny West – Rockabilly Weekenders growing in worldwide popularity); A Chat with Tinker Carlen (Was he an original Cricket? – interview conducted by Dick Stewart); Paterson’s Jump, Jive, and Harmonize (Reviews of releases by The Liverpool Five; 3 Balls of Fire); MuzikMan’s The Lance Monthly Album Pick of the Month [“010110001 (Limited Edition)”- Ayreon]

Good luck, with your next venture, Dick. We’re going to miss the Lance Monthly.

http://www.lancerecords.com

No Depression, the bimonthly magazine covering a broad range of American roots music since 1995, will bring to an end its regular print publication with its 75th issue in May-June 2008. It’s very sad that this award-winning music magazine is ceasing publication. The Chicago Tribune ranked No Depression #20 in its 2004 list of the nation’s Top 50 magazines of any kind. I really loved this magazine, which covered the alt-country scene, where the actual musicianship was far important than demographics and cheesy music videos. On their website, they wrote about the way they conducted their business:

In the thirteen years since we began plotting and publishing No Depression , we have taken pride not only in the quality of the work we were able to offer our readers, but in the way we insisted upon doing business. We have never inflated our numbers; we have always paid our bills (and, especially, our freelancers) on time. And we have always tried our best to tell the truth.

The reasons for stopping publication are both complicated and painfully simple. You can read all about it at their open letter to the public.

The good news is they will continue as an online community. With the help of University of Texas Press, it looks they will be able publish a semiannual “bookazine” for all of us that love our paper products.

http://www.nodepression.net

Here’s a frame shot of the official website for Paul Revere & the Raiders - Northwest rock and roll, video pioneers, and first successful rock and roll band for Columbia Records, the world’s largest record label of the 1960s.

Now, here’s a frame shot of the webpage for Ron Paul’s Raiders. Ron Paul was the unsuccessful libertarian, independent-minded Republican candidate for the United States, and this organization was a grass-roots effort to get him elected.

As you might have heard, Ron Paul didn’t win the Republican nomination, but he did inspire a lot of people with a very fresh outlook on American politics. I applaud the spirit of his candidacy that encouraged accountability in public service, and fiscal conservatism. With any luck, I hope such efforts will inspire a more responsible generation of politicians.

Paul Revere on the hand, continues to perform all year around. He’s a semi-regular at Branson, and also currently has gigs lined up at Las Vegas, Orlando, and Tunica.

More than just a mere entertainer, Paul also serves as on the board of directors of Ride To The Wall Foundation, a non-profit foundation that raises money for various veteran’s outreach programs.

So we’ve got two Pauls - an iconic entertainer that does outreach for veteran’s groups, and a politician that has inspired many folks to become political.

As far as I know, only one of these guys performed LOUIE LOUIE, but I could be wrong….

(thanks to Cindy Mulvey of H.E.A.L. for the heads up on this one)

With the death of Chris Gaffney, I was inspired to return to this project, and I’ve been having fun assembling this material. I don’t have anyone paying me to edit this, and I don’t know if any of this will ever be seen outside of YouTube, but it sure feels good to work on this stuff. The music of Johnny Paycheck, as interpreted by Chris Gaffney, Dave Alvin, Red Meat, Dave Gonzales, and a handful of other musicians, is truly some of the greatest traditional American country music I’ve ever heard. Here’s a couple of clips I assembled this week from this show….

Chris Gaffney joins Smelley Kelley and Red Meat to sing “Take This Job and Shove It.”

Chris Gaffney, backed by Red Meat, tackles “Slide Off of Your Satin Sheets”

In the midst of sorting through my video archives, I also found another unfinished project that I felt was worth sharing. A few years ago, there was a tribute concert in San Francisco for the Replacements, one of my all-time favorite rock and roll bands. John Doe, a fantastic singer-songwriter with X, the Knitters and the Pleasure Barons (all of which featured Dave Alvin one time or another), performed a great rendition of “I Will Dare,” one of the great songs written by Paul Westerberg. The audio on this video is mediocre, but I felt like posting it to YouTube for the hell of it. Eventually, as I get the new improved soundboard recordings from that show, I may post more performances to YouTube.

One of the little surprises I got via YouTube was a nice little quote I’m going to share. Someone by the name of taoistcowboy123 left me this nice little comment on one of my YouTube clips:

“Thanks for posting. A friend is someone who reaches for your hand and touches your heart.”

Sometimes, that’s the sort of thing that really makes it all worthwhile.

My thanks in return for those that pay attention.

I’ve always tried to do the right thing. I’ve respected the rights of musicians, fellow filmmakers, and those that own or manage certain properties whose material I’d like to license. It takes time, patience and diplomacy to do things correctly.

This week, it’s Yoko Ono vs. Ben Stein. Ben Stein recently created a film that challenged the concept of evolution, and used John Lennon’s “Imagine” without permission.

Here’s an interesting comment on this case that I found at James Boyce’s blog entry on Huffington Post:

I work in the film industry and know that although these guys may be dumb, they’re not dumb enough to think this would fly.

They didn’t license this on purpose - it’s a costly publicity stunt. I’m sure they have a huge line item category called ‘lawsuits’ in their budget. There is no such thing as a “momentary use” and anyone in the biz knows this. Every film is required to carry E&O (errors & omission) insurance. It usually covers the film up to 1 million dollars but you must provide a statement saying that you have obtained all of the necessary clearances so that your coverage is clean and that there are no exclusions. No distributor (foreign, domestic, TV, dvd sales, etc.) will pick up your film if there are exclusions. I just wonder if the insurance would even kick in on this kind of thing if you blatantly didn’t obtain the license. I have never had that issue because I, like everyone else in this business, practice good ethics when it comes to licensing copyrighted material. We license, pay and credit the artists their due. I thought Christians were supposed to be honest? I will do some digging with insurance companies and see what the ramifications are.

This is very sad. I really hate this kind of hypocrisy. A film that tries to channel Christian ethics, but uses dishonest tactics to make their case.

Apparently, this is not the only ethical blunder they did in producing this film. From what I’ve read, they lied about the premise of their movie to get interviews, licensed music from other musicians under false pretenses of “academic freedom in schools,” copied Harvard/XVIVO’s cell animations, and then threatened XVIVO with a lawsuit.

Not exactly good Christian ethics, you know?

With any luck, Yoko’s lawyers should be able to “win Ben Stein’s money.”

This film opens on Friday. I’d tell you the name of the film, but why bother?

More information about this situation at:

http://richarddawkins.net/article,2477,Yoko-Ono-Filmmakers-Caught-in-Expelled-Flap,Ethan-Smith
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2008/04/the_sleaze_is_growing.php
http://www.prefixmag.com/news/update-ben-stein-did-not-acquire-the-rights-to-the/18179/

P.S. Ben Stein used to be a speechwriter for President Richard Nixon. Richard Nixon hated John Lennon, and tried to deport him from the USA. There may be a connection there…

Take this example of a frame grab I took from FARK at
http://cgi.fark.com/cgi/fark/vidplayer.pl?IDLink=3552784

I hope you’re not trying to click on an of this … it doesn’t work! It’s a FRAME GRAB, not a real link!

So why is this information wrong? Dick Peterson wasn’t even a member of the Kingsmen when the band recorded LOUIE LOUIE!

Then, there’s the matter of the supposed lyrics…

A tip of the hat goes out to Saint Gothric, who pays attention to such things…

Candy Kayne may not have performed LOUIE LOUIE, but she’s a talented musician that deserves your attention. Her big problem is that wound up with pancreatic cancer. She’s got some substantial hospital bills, and will be struggling without income to support. Apparently after she had to cancel her European tour, she got stuck with some significant airline fees from a promoter that underwrote travel expenses for her band.

The good news, according to her MySpace blog, posted within the past 24 hours, is that she’s recovering nicely from her big 8 hour surgery, and it looks like there’s some very cool benefits lined up for her in different cities to show their support for her. In fact, in San Diego, there’s a show on May 14 featuring Mojo Nixon, Joey Harris (Beat Farmers) and Steve Poltz that I’d love to see… if only it wasn’t a 400 mile drive for me. Mojo doesn’t perform that often, so sounds like a real treat.

You can find more about Candye by going to her official CandyeKane.com website, where you can read about her colorful career, listen to her music, order some of her products, and make a donation to help her out during this very challenging turning point in her life.

A musician friend of mine, who shall remain anonymous, is being treated for cancer this week. I’ll be on pins and needles, hoping she’ll recover from what should be a relatively simple procedure. There a good chance I may be creating a benefit for her, as she’s already deep in debt from medical bills. More details as they happen..