Phonograph Blues

Lost & Found playlist for 6/17/10

2010-06-17T11:53:00.002-04:00

Intro: "Spreadin' Honey" - The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band

Background music for the show: Jimmy Heath - Love and Understanding

Jimmy Armstrong - "I Believe I'll Love On"

Jimmy Church - "You Can't Make Me Do It"

Jimmy Castor - "Poor Loser"

Jimmy Robins - "That Someone Don't Know It"

Jimmy Holloway - "I Can't Lose Your Love"

Jimmy Beck & His Orchestra - "Pipe Dreams"

Jimmy Soul Clarke - "Sweet Darlin'"

Jimmy Frazier - "Of Hopes, Dreams, and Tombstones"

Jimmy Richards - "My New Found Joy"

Jimmy James & the Vagabonds - "Four Walls"

Jimmy "Bo" Horne - "I Can't Speak"

Jimmy Robinson - "Don't Take It So Hard"

Jimmy Braswell - "Time Waits for No Man"

Jimmy Radcliffe - "Long After Tonight Is Over"

Jimmy Sabater - "Times Are Changing"

Jimmy London - "I'm Your Puppet"

Jimmy Jones - "Live and Let Live"

Jimmy Jones - "Yesterday's Mistakes"

Jimmy Seals - "The Yesterday of Love"

Jimmy Taylor - My Woman"

Jimmy Lewis - "Message to the Ladies"

Jimmy Hughes - "It Ain't What You Got"

Jimmy Ruffin - "Don't Feel Sorry for Me"

Jimmy Ponder - "Sometimes You Win"

Jimmy Conwell - "Cigarette Ashes"

Jimmy Dobbins - "Teasin' You"

Jimmy Jules - "Just One More Time"

Jimmy Beasley - I Want My Baby (Yea, Yea, Yea, Yea, Yea)

Jimmy McCracklin - "This Life of Mine"

Jimmie Baker - "Funny How People Forget"

Jimmy & Arthur - "Dancing in a Dream World"

Jimmy McGriff - "All About My Girl"

Jimmy James - "This Heart of Mine"

Jimmy Lee Bryant - "My Little Girl"

Jimmy Holiday - "How Can I Forget?"

Outro: "Beautiful Baby" - The Clangers

A few programming notes:

2010-05-31T23:10:00.002-04:00

I am off to Albuquerque in search of cool ocean breezes, blonde Hollywood starlets, and lots of beach related activities...or just records and beer. Bob Dubrow will be filling in for me on 6/3/10 and has pledged not to play soul music so that is either great news or kinda sad depending on how much you like/hate the show.

I will be back for the show on 6/10/10 with a guest DJ, Michael Nicholson (who pledged for airtime back in November).

On 6/17/10 I have a real treat for all 6 of you who tune in each week. The entire show will be artists with the name "Jimmy." If you have any suggestions, feel free to email me at thursday . supersoulreview @ gmail . com (remove the spaces).

That is it for now. Throw money.

Christopher

Lost & Found playlist for 5/27/10

2010-05-31T22:57:00.003-04:00

Intro: "Spreadin' Honey" - The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band

Background music for the show: The Brad Mehldau Trio - Largo

Smiley Lewis - "Blue Monday"
Betty Everett - "Hound Dog"
Don Gardner - "Your Love Is Driving Me Crazy"
Eli "Paperboy" Reed & the True Loves - "Come and Get It"
Mickey Champion - "Bam-A-Lam"

Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings - "How Long Do I Have to Wait for You?"
War - "Summer"
Paul Humphrey & His Cool Air Chemists - "Detroit"
Eddie & Ernie - "Bullets Don't Have Eyes"
The Essex - "Are You Going My Way"

Eli "Paperboy" Reed & the True Loves - "Young Girl"
Albert Washington - "A Woman Is a Funny Thing"
Eric Donaldson - "Cherry Oh Baby"
Marion Black - "Come and Gettit"
O.V. Wright - "Ace of Spades"

Funkadelic - "Super Stupid"
James Carr - "Coming Back to You"
The Falcons - "Love Look In Her Eyes"

The Blues Cellar:

Otis Rush - "Reap What You Sow"
Jimmy Witherspoon - "In the Dark"
Junior Wells - "You Gotta Love Her With Feeling"
Muddy Waters - "Excuse Me Baby"
Jimmy Reed - "Honest I Do"

Z.Z. Hill - "Faithful and True"
Smokey Robinson - "Wanna Know My Mind"
Kool & the Gang - "Summer Madness"
King Floyd - "Handle With Care"
Janelle Monae - "Sir Greendown"

Otis Redding Song of the Week: "Loving By the Pound" from Remember Me

The Baby Huey Story - "Mighty, Mighty"
Bobby Harris - "Lonely Intruder"
The Moments - "Understanding"
Mickey Murray - "After What I've Been Used To"

Outro: "Beautiful Baby" - The Clangers

Lost & Found playlist for 5/20/10

2010-05-24T14:17:00.002-04:00

Intro: "Spreadin' Honey" - The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band

Background music for the show: Red Garland - Red Garland's Piano

Jim Ford - "Harlan County"
Ryan Trevor- "Nights in the City"
Robert Plant - "Burning Down One Side"

The Velvet Turner Group - "Madonna (of the Seven Moons)"

The Rolling Stones - "Pass the Wine (Sophia Loren)"

Alton Ellis - "It's a Shame"

Lee Moses - "Hey Joe"

Rod Stewart - "Lost Paraguayos"

Nazz - "Crowded"

Lou Reed - "Underneath the Bottle"

Jimmy Bond - "Have I Stayed Away Too Long"

Kitty Wells - "A Woman Half My Age"

The Flying Burrito Brothers - "Christine's Tune (Devil in Disguise)"

Little Richard - "Green Power"

The Rolling Stones - "Plundered My Heart"

The Blues Cellar:

Freddie King - "Worried Life Blues"
Son House - "John the Revelator"
Leroy Carr - "I Ain't Got No Money Now"
Big Joe Turner - "Rocks In My Bed"
Roosevelt Sykes - "I Am In Love with a Lover"

Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings - "Better Things"

Ernie & the Top Notes - "Dap Walk"

Al Greene - "Hot Wire"

Solomon Burke - "Peepin'"

The Rolling Stones - "Dancing in the Light"

The Flaming Groovies - "Next One Crying"

The Shangri-Las - "It's Easier to Cry"

The Turtles - "You Baby"

The Cake - "You Can Have Him"

The Rolling Stones - "Good Time Women"

Outro: "Beautiful Baby" - The Clangers

Lost & Found playlist for 5/13/10

2010-05-18T12:35:00.003-04:00

The **NEW** Rock and Soul Review

(...for the time being, that is.)

Intro: "Spreadin' Honey" - The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band

Background music for the show: Jonas Reinhardt - Powers of Audition

The Kinks - "Destroyer"

Cyril Davies & His Rhythm & Blues All Stars - "Country Line Special"

Black Merda - "Cynthy-Ruth"

The Hombres - "Let It All Hang Out"

Irma Thomas - "Time Is On My Side"

O.B. McClinton - "If Loving You Is Wrong"

The Wilburn Brothers - "Country Boy"

Willie Nelson - "I Gotta Get Drunk"

Charlie Rich - "When Something Is Wrong With My Baby"

Calvin Cooke - "Walk With Me"

The Daniels - "Wee Wee"

Lewis Reed - "Merry Go Round"

Clean Living - "In Heaven There Is No Beer"

Los Buenos - "Woovy Groovy"

Doris Duke - "I Can't Do Without You"

The Beach Boys - "You Still Believe In Me"

Everything Is Everything - "Oooh Baby"

Peter Wolf - "Overnight Lows"

The Blues Cellar:

Smoky Babe - "Bad Whiskey"
Freddie King - "You Don't Have To Go"
Otis Spann w/ Fleetwood Mac - "It Was A Big Thing"
Rockin Tabby Thomas - "Voodoo Party"
The Fieldstones - "The Squeeze"

Art Ensemble of Chicago w/ Fontella Bass - "Theme De Yoyo"

The Temptations - "You Got My Soul On Fire"

The Rolling Stones - "Time Waits For No One"

Kris Kristofferson - "Blame It On The Stones"

George Jones - "Worried Mind"

Elvis Presley - "Have I Told You Lately That I Love You"

Same Cooke - "Baby Won't You Please Come Home"

Outro: "Beautiful Baby" - The Clangers

Playlist for Breakfast of Champions on 5/7/10. A fill-in.

2010-05-10T11:11:00.002-04:00

New Order - "The Village"

The Only Ones - "Oh Lucinda"

The English Beat - "Big Shot"

The Fall - "Kurious Oranj"

Guided By Voices - "The Brides Have Hit Glass"

Built to Spill - "Aisle 13"

Langhorne Slim - "Say Yes"

Band of the Week: "Winter '68" & "Paladin's Last Ride" - The Black Angels

The Kinks - "Strangers"

The Black Keys - "I'll Be Your Man"

The Heavy - "How You Like Me Now?"

Gonjasufi - "Change"

Portugal. The Man - "People Say"

Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - "The Oldest House"

Lucero - "Darken My Door"

Glossary - "Lonely Is a Town"

Pavement - "Gold Soundz"

Cheap Girls - "Hey Hey, I'm Worn Out"

Generationals - "Nobody Could Change Your Mind"

Your 33 Black Angels - "Sue"

Benyaro - "New Orleans"

Trampled By Turtles - "Wait So Long"

The Dirty Streets - "Yes I Will"

Green - "Gotta Getta Record Out"

Band of the Next Week: Lilys - "Cambridge California"

Dawes - "That Western Skyline"

Peter Wolf Crier - "Crutch & Cane"

Drive-By Truckers - "Where's Eddie?"

lost & Found playlist for 5/7/10

2010-05-10T10:59:00.002-04:00

Intro: "Spreadin' Honey" - The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band

Background music for the show: V/A - Trojan: Dub Massive 2

Stevie Wonder - "You Haven't Done Nothin'"

Shades of Blue - "Oh How Happy"

Aaron Neville - "You Can Give but You Can't Take"

Edwin Starr - "All Around the World"

Little Ann - "Sweep It Out In the Shed"

Al Williams - "Try Them"

The Temptations - "Since I Lost You"

The Falcons - "You Must Know I Love You"

Jay & the Techniques - "Victory!"

The Esquires - "Get On Up"

Found Song of the Week: The Heavy - "How You Like Me Now?"

Otis Redding - "Security"

Lee Dorsey - "Sneaking Sally Through the Alley"

David Ruffin - "Anything That You Ask For"

The Del Royals - "Always Naggin' (Grumblin' Fussin' Nag Nag)"

Donald Lee Richardson - "I've Learned My Lesson"

Abe & Marion Ester - "That's Why I'm So Sad"

Jimmy Reed - "I'll Change That Too"

The Blues Cellar:

Slim Harpo - "Rainin' in My Heart"
Papa John Creech - "Give Me an Hour in Your Garden (And I'll Show You How to Plant a Rose)"
Charles Brown - "Jilted"
The Fieldstones - "Just One More Time"
Magic Sam - "That's All I Need"

Percy Sledge - "I'm Hanging Up My Heart for You"

King Curtis - "Honky Tonk"

The Artistics - "Get My Hands on Some Lovin'"

Sam Cooke - "Blowin' in the Wind" [Live]

Marvin Gaye - "It's a Desperate Situation"

Wilson Pickett - "New Orleans"

Linda Jones - "Tainted Love"

Sharon Jones and The Dap-Kings - "Mama Don't Like My Man"

Louis Howard - "Coming Home"

Cannibal & the Headhunters - "Devil In Disguise"

Otis Redding - "Stay in School"

Outro: "Beautiful Baby" - The Clangers

The Super Soul Review live at River Gods

2010-04-30T18:16:00.002-04:00

Join me for music, food, and drink this coming Wednesday, May 5th for American Primitive at River Gods in Cambridge. I will be on from 9-10 and from 11-12. See you there, square!

Lost & Found playlist for 4/29/10

2010-04-30T17:54:00.002-04:00

It's a Bermuda High, son.

Intro: "Spreadin' Honey" - The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band

Background music for the show: V/A - Studio One Dub

Tony Clarke - "Landslide"

George Jackson - "You Gotta Have Soul"

Nolan Chance - "Just Like the Weather"

Wilson Pickett - "My Heart Belongs to You"

Lonzine Cannon - "Quit While I'm Behind"

Unknown - "Can I Change My Mind?"

Bobby Hill - "To the Bitter End"

Karmelo Brooks - "Tell Me, Baby"

The Artistics - "Get My Hands on Some Lovin'"

Ron & Bill - "It"

Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings - "When I Come Home"

Jimmy "Bo" Horne - "I Can't Speak"

Lou Roberts and the Marks - "You Fooled Me"

Marvin Smith - "Have More Time"

Eric Lomax - "Seven the Loser"

The Sweet Things - "I'm in a World of Trouble"

Little Richard - "A Little Bit of Something (Beats a Whole Lot of Nothing)"

The Uptights - "Shy Guy"

The Steelers - "Get It from the Bottom"

The Blues Cellar:

J.B. Hutto - "Blues Do Me a Favor"

Big Bill Broonzy - "Merry Go Round Blues"

H-Bomb Ferguson - "Good Lovin'"

Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown - "My Own Prison"

The Fieldstones - "Short Haired Woman"

The Ovations - "Qualifications"

Virgil Henry - "You Ain't Sayin' Nothin' New"

Roy Hamilton - "You Shook Me Up"

Skip Cunningham - "Have We Met Before?"

Z.Z. Hill - "Make Me Yours"

Robert Parker - "Let's Go Baby (Where the Action Is)"

Frank Wilson - "Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)"

Tee Fletcher - "All Because of You"

Jimmy "Soul" Clark - "Sweet Darlin'"

Shirley Ellis - "Soul Time"

Outro: "Beautiful Baby" - The Clangers

**The Rolling Stones - "Plundered My Soul" from the new reissue of Exile on Main Street coming 5/18/10**

Lost & Found playlist for 4/29/10

2010-04-30T17:54:00.000-04:00

Here's the video for Eli Reed's new single "Come and Get It"

2010-04-28T08:33:00.005-04:00

Enjoy.

Um, FUCK YEAH!

2010-04-26T14:51:00.002-04:00

From Wikipedia:

Exile on Main St is the tenth studio album by The Rolling Stones. Released as a double LP in May 1972, it draws on rock & roll, blues, country and soul. Exile on Main St was greeted with lukewarm reviews but now is considered the band's finest work and a masterpiece of the rock era.^[1] A new version of the album will be released in the United Kingdom on May 17, 2010 and in the United States on May 18, 2010, featuring 10 new tracks, including "Plundered My Soul", "Dancing in the Light", "Following the River" and "Pass the Wine" as well as alternate versions of "Soul Survivor" and "Loving Cup."

Lost & Found playlist for 4/15/10

2010-04-19T10:11:00.001-04:00

Intro: "Spreadin' Honey" - The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band

Background music for the show: Eddy Senay - Soul Preachin': Hot Guitar Funk from Detroit

Marva Whitney - "It's My Thing" (Part 1)

Jackie Wilson - "3 Days 1 Hour 30 Minutes"

Jimmy Casator - "Soul Sister"

Percy Sledge - "So Much Love"

Jimmy Frazier - "Of Hopes, Dreams, and Tombstones"

Peter Wolf - "Overnight Lows"

Bettye LaVette - "Let Me Down Easy"

Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson - "The Bottle"

Donny Hathaway - "The Ghetto"

Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings - "Mama Don't Like My Man"

Bobby "Blue" Bland - "I'm Not Ashamed"

The Falcons - "Love, Love, Love"

Paul Kelly - "(He Ain't Nothin' But) Dirt"

Ann Sexton - "You've Been Gone Too Long"

James Brown - "Out of the Blue"

The Blues Cellar:

Albert King & Otis Rush - "All Your Love"
John Lee Hooker - "Pea Vine Special"
Bukka White - "Sic 'Em Dogs On"
Little Miss Sharecropper - "I Want to Rock"
The Chambers Brothers - "Down in the Valley"

J.J. Jackson - "Come See Me (I'm Your Man)"

Spencer Wiggins - "Love Attack"

Lee Moses - "Bad Girl"

The Lyrics - "Now Girl"

The Penguins - "Hey Senorita"

Jr. Walker & the All Stars - "Clinging to the Thought That She's Coming Back"

Little Ann - "Possession"

Lou Courtney - "I've Got Just the Thing"

Eddie & Ernie - "Doggone It"

Solomon Burke - "I Said I Was Sorry"

J. Count Hughes - "Why, Oh Why"

The Servicemen - "I'll Stop Loving You"

Outro: "Beautiful Baby" - The Clangers

Where is the Mothership?!?

2010-04-14T08:54:00.002-04:00

From the Washington Post:

In Maryland, George Clinton, Parliament-Funkadelic and a missing Mothership

By Chris Richards
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, April 12, 2010; A01

This is a story about a UFO.

Not just any UFO. The Mothership.

It might be the most awe-inspiring stage prop in the history of American music and it belonged to funk legends Parliament-Funkadelic. Since the Mothership vanished in Prince George's County in 1982, rumors of its whereabouts have mutated into local lore: It burned in a fire. It was disassembled. It was stolen. Scrapped. Kidnapped. Thrown in the woods. Chained to a truck by a drug dealer and dragged to funk-knows-where. The band's most devoted followers say it flew off into space.

This is a story about trying to find it.

In concert, the Mothership was last spotted in Detroit in 1981, belching dry ice fumes and flashing kaleidoscopic light. An aluminum flying saucer, it was about 20 feet in diameter and decked out with dazzling lights. Below it stood a band of otherworldly eccentrics celebrating the hard-won freedoms of the civil rights movement in a freaky, fantastical display.

Darryll Brooks remembers the last time he saw the Mothership. It wasn't in Detroit. It was in a junkyard in Seat Pleasant. Brooks last saw it there because Brooks is the guy who threw the Mothership away.

It was the spring of 1982 and Parliament-Funkadelic frontman George Clinton and his bandmates were battling debt, drug addiction and each other. Brooks, who ran the group's Washington-based tour production company, says the only way he could pay the band's debts was to pawn its gear. With no place to store a spacecraft, he dumped the Mothership in a junkyard behind a Shell station on Martin Luther King Jr. Highway. But 28 years later, its final resting place remains a mystery.

Here's where it isn't: In that Seat Pleasant junkyard.

Here's where it might be: Sleeping peacefully beneath a quilt of P.G. County kudzu.

Ask Seat Pleasant residents about a missing UFO and you'll get puzzled looks and a few laughs. Tromp through the neighboring woods and you'll cut your hands on the thorny bramble. You'll also find abandoned tires, mattresses, vacuum cleaners -- but no spaceships.

Parliament-Funkadelic guitarist Garry Shider resides in Upper Marlboro, not too far from where the ship disappeared. Maybe he knows where to find it.

"Aw man," Shider says. "You ain't gonna find the Mothership."

Endlessly imitated

Throughout the '70s, Clinton and his bandmates blurred the line between escapism and empowerment with a glut of albums that have been endlessly sampled, imitated and analyzed. Look at the decades of funk, rock, techno, go-go, Prince hits and jam bands that came in P-Funk's imaginative wake -- "influential" doesn't quite cut it. Without Parliament-Funkadelic, Lady Gaga would not wear ridiculous outfits and hip-hop might not exist.

Onstage, the band was a living, breathing, panting comic book -- Clinton in his stringy blond wigs, bassist Bootsy Collins in his star-shaped shades, Shider in nothing but angel wings, combat boots and Pampers. It was expressive, subversive, brilliant.

"They were celebrating the intellectual breadth of the black experience and giving people a grand space to celebrate all that they had become," says California author and funk historian Rickey Vincent. "Sly Stone said, 'I Want to Take You Higher.' George Clinton said, 'Yeah, and I got the Mothership to take you there.' In a sense, he was doing what black folks had wanted to do for generations: Take themselves up."

Clinton, his 68-year-old voice rasping over the phone from Los Angeles, agrees: "We were higher than anyone else!" (He and the current iteration of the band are scheduled to play the 9:30 club on Monday.)

Before the Mothership was built, it was a concept. Parliament released "Mothership Connection" in 1975, an album with a title track about hitchhiking to cosmic transcendence: "Swing down, sweet chariot. Stop and let me ride." Clinton started dreaming up a tour to match. After watching the Who's 1969 rock opera "Tommy," he asked himself: "How do you do a funk opera? What about [black people] in space?"

He called upon David Bowie's tour producer, Jules Fisher, to help bring the Mothership to life. "This was theater. This was drama," says Fisher, a renowned Broadway lighting designer. "Current shows like U2 and the Stones -- they don't provide this narrative arc."

The Mothership was assembled in Manhattan and made its first descent in New Orleans from the rafters of Municipal Auditorium on Oct. 27, 1976.

Minds were blown.

"That first night was really huge for us," Clinton says. "But we made one mistake." The band unveiled the Mothership at the beginning of the show -- an impossible stunt to follow. The next night, in Baton Rouge, the ship didn't land until much later in the set.

Keyboardist Bernie Worrell remembers being unable to look away. "It was phenomenal, man. You couldn't describe it," he says. "I can play and not look at the keys. I watched it every time it would come down."

'Whole different love'

Washingtonians greeted the Mothership with unparalleled fervor. The nation's capital had long been a stronghold for the band and in 1975, Parliament released the "Chocolate City" album, a supremely funky mash note that popularized the nickname Washington had earned for its majority-black population.

When radio personality Donnie Simpson first moved to the area, he saw P-Funk stoking a unique dialogue with the community. "As hot as I thought they were in Detroit, when I came here, it was a whole different love," he says. "A whole different appreciation for the funk."

Washington is also where Clinton first hired promoters Brooks and Carol Kirkendall for a 1977 gig at Landover's Capital Centre. "Once we started playing there, it was all over," Clinton says.

Brooks had never seen anything like it. "Here's a guy coming out of a Mothership with a mink coat and platform shoes," he says. "And a cane? And a fur hat? C'mon, man. Black folks been down so long. . . . It was jubilation."

Soon, Brooks and Kirkendall's company, Tiger Flower, was producing and promoting nearly all of the band's domestic tour dates. Some of the wildest shows transpired close to home. At a Capital Centre gig on April 25, 1981, Clinton stepped out of the Mothership, tossed his gold-lamé cape over his shoulder and strutted across the stage. Naked. (You won't find it on YouTube, but there's a VHS tape out there to prove it.)

"The audience went crazy," Brooks says. "Carol and I looked at each other like, 'We're in so much trouble. Our career is over.' But nobody said a word. I guess the officials didn't see it. The unions didn't see it. But the audience saw it."

It was also the last time a Chocolate City audience would see the Mothership in all its glory.

'Ran out of juice'

Going down with the ship? In the case of Parliament-Funkadelic, the ship went down with the band.

"The volatility of the record industry at that time -- the disco crash, they called it -- made it really hard to subsidize that big touring group," says funk historian Vincent of the band's early-'80s collapse. "They ran out of juice and they ran out of money."

The band would later reform as the P-Funk All-Stars, and a second, less impressive Mothership would be built in the '90s, but the group never eclipsed the highs of the late '70s. Worrell rattles off the factors that dragged Parliament-Funkadelic down: "Discontent. Tired of all the unfairness. Being owed money. Lack of respect within the group. The management. Learning that money was stolen."

After the Detroit show in '81, Brooks and Kirkendall had the band's equipment trucked back to Washington for storage. Months passed. The group remained dormant and cash evaporated. Unable to pay the rent on his storage spaces, Brooks began peddling the unused gear to local go-go bands. Some of Worrell's keyboards were sold to a young Trouble Funk, cementing P-Funk's role in go-go's creation myth.

Worrell, meantime, had no idea that his fantastic machines were being snatched up by Washington's then-fledgling go-go players. "But I know that a lot of stuff I was looking for, I didn't have," he says.

Too bad go-go didn't need a spaceship.

"We had to find places to put stuff, including the Mothership," Brooks says. So he stashed it in his mom's two-car garage in Clinton, Md., for about six months -- "long enough to make my mother [ticked off]."

On a cold, clear spring afternoon in 1982, she finally demanded that her son remove this piece of junk. Brooks and Bernie Walden, a young Tiger Flower employee, dragged the Mothership out of the garage, crammed it into a U-Haul truck and drove it to a tree-lined junkyard in Seat Pleasant. "We backed the truck as far as we could out into the woods and kicked it off the truck," Brooks says. "We had a bottle of something and gave it a toast."

"It was heavy," Walden says. "And I didn't want to do it."

Brooks says he regrets the decision, too, but was unable to reach Clinton or the band at that time. "Nobody was keeping phone numbers," Brooks says. "Some of them were living with their mamas."

Today, the group's feelings are mixed. "I thought that was pretty stupid," Clinton says of the decision to dump it. Shider disagrees, citing the massive expenses that racked up from touring with an extensive entourage, elaborate costumes and a gigantic metal spacecraft.

"I was glad it was gone," he says. "With the Mothership came no money."

Hunting a UFO

Today, the Shell in Seat Pleasant is a Lowest Price gas station. On a sunny weekday afternoon, the junkyard out back is busy with middle-age men poking around for old engine parts. Three guys are trying to revive a Ford sedan that wants to stay dead. Two others are searching for scrap metal they can sell in Baltimore. No one has seen any UFOs.

But they do recommend speaking with Charlie Walker, the gas station's former owner. Walker practically shouts into his telephone when he says he's never heard of Parliament-Funkadelic. But he vaguely remembers "something big and aluminum" catching on fire in the junkyard in the mid-'80s.

So the Mothership went up in flames?

"No, no, no, no, no," says Thomas Stanley, an assistant professor at George Mason University. "It didn't burn. It exists. It exists to this day. "

Stanley is a true funk scholar. Along with his friends Larry Alexander and the late television writer and former Washington Post reporter David Mills, he wrote the book "George Clinton and P-Funk: An Oral History." He also penned articles for Uncut Funk, Mills's Parliament-Funkadelic fanzine.

Stanley claims that he's recently seen the wreckage of the Mothership -- touched it. But he doesn't want to give up the location. His reverence for this music borders on religion, but he has no interest in sending a salvaged Mothership to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame -- or even the Air and Space Museum.

After a cryptic conversation about how the Mothership escaped its fate in the junkyard, Stanley e-mails some clues about its alleged location. He also includes a plea to let it rest.

"I find it much more satisfying to imagine this sacred artifact bound firmly in the bosom of the strong black communities that straddle the D.C. line between Suitland and Seat Pleasant. This was always the heart of P-Funk's base of support in Chocolate City," he writes. "It is very important, I think, that we not seek truth at expense of myth. Music and Myth are, after all, P-Funk's most enduring legacy."

So is it really out there? Does it really matter? Perhaps there's no grand cosmic truth to be found in the wilds of Prince George's County. Just myth.

On a chilly Friday at dawn, the only thing that seems real in these woods are the vines that strangle your ankles with every step. Swiffer broomstick in hand, you can thwack away at the bushes for hours without hearing a . . .

CLANG!!

The Mothership?

No. Chrome toilet bowl. Another false alarm. Definitely the funkiest. Culverts, rusted air-conditioning units and forsaken grocery carts make similar sounds.

But Stanley swears the Mothership is still out here with the trees and the trash. Beneath an impenetrable blanket of weeds and dirt it sleeps, undisturbed for nearly three decades and miraculously undestroyed -- rusted, rotted out and funkier than ever.

Lost & Found playlist for 4/9/10

2010-04-09T11:47:00.002-04:00

Intro: "Just Feelin' It" - Eddy Senay

Background music for the show: Eddy Senay - Soul Preachin': Hot Guitar Funk from Detroit

The Rolling Stones - "Can You Hear Me Knocking?"

Creedence Clearwater Revival - "Need Someone to Hold"

Hall & Oates - "When the Morning Comes"

David Bowie - "Queen Bitch"

The Equals - "Police On My Back"

Todd Rundgren - "Determination"

Free - "Wishing Well"

Robert Palmer - "What Do You Care?"

Robin Trower - "The Fool and Me"

The Arrows - "I Love Rock 'n' Roll"

Roky Erickson - "Bring Back the Past"

Alex Chilton - "I Wish I Could Meet Elvis"

The Band - "When I Paint My Masterpiece"

Honeybus - "Throw Away My Love"

Them - "Don't Look Back"

The Kinks - "National Health"

Colin Blunstone - "I Want Some More"

J. D. Blackfoot - "One Time Woman"

Joe Walsh - "Life of Illusion"

Faces - "Band 'n' Ruin"

Lewis Reed - "Your Love"

The Barbarians - "Are You a Boy or Are You a Girl?"

The Blue Things - "Doll House"

The Penny Peeps - "Model Village"

Rationals - "Respect"

The Beatles - "You Know My Name (Look Up My Number)"

Marmalade - "Reflections of My Life"

McGuinness Flint - "When I'm Dead and Gone"

Clean Living - "Red Lord"

Lost & Found playlist for 4/8/10

2010-04-09T11:36:00.002-04:00

Intro: "Spreadin' Honey" - The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band

Background music for the show: The Whitefield Brothers - In the Raw

Ray Charles - "You Be My Baby"

Aaron Neville - "Jailhouse"

Jimmy Castor - "Poor Loser"

Merry Clayton - "Southern Man"

Solomon Burke - "I'm Leavin'"

Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings - "Mama Don't Like My Man"

Bo Diddley - "Bring It to Jerome"

Lee Dorsey - "A Lover Was Born"

Rufus Thomas - "Down Ta My House"

The Five Towns - "It Isn't What You've Got"

Allen Toussaint - "Southern Nights"

The Backyard Heavies - "Flight 545"

James & Bobby Purify - "Untie Me"

Tyrone Davis - "A Woman Needs to Be Loved"

Big Maybelle - "Coming On Strong"

Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings - "Better Things"

The Falcons - "Just for Your Love"

The Blues Cellar:

R.L. Burnside - "Just Like a Bird Without a Feather"
Albert King - "(Ain't It) A Real Good Sign"
Hound Dog Taylor - "Wild About You, Baby"
Willie Dixon - "Juice-Head Bartender"
Robert Johnson - "They're Red Hot"

The Servicemen - "Are You Angry?"

Clarence Reid - "Mark My Word"

Dave Armstrong - "No Sign of Love"

Joe Tex - "The Love You Save (May Be Your Own)"

Gene & Eddie - "It's So Hard"

Luther Ingram - "Looking for a New Love"

The Impressions - "Seven Years"

Ollie & the Nightingales - "I Got a Sure Thing"

The Appointments - "Sweet Daddy"

Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings - "Money"

Lady Margo - "This Is My Prayer"

Outro: "Beautiful Baby" - The Clangers

No playlist for 4/1/10

2010-04-09T11:35:00.003-04:00

Sorry, Vincent Dorio didn't give me a playlist to post as he really had to improvise on some of the tracks. Sorry!

Spinning records live next week!

2010-03-26T17:25:00.002-04:00

Next Wednesday the 31st I will be spinning some soul music at River Gods in Cambridge as part of Jason Beek's American Primitive night each and every Wednesday. I will be playing from 9-10 and from 11-12, I think. Feel free to stop by and say hello or to throw rotten tomatoes (if need be).

Need directions? You can find 'em here.

See you there!

Lost & Found playlist for 3/25/10

2010-03-26T17:12:00.002-04:00

Intro: "Spreadin' Honey" - The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band

Background music for the show - Brother Jack McDuff - Who Knows What Tomorrow's Gonna Bring?

Tony Alvon & the Belairs - "Boom-Boom-Boom"
Joe Tex - "I Will Never Break Your Heart Pts. 1 & 2"
Eli "Paperboy" Reed & the True Loves - "Come and Get It"
Ernie K-Doe - "Lawdy Mama"
Luther Ingram - "Puttin' Game Down"

Smokey Robinson - "Wanna Know My Mind"
Little Ann - "Deep Shadows"
Aaron Neville - "Everyday"
Lloyd Hendricks - "Your Cold Heart"
The Venturas - "Calling You Baby"

Solomon Burke - "Maggie's Farm"
Bettye LaVette - "Heart of Gold"
Barbara Acklin - "Seven Days of Night"
Marie "Queenie" Lyons - "Your Key Don't Fit It No More"
The T.S.U. Tornadoes - "What Good Am I?"

Gloria Lynne - "Tower of Strength"
Eddie Floyd - "We've Been Through Too Much Together"

The Blues Cellar:

Muddy Waters - "Why Are People Like That"
James Cotton - "Black Night"
Magic Sam - "My Love Is Your Love"
Lightnin' Slim - "The Strangest Feelin'"
Dennis Crumpton & Robert Summers - "Everybody Ought To Pray Sometime"

The Falcons - "She's My Heart's Desire"

The Inverts - "Time Will Change"

The Incredibles - "Crying Heart"

The Servicemen - "Sweet Magic"

Barbara & the Browns - "You Don't Love Me"

Doris Duke - "To Chicago With Love"

Jimmy James - "This Heart of Mine"

Lenis Guess - "Just Ask Me"

Melvin Davis - "Save It (Never Too Late)"

Carla Thomas - "When Tomorrow Comes"

Nolan Chance - "Just Like the Weather"

Rosco Robinson - "That's Enough"

Outro: "Beautiful Baby" - The Clangers

Lost & Found playlist for 3/11/10

2010-03-14T12:03:00.003-04:00

The 1st Annual Monkey Don't Stop No Show Show!

Intro: "Monkey Island" - The J. Geils Band
Background music for the show: Four Tet - There Is Love In You

Chubby Checker - "Karate Monkey"
Otis Redding - "The Boston Monkey"
Wilson Pickett - "Robert's Monkey Beat"
Chuck Berry - "Too Much Monkey Business"
Shep & the Limelites - "Monkey"

The Beatles - "Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey"
Boz Scaggs - "Monkey Time"
The Frantics - "Human Monkey"
The Kinks - "Apeman"
Carl Perkins - "The Monkeyshine"

Major Lance - "The Monkey Time"
O.V. Wright - "Monkey Dog"
Andre Williams - "The Monkey Speaks His Mind"
Eugene Blacknell & the Four Rivers - "Grov-ve Mon-Key"
Paula Lamont - "One Monkey Can't Stop the Show"

Toots & the Maytals - "Monkey Man"
Johnny Paycheck - "Don't Mess with Another Monkey's Monkey"
Al Escobar - "Apewalk"
Jazz Gillum - "Is That a Monkey You Got?"
Oscar Brown, Jr. - "Signifyin' Monkey"

The Rolling Stones - "Monkey Man"
Faces - "Pineapple and the Monkey"
Elvis Presley - "Too Much Monkey Business"
The Big Bopper - "Monkey Song (You Made a Monkey Out of Me)"
The 13th Floor Elevators - "Monkey Island"

Baby Huey & the Babysitters - "Monkey Man"
Archie Bell & the Drells - "Monkey Time"
The Orientals - "Chinese Monkey"
Fred Towles - "Too Much Monkey Business, Part 1"
Smokey Robinson & the Miracles - "Mickey's Monkey"

Billy Jones & the Stars - "Funky Monkey Monkey"
Shy Guy Douglas - "Monkey Doin' Woman"
Joe Tex - "One Monkey Don't Stop No Show"
Tampa Red - "She Wants to Sell My Monkey"
Louis Prima - "I Wan'na Be Just Like You (The Monkey Song)"

Outro: "Beautiful Baby" - The Clangers

Lost & Found playlist for 3/4/10

2010-03-07T19:35:00.002-05:00

Intro: "Spreadin' Honey" - The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band

Background music for the show - Steve Reich - Music for 18 Musicians

Eli "Paperboy" Reed & the True Loves - "Come and Take It"
Gino Washington - "Come Monkey with Me"
The Performers - "The Day She Needed Me"
Lee Rogers - "I Need Your Love"
The Vibrations - "Hello Happiness"

Mayer Hawthorne - "Love Is Alright"
Marie "Queenie" Lyons - "See and Don't See"
Unknown - "Can I Change My Mind?"
The Kelly Brothers - "Cryin' Days Are Over"
Sam Cooke - "Sugar Dumplin'"

Ebony Rhythm Funk Campaign - "Oh Baby"
Roscoe Robinson - "How Much Pressure"
The Appreciations - "A Place in My Heart"
Leroy Taylor & the Four Kays - "I'll Understand"
Nina Simone - "Do I Move You?"

Arthur Conley - "Bless You"
The Olympics - "The Same Old Thing"

The Good Time Gospel Set:

Dorothy Norwood - "Come Go with Me"
Lillie Jenkins - "O Sinner Man"
Ella Jenkins - "Wading in the Water"
The Gospelairs of Dayton, Ohio - "Soon One Morning"
The Consolers - "Say a Prayer for Me"

Ann Peebles - "I'm Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down"
Esther Phillips - "Be Honest with Me"
Gladys Knight & the Pips - "Everybody Needs Love"
The Staples Singers - "We'll Get Over"
Syl Johnson - "I Can Take Care of Business"

Jewel Akens - "Wee Bit More of Your Lovin'"
Jackie Lee & Delores Hall - "Whether It's Right or Wrong"
Al Gardner - "Just a Touch of Your Hand"
Psychedelic Souls - "You Should Have Been Their" (sic)
Curtis Lee - "Is She in Your Town"

Denny Fox - "Where Are You Gonna Find a Love Like Mine?"
Brooks O'Dell - "If I Had You"

Outro: "Beautiful Baby" - The Clangers

Lost & Found playlist for 2/25/10

2010-03-01T13:07:00.004-05:00

Intro: "Spreadin' Honey" - The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band

Background music for the show: Ludovico Einaudi - Nightbook

Dyke & the Blazers - "Funky Broadway (Parts 1 & 2)"
The Esquires - "How Was I To Know"
George Hughley - "That's Why I Cry"
Herb Johnson & the Impacts - "I'm So Glad"
Oscar Toney, Jr. - "Turn On Your Love Light"

Gil Scott-Heron - "Me and the Devil" **NEW**
Swamp Dogg - "Dust Your Head Color Red"
The Vel Tones - "I Do"
Gene Chandler - "Baby, That's Love"
The Miracles - "Way Over There" (Version without strings)

Little Ann - "The Smile On Your Face"
The Barrino Brothers - "I'll Take My Flowers Right Now"
Eddie & Ernie - "Bullets Don't Have Eyes"
Raw Soul Express - "It's In You"
John Gary Williams - "My Sweet Lord"

Marie "Queenie" Lyons - "Daddy's House"

The Blues Cellar:

The Outlaw Blues Band - "My Baby's Left and Gone"
Little Johnny Jones - "Big Town Playboy"
The Hemphill Band - "John Henry"
Josh White - "Jesus Gonna Make Up My Dying Bed"
Donoman & the Lakettes - "Here Comes the Fool"

J.C. Davis - "Sweet Sweet Love"
Sly Stone - "Help Me With My Broken Heart"
Major Lance - "Rhythm"
The Magnificent Men - "I Could Be So Happy"
O.V. Wright - "I'd Rather Be Blind, Cripple, and Crazy"

Jimmy "Bo" Horne - "I Just Can't Speak"
Bobby Wells - "Look For the Beauty Inside"
Marjorie Ingram - "A Good Man Is Hard To Find"
The Falcons - "Stick By You"
Quincy Jones - "A Taste of Honey"

Otis Redding - "Try a Little Tenderness" (Unreleased outtake)

Outro: "Beautiful Baby" - The Clangers

Lost & Found playlist for 2/18/10

2010-02-18T16:23:00.003-05:00

Intro: "Rock and Roll Show" - Ray Ellsworth

Background music for the show: Roy Hargrove Big Band - Emergence

Iggy & the Stooges - "Search and Destroy"
Jim Ford - "I'm Gonna Make Her Love Me"
The Tubes - "Stand Up and Shout"
Shadows of Knight - "Shake"
The Electric Prunes - "Are You Lovin' Me More (But Enjoying It Less)"

Elvis Presley - "Patch It Up"
Rod Stewart - "Jo's Lament"
Bobby Whiteside - "Easy With You"
Nazz - "Loosen Up"
Robin Trower - "Lady Love"

Found Song of the Week: Glossary - "Lonely In a Town"
Little Richard - "In the Name"
Cheap Trick - "Oh, Candy"
The Wackers - "I Hardly Know Her Name"
Roky Erickson - "I'm Gonna Free Her"

Eddie Hazel - "California Dreamin'"
Mott the Hoople - "Original Mixed-Up Kid"
Goose Creek Symphony - "Right Track"
Bobby Charles - "I Must Be In A Good Place Now"
Phillip Goodhand-Tait - "Reach Out For Each Other"

The Kinks - "Do It Again"
Colin Blunstone - "She Loves The Way They Love Her"
The Rolling Stones - "Jigsaw Puzzle"
Clean Living - "Red Lord"

Magic Sam - "That's All I Need"
The Velvet Underground - "There She Goes Again"

Outro: "Beautiful Baby" - The Clangers

If it's Tuesday, it must be new release day...

2010-02-09T09:27:00.003-05:00

There is an interesting release out today for the Lost & Found crowd. Gil Scott-Heron has released his first record in 16 years. It is titled I'm New Here and it doesn't sound like anything he has ever done before. The background music is decidedly electronic and less funky than his older collaborations with Brian Jackson-almost like he had Massive Attack laying down the beats for this one. Seriously. Here is a typical review (from the UK paper The Independent):

Album: Gil Scott-Heron - I'm New Here

(XL Records) (Rated 4/ 5 stars )

Reviewed by Andy Gill

Like the man himself, Gil Scott-Heron's new album is far from perfect. For starters, there's not much of it, little more than 28 minutes.

And factoring out the brief spoken interludes and the cover versions – most intriguingly, of Bill (Smog) Callahan's "I'm New Here" – leaves just seven brief new bits of fresh material. It doesn't seem much of a haul for his first studio album in 16 years.

Then again, Gil's had other things to occupy his time, most notably the crack-cocaine addiction that led to several jail sentences and left the great political rap pioneer a broken shell of his former self. He was in Rikers Island Prison when XL label boss Richard Russell sought him out in 2006 to discuss the possibility of his recording again, with Russell as producer providing the edgy electronic soundscapes which position Scott-Heron firmly in the modern world.

Rather than tackle big-scale political issues in the manner of classics like "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" and "B-Movie", however, the focus here is on his own situation, about which he harbours few delusions. "If I hadn't been as eccentric, as obnoxious, as arrogant, as aggressive, as disrespectful, as selfish, I wouldn't be me," he observes in one of the interludes, and when he sings of "Me and the Devil walking side by side" in a cover of the Robert Johnson song, the dark, sludgy techno texture seething behind his sandpaper croak leaves little doubt about the personal abyss he has traversed. The motif continues through "Your Soul And Mine", with its reference to Charon, boatman to Hades, while the opening line of Callahan's title-track – "I did not become someone different that I did not want to be" – reflects Scott-Heron's acknowledgement of his responsibility for his problems. Set to gently hypnotic acoustic guitar, it holds out the possibility of redemption within the cyclical scheme of things.

Elsewhere, "New York Is Killing Me" employs complex hand-clapping patterns to underscore his personal experience of sick-city syndrome, while "On Coming From A Broken Home" is a tribute to the grandmother with whom the young Gil was sent to live, and by extension women in general: "Womenfolk raised me, and I was full-grown before I knew I came from a broken home". Again, there's no attempt to seek extenuation, just as the junkie subject of "The Crutch" is depicted without judgement, just sympathy for his "world of nod, a world of lonely men and no love, no God". As with the man, so with this album: it might fall short in some regards, but such is the heart and the mind involved that what little is left should be treasured accordingly.

Here is a video for the first single "Me and the Devil":

Lost & Found playlist for 2/4/10

2010-02-04T16:19:00.002-05:00

Intro: "Spreadin' Honey" - The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band

Background music for the show: V/A - Psych-Funk 101

Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings - "I Learned the Hard Way"
The Cautions - "Watch Your Step"
The Dynamics - "My Life Is No Better"
Barbara Randolph - "I Got a Feeling"
The Falcons - "You Must Know I Love You"

Little Ann - "Possession"
Jimmy Radcliffe - "Long After Tonight Is Over"
Eula Cooper - "Shake Daddy Shake"
Peggy Scott & Jo Jo Benson - "We Got Our Bag"
Billy Young - "Have Pity On Me"

Poem for Black History Month: "Idea of Ancestry" - Etheridge Knight

Tyrone Davis - "Have You Ever Wondered Why?"
Lee Moses - "Bad Girl, Pt. 1"
Mebusas - "Did You Know"
Joe Hinton - "You Know It Ain't Right"
Garnet Mimms - "As Long As I Have You"

Lady Margo - "I Had To Go"
Duke & Leonard - "You've Lost Your Soul"

The Blues Cellar:
T-Model Ford - "Cut You Loose"
Elmore James - "My Bleeding Heart"
Paul Jones - "Roll That Woman"
R.L. Burnside - "Walkin' Blues"
Johnny Moore's Three Blazers - "Driftin' Blues"

Paul Pena - "My Adorable One"
Eddie Daye & the Four Bars - "What Am I Gonna Do"
J.J. Jackson - "The Stones That I Throw"
Louis Younger - "Remember Not To Forget"
Dorothy Williams - "Close To My Baby"

Poem for Black History Month: "We Real Cool" - Gwendolyn Brooks

The Brothers of Soul - "Come On Back"
Marie "Queenie" Lyons - "I'll Drown In My Own Tears"
Linda Jones - "I Can't Stop Loving My Baby"
Bessie Banks - "Go Now"
Bobby "Blue" Bland - "Yield Not To Temptation"

Sugar Simone - "I Love My Baby"

Outro: "Beautiful Baby" - The Clangers