Psychobilly When The Cramps Was Just Chillins
The overwhelming majority of the info for this post came from Songs in the Key of Z by Irwin Chusid of WFMU. It's a great book.
Most people don't take the Ledge seriously. They call him a novelty act or whatever, even some of his biggest supporters - he's a clown to them. But there's something about the Stardust Cowboy and his nonsense that goes far deeper than simple sideshow stuff. It's been called aboriginal at times, and I think that's a good way to think of it. It's sort of like jazz in that way.
When David Bowie released The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars he started writing royalty checks to Norman Carl Odom. Who the hell is that? Well, he's the Legendary Stardust Cowboy, of course.
Bowie used his name after he was given a stack of Stardust singles by a record executive at Mercury. No one could believe had a record contract, but he did, and his records sold.
The Ledge, as Norman likes to be called, apparently lives in San Jose now, probably about 30 minutes from where I live right now. I'd so love to see this dude at the BART station.
It's mostly "Paralyzed" that they're speaking of, which is way more intense than his other work. The majority of which is just really great psychobilly before such a thing existed. Perhaps the Ledge was just getting at something hidden beneath all the reasonable notions we have about art. He claims its because he's part Native American that he began yelping and doing animal calls at a young age.
Scope the lyrics:
I've got a gal, way 'cross town
She won't come to see me unless I pull my shades down
Paralyzed, paralyzed
She puts her arms around me, the way she squeezes me
Makes me paralyzed
When I go to the show
Boy, she does make a fella bestow [sic]
Paralyzed, paralyzed
When I look into her eyes, she makes me paralyzed
I threw my baby in a sack
Threw it over my back
And took off in a big black Cadillac
Paralyzed, paralyzed
She puts her arms around me
She keeps me warm from the storm
She makes me paralyzed
I ran to the 'frigerator
Hungry as an alligator
I opened the door, and what did I see?
I saw my baby starin' right back at me.
Paralyzed, paralyzed
She jumps into my arms
She gave me all of her charms
She makes me paralyzed
But the Ledge never made it to New York. He went 300 miles east to Fort Worth, to play I guess. Two vaccuum cleaner salesman spotted his crazy car in a parking lot and invited him to play at a club. He did so and, presumably drunk, they headed over to a recording studio for a session with a young recording engineer named T. Bone Burnett.
Pyrite Radio
In fact, when he started playing at Lubbock honky-tonks in the late 1960s people thought he was making fun of country music, which many people still think today, however, he claims this isn't true - he's just being true to his roots (Johnny Cash, Chet Atkins, Buck Owens, etc.) while expressing whatever it is he sees in modernity that calls for these outbursts of feral absurdity which are much more akin to tribal ritual than the pop charts. Maybe the general oppression of Texas? Maybe.
The story of his making it to a wider audience is, like the Shaggs, at least as interesting as the music itself. One day the Ledge got in his Chevy Biscayne, the roof of which was painted a map of the moon, the side said "Nasa Presents, the Legendary Stardust Cowboy" in Black and Gold spray paint. The Ledge was headed for New York City to attempt to get a gig on The Tonight Show.
But the Ledge never made it to New York. He went 300 miles east to Fort Worth, to play I guess. Two vaccuum cleaner salesman spotted his crazy car in a parking lot and invited him to play at a club. He did so and, presumably drunk, they headed over to a recording studio for a session with a young recording engineer named T. Bone Burnett.
They recorded "Paralyzed" in the wees hours of the morning because they thought this transient kid might wander off or something. With no rehearsal and in a kind of hallucinatory and probably drug-induced daze, the Ledge and T. Bone laid down the track and T. Bone took it upstairs to KXOL, the local top 40 AM station, to play for the DJ, who loved it, calling it "the new music," and put it on the air right away. The stuff of legends indeed.
This full album download (minus tracks 7 and 16, inexplicably) is a little taste of what's to come for this blog after I'm done with my 52 blogs/52 mixes obsession. Basically we're going to become a legitimate mp3 blog in the vein of Mutant Sounds and Art Decade, but hopefully with more people blogging so that it'll be more like Star Maker Machine, and with lots of art like Meathaüs. Single mp3s, obscure albums, zipped mp3 mixes, etc.
Because, what else would I do with myself?
Anyway, I can't resist:
Anyway, I can't resist:
It's interesting to consider what he's singing about in "Starman," in light of from whence the name came.
Pyrite Radio
1. Buck Owens // Act Naturally
2. Sun City Girls // The Shining Path
3. Palace Music // New Partner
4. Keith Carradine // I'm Easy
5. Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band // Night Moves
6. Hank Williams // Settin' the Woods on Fire
7. Guadalcanal Diary // Watusi Rodeo
8. Dolly Parton // Put a Little Love in Your Heart
9. John Hiatt // Pink Bedroom
10. Merle Haggard // Big City
11. Conway Twitty & Loretta Lynn // You're the Reason our Kids are Ugly
12. Mick Jagger & Ry Cooder // Memo From Turner
13. Jimmy La Sane // Black Folks Love Country Music Too
14. Charles Manson // Don't Do Anything Illegal
15. Wayne Raney // We Need a Whole Lot More of Jesus
16. Royal Trux // Steal Yr Face
17. Silver Jews // Punks in the Beerlight
18. The Hospitals // Getting Out of Bed
19. Blood on the Wall // Junkeee...Julieee...
20. John Lennon & the Plastic Ono Band // Cold Turkey
21. Belle & Sebastian // The Blues Are Still Blue
2 comments:
Very good to hear that you will become a full-time MP3 blogger! I'll be tuning in...
thanks, man. I really can't tell you how much I love art decade. I use y'all's tracks in my mixes all the goddamn time.
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