Doublespeak: Nothing From Nothing

Billy Preston: Nothing From Nothing

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Man, I love me some Billy Preston, so it was an utter shock to discover that not a single one of us has posted his work here at the Star Maker Saloon before today. The keyboard player's "Fifth Beatle" credentials are as strong as any for a reason, and it's here in spades in the perfect Saturday night jam.

So let's get it on, already: check out and turn up the frenetic powerhouse punch of that barrelhouse piano, the miles of horns, the effortless sexuality of that eminently recognizable tenor voice. Sure, you've heard it before - the song was featured prominently in both Elf and Be Kind Rewind, among other fine films - but I'll bet you a buck and a half you just can't help but throw your hands up and rejoice at a world where such utter jubilation can be brought by wire into your very own home.

Doublespeak: Funkadelic Edition

One of the many things I love about P-Funk mastermind George Clinton is his way with a song title. Though he's no Sufjan Stevens, he can get pretty wordy, which increases the chances of hitting a doublespeak candidate.

Here are three then, one each from the first three Funkadelic albums (my favorite part of the entire P-Funk discography, where the psychedelic/Hendrix influence was still pretty strong):

Funkadelic: I Got a Thing, You Got a Thing, Everybody's Got a Thing

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"I Got a Thing" starts us off with a fairly typical hippie sentiment: We're all different, but let's all just get along.

Funkadelic: Free Your Mind and Your Ass Will Follow

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"Free Your Mind" seems like it should be a plea to just let loose and have fun, but the music takes on a sinister feel, which makes you think twice about surrendering to the groove.

Funkadelic: You and Your Folks, Me and My Folks

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"You and Your Folks" is basically a rewrite of "I Got a Thing", but it's a much better song. It also tempers the idealism with a bit of reality: "The rich got a big piece of this and that/The poor got a big piece of roaches and rats".

Of course, dissecting Funkadelic lyrics misses the point somewhat, so step away from your computer and shake that thang!

Doublespeak: When It’s Gone, It’s Gone

Bruce Cockburn: When It‘s Gone, It‘s Gone

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When I have posted songs by Bruce Cockburn before, I have tended to concentrate on his words. The man can be passionate and poetic, often in the same song. And Cockburn is an eloquent spokesman for the oppressed, as well as one of the best writers of songs of the spirit that I know of. Left out of those discussions has been the fact that Cockburn is also a very fine guitar player. Since When It’s Gone, It’s Gone is an instrumental, Cockburn’s prowess on the guitar is impossible to miss here. Actually, those same qualities of passion, poetry, and eloquence are found here as well. Cockburn is joined here by Edgar Meyer on bass, Mark O’Connor on violin, and Booker T Jones on organ. Each of these gentlemen is a master of his instrument, and all are much in demand as session players as a result. In such distinguished company, Cockburn more than holds his own. Liner note freaks will also appreciate knowing that this one was produced by T-Bone Burnett.

Doublespeak: Talk Talk

Talk Talk: Talk Talk

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Talk Talk: Time It's Time

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There's so much doublespeak in this post that I'll have you seeing double!

Here is a pair of songs by the dual-named 80s synthpop group, Talk Talk. The first song is also called Talk Talk, which slots this band with the likes of Bad Company and Big Country – groups synonymously named with their first big hit. Talk Talk started out mining the same pop vein as that other dual-named 80s synthpop group Duran Duran, but by their third album, from which Time It's Time is taken, they've developed a complex, moody, almost oblique style, as if they're trying to channel Carl Orff with that choral stuff at the end.

Plus they have some of the coolest album artwork ever. What's not to like?

Doublespeak: Jump Jump

Garland Jeffreys: Jump Jump

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The late ’70s and early ’80s were a great time for name-dropping in song. Tim Curry did it in the marvellous I Do The Rock, and B.A. Robertson in the 1979 hit Bang Bang. In this 1981 song, Garland Jeffreys goes walkabouts in Paris, referring to Victor Hugo (whose novel Les Miserables, not yet a musical, he’s presently not in a mood for), Rimbaud, van Gogh, Monet and Cezanne as he checks out the Venus de Milo and passes Notre Dame cathedral, inviting us to “jump jump” to all of these as a means of making the “great escape” from the mundanities of daily routine. Jeffreys dedicated the song to his friend John Lennon, a former art student who had been murdered a few months before the album was released.

The song is stuck away at the end of the superior side 2 of Jeffrey’s Escape Artist album, but nonetheless provides the inspiration for the title of the LP, which came with a four-track EP. Among the notable musicians guesting on the album are the E-Street Band’s Roy Bittan on piano and the late Danny Federici on keyboards, and their influence is reflected in the sound of the rock songs (less so, obviously, than they’d be on the reggae numbers). Others who appeared on the Bob Clearmountain-produced album include Lou Reed, the brass-playing Brecker brothers, Nona Hendryx and Linton Kwesi Johnson. One might think that Elvis Costello also chipped in, but it’s just Garland sounding like old Declan on this fine set.

Doublespeak: Seen and Not Seen

Talking Heads: Seen and Not Seen

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Doublespeak - the practice of using ambiguous language… in a deliberate attempt to disguise the truth

That is the definition from Dictionary.com. Our theme is not bound by it, and it probably should not be. But the word doublespeak seems relevant to the song Seen and Not Seen. The title suggests a pair of opposites which are present at the same time. That completely fits David Byrne’s meditation on personal appearance and reality. The song ends with a wonderful punch line, so listen for that.

Doublespeak: Mouth to Mouth Resuscitation

John Hartford: Mouth to Mouth Resuscitation

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John Hartford was a multi-instrumentalist, voice over actor, steamboat captain, and folk composer. He is one of the finest song writers in the folk style that I've ever heard. I don't know why he isn't more famous than he is.

Now, the mystery is that there is very little information on the vast internet about the featured song and the album that it comes from, Gentle On My Mind and Other Originals. Of course, Google searches for Gentle On My Mind return hundreds of references to Glen Campbell's smash hit cover of Hartford's song of the same name. But this wonderful album, being currently out of print, is only available on vinyl and is not even linked at all on Hartford's Wikipedia page. AllMusic provides the only review I could find, but the review is odd (e.g., Mouth to Mouth is referred to as a "chilling" song. Uh, I don't quite hear "chilling". Do you?)

Internet, you have disappointed me. I thought you knew everything.

Here's the bonus: There are two songs on Gentle On My Mind that match this week's theme. The other is the beautiful The Tall Tall Grass. Enjoy.

Doublespeak: Monday, Monday

The Mamas & The Papas: Monday, Monday

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Mondays stink, this classic hit from 1965 does not.

In fact, Mondays stink so much that I am in a rush to get to work on time and can't write more, but I felt if I was going to post this song this week, it needed to be today, for obvious reasons.

Doublespeak: Cold, Cold, Cold

Little Feat: Cold, Cold, Cold

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Little Feat’s Cold, Cold, Cold is a bluesy howl from the gut. It is also a song that may have been released before it was ready. The original version was on the 1972 album Sailin’ Shoes. Producer Ted Templeman may be the one who decided how it should be recorded. The song, in this incarnation, sounds like it was recorded inside a cave, and the distortion is not helpful. The performance is good, but Feat could do better, and it doesn’t quite hit it. Evidently, the band agreed. Two years later, they rerecorded the song in a medley with Triple Face Boogie for their album Feats Don’t Fail Me Now. This version is much better. But I have chosen a third version. This one is only available on a digital-only expanded edition of their live album Waiting For Columbus. The addition of the horn section tips this one over into the category of one of Little Feat’s finest songs.

The Hammond Organ -> Doublespeak: City, Country, City

War: City, Country, City

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If this is doublespeak week, then it seems logical that we'd have two transition songs, right? Not that I really meant to track down another organ-heavy tune, but this one just stood out for me when I listened to it again. I'm a big fan of War, a 70's funk/jazz band from L.A. (well, except for the inexplicable Spill the Wine, but I fault Eric Burdon more for that one). This 13-minute instrumental song is from what many believe is their finest album, 1972's The World is a Ghetto. It features Lonnie Jordan on the organ in what can be described as a deliciously rhythmic blend of Latin jazz and funk.

Enjoy, enjoy!

The Hammond Organ -> Doublespeak: Glory Glory

Al Green: Glory Glory

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Organist and songwriter Charles Hodges isn't necessarily a household name, but his work on the higher end of the Hammond keyboard is quite easy to pick out of a lineup, once you know what to listen for - or to look for on a label. In the same way that Booker T. was the in-house organist for Stax, the distinctive keywork of Charles Hodges, one of three brothers who comprised the core of the Hi Records Rhythm Section [featured above, with Charles standing in the center], can be heard on almost every record from the label during the sixties and seventies, including Ann Peebles' seminal I Can't Stand The Rain, and on many of Al Green's biggest hits, where he lends subtle support to the honey-voiced soul singer.

Our transition song this week isn't famous - it's a true deep cut from Full of Fire, in which the now-Reverend Green began to leave behind his tendency towards emotionally oozing love songs, choosing instead to explore his blossoming religious nature with a record heavy on the gospel soul. But it takes us quite deftly from last week's instrumental focus to a new thematic challenge, wherein we post songs which use the same word twice in their title.

The Hammond Organ: Refugee

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Refugee

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I didn’t really think I would be posting this song. Here it is, the end of the week. Surely someone would have mentioned Benmont Tench by now. But, they left it for me, so here goes.

Benmont Tench may be the best known Hammond organ player active in the music business today. I considered adding to this post work that he has done with Elvis Costello and Jackson Browne, just to name a couple, but I decided to keep it simple. Tench was a founding member of Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers, and the group doesn’t sound the same without him. Usually, he works as part of the ensemble, and he is a master of blending in and contributing to the overall sound. But Refugee features the organ a bit more than Tench’s other work, so I thought it was a good choice. The Hammond organ can make just as big a difference in the background as it does as the featured instrument, and you can here it both ways here.

The Hammond Organ: Yesterday

Una Valli with The Peanut Butter Conspiracy: Yesterday

[Out of print]

I have been reluctant to post this song, mainly because I am usually rather rubbish at identifying the instruments used in songs. When I like a sound, I spend little thought on whether it was made by a customised 4072 Hammond, somebody doing clever things involving a glass filled with pink sludge and a rare reed handpicked by naked maidens in the jungles of unexplored Indonesia, or on a computer. So, I at least think this splendid soul version of Yesterday from 1968 by South African soul singer Una Valli qualifies. It certainly features some sort of organ-like instrument. Possibly even a Hammond.

Had Valli not been from the pop backwaters of South Africa, from which only a few of many very talented artists have escaped, she would be highly regarded among soul fans. She might even have been a star, marketed as a white woman with as much soul as Aretha (and the hype would not have been easily dismissed).

Yesterday appeared on her LP Soul Meeting!!, on which she roped in the services of fellow South African soulsters The Flames and the Peanut Butter Conspiracy. It’s the latter that back Una on Yesterday, the unjustly reviled McCartney composition which has spawned thousands of risible covers. This is one of the few versions that show what a fine song Yesterday actually is.

Also check out Valli’s great version of Satisfaction, from the same album.

The Hammond Organ: King Kong

Odin: King Kong

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When I saw the weekly theme I immediately presumed we'd get Jimmy Smith and 70's progressive rock. Well, I was half right! I sorted through my own collection of Yes and Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, but to be honest, I have a hard time telling where the organ leaves off and the synthesizers begin in most of those songs. I didn't want to embarrass myself by discovering that there was no organ whatsoever in my choice.

And then, just a few hours before the theme was announced, I came across a group and a song I'd never heard of before, and it fits the bill perfectly. Cool! So now we can learn about it together.

Odin was a European prog rock band formed in Germany in 1971. The Hammond organ player is German Jeff Beer, with Dutch guitarist Rob Terstall trading off the solos. They cut one album in 1972, and on the strength of it were invited by German radio station SWF to perform a live set. This song, a Frank Zappa cover, comes from that release. Have a listen to its glorious prog rock-ness.

The Hammond Organ: The Sky Is Crying / Tell Me Why

Stevie Ray Vaughn & Double Trouble: The Sky Is Crying

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Los Lonely Boys: Tell Me Why

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This fave SRV tune, recorded in the Soul To Soul sessions and released posthumously, is a repost, originally brought to the fore for our Cry Cry Cry theme way back in the summer of '09. But since it's the organists' turn to shine, I've revived it, and coupled the song with this subtle summery B-side from Los Lonely Boys' self-titled 2004 album, which has subtle organ flourishes under almost every track.

The common element? The hands of the inimitable Reese Wynans, a legendary Hammond B3 player who got his start playing in a band alongside Dickie Betts and Berry Oakley before the latter artists joined The Allman Brothers, and who deserves his props for subsequent decades of solid studio and touring work in the blues and country worlds - as a member of Double Trouble and, more recently, with the likes of Buddy Guy, John Mayall, Ted Nugent, Brooks & Dunn, Joe Ely, Trisha Yearwood, Hank, Jr., and many more.

The Hammond Organ: Triplets

Hansson & Karlsson: Triplets

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In 1966 twenty-three year old Bo Hansson played guitar with Stockholm blues rockers The Merrymen. He quit when the band was on the verge of a big break, and after seeing organist "Brother" Jack McDuff play the legendary jazz club Gyllene Cirkeln, he decided the Hammond was the only way to go. He got himself an organ and started playing solo gigs before he'd even learned how to play it. He soon teamed up with jazz drummer Jan Carlsson (yes, it's spelled with a C; the K in the bandname was a misprint) and the duo started playing wild, largely improvised gigs regularly at Gyllene Cirkeln, as well as other clubs around Scandinavia.

Their first and best album, Monument, came out in 1967 and made quite an impression. Jimi Hendrix jammed with the duo when he visited in Stockholm in the late 60's, a jam that was recorded but has never been released. There were plans for Hansson & Karlsson to join Jimi Hendrix's Band of Gypsys, making it a two drummer band, but Hendrix died before anything came of it. But Hendrix did record a Hansson & Karlsson song, Tax Free, which he also played live occasionally. He wanted to record Triplets as well, but again that death thing got in the way.

After two more albums H&K went their seperate ways. Hansson made a few solo records (including his famed Lord of the Rings album) before leaving the music business entirely. Carlsson meanwhile, moved on to acting. In Sweden everyone knows him as "Loffe", which was the name of the womanizing character he played in the hugely popular mini-series Någonstans i Sverige. Following a one-off reunion tour in 1998 Hansson would occasionally do gigs with his protégé and fellow organist Eric Malmberg.

Bo Hansson died in 2010 at the age 67.

The Hammond Organ: Sophisticated Cissy

The Meters: Sophisticated Cissy

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When I think of the sound of New Orleans, I think of great piano players long before I think of the organ. But one of the greatest bands the city has produced featured the organ on many of its songs, including hits like Sophisticated Cissy. That band was the Meters. In 1969, following a tour as a supporting player for his brother Aaron, Art Neville returned to New Orleans to form the Meters. Art was the organ and piano player, and the group was dedicated to instrumental funk. Sophisticated Cissy was the answer song to their big hit Cissy Strut. Presumably, the addition of the organ is what made her sophisticated.

Now maybe you know this history, or maybe you picked up on my clue, when I mentioned Art Neville and his brother Aaron. In time, the Meters would have shifts in their line-up, and they would add vocals. This laid the foundation for the Neville Brothers. But, if you want to hear New Orleans organ, those early Meters albums are the best place to look.

The Hammond Organ: Messy Bessie

Jimmy Smith: Messy Bessie

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If you could only buy one organ-led jazz album, you'd be in quite a bind. For starters, there were two absolute masters of the genre: Jimmy Smith and Jimmy McGriff. Smith started earlier and really made the organ a serious jazz instrument, so we'll give him the nod. But Smith recorded two stone-cold classics, Back at the Chicken Shack and Midnight Special (just two of the five albums he released for Blue Note in 1960), so which one to pick?

As it turns out, both albums were recorded at the same session, so you can't go wrong with either one. So with the flip of a digital coin, I've chosen Back at the Chicken Shack, represented here by the Smith original "Messy Bessie". It starts right off the the Hammond, which makes it perfect for this week's theme. Drummer Don Bailey, guitarist Kenny Burrell, and sax man Stanley Turrentine back him up with some of the down-home funkiness soul-jazz was known for, and everyone gets to stretch out on this 12-minute groove.

The Hammond Organ: Hope In A Hopeless World

Widespread Panic: Hope In A Hopeless World

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Pops Staples: Hope In A Hopeless World

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I went through a jamband phase the first time I went to college, and though my tastes tended to run towards less rock-oriented, more jazz and bluegrass-flavored jams such as those of Leftover Salmon, String Cheese Incident, and Phish, it was hard not to notice and respect the fervent, Allman Brothers influenced sound of Widespread Panic in the smoke-filled air. Their 1997 version of this pseudo-seventies anthem is rich with funk, and the distinctive sound of the Hammond organ features prominently.

Some sort of electric organ also features in Pops Staples' original, cowritten with Philly-based songwriter Phil Roy, coproduced with daughter Mavis Staples, performed with Mavis and a rich layered set of studio musicians, and released on the Grammy-winning album Father, Father when Pops was a still-spry 78 years old - it certainly could be a Hammond, as there's a Hammond player listed in the album credits, but the pinched and clearly electronic "pop gospel" sound which kicks everything off makes me less confident about make or model.

There's also a somewhat cheesy version out there from Britpop musician Paul Young, which hit the streets almost simultaneous with the Pops Staples original - it, too, features the Hammond, but it's so overproduced I decided to skip it. Still, completists can check it out on YouTube.

Oh, and TOTAL bonus points: Here's Widespread Panic live with Hammond and with Mavis on vocals, covering the song again live and unpurchaseable, from a 2002 show in Memphis, TN:

Widespread Panic ft. Mavis Staples: Hope In A Hopeless World [live]

The Hammond Organ: I Shot the Sheriff

Bob Marley and the Wailers: I Shot the Sherriff

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Eric Clapton: I Shot the Sherriff

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Eric Clapton established himself as a, perhaps the, guitar god with his work in Cream, Derek and the Dominos, and Blind Faith. So when he went solo, expectations were high. That’s why his version of I Shot the Sherriff was greeted with such derision and contempt by long-time fans. But was the song really such a departure? Consider: Clapton made his name with covers of classic blues songs, and part of his mission was always to encourage his fans to seek out the original versions and artists. With Sherriff, Clapton was asking his fans to do the same thing with Bob Marley and reggae. I would argue that reggae is a musical spiritual cousin to the blues. Both take a people’s grievances and provide a forum where they become a shared experience. Blues is more personal, while reggae is more political, but the communal experience is essential to both.

As for Clapton’s fans, there is no guitar solo in Sherriff. In fact, the only solo in either version is a brief organ solo at the end of the Marley. But, having said that, Clapton’s Sherriff sounds pretty good to me now. And, to the extent that it helped the world discover Bob Marley and reggae, I am grateful.