After hearing NRBQ perform this song for ages, I can’t imagine any female doing this song justice…. agreed? (Would their rocket be literal or figurative?)
One of my favorite bands, one that many have never heard.
Let’s remedy that right now. Here’s NRBQ on TV performing their version of the Rockabilly song "I’ve Got A Rocket In My Pocket), recorded by Jimmy Lloyd Logsdon (think he’s from the South?
) in 1958:
https://youtu.be/-d5Hdqyjj5o?si=3iELCJIsqyBfdAJc
By the way, bassist/singer/songwriter Joey Spampinato is Keith Richards’ favorite bassist. He offered him the job of replacing Bill Wyman when Bill quit The Stones, and Joey turned him down! He DID accept the job of playing in the band Keith assembled to back Chuck Berry in the live performance seen in the movie he made about him.
Pianist/singer/songwriter Terry Adams is obviously no "normal" keyboard player. Along with all the Rock ’n’ Roll guys, his influences also include the likes of Sun Ra and Thelonious Monk. A great live peformer!
And here’s the studio recording of the song by one of my favorite singers, Lou Ann Barton:
https://youtu.be/6r0cXbFGi_U?si=AGnz4fVf03y0oRex
25 responses Add your response
When Lou Ann performs the song live, a "knowing" smile will occasionally cross her face. I wanted to post one of her live performances of the song (especially one with The Fabulous Thunderbirds), but none had the "Share" option underneath the video screen on YouTube. A search for one of those videos is suggested!
|
I can see how your liking for Garth Hudson dovetails with NRBQ.
For the uninitiated, Lou Ann live: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBo0z7mFEgE&list=PLAI-4-sucob_Mm5e9yXXaiLWGRfHKl_3e&index=5
|
Man @stuartk, that’s Lou Ann when she was much younger! By the way, Lou Ann was the singer in an Austin band named Triple Threat, which featured a young guitar player named Stevie Ray Vaughan. Lou Ann tours regularly with Stevie’s older brother Jimmie. She strikes me as being "one of the boys", in both drinking and, ahem, carousing. Her debut album on Asylum Records (entitled Old Enough) was produced by Jerry Wexler, and features the fantastic Muscle Shoals studio band known as The Swampers. A musically great album, and it sounds better than do many of Wexler’s other productions (Aretha Franklin for one), perhaps because it was co-produced by Glenn Frey.
|
NRBQ is one the great rock n’ roll bands and I think that the best edition was with Al Anderson on guitar and Tom Ardolino on bass. Along with Joey Spampinato and Terry Adams these monster musicians created killer grooves with a reckless energy reminiscent of 1st gen rock ‘n roll and R&B. Live shows were legendary and I was fortunate to see them several times in the late 70’s and early ‘80s. If Thelonious Monk and Jerry Lee Lewis could some how produce a child it would be NRBQ keyboardist Terry Adams. I’ve never owned many of their recordings but I recently picked up an LP of “all hopped up” that I’ve been enjoying. They also wrote some great tunes such as “Me and the Boys” and “Green Light” covered by Bonnie Raitt and Dave Edmonds among others. |
Agree with you on your every point @pdspiegel. But Tom Ardolino was on drums, not bass (that’s Joey’s instrument). I saw the line-up you cite twice live at The Roxy Theater on Sunset Blvd in the 80’s and 90’s, and more recently at a club in Portland Oregon. Though Terry is now the sole remaining member of that line-up (Al Anderson left the band in 1994, moving to Nashville to concentrate on songwriting. Tom died in 2012, and Joey has been receiving treatment for cancer for many years, incapacitating him), they are still great! Apparently Terry is a key element in their sound and style, but the new members more than hold their own. NRBQ made a lot of records (I have 20 on LP, a bunch more on CD), many available used at very low prices. But live performance is where they really come alive. Other peers of the band that love ’em include John Hiatt, Nick Lowe, Elvis Costello, Richard Thompson, and Los Lobos.
|
NRBQ is the best band "you never heard of." In the 1980s and 1990s I saw them dozens of times. They performed regularly at both The Lone Star Cafe and Bottom Line, in NYC, and extensively in the Northeast. At one show at the Bottom Line, Terry gave the mic to an audience member who spontaneously sang the lyrics to the song, "Here Comes Terry." At one show in Hartford, CT, they played with Carl Perkins (Boppin' the Blues is a great NRBQ/Carl Perkins record, if you can find it). At another, at the same venue, a then unknown band, The Fabulous Thunderbirds was the opening act. Before Al Anderson joined the band, the amazing Steve Ferguson was their lead guitarist and Tom Staley was their lead vocalist. I saw them at a tiny theatre in Rosendale, NY for $3.50, and danced the night away. Ferguson was one of the greatest lead guitarists. His solo on "Flat Foot Flewzy" is incendiary. Eventually, Al Anderson left the band because touring was literally killing him, and was replaced by Joey's brother, Johnny Spampinato, who lives on Cape Cod and still regularly plays with The Value Leaders. The last time I saw NRBQ was in 2021. Terry Adams is the only original member, since he started the band. While they were terrific, I missed the classic line-up. And as a footnote, at that show in the "VIP section" were the musicians, Yo La Tengo, who covered "Magnet." As Terry and the band played the song, he leaned over and gave them a knowing nod. https://youtu.be/mCFSTQ395TI?si=2Vj_NtMm_eV6GwK_
|
Been a huge fan since the early 70s, fortunate to live in the same area they called home for many years. Ive seen them live probably 40 x, most recently this past fall. Poor Terry is on his last legs, but the band is still tight and worth seeing. At their best in the 70s with the Whole Wheat Horns. I have a framed autographed show poster from The Joyous Lake in my listening room. One of the best, most original bands of all time IMO, and all were excellent musicians. Big Al still doing a lot of Nashville session work. |
I guess that’s how I always think of her... BTW, the guy on the left with the white strat is a young Dave Grissom.
More: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YVICd7y87E&list=PLAI-4-sucob_Mm5e9yXXaiLWGRfHKl_3e&index=6
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41OUG6S0W1E&list=PLAI-4-sucob_Mm5e9yXXaiLWGRfHKl_3e&index=4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEBSFsx5r8Q&list=PLAI-4-sucob_Mm5e9yXXaiLWGRfHKl_3e&index=2 |
You guys on the East Coat make me green with envy! NRBQ came out to the West Coast infrequently.
Here they are on some TV show, being introduced by David Sanborn, who sometimes performed with them live:
https://youtu.be/p-6qGgL7kyk?si=hsHDaGtehM4DbC0u
While the band and it’s member took songwriting, singing, and musicianship seriously, they also possessed something missing from many bands: a sense of humour.
Al Anderson has made a number of mighty fine solo albums (as has Terry Adams). Here is a video of him performing live:
https://youtu.be/mBdQNL1sdeg?si=rP_r_HRvFSYVrxrQ
|
Big Al Anderson got his start back in the mid-60s with a local Hartford band The Wildweeds. They had a huge following in the area and I saw them several times back in my teenage years. The closest thing they had to a breakout hit song was "No Good to Cry". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PdeKoamDXU
|
@ezwind: I’ve been meaning to get myself a copy of the lone 1970 Wildweeds album for some time now. It is on Vanguard Records, and all but one song on the album were written by Al Anderson. I have Al’s 1972 debut solo album (on LP and CD), also on Vanguard. Players on the album include Terry Adams and Tom Staley (drummer in the original NRBQ line up), as well as Terry’s brother Donn (on trombone). I also have Al’s next three album (Party Favors, Pay Before You Pump, After Hours) on CD. I need to get his last one, Pawn Shop Guitars from 2007.
Terry Adams also has quite a few solo albums, on LP and CD. I have them all, of course.
NRBQ drummer Tom Ardolino was a well known record collector with a massive collection. He was instrumental in getting the legendary album by The Shaggs reissued on LP in 1980. Their lone album Philosophy Of The World was considered to be "the worst record of all time", a Garage Band classic. The Shaggs were a trio of three sisters (Dorothy, Betty, and Helen Wiggin), all absolutely untalented and incompetent. Frank Zappa was known to love the album, in a perverse way.
|
@bassbuyer: Yeah, if record company owners could figure out how to know which bands and/or solo artists were going to capture the hearts and minds of the general public their jobs would be much easier. My musical taste runs to cult-level music makers, so I get to see them live in smaller clubs, which I prefer anyway. But though they have to slog around the countryside more for a smaller payoff, cult artists often have longer, more musically productive careers than do those who rise to the top of the entertainment business, often falling back down as fast as they rose. There are a lot of "Whatever happened to?" musical acts around.
|
Here’s a clip of the current NRBQ line up performing a song from the band’s early days, found on the album they did with Carl Perkins. I love the Telecaster playing of guitarist/singer Scott Ligon. When I saw them live at a club in Portland a coupla years back, Steve Berlin of Los Lobos joined the band onstage to add his sax playing to the sound. Steve currently lives in Portland.
https://youtu.be/5KItRaAK9GI?si=hqHif0pUySupCv-i
|
And here's one in which they exhibit their sense of humour:
https://youtu.be/pI-J87OMqp8?si=w1038_lNqV7gGs1l
|