|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Stumpage Reports
|
|
|
|
|
|
Wednesday, February 18, 2004 :::
GRITS
One of my favorite songs, ever since I was a little kid, has been Ghost Riders in the Sky, penned by Stan Jones. For the past couple years I have been enjoying versions of it by Johnny Cash and Dick Dale.
I've often toyed with the idea of collecting as many different versions of it as I could. The All Music Guide lists 158 versions of the song, from Eddy Arnold to Johnny Western.
Tuesday night I was digging around some newsgroups looking for bad '70s music and stumbled across a compilation of different artists doing "Ghost Riders in the Sky" (hereinafter referred to as "GRITS"). I am now the happy owner of GRITS as performed by The Blues Brothers, Duane Eddy, and Captain Tractor (?!?) just to name a few. The Dean Martin version sucks, and naturally The Ventures' version is one of the best, with Johnny Cash's rendition being the undisputed champion. I haven't had a chance to listen to the version by Sleepy LaBeef, so I can't comment on that.
Now I just have to find a copy of Spotnicks playing and singing GRITS and I can die a happy man. What the hell, it would also be fun to see what Newell Oler or The Slapping Suspenders or Ned Sublette are able to do with it.
So, the next one of you lucky enough to be trapped ride in my car, will get to hear GRITS over, and over, and over ....
The Spotnicks: A Brief Appreciation, Or: God I Love the Internet
I have never heard of The Spotnicks until tonight. As of right now, I've never heard them. I linked to the above page and barely glanced at it, a bunch of goofy looking guys on a web page in a foreign language. Then I looked at the web page again and saw the name Jimmy Nicol on the drumskin and even recognized his face. His big moment in the sun (besides drumming for The Spotnicks) was sitting in for Ringo Starr when the bejeweled Beatle was laid low by a bout of tonsilitis. I was intrigued enough to check them out on All Music. I was hooked on the first sentence of their bio: "If remembered at all today, it is probably thanks to their silly astronaut costumes..."
It goes on to say:
"the Spotnicks found reliable audiences in Japan and Germany, as well as a cult and nostalgia following all over the world. The Spotnicks have sold over 20 million albums, making them among the most successful Swedish groups ever, surpassed perhaps only by ABBA and Roxette. By the late '90s, they had released 39 studio albums, recorded roughly 700 songs, and had more than a hundred members in the different constellations of the band."
I just think its bizarre, these guys seem to be huge (in Sweden anyways) and seem pretty prolific, and I've never, ever heard of them. My brother is pretty knowledgeable about surf-type music. The next I see him I'll ask about these guys and he'll probably say something along the lines of: "Oh yeah, they're great, I can't believe you've never heard of them, I got a boxed set you can borrow."
::: posted by tom at 10:02 AM
|
|
|
|
