Back in 1977, The Downchild Blues Band had been together for almost a decade. They'd met a young comedian named Dan Aykroyd, who would rip off their schtick for The Blues Brothers the next year. They'd almost stopped recording covers since the band's leader, Donnie Walsh, was becoming such a proficient songwriter. But until 1977, they hadn't recorded "Stagger Lee."Here it is, an electric blues cover of Lloyd Price's version of the song.
(Trivia for "Six Degrees of Lou Reed" fans: Downchild now features Michael Fonfara on trumpet, though he isn't on this record. At the time, he was working with Lou Reed. In 1974, Fonfara appeared on Lou's album Sally Can't Dance along with Alan Rubin and Lou Marini, who'd later appear in, yes, The Blues Brothers Band.)
4 comments:
Quite the provocative cover there. Not quite "Amorica," but i suppose the 70s were a different time than the 90s.
I know next to nothing about sexy covers, but don't forget that in 1969, Blind Faith's album came out, featuring a topless 11-year old girl.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_Faith_%28album%29
(The cover was pulled in the US, but then reissued intact in '72.)
There's a nice little website on a few banned album covers here:
http://www.geocities.com/badcatrecords/BANNEDfront.htm
Don't forget Mom's Apple Pie (1971):
http://friends.s5.net/mazzini/plosce/pie.html
And, more Six Degrees of Lou here, from 1974:
http://www.amazon.com/1969-Velvet-Underground-Live-Vol/dp/B000001FOD
(Any or all of these covers might be NSFW, so click with care.)
The "Amorica" they pulled remains my favorite, largely due to an interview i saw w/ Chris Robinson explaining the whole thing. Here's my greatly paraphrased recollection:
"We had to pull it because of the pubic hair showing from the top of the bikini. Walgreens didn't like the imagery, which I found odd considering you could be an ultra-violent video game in the next rack over. I mean, c'com. It's an earth mama muff. Peronsally, I dig big earth mama muffs."
It was the use of "earth mama muff" that made it so memorable to me.
"The Big Earth Mama Muffs" are my favorite late-90's all-female punk band.
And if you think that joke's bad, watch this:
They only do covers of The Slits.
(I sure hope my mother never finds this site.)
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