The Deacons' home on the web

 

No wonder Youtube gets so many hits - there's stuff like this all over it. NRBQ perform "Rocket in my Pocket" -  

 

   

 

BTW, apparently you can get the best bass sound ever recorded by playing a Danelectro with your thumb (might be a Jerry Jones, these days, but I doubt it - these guys have been around too long) straight up through an SVT. But let's face it, that sound is why Keef tabbed Joey Spampinato to play bass in the concerts that were filmed for "Hail, Hail Rock'n'Roll" - Chuck's finest moment.

 

Hamilton music icon Jackie Washington passed away Saturday, from complications relating to a recent heart attack. I usually pass along these obit notices with "great sadness", or some such sentiment, but let's face it, "sad" isn't an emotion you associate with Jackie. He absolutely dug the piss outta life. If there's anyone who had more fun being an entertainer than Jackie did, I have yet to see them perform.

 

The grandson of a runaway slave (yes, a lot of the passengers on the Underground Railroad got off at the Hamilton station), he started performing with his family in the 1920's when he was still a child. My family's first recollection of him was in the early 1950's, when my father and future uncle went to see Lionel Hampton at a theatre in downtown Hamilton. Hamp said, "we've got some young men from around here who are making quite a name for themselves", or words to that effect, and then invited Jackie (guitar) with his brothers Reg (piano) and Dickie (drums) up to play with his own combo. My father last saw Jackie, with me, at the Festival of Friends in Hamilton, the year before we moved to Mississauga. He was still the consummate entertainer, a real pro, who knew what the audience wanted and gave it, in spades.

 

If there's a better definition of a "life well lived", I can't think of what it might be. You can see Jackie's Spectator obit here. His label, where you can buy his discs by mail order, is here.  And Uncle Al, Jackie's on his way up to pay you that ten bucks he still owes you! 

 

UPDATE 06/30 - Mr. Mad found this clip of Jackie on YouTube, apparently from the Festival of Friends in 1976. You can see a very young Brian Griffiths comping on flatop in a couple of camera angles.

 

  

 

 

Rick & the Krickets:

 

 

Here's a somewhat more subdued TMGE, with standup bass. This kinda has a "rockabilly-style Jacques Brel" feel to it -

 

 

One of the things that I listen to a fair bit is Japanese band "Thee Michelle Gun Elephant". Fans of the Damned will know exactly where the name came from. Here's a little taste - "Smokin' Billy" -

 

    

 

Among other things, guitarist Futoshi Abe is brilliant. His playing is right up my alley, tone- and style-wise, being a disciple of both Mick Green and Wilko Johnson.  His guitar is a Fender Japan Telecaster Custom signature model, based on the '72 Tele Custom that Green plays. His sig model has a bunch of mods, including a different (three-saddle) bridge plate, pick-ups and a custom pickguard that moves the pick-up selector to the location where the tone control for the lead pick-up used to be - I have a feeling that he probably had an issue with bashing into it with his strumming hand in the stock position.

 

If you hunt around Youtube, you can find clips of TMGE jamming with Mick Green during a tour of Japan in 2000.