Transmission 4307

We celebrate the life and music of Ian Wallace, drummer extraordinaire and former member of King Crimson who lost the fight to cancer on February 23, 2007. Ian's drumming is particularly impressive on this live recording of Sailor's Tale from Crimo's intimate performance at Denver's Summit Studios on March 12, 1972. Ian, you will be missed.

Along with the KC, you also get tunes in rapid succession from Graham Parker, The Rumour, Moon Martin, Robert Palmer, post-Buzzcocks Pete Shelly, early Simple Minds, Nazareth, Santana, Jules Shear and the Pink Floyd debut of David Gilmour! This one goes by way too fast!

T4307 is a 56.5MB 128k mp3 1:01:43 in length made loud to be played loud!

"baby honey baby your the one, carve your name right on my gun"

RFW

Transmission 4207

Our Dixie Fried edition of RFW features a great forgotten take on Dylan's John Brown by the famous producer and musician James Luther Dickinson, dad of Luther Dickinson of North Mississippi Allstar's fame. We visit Mr Dylan himself in the studio recording tunes that ended up on Blood On The Tracks, jam on quality selections from Tom Waits, Memphis Minnie, Me'Shell Ndeg'eOcello, Junior Byles and the hot Ohio Players, and go Rondo with John Zorn, The Dave Brubeck Quartet and The Nice. Nice!

T4207 is a 63.7MB 128k mp3 1:09:37 in length made loud to be played loud!

"She was with Big Jim, but she was leaning to the Jack of Hearts"

RFW

Transmission 4107

If I ever had to go to jail, I want to go to the cheap teenage jail that Cherie and her fellow Runaways escape from during today's exciting conclusion of RFW! The show starts with blasts of manicured noise from Devo, Sonic Youth and the reckless abandon that is Part Chimp. The Road To Asia starts in Germany with Embryo and then leads to Ryuichi Sakamoto, Cornelius and Ground Zero. A special guest appearance from the ever-impressive Comets On Fire makes this one a keeper!

T4107 is a 59.5MB 128k mp3 1:05:01 in length made loud to be played loud!

"dead end kids in the danger zone"

RFW

RFW FLASHSHBACK

THE ASYLUM Part 5

Things come to an insane conclusion in this last installment of The Asylum which originally aired on WMBR, Cambridge on January 5, 1980. Check out the posts on Sunday 2/11/07 for Parts 1 & 2 and a full description of the show and Sunday 2/18/07 for Parts 3 & 4.

Part 5 is a 128k mp3 58:01 in length made * to be played loud!

"I don't think I'm going to make it Tony"

RFW

This file is a blog special only-no podcast!

*The Asylum has been recorded at a lower level than usual to reduce distortion and tape noise during the 28 year old cassette transfer. Use your volume and let it rock!

HAL24 - THE NOTEBOOK SESSIONS #2

We tie up a few musical loose ends by searching for our show direction in the second RFW Notebook filled with ideas, suggestions, themes and segues - the results are mind blowing!

We start things off by lighting some incense with Southwest FOB and then get into a Stevie set featuring 4 Hero, Jeff Beck and a lost gem from Music Of My Mind just for the Wonder of it all! We beg for more with Crazy Horse, Jethro Tull and The Rolling Stones and travel to the Netherlands and Sweden with Green Hornet, The Hives, Mondo Diao and Union Carbide Productions. David Sylvian and Ryuichi Sakamoto collaborate on the beautiful Steel Cathedrals followed by David's new band Nine Horses and a Burnt Friedman remix of Tosca's Suzuki (In Dub). The introspection and great grooves are then decimated with vintage 1975 Ozzy/Black Sabbath out of the Wohlman Concert Archives and all hell breaks loose as we end with live Sleep. Taking notes has never been so much fun!

HAL23 is a 2 Part 128k mp3 made loud to be played loud!

Part 1 is 61.9MB and 1:07:37 in length.

Part 2 is 59.3MB and 1:04:52 in length.

"Off with their heads - chop them off"

RFW

Transmission 4007

2007 releases and songs about The Black Saint are the basis of today's blast of RFW, so let's call it New Moses. We hear reverent sounds from Joe Strummer's Mescaleros, The Maytals, Alex Harvey, Elton John and the Black Moses of Soul -Isaac Hayes. We are also treated to the latest from Kaiser Chiefs, Trans Am, The Bees, Aereogramme, The High Llamas, Jesu and The Field. I am impressed!

T4007 is a 57.1MB 128k mp3 1:02:28 in length made loud to be played loud!

"Holy Moses , I have been removed"

RFW

Transmission 3907

As construction continues on the worlds largest Vibrator, we put in new batteries, get down to business and experience an orgasmic episode of RFW. Terence Trent D'Arby, Todd Rundgren, Mick Jagger, Fleetwood Mac, Primal Scream, Free, The Police, Pete Townshend, ZZ Top, Roxy Music, The Specials and Arthur Brown's Kingdom Come all help us reach our peak - simultaneously! Do you have a cigarette?

T3907 is a 58.8MB 128k mp3 1:04:14 in length made loud to be played loud!

"It will come down to this"

RFW

Transmission 3807

This tasty morsel could be described as a Canned Volta sandwich with Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and Damo Suzuki serving as our musical bread. The impressive new collaboration of these improvisational monsters called Please Heat This Eventually begins and ends our work in two parts, The O.R.L. Mars Volta Suite and the D.S. Can Suite. Try keeping still during this one!

T3807 is a 54.3MB 128k mp3 59:24 in length made loud to be played loud!

"I'm So Green"

RFW

Transmission 3707

A Musical tour of Europe brings us to Italy with Malombra, Hungary with Masfel, Czechoslovakia with Modry Efekt, France with Moving Gelatine Plates, Germany with Metropolis and the Planet Kobaian with Magma. Magnificent!

T3707 1s a 60.5MB 128k mp3 1:05:42 in length made loud to be played loud.

"Ki Lahl Liahk"

RFW

Transmission 3607

Art gets a RFW workout as we celebrate and inspire artistic creativity. Poets, painters, paperback writers, sculptors and all persons of the Right Brain sort are a rare breed - this show is for all of you. We even get to take a field trip to a Museum!

Inside the exhibition you will find The Last Poets, The Rezillos, The Beatles, The Band, Neil Young, Motorpsycho, The High Llamas, The Kinks, Grace Jones, Talking Heads, David Bowie, Donovan,Tortoise, Olivia Tremor Control and Axiom Funk. Listen to this and make some art.

T3607 is a 58.2MB 128k mp3 1:03:36 in length made loud to be played loud!

"I'm an Art Lover, come to daddy"

RFW

The painting diplayed is entitled Artist Staring At Thumb by Lawrence Dank.

RFW FLASHBACK

THE ASYLUM PARTS 3 & 4

Here are the next two parts of The Asylum which was originally aired on WMBR, Cambridge on January 5, 1980. Check out last Sundays post (2/11/07) for Parts 1 & 2 and a full description of the show.

The Asylum is a 5 Part 128k mp3 made * to be played loud!

Part 3 is 43.4MB and 47:29 in length.

Part 4 is 43.3MB and 47:19 in length.

"insanity"

RFW

These files are blog specials only-no podcast!
THE ASYLUM PART 5 will be posted next Sunday, 2/25/2007.
*The Asylum has been recorded at a lower level than usual to reduce distortion and tape noise during the 28 year old cassette transfer. Use your volume and let it rock!

HAL23 - MAKE A JAZZ NOISE HERE!

A great comment from a RFW listener in France led to our all-star jam session and I thank him for the suggestion! A show from the Jazz Wing of the Wohlman Archives was long overdue. We made up for lost time by getting right to live Miles Davis and Bobby Previte & Horse doing Miles! The proceedings heat up with genre blurring sessions from John McLaughlin and Tony William's Lifetime and two featuring Pat Metheny, one with Ornette Coleman and the other from Kenny Garrett. The show ends with two of the masters - John Coltrane with Pharoah Sanders and Pharoah with his own band from the classic Karma.

HAL23 is a 2 part 128k mp3 made loud to be played loud!

Part 1 is 56MB and 1:01:14 in length.

Part 2 is 61MB and 1:06:52 in length.

"The Creator Has A Master Plan"

RFW

Transmission 3507

Like the Stratocastor, the classic six-string concept for today's RFW show is simple but rocking - Bands and The Guitarists They Lost! We sample Humble Pie and Peter Frampton, The James Gang and Joe Walsh, Deep Purple and Richie Blackmore and end with Procol Harum and Robin Trower. Can you name each of their replacements? The answers are below.

T3507 is a 57.2MB 128k mp3 1:02:34 in length made loud to be played loud!

"God looked bad, the luck's been had and there's nothin' left to smoke, will I be back tomorrow for the punchline of the joke? "

RFW

(Humble Pie-Dave "Clem" Clemson, The James Gang-Tommy Bolin, Deep Purple-Tommy Bolin, Procol Harum-Dave Ball)

Transmission 3407

We get very high during today's RFW show - 8 Miles High to be exact! Patti Smith starts things off with her CBGB's closing performance of So You Want To Be A Rock And Roll Star, Neil Merryweather follows in an upward flight path from the hard to find Space Rangers LP and The Byrds themselves jam long and hard on their classic slice of sky-high psychedelia! MOE., Buzzy Linhart and Deerhoof keep the jam alive and Mike Patton brings things to a operatic close with trippin' Peeping Tom and a romantic Aubade with help from Kadaa!

T3407 is a 59.6MB 128k mp3 1:05:05 in length made loud to play loud!

"This the era where everybody creates - it's all open"

RFW

Transmission 3307

Happy Valentines Day! Instead of going the obvious route and playing songs of love and happiness, we look at the other side of the most romantic day of the year and play a set of tunes for those with problems in the relationship department which includes 10cc, The Beatles and Harry Nillson! Out of the Wohlman Concert Archives we rock to live Genesis with Peter Gabriel and Jimmy with The Experience. Rounding things out we circumnavigate The World with Dalek i and indulge in a Bowie/Pretty Things fetish. Neu! closes the proceedings with E-Musik from '75.

T3307 is a 55.6MB 128k mp3 1:01:48 in length made loud to be played loud!

"I keep your picture upon the wall, it hides a nasty stain that's lying there"

"There will be times when all things she said will fill your head, you won't forget her"

"You're Breaking My Heart, you're tearing it apart so fuck you"

RFW

Transmission 3207

Have you ever been up in a helicopter? It is a really exciting experience that translates into a rocking set from Ax Genrich, XTC and The Helicopters singing about Paul Stanley! Also included in our vertical lift-off is Paul's band Kiss, Second Hand and Seventh Wave. We are are a collective fly on the studio wall with Neil Young and as an old west finale, we ride into the sunset cowboy style with The Flying Burrito Brothers, The Rolling Stones and Thin Lizzy. Yeehaaw!

T3207 is a 59.5MB 128k mp3 1:05:04 in length made loud to be played loud.

"on the 31st floor, a gold plated door, won't keep out the Lord's burning rain"

RFW

Transmission 3107

39 years after it was recorded, I am still amazed at the music of Can and in particular the vocals of Malcolm Mooney (I made him Irish in my mispronunciation of his name in the show! - sorry Malcolm). As the original front-man for the band, he brought an element that was never quite recaptured after his early departure and subsequent replacement by Damo Suzuki. The following years and all the changes that occurred after his departure produced equally stellar music and a fascinating story, but for today - focus in on Malcolm's way with a phrase on this rare alternative take of Little Star Of Bethlehem.

We also rip it up with Hawkwind and Motorhead and go Out On A Limb with Johnny Winter And, Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation and Gravy Train. Then we Form A Band with Art Brut, The Sights and The Bees and get Flooded with Motorpsycho and Bruce Springsteen live in England in 1975!

T3107 is a 56.1MB 128k mp3 1:01:21 in length made loud to be played loud!

"correction - the coat hanger should be upside down"

RFW

RFW FLASHBACK

THE ASYLUM PARTS 1 & 2

The occasional RFW Flashback draws from hundreds of hours of old radio shows, comedy bits, interviews, promos and commercials from my long strange trip in radio. Each Flashback has a unique story and place in my memory and heart. I'm really surprised (but then again I'm not) how the music from the early shows has stood up against the test of time. I also find great amusement in my thick Boston accent and boundless enthusiasm.

WTBS/WMBR 88.1 FM, Cambridge was a dream come true. A place where I and others like me went to put the sounds and songs and words that we had in our heads on the air. Some of those people are still close to me, the others remain in my mind like a frozen snap-shot of the way we looked and sounded like then - so many years ago. Needless to say, they were very special times!

The Asylum was a show that ran on WMBR every Saturday night/Sunday morning from 12 midnight to 4 am. Everyone who did their own show at the station was expected to do an Asylum show. My partner (and still good friend) for this bizarre outing was the infamous Tony V, who reads from an imaginary program guide early on and describes what we were about to do as - "The Asylum - insanity". The official basis for the show was to take your regular show, persona, deepest fetish-fear-guilty pleasure and check into The Asylum for the night.

On January 5, 1980, Tony and I were the new inmates and after rather lengthy and intense "pre-show preparations" we performed this legendary piece of Boston Radio History. It is very interesting to hear the show in retrospect with it's elements of theatre, improvisation, avant-guarde, musique-concrete, sound collage, mashing, sampling, tape manipulations, loose but intact story line and eclectic musical selections. This was a time before many of these terms and techniques were even in use!

It is as close to a live audio "trip" as has ever been committed to the airwaves, tape or an institution. In all it's warped glory - I am very proud of THE ASYLUM!

THE ASYLUM is a 5 Part 128k mp3 made * to be played loud!

Part 1 is MB and 46:46 in length.

Part 2 is MB and 47:16 in length.

"It's still ahead of it's time" - Tony V

RFW

These files are blog specials only-no podcast!

THE ASYLUM PARTS 3 & 4 will be posted next Sunday, 2/18/2007.

*The Asylum has been recorded at a lower level than usual to reduce distortion and tape noise during the 28 year old cassette transfer. Use your volume and let it rock!

HAL22 - A BUFFET OF SOUNDS

We serve up a veritable schmorgashboard of tunes during today's Radio Free Wohlman musical meal. Help yourself to second helpings of psychedelic Tommy James & The Shondells, appropriately colored Led Zep, early Tangerine Dream, Ronnie Lane with and without Faces, a practising Bob Dylan, a funky Bo Diddley, hospitalized New York Dolls, Otis Redding, Randy Holden, Willie Dixon and Frigid Pink all suffering from a Pain In the Heart, Axiom Funk, Sly & The Family Stone, Primal Scream, Canned Heat, live Tom Waits from the 2006 tour, Galaxie 500, Bochum Welt, Dexter Wansel, Sketch Show with Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi and live King Crimson at The Fillmore West in December of 1969.

HAL22 is a 2 part 128k mp3 made loud to be played loud!

Part 1 is 59.6MB and 1:05:06 in length.

Part 2 is 56.2MB and 1:01:27 in length.

"It's a well known old secret - go and Tell Everyone"

RFW

Transmission 3007

Back in the old days, you remixed a song using a razor blade (muti-functional), tape and a splicing block. It's a lost art that has been swallowed whole by technology running rampant. Today's remixer's have the luxury of tools that were not even within our wildest drug fueled imaginations! Computers, samplers, digital files and a wide array of gadgets and gizmos have taken the remix out of the studio and put it into the bedrooms and basements of music enthusiasts everywhere. The remix is now an established and permanent part of our musical vocabulary. The remixer is considered as much a musician as the the artist themselves. The editors featured today get the RFW Gold Razor Blade Award for pushing the envelope and putting a distinct personal stamp on each project.

We hear Danny Krivit vs Aretha Franklin, DJ Spinna vs Eddie Kendrix, Cornelius vs Sting, Burt Friedman vs David Sylvian, Venetian Snares vs Isis, Kyle Statham, Anne & Nathalie vs Mushroom, Spacetime Continuum vs NIN, PIL vs PIL, Mogwai vs Schneider TM and Takemura vs Tortoise.

T3007 is a 59.6MB 128k mp3 1:05:09 in length made loud to be played loud!

"See it through my eyes"

RFW

Transmission 2907

Djam Karet, 65 Days Of Static, Et Cetera, Terje Rypdal, Medeski, Martin & Wood & Richard Devine /Ryuichi Sakamoto.

T2907 is a 60.3MB 128K mp3 1:05:55 in length made loud to be played loud!

"SSSHHH!"

RFW

Transmission 2807

I'm sure you have favorite albums like Nutz in your collection. Long forgotten by most rock historians, fans and some band members, these were groups that were on the fringe of major success. Talented, capable and willing - the winds of fame and fortune unfortunately failed to blow them to the next level and after peaking in the 70's, they started the inevitable slide into obscurity. Today's RFW transmission rounds up 10 such bands and puts them back in the spotlight - where they belong!

Joining the Liverpool band Nutz, we went all vinyl with Crack The Sky, Klaatu, City Boy, Hard Stuff on Purple Records, Sparks, Wet Willie, Babe Ruth from the excellent Stealin' Home, Hustler, and The Sensational Alex Harvey Band Live! This is a really fun show!

T2807 is a 60.1 MB 128k mp3 1:05:44 in length made loud to be played loud!

"There's Safety In Numbers and numbers don't lie"

RFW

Transmission 2707

Radio Free Wohlman gives you a jolt of Electricity right between your ears! Spiritualized, Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark and our Friends in Tubeway Army all plug in. Buckethead, Union Carbide Productions and The Soundtrack Of Our Lives add to the high wattage frenzy and the bottom end has it's final way with Chocolate Milk, Stanley Clarke and Chris Squire all puttting the bass in front for the Pluck of It!

T2707 is a 57.4 MB 128 mp3 1:02:41 in length made loud to be played loud!

"This is not complicated!"

RFW

Transmission 2607

"Now Yoko is going to do her thing -- all over you." That's how John introduced Yoko to the Beatles hungry crowd at the September 19, 1969 Rock & Roll Revival in Toronto, Canada!

After the almost tuneful Don't Worry which we hear today, Yoko and the Plastic Ono Band including Eric Clapton went into avant-hard free-rock overdrive to the bewilderment of most in attendance! John latter described the scene by saying, "Yoko did a number, which was half rock and half madness, and it really freaked them out. We finished with Yoko's number, because you can't go anywhere after you've reached that sort of pitch. You can't go 'Ji-jing' like The Beatles and bow at the end of screaming and fifty watts of feedback. So, after Yoko had been on for about a quarter of an hour, we all left our amps on going like the clappers and had a smoke on the stage. Then, when they stopped, the whole crowd was chanting 'Give Peace A Chance'. It looks like this is going to be The Plastic Ono Band in the future."

Along with this classic dose from The Lennons, we also explore some Golem from their only 1973 release, new music from The Rapture, live Ultravox with John Foxx, Screaming Headless Torsos, John Scofield, Eno, David "The Whizz Kid" Werner, Mott The Hoople, Colosseum 2 with Gary Moore and The Flying Burrito Brothers in memory of the late "Sneaky" Pete Kleinow who passed on from Alzheimer's disease on January 6, 2007. Pete will be remembered every time I hear a pedal steel guitar!

T2607 is a 56MB 128k mp3 1:01:13 in length made loud to be played loud!

"Yoko did not break up the band, she started a few thousand new bands"

RFW

HAL21 - THE SON OF SMR!

We return to our Spontaneous Music Reaction method of choosing today's selections with outstanding results. My self-authored SMR theory states that when you do not use any other aid but your brain's memorization and music centers to spontaneously select music within a theme, the decisions arrived at are far different than if given the time to research, listen and plan a show. I also believe that the limitation is in fact an advantage - the show's contents are as much a surprise to me as they are to you! Today's words are:

BLUES

Jimmy Witherspoon, Rick Danko and Gong do the Blues In The Morning, with many cups of of Java and while racing motorcycles in The Continental Circus!

WASHED

Pere Ubu from Dub Housing, The Brothers Davies and fellow Kinks and Beatle George Harrison are wave and Brainwashed. We miss you George!

BIRTHDAY

A celebration for the special day includes greetings from Uriah Heep, Peter Hamill from Nadir's Big Chance and John Zorn's Electric Masada with Marc Ribot on guitar!

BEAR

In this set we find Teddy Bears with Elvis and The Residents, an Amazing Dancing Bear with Randy Newman and a bear skin rug with Willie Alexander and the Boom Boom Band. To top it off we hear Rufus Thomas tell the story of The Preacher and The Bear!

BEST

We are treated to some of the best music available with the English Beat, The Moody Blues and The Living Things!

RUN/RUNNY/RUNNING

Noses Run In Martin Mull's Family and The Who is always on the Run, Run, Run. Meanwhile, Creedence is Running Through The Jungle and Mushroom is Running Wild and Looking Pretty!

LOVE

The J.Geils Band is sick with Love-Itis, XTC and Talking Heads Love it live and The Supremes reign supreme as Stevie Wonder brings things to a soulful close!

HAL21 is a 2 part 128k mp3 made loud to be played loud!

Part 1 is 55.7MB and 1:00:52 in length.

Part 2 is 66.2MB and 1:05:47 in length.

"Love's in need of love today - don't delay - send your's in right away"

RFW

Special thanks to C.J., Pam and Concetta for support and inspiration.

Transmission 2507

Gear up for rock on today's Radio Free Wohlman transmission. I mean real rock - Mountain Climbing! The ascent starts with the one and only Mountain in the lead position (that rope better be really strong - sorry Leslie) followed by Donovan and the entire Allman Brothers Band!

I was also in a heavy Jeff Beck mood, so we go into the Wohlman Concert Archives and visit Miami circa 1968 with The Jeff Beck Group featuring Rod Stewart, Ron Wood and Micky Waller and a blues ripper from the L.A. stop of the 2006 tour with the amazing Vinnie Colaiuta on the drums!

T2507 is a 59.8MB 128K mp3 1:05:58 in length made loud to be played loud!

"Oh Juanita I call your name"

RFW

Transmission 2407

Stephen Stills once said, " That's why we called the group Crosby, Stills, Nash (& Young) and not The Spiders, or something. Everybody would have a chance to Carry On their solo careers and do what we wanted in any combination we wanted, in order to make it as interesting as possible, continually updating our relationships and our approaches to music, always open to other influences". It was a prophetic statement that perfectly summarized the brilliant careers of these four master musicians. From the ashes of Buffaloes, Hollies and Byrds rose a group whose names are immediately recognized individually and yet indelibly synonymous with each other!

On today's transmission of RFW, we shine the spotlight on each of the four performing a song that they wrote and end with a rare live recording of C,S,N & Y at the Fillmore East in 1970. We start the show in jail with The Rolling Stones, Primal Srceam and The Clash!

T2407 is a 55.6MB 128k mp3 1:00:50 in length made loud to be played loud!

"Find the cost of freedom buried in the ground".

RFW