Lefty Frizzell and Abe Mulkey. I talked to Abe 3 times on the phone. He was just the coolest guy ever. RIP. Here they are on the Porter Wagoner Show around 1965
Sam and Dave! That's Booker T. Jones on organ, Steve Cropper on Telecaster, Duck Dunn on Fender bass and Al Jackson on drums - collectively known as Booker T. and the MG's, the best rhythm section ever!
Buck Owens, Don Rich on Tele, Tom Brumley on steel, Doyle Holly on Fender bass and Willie Cantu on trap, aka Buck Owens and the Buckaroos!
This clip transcends the shitty audio quality. 1973-ASS FUNK. Tower of Power, the original line-up, Lenny Williams singin' his soulful ass off, Rocco Prestia hammering out the funkiest eigth-notes on Fender bass through an SVT and two 8-10 cabinets (from what I can tell), and Dave Garibaldi on drums makin' all the Betties shake their booties, and of course those funky-ass horns! Have you become a part of the new breed?
Actually they left my favorite verse out - I guess for TV censorship reasons. Goddammit, you can have 900 shows on TV about murder and rape but God forbid you should have a line in a song about smoking weed. The verse they left out goes somethin like this: "So you became part of the new breed, been smoking only the best weed, hanging out with so-called hippie set. Been seen in all the right places, seen with just the right faces. You should be satisfied, but still it ain't quite right - What is Hip?
Mingus in the 70's
Miles Davis and the 2nd quintet, or the cocaine quintet as you may know them. That's Wayne Shorter on sax, Herbie Hancock on piano, Tony Williams (he's like 18 years old here) on drums and the great Ron Carter on bass.
Astrud Gilberto with Stan Getz on tenor
John Coltrane with the Wynton Kelly Trio! Wynton plays piano and swings his ass off, Jimmy Cobb on drums, one of my favs, and probably the best bass player of all time, Paul Chambers (check out his arco solo).
George Jones singing one of my all-time favorites, The Grand Tour. During one particularly heartbroken period, I played this song by Jones and another version by Aaron Neville back-to-back, over and over for like 30 days straight. It's about the saddest song ever written (thank you George Richey, Carmol Taylor and Norris Wilson)
While we're on sad George Jones songs...