I got the fever, too

Our pal Kevin over at Got the Fever is out with a fine post on one of his obscure faves, the sizzling Latin group Cecilia Noel and the Wild Clams.

That got my attention because Noel is married to one of my obscure faves, Colin Hay. That’s right, the guy who was the lead singer in Men at Work back in the ’80s.

Lest you think I’m wallowing in nostalgia, let me assure you that Colin Hay is a terrific solo artist these days. I had a chance to meet him briefly after he (and Noel) played a wonderful show at our local casino lounge a couple of years ago, and he is gracious and good-natured.

Hay still plays some of the Men at Work tunes, going acoustic with some, tweaking others and doing it all with a smile. Some of his newer tunes are just as good. (That reminds me. I still haven’t gotten around to getting the album he released last year, “Are You Lookin’ At Me?”)

Here, then, is the best of both worlds, one of those old Men at Work tunes redone energetically by Hay, Noel and the Wild Clams.

“Down Under,” Colin Hay with Cecilia Noel and the Wild Clams, from “Man @ Work,” 2003.

Here’s a video of Hay and Noel doing another wild version of that tune.

Wade in the water with me

Sometimes, teenagers surprise you. Other times, they do exactly what you think they’ll do.

Yesterday, I mentioned to our 13-year-old that I would be washing the car this afternoon. Evan said he’d like to help.

So when I got started this afternoon, there was no Evan. No surprise.

By the time the windows were done inside and out, Janet popped out the door and said, “It looks nice!”

Evan joined her at the door, and I asked him, “You gonna help?”

A big, crooked smile crossed his face and he started rolling up his sweats. (Sweats? In 80-degree weather? Don’t ask.)

13-year-old + hose + water + Dad = hilarity ensues.

Evan washed the wheel covers. Then he started spraying water in the air, giving himself a (much-needed) shower.

Then he started spraying Dad, the centerpiece of his nefarious plot all along. As I knew it would be.

Classic, just like this.

“Wade in the Water,” the Ramsey Lewis Trio, 1966, from “Chess Classics,” a CD that came with the August 2005 issue of Mojo magazine. Also available on “20th Century Masters — The Millenium Collection: The Best of Ramsey Lewis,” a 2002 CD release.

The perfect vibe for a lazy, sunny late-summer afternoon.

Shaft and the paper boy

Peering far into the distance on this Vinyl Record Day, this is how a vinyl record collection starts.

You are 14 and just beginning ninth grade. Your constant companion after school is the Top 40 AM radio of the day, as cranked out on WOKY, The Mighty 92, out of Milwaukee.

One day in the early fall of 1971, your mind is blown by a driving mix of high-hat drums, gritty wah-wah guitar, elegantly orchestrated horns and strings, a deep baritone lead vocal and angelic backup vocals.

It is, of course, “Theme from Shaft,” by Isaac Hayes.

So I took some of my paper route money, went downtown to Prange’s, went down to the record department in the basement and bought the soundtrack to “Shaft” by Isaac Hayes.

Every note, every nuance of “Shaft” was seared into memory, and is still there. You get to know your albums intimately when you have only four.

At the time, “Shaft” sat next to Neil Diamond’s “Tap Root Manuscript,” Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Green River” and “The Best of Bill Cosby” on the shelf in my bedroom. I played those four records over and over, committing them to memory, getting the grooves down.

“Shaft” had the most groove, of course. So much so that I envisioned it as the music I’d play if I ever got some time alone with a certain girl. In the fall of 1971, that was just a 14-year-old’s wishful thinking, and that is exactly what it remained.

The sophistication I never got to express to that certain girl instead helped shape my record collection. The soul, R&B and jazz on the four sides of “Shaft” introduced me to those genres in ways the Top 40 did not, forging some eclectic tastes that remain to this day.

I’d like to say I continued to buy funk, soul and R&B albums that were every bit as adventurous as “Shaft” seemed to a 14-year-old. But no.

A couple of months I bought “Shaft,” we moved to another part of Wisconsin. I left behind Top 40 AM radio and moved on to free-form FM radio. What I learned of funk, soul and R&B after that was what hit the charts and got daytime radio play, or whatever I heard in the clubs, which in central Wisconsin in the mid-’70s was much the same.

Now I’m trying to make up for lost time. As I go crate digging, I’m most often looking for funk, soul and R&B records I should have bought long ago. I look for, but rarely find, anything by Isaac Hayes. In our once-all-too-white corner of Wisconsin, few people bought funk, soul and R&B albums when they came out. That makes them hard to find today.

Last Friday afternoon, a younger gent and I were looking for similar things as we dug through boxes of dollar records in a tent in the back yard of one of our local record sellers. It already had been a big day for me, with records by Curtis Mayfield and MFSB in my stack. The other gent had records by Marvin Gaye and Earl Klugh.

Then I noticed he’d added the “Shaft” soundtrack to his stack. Those same four sides by Isaac Hayes. I’d been through that box before him, saw “Shaft” and thought: “There’s something you never see.”

“You familiar with that?” I asked him.

“Yeah, a little bit,” he said.

I took that to mean he knows “Theme from Shaft.”

“Oh, you’re really gonna like it,” I said.

“That was one of the first records I ever bought when I was a kid.”

“Shaft” has moved 10 times with me since 1971, and it’s still sitting here in the office, just behind me.

“Shaft” was the first album I wrote about here at AM, Then FM.

Please enjoy a couple of tunes from “Shaft.” Lord knows I have.

“Walk from Regio’s” and “Cafe Regio’s,” Isaac Hayes, from “Shaft” original soundtrack, 1971.

Isaac Hayes, Aug. 20, 1942-Aug. 10, 2008.

All this, and the Duke, too. Peace, my man.

Baby, you can drive my car

When a story asks “Hey, was that Paul McCartney at the Route 66 Welcome Center at the museum in Joliet, Illinois?” you must read it.

Mary Schmich has that story in today’s Chicago Tribune.

Need further proof? People magazine confirms it. Macca and his new girlfriend, Nancy Shevell, are on vacation, driving the Mother Road from Chicago to L.A.

And then another Macca sighting along Route 66! He stops to use the restroom in Springfield, Illinois.

In that spirit, here are three swell versions of the tune written in 1946 by Bobby Troup.

“Route 66,” Chuck Berry, from the “Cars” original soundtrack, 2006.

Because you must have a road song by Chuck Berry. Listen for the detour at the end.

“Route 66,” Marcia Ball, from “More Songs of Route 66: Roadside Attractions,” 2001.

Because I would ride anywhere with Miss Ball, the lovely swing pianist from Austin, Texas. (And because this version has a trippy, Beatlesque intro that’s reminiscent of “A Day in the Life.”)

“Route 66,” the Joneses, from “Tits and Champagne,” a 1989 EP that’s out of print but is available on eMusic.

Because I wouldn’t have heard this cover from this ’80s “rock ‘n’ roll sleaze band” from Hollywood were it not for our man Aikin over at Licorice Pizza, who posted it a month ago. Thank you, sir.

As long as we’re talking about the road, check out this week’s series of songs about cars over at Star Maker Machine, a swell read in its own right.

Alternate universe

Imagine believing for 35 years that you have a certain song in your collection, only to find that for 35 years, you’ve been wrong. So it is with “Smoke on the Water.”

I was certain I’d had it on vinyl since I was in high school. But as I was digging through our albums a while back, I realized I don’t have Deep Purple’s “Machine Head.” Never have.

Yet when I went to a record show a couple of weeks ago in beautiful suburban New Brighton, Minnesota, I passed on several chances to pick up “Machine Head.” Didn’t really need it. I already have an album that has — for me, at least — the definitive version of “Smoke on the Water.”

“Smoke on the Water,” Deep Purple, from “24 Carat Purple,” a best-of album from 1975. (It’s taken from “Made in Japan,” their 1972 live album. It was recorded 36 years ago this month, on Aug. 15, 1972, in Osaka, Japan.)

It took me exactly 20 seconds to be sold on this version. That’s how long Ritchie Blackmore’s heavy false start lasts before he kicks into the tune as you know it. It’s worth it for that alone.

That this version also has spectacular solos by Blackmore and keyboard player Jon Lord — and some fierce lick-trading between them at the end — is just icing on the cake.

It also was a hit at the only party we ever had at my house. But that’s another story for another day.