Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

Giving in to doom is how we fail to fight for ourselves & one another.

A norm that restrains only one side really is not a norm – it is a trap.

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

The low info voters probably won’t even notice or remember by their next lap around the goldfish bowl.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

She burned that motherfucker down, and I am so here for it. Thank you, Caroline Kennedy.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

Republicans do not trust women.

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

Anne Laurie is a fucking hero in so many ways. ~ Betty Cracker

Live so that if you miss a day of work people aren’t hoping you’re dead.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

Do we throw up our hands or do we roll up our sleeves? (hint, door #2)

America is going up in flames. The NYTimes fawns over MAGA celebrities. No longer a real newspaper.

Prediction: the gop will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Giving in to doom is how authoritarians win.

You are here: Home / Music / I’m a gonna raise a holler

I’m a gonna raise a holler

by | 29 Comments

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Today, I’m debuting a new feature — Song Of The Week, courtesy of the excellent Can’t Explain blog. This one has a special place in my heart, because I vividly remember this ad for M Network (in my mind, Juice Newton was singing in the ad, but the internets tell me that’s not true).

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Eddie Cochran, “Summertime Blues” (1958)
This seems appropriate after a long tedious week of watching bad-faith Republicans squirm desperately for position (and not over yet), aka “Death Panels II: Dark of the Debt Ceiling.” I like that the singer here takes his problem to the United Nations but ends up talking to his Congressman. In my case, talking to my (freshman) Republican Congresscritter usually feels like it’s doing about as much good as taking my problem to the United Nations. This tune at least is some kind of relief, its exasperated wiseass teen griping nailed down to fine shtick, notably in the flat booming intonations of the walk-on grown-up parts, e.g., “Now you can’t use the car ‘cos you didn’t work late” or “I’d like to help you son but you’re too young to vote.” A million people have covered it over the 50+ years that followed, but I think Eddie Cochran’s is still the best (requires viewing on YouTube).

More versions:
Eddie Cochran 78
Eddie Cochran live
Blue Cheer
Who
Flying Lizards
Alan Jackson
Rush

Review at Can’t Explain

Reader Interactions

29Comments

  1. 1.

    stuckinred

    God, it seemed like such and old song when I saw Blue Cheer do it 43 years ago!

  3. 3.

    stuckinred

    Yea, I was at Ft Lewis in the summer of 68 and we’d go to Seattle and see lots of great music. Ever hear of the Sky River Rock Festival and Lighter than Air Fair?’

    http://www.washington.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=5425

    “On August 30, 1968, the Sky River Rock Festival and Lighter Than Air Fair opens a three-day run in a pasture near Sultan, in Snohomish County, Washington. This is one of America’s first multi-day, outdoor rock concerts. Among the bands and performers playing at the Sky River Rock Festival are Santana, Big Mama Thornton, James Cotton, Country Joe and the Fish, Richard Pryor, Dino Valenti, Byron Pope, It’s a Beautiful Day, Peanut Butter Conspiracy, Alice Stuart Thomas, the Youngbloods, New Lost City Ramblers, and local groups such as Juggernaut and Easy Chair. On the last day, The Grateful Dead arrive unscheduled. “

  5. 5.

    MaxxLange

    Oh man, this takes me back! Back to the sweltering restaurant dish rooms of Decatur, Ga, 1982

    where the boss said, “go back, son, you gotta work late”

  6. 6.

    MaxxLange

    Blue Cheer TOURED last year, if I am not mistaken….with at least one real member

  15. 15.

    Svensker

    Eddie Cochran’s definitely the best. Funny, I posted it last week on a music chat group I belong to.

  16. 16.

    debit

    See, I was going to say, “Didn’t that band that I can never remember the name of, but they had a T-Rex or Godzilla sort of creature on the cover of their album do a cover of this?”

    Then I remembered, no, it was another Eddie Cochran song and checked google. Twenty Flight Rock and the band was Montrose. What did we do before the internet?

    And now I feel very old.

  17. 17.

    the fenian

    The Woodstock clip of The Who is the prime version. Plus, you get to see the band.

  18. 18.

    Gregory

    Sly beat me to it. Setzer’s casting would have been the movie’s most perfect example of born-to-play-the-role had it not been for Marshall Crenshaw as Buddy Holly.

    On the soundtrack recording, you can hear a string break right before the last chorus. I’ve always loved that they left it in.

  19. 19.

    JoyousMN

    I always loved the Flying Lizards version of this song. Thanks for the reminder.

  23. 23.

    Hungry Joe

    The Blue Cheer version blew out the $6.99 speakers in my car’s 4-track stereo. Well, all of “Vincebus Eruptum” did, I guess. I still remember how great that 4-track sounded to my 1969 ears.

  27. 27.

    Captain Goto

    One more vote for Live at Leeds. I played that on the ride to the beach with my kid, maybe age 12…she didn’t know the old man had in in him.

  28. 28.

    pookapooka

    If you haven’t heard Flying Lizards, don’t talk to me about what’s the definitive version.

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