Dead Moon
Parchment Farm b/w Hey Joe
scum stats: first 200 with no catalog number and reversed labels, a bunch of indistinguishable copies after that
Been reading the massive Dead Moon book put out by Mississippi Records lately when I can steal moments away from these three girls progressively taking years off my life. It's a trip and I love the idea of a band of their stature being documented in such a manner. They're underground legends, sure, but many folks would scoff at the idea of a book of this breadth and scope dedicated to them.
I harken back to the words of one of my mentors, Johan Kugelberg, who very simply stated that the great bands should be treated just like the great "fine" artists...with a dedicated monograph. Johan himself has done pretty solid jobs on books of this nature for both the Velvet Underground and the Sex Pistols. Maybe this is the approach I should take for a White Stripes book?
Anyway, this version of "Parchment Farm" (sometimes spelled "Parchman") is single-handedly responsible for me ALWAYS listening to any version of the song I find when out digging. I will save you the time and let you in on the secret that NONE of the other versions sound like this. They don't even come close. This is the best version of this song, hands-down. Just pure, unadulterated rock and roll. If you can't get behind this, just give up on life.
And you can never go wrong with a cover of "Hey Joe." Ever. The song is timeless.
Gotta go...someone's crying, there's poop in the air and I'm still wearing my pajamas at 2pm.
Thanks Ben for enlightening me to another band I did not know existed until now. A White Stripes book is definitely a great idea. You should coincide the release of the book with the induction of The White Stripes into the rock ‘n’ roll hall of fame. You know it’s going to happen in 2024! I believe that is 25 years after the release of their S/T album. I really hope the Meg will play at the induction ceremony. I know I am getting way ahead of myself on this but I have been thinking about this since I just voted for the 2018 inductees. Can’t believe the MC5 are not already in the hall. What a travesty. Hopefully they will rectify it when they announce the class of 2018. I am going to see the MC50 show at TMR Cass on Oct. 30th. I can’t wait. It should be a great show! Thanks TMR!
On our 2016 “American Roots Music” Theme Time Family Vacation (Nashville-Memphis-Clarksdale) we drove by “Parchman Farm” on our way to find the grave site of Sonny Boy Williamson II in Tutwiler. The place looked frozen in time, with a big ugly butter yellow gateway, and I half expected to see a chain gain busting rocks along the two lane highway, calling their tan polyester-clad prison guards “Boss” to avoid 48 hours of solitary in a scorching corrugated tin shack. I knew Son House had spent some time there, so quickly found one of his songs on the vacation playlist. We’d been listening to Charlie Patton, because our previous roadside stop was Dockery Farm. (Jack once shared in the Vault chat that he had reverently stolen a nail from the floor of an old house at Dockery.) That’s the Holy Land of Blues, and everything that followed, down in that region of Mississippi, in part because much of the music was born out of very real and intense cruelty and suffering.
I never heard the Dead Moon before, but they seem to have been righteous stewards of this heavy song when they brought it to life some 60 years after Bukka White wrote it. Pure and unadulterated, indeed. Thanks!
Ca c’est du bon son….!