The Theory

July 2025
TRT: 1h13m45s

Been a minit since I made a new mix, but I got a friend coming over and I have to have something for him. Most of the time when I make a mix tape, it seems to be in the summer.

Structured as a double elpee (4 sides) with a short break between discs.

1. 2 seconds of silence

   I've started adding silence to the front of my tapes. I embed the covers of the original albums in the song files. If I make a cover for the mix itself, this gives me a file to attach it to; and since it's the first track, my cover will be the thumbnail for the folder.

Side A (20′01″)

2. The Dave Brubeck Quartet “Unsquare Dance”
   From Time Further Out: Miro Reflections (Columbia 1961)

   Fun little ditty. At first I thought the handclaps were switching from the upbeats to the downbeats evry other measure…& then I realized it was just in 7/8 time.

3. The Staple Singers “Great Day”
   From Hammer and Nails (Riverside 1962)

   Joyful song about all the sinners going to hell. With handclaps.

4. The Stooges “No Fun” (my edit)
   From The Stooges (Elektra 1969)

   A slab of garage rock with handclaps. Stooges doing the Stooges thing. How great were they? How great is that John Cale produced first album? I faded it out a little early, during the long guitar break at the end. Sorry but I have a lot to get to.

5. The Supremes“Where Did Our Love Go” (Motown 1964)

   A perfect pop record. Clap clap clap clap.

6. The Cars “My Best Friend’s Girl”
   From The Cars (Elektra 1978)

   Another perfect pop records. Clap-clap clap. Clap-clap clap-clap.

7. The Coup “Magic Clap”
   From Sorry To Bother You (Anti- 2012) (not to be confused with the movie of the same name—that came out 6 years later)

   Intense political rap band. Rap-funk-rock kinda. Uses the famous “let's go” handclap rhythm.

8. Donny Hathaway “The Ghetto” (excerpt)
   From Live (ATCO 1972)

   Just the last 2 minutes and change of the song, starting from whe Hathaway asks the audience for a soul clap. Then he asks them to sing, the women one part and the men another. The audience and the band do their thing beautifully. Raucous and laid-back at the same time.

Side B (20′43″)

9. Badfinger “No Matter What”
   From No Dice (Apple 1970)

   Classic Beatlesque love anthem saves its handclaps for the last verse. Not much in the lyrics department.

10. Big Star “O My Soul”
    From Radio City (Ardent 1974)

    Feel-good banger with major riffage and wailing vocals from Alex Chilton, major drum fills from Jody Stephens, and handclaps low in the mix.

11. Carla Thomas“B-A-B-Y” (Stax 1966)

    From one Memphis act to another. Hayes-Porter classic. Thickass horns. All the elements that made Stax Records records great. I finally gave up the handclap theme here.

12. Solange “Don’t Let Me Down”
    From True (Terrible Records 2013)

    Down beat song, super heavy drums. This eepee she made with Blood Orange is when Solange really started getting good.

13. Janelle Monáe feat. Solange “Electric Lady”
    From The Electric Lady (Bad Boy / Wondaland / Atlantic 2013)

    A Lot happening in this happy funky groove. Solange is one of several backing vocalists on this and that's it as far as I can tell despite her being listed as featured.

14. 6 seconds of silence

Side C (19′31″)

15. Mahavishnu Orchestra “Open Country Joy”
    From Birds of Fire (Columbia 1973)

    Starts out with some mellow, pretty fiddle stuff, takes a pause, and then gets right into some serious John McLaughlin shredding.

16. Men I Trust “Show Me How”
    From Oncle Jazz (2019)

    Supermellow atmospheric love song. Dok says it reminds him of Philly Soul.

17. Sly and the Family Stone “In Time”
    From FRESH (Epic 1973)

    Stretchd out funk with a little drum machine. RIP to Sly Stone, a singular artist.

18. Pungo “Ha!”
    From Waltz (1985)

    Gettin weird in the back half. Japanese noise punk? Or something. Super loud and slitely off-kilter sax, accordion, guitar, drums and grunts comin' right at you.

19. The Four Kings “Rag Mop” (Stomper Time Records 1958)

    Originally originally, Rag Mop was a lightning fast jazz number by Henry “Red” Allen from 1946 called “Get The Mop”. Johnnie Lee Willis and Deacon Anderson made it into a Western Swing tune, adding the “ragg” part, in '49. The Ames Brothers did a popular cover. This is a more 50s R&B kind of take with real bright horns. A hundred acts have coverd it. Did the Blues Brothers ever use it? Seems like the kind of song theyd do.

20. Deejay patter from the Hound’s July 26, 1986 show, archived at thehound.net

    The Hound backsells the “essentially stupid Rag Mop.”

    In the 80s & 90s, the Hound spun rare 45s evry Saturday morning on legendary East Orange NJ community radio station WMFU. A huge number of his shows are available at thehound.net. I recommend listening. It's a true treasure trove of rock & roll, are & bea, blues, jump, country, rockabilly, Western swing, etc etc etc. A lot of it you've never heard before.

Side D (13′43″)

21. Jessie Mae Hemphill “Black Cat Bone”
    From She-Wolf (Vogue 1981 / High Water Recording Company 1998)

    Really great Hill Country Blues. Tambourine.

22. Sade “Please Send Me Someone To Love”
    From the Philadelphia soundtrack (Epic 1993)

    I'm just saying it's confusing when the band and the singer in the band have the same name. Sade take on the soul/blues standard. About as laid back as you can get.

23. The Shirelles “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” (Scepter 1960)

    A really nice Goffin-King song. Watch this video of the Shirelles on some tee vee show. Four young ladies just having a great time.

24. 4 seconds of silence

 

25. Coda: Pete Ham “No Matter What” (solo acoustic demo)
    From 7 Park Avenue (Ryko 1997)

    Reprise of the Badfinger toon. I never really gave this song a second thought…it was one of those songs always in the background on Classic Rock radio…until my friend lent me this collection of Pete Ham's demo recordings. You know, sometimes you realize how good a song is when you hear it strippd. Really nice. And that's the end!

26. 2 seconds of silence