Tune into Hell's Kitchen Radio, with John Hell, every Monday night 8-10PM (Pacific), on Radio Valencia (https://radiovalencia.fm) in San Francisco. You can find my playlists and links to the podcasts right here.
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A night of risk-taking on the ol' radio stream. Or is it Internet stream? Am I allowed to call this radio? We don't broadcast on the FM/AM. We have no antenna. There's no static coming across the line. Am I remiss if I say I have a "radio show"? Or do I have to be all literal and state that I host a two-hour Internet music program each Monday night? That's not very sexy.
Then again, neither am I.
This show however is the bees knees! Just take a gander at that playlist sitting there in front of you. Kraut Rock, Hard Bob, 60s French-Canadian Garage, West African Funk, Midwest Balkanese, and so much more.
How do I do it?!?!?!?!
Enjoy.
jh
Hell's Kitchen Radio with John Hell Mondays 8-10PM Radio Valencia in SF http://radiovalencia.fm
The Bump: George Freeman
Moonstruck: Malone Barnes and Spontaneous Simplicity
Season of the Witch: Donovan
Happy Boy: The Beat Farmers
La Moustache A Papa: Anna Bell
The Lady Loves Me: Elvis Presley and Anne Margaret
Staring at the Sun: Wooden Shjips
Bang Bang: Nancy Sinatra
Brainstorm: Hawkwind
Truth: Alexander Ebert
Leave It (A Capella): Yes
Telephone Girl: Assagai
Rhineland: Beirut
Diamond In Your Mind: Tom Waits and Kronos Quartet
Reaching Through To The Other Side: My Brightest Diamond
Feeling Good (Troublemaker Remix): Nina Simone
Rope Ladder To The Moon: Colosseum (August 22, 1970 Finland)
Little Man With A Gun In His Hand: Minutemen
I found Judge Roy Moore's iPod and you would not believe what he has on this thing! He has a playlist called "Statutory Rock". It's all songs about sex with underage girls, mostly. Dude! I just had to play it on my show. Who knew there were so many songs about having illegal sex with people underage? If you lived in the 70s then you pretty much figured that was happening all the time. And if you live in Alabama today then you probably have kids with someone who is currently underage, and it's possible your sister or brother or some kinda relative anyway. Yes, I went there.
I grew up wishing I had graduated from a San Francisco high school in 1964 so that by the Summer of Love in 1967 I would 21 years old and able to fully immerse myself in everything that era had to offer. It's the music of that time that influenced me the most during my adolescent years, when I was moving past what played on the home hi-fi and more into discovering my own likes. It was that swirling psychedelic music and it was that message of change and opportunity that grabbed me most.
My family moved to the Bay Area in late 1982 when I was 12 years and I knew right away what a special place San Francisco was. In our first excursion into the city my parents wanted to tour Fisherman's Wharf, I wanted to go to the Haight. Of course by 1982 the Haight was long past its hippy prime and deep in its lost years of heroin and speed and closed storefronts. That didn't stop me from searching this great city and colorful neighborhoods for any crumb that remained from the vibe that the Summer of Love hoped to propagate following 1967. Today the area is inundated by boutiques and way too many Tibetan importers and head shops; not to mention countless tourists, who, like me, are looking for a shred of evidence that there was once an energy of love that attempted to take our nation to a higher level, overcoming war and grief and capitalism. And let's not forget the number of homeless teens and 20-somethings who have been termed out of foster care, who call the doorways of Haight Street their home.
It was the swirling music, colorful fashion, and risk-taking youth that took precedence at that time. It was the music industry that bastardized it and made way for the punk movement of the 70s/80s. But before that all came to pass we have to appreciate what the bands of the time were doing. San Fransisco was one hell of a great scene. Great clubs, like the Avalon Ballroom, Carousel, Fillmore, Family Dog at the Great Highway had the best bands playing their stages night after night. And promoters like Chet Helms and Bill Graham were pairing local rock bands with legendary blues and jazz artists, opening the ears of the audience to sights and sounds they may never have taken the time to check out on their own.
We are all better for 1967 and San Francisco.
Two books I'd like to recommend that will shed much better light on that era include Joel Selvin's
"Summer of Love", and David Talbot's "Season of the Witch". The latter starts in 67 and works its way up through the first 49er Super Bowl win in early 1982. Both are definitely worth your time, especially if you hold a place in your heart for San Francisco.
As for the music I chose for this show, it's all from 1967, and most are west coast American bands. in retrospect I could have chosen more obscure acts from that year, or other, more current bands, covering these songs, below. Instead I played music that really moved me as I was growing up. And isn't that the job of the DJ, to move you the way they have been?
My friend Linda Kelly, managing editor of the local rag Haight Street Voice was hanging out in the studio with me too. She was interviewing me for the August issue. It's a free paper, so pick it up when you see it, or go online to check it out. I hope she doesn't make me sound too bitter. It's been a challenging year when it comes to my love for SF. But isn't that like all relationships? We'll see it through to the end.
Wednesday I had the chance to take in the Summer of Love exhibition at the deYoung Museum in Golden Gate Park. It was more than I could have hoped for. If you live in the Bay Area make sure you get to this show before it closes, August 20th.
Next Monday night is lots of new music and the return of Little Lauson Hell!!!
Enjoy.
jh
Hell's Kitchen Radio with John Hell Mondays 8-10PM Radio Valencia in SF http://radiovalencia.fm
Oh boy, Memorial Day once again. We really do need to stop having these. Do me a favor, if you really want to thank a veteran, punch a politician in the face. Tell them John Hell said it was OK.
The first hour features my subversive Memorial Day "celebration". I don't think you can make popsicles with them. I'll have to ask Ivanka. That woman can make a popsicle out of any national holiday.
I gave tickets away tonight to go see Dave and Phil Alvin and the Guilty Ones at Great American Music Hall for this Thursday night. This promises to be a great show, so congrats to the winners and I'll see you there. BTW, I give tickets away from time to time, so tune in and WIN!
The second hour of my show was yet another tribute to a fallen musical comrade. Vocalist and keyboardist Gregg Allman of the Allman Brothers Band passed away this past weekend at the age of 69, from complications from liver cancer at his home in Savannah, Georgia. Growing up I was a huge fan of Duane-era Allman Brothers. What a band! Someone asked me once, "if the Grateful Dead were playing at one club, and down the street Duane-era Allman Brothers were playing at another club, which band would you go and see?" That is a damn tough question to answer? Though they are both "jam" bands, the Allman's always were so in a more structured vein. And there jams could really fly. Consummate musical professionals. I think I would have wanted to have seen the Allman's, especially if this were 1971. That band was on FIRE that year. Just take a listen to the Live at the Fillmore East box set. Each note is alive with energy. Well, he's with Duane, Berry, and Butch now, getting the band back together. I can only imagine how much fun that must be. Dreams, indeed.
Full disclosure: I never once saw the Allman Brothers live. Not once. I own quite a few live boots of theirs too. They do not support live taping or trading of their music, so shows, especially soundboards are very hard to come by. I'm lucky enough to know people who know people. I pulled out some tasty treats from my collection to showcase Gregg and the whole band, but I stayed in the Duane-era world that I love so much.
Next Monday night on my show I'm excited to have P-Funk guitarist RonKat Spearman in the studio to share his many road stories and play some music from his own band Katdelic. This ought to be a lot of fun. Tune in Monday, June 5th, 8-10PM on Radio Valencia.
Thanks to everyone who came out to Folio Books in Noe Valley last week to see me interview local music critic Joel Selvin about his book "Altamont". Joel is a great interviewee. I ask him one question and he takes it from there. He almost seemed a little too happy to be there. He sold a few books, and a couple people even asked me to autograph it! Sure, why not?
Check out the playlist below and click the links above to stream or download last night's show. Please share this page with all the music-lovers in your life.
Way Down in the Hole: Maggie Bell
Little Boy Soldiers: The Jam
1916: Motorhead
The Unknown Soldier: The Doors
I Don't Wanna Be A Soldier, Mama: John Lennon
Some Mother's Son: The Kinks
Universal Soldier: Donovan
Fish Cheer/I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin-To-Die Rag: Country Joe and the Fish
Masters of War: Bob Dylan
War/No More Trouble: Bob Marley and the Wailers
The Fiddle and the Drum: Joni Mitchell
Eight Miles High: Golden Earring
Jubilee Train/Do Re Mi/Promised Land: Dave Alvin and the Guilty Men
Gregg Allman Tribute:
BB King Medley: The Hourglass (1968)
Dreams: The Allman Brothers Band (Ludlow Garage, Cincinnati, Ohio 1971)
Midnight Rider: The Allman Brothers Band (06-27-1971 Fillmore East, NYC, NY)
Done Somebody Wrong: The Allman Brothers Band (03-12-1971 Fillmore East, NYC, NY)
Every Hungry Woman: The Allman Brothers Band (07-03-1970 Atlanta Pop Festival, Byron, GA)
Ain't Waistin' Time No More: The Allman Brothers Band (04-07-1972 Manley Fieldhouse, Syracuse, NY)
Though I never saw them in person, thank goodness for YouTube. Check out their set from the Fillmore East, 09-23-1970.
Stream this Salute to ROCK, HERE! Download your Memorial Memories, HERE! Listen into all my shows here, or just scroll down Subscribe to my show, via
It was Memorial Day last Monday night. How am I supposed to celebrate this day? I think the playlist says it all. I'm certainly not going to make it all about John Philip Sousa. I'm a pacifist at heart. Really. I don't see any reason why the working class would ever want war. War is only for war profiteers.
In the second hour I feature some new music from Thee Oh Sees (who are coming to The Chapel in SF in July), Metz (who are playing Outside Lands in SF in August), White Hills, Queen Crescent (playing at El Rio in July), Tad Doyle's new band: Brothers of the Sonic Cloth, and Father John Misty. It's a fun night, worth the price of my rants alone.
I'm not on the air tonight, as I'm back east in South Carolina for a few days. I haven't been here since I was a wee lad, visiting Myrtle Beach back in 1977. Though I would never wish to leave my beautiful San Francisco for anywhere else, traveling to destinations like Hilton Head, South Carolina does indeed clear my head.
