You Know Who... Feels So Good (?)

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Miss Maybell
Photo by Aiden Grant

I was at LIC Bar recently for a post-show libation, checking out the live music that they have gotten back to doing on Monday nights. I’ve seen a lot of great music there over the years. However, Monday nights are usually mostly singer/songwriters which usually cover the entire spectrum from shitty to pretty okay. As my wife had an early morning the next day, we were about to leave when Kerry, the bartender, told us: “You have to stick around for this next act. I think you’re really going to dig it.”
 
A couple took the stage wearing old-timey get-ups, the waif-like woman carrying a banjo while the gentleman sat himself behind an electric keyboard (one does have to make some concessions on smaller gigs) and proceeded to play an array of songs from the early part of the last century, most of which I had never heard.
 
As it turns out, this was by design, as Miss Maybell and Her Ragtime Romeos (only one Romeo tonight, but evidently she records and often performs with quite a few more, including a trumpeter that I used to know) were playing songs from her new album, Under the Midnight Moon, on which she featured material that, as far as they were able to find, had never been previously recorded. Not new songs, but songs from the 1890s through the 1920s when sheet music was still the most prevalent way of publishing music. It was an intriguing conceit and most of the songs had a lovely, quaint innocence about them, with perhaps just a slight bit of kitsch. All of them were delightful and played with reverence, but also enthusiasm.
 
Still, sometimes when you go to a show, you want to hear something that you know, and they did step out of the depression era to perform the old Big Big Broonzy song, “I Feel So Good.” I found myself singing along with, perhaps out of some vanity that needed to prove to the people around me that I had a familiarness with more arcane material. What can I say? I’m insecure and anti-social. Truth be told, I first heard that song from Boz Scaggs.
 
In any event, I bought their record, and it seemed like a good thing to include, and it inspired a couple of other picks too.
 
The “history lesson” portion of the show is chock full of awesomeness. August 17th, was the third day of the Woodstock Music and Art Fair, and I included performances by The Who and The Band (The Who were technically part of the previous evening’s programming, but they ended up taking the stage at five in the morning of the 17th). The rest of the lesson consists of some Texas roadhouse blue, some jazz-rock, a spot of grunge, some sophisti-pop, etc. etc.
 
There were some wonderful musicians born on this day, but really focused on Colin Moudling, `cause I didn’t feel like listening to anything else.
 
In all, a great bunch of tunes today.
 
Click here to check it out:
LIC Radio 8/17/2026
 
 
Santana
“Every Step of the Way”
(Michael Shrieve)
Dillon Stadium, Hartford, CT, 8/17/73
Studio version released on Caravanserai  (Columbia/CBS, 1972)
 
 
Keely Smith
"The Song Is You"
(Oscar Hammerstein II, Jerome Kern)
From Politely!  (Capitol, 1958)
 
Big Bill Broonzy


Miss Maybell and Her Ragtime Romeos
“New York, I’m All for You”  (from 1917)
(Edwin Weber)
From Under the Midnight Moon  (Rivermont, 2026)
 
 
Big Bill Broonzy
“I Feel So Good”
(Big Bill Broonzy)
Single A-side (Okeh, 1942)
 
 
Boz Scaggs
“I Feel So Good”
(Big Bill Broonzy)
Pacific High Studios, San Francisco, CA, 12/19/71
Originally recorded by Big Bill Broonzy; released as single A-side (Okeh, 1942)


The Who
“Amazing Journey” > “Sparks”
(Pete Townshend)
Woodstock Music and Art Fair, Bethel, NY, 8/17/69
Studio version released on Tommy  (Track/Decca, 1969)


The Band
“This Wheel’s on Fire”
(Bob Dylan, Rick Danko)
Woodstock Music and Art Fair, Bethel, NY, 8/17/69
Studio version released on  Music from Big Pink  (Capitol, 1968)
 
 
Terry Reid
“Faith to Arise”
(Terry Reid)
The Boarding House, San Francisco, CA, 8/17/76
Studio version released on Seed of Memory  (ABC, 1976)
 
 
ZZ Top
“Tush”
(Billy Gibbons, Dusty Hill, Frank Beard)
Toledo Speedway Jam II, Toledo, OH, 8/17/80
Studio version released on Fandango!  (London, 1975)
 
Stevie Ray Vaughan, 10/7/85
Photo by Mark Kunge
 
Stevie Ray Vaughan
“Couldn't Stand the Weather”
(Stevie Ray Vaughan)
Le Spectrum, Montreal, QC, 8/17/84
Studio version released on Couldn’t Stand the Weather  (Epic, 1984)
 
 
The Clash
“This Is Radio Clash”
(Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon, Topper Headon)
Civic Theater, Akron, OH, 8/17/82
Studio version released as single A-side (CBS, 1981)
 
 
Tina Turner
“Let’s Stay Together”
(Al Green, Willie Mitchell, Al Jackson Jr.)
Park West, Chicago, IL, 8/17/84
Studio version released on Private Dancer  (Capitol, 1984)
Originally recorded by Al Green; released on Let’s Stay Together  (Hi, 1972)
 
 
Bryan Ferry
“Kiss and Tell”
(Bryan Ferry)
CNE Grandstand, Toronto, ON, 8/17/1988
Studio version released on Bête Noire  (Virgin, 1987)
 
Walter Becker of Steely Dan, 8/17/96
Photo by Dana Nalbandian


Steely Dan
“Jack of Speed”
(Walter Becker, Donald Fagen)
Gorge Amphitheater, George, WA, 8/17/96
Studio version released on Two Against Nature  (Giant, 2000)
 
 
Nirvana
“About a Girl”
(Kurt Cobain)
Hollywood Palladium, Hollywood, CA, 8/17/90
Studio version released on Bleach  (Sub Pop, 1989)
 
 
Foo Fighters
“Everlong”
(Dave Grohl)
Bizarre Festival, Weeze, DE,  8/17/01
Studio version released on The Colour and the Shape  (Roswell, Capitol, 1997)


XTC
“Runaways”
(Colin Moulding)
Paradiso, Amsterdam, NL, 3/8/82
Studio version released on English Settlement  (Virgin, 1982)
 
Colin Moulding of XTC, 11/15/77
Photo by Gus Stewart

 
XTC
“Life Begins at the Hop”
(Colin Moulding)
My Father's Place, Old Roslyn, NY, 12/2/80
Studio version as single A-side (Virgin, 1979)
 
 
XTC
“Making Plans for Nigel”
(Colin Moulding)
Farquhar Auditorium, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, 3/2/80
Studio version released on Drums and Wires  (Virgin, 1979)
 
 
Eric Johnson
“Cliffs of Dover”
(Eric Johnson)
Boulder Theater, Boulder, CO, 4/14/90
Studio version released on Ah Via Musicom  (Capitol, 1990)

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