Gratuitous Chuck E

hey, the new Gratuitous Echo, which drops Saturday night the 14th at 9, wants in on all this Chuck E. Weiss tribute jazz!  i mean, they don’t make em like Chuck E. any more, or, at least, not all that often.  so to pay proper respects to one of the all-time cool cats, the second half of Echo will be a six song tribute to ole Chuck, featuring some of his under appreciated and superb songs, like the amazing Bomb The Tracks, the awesome rocker where  Chuck comes out and asks Stalin, FDR, and Churchill why the hell you boys didn’t bomb the tracks that German trains were using to haul Jews to the Death Camps.  an incredibly powerful and heavy piece of work, unexpectedly coming from the usually easy-going and carefree Chuck E, and it’s delivered with Chuck’s sly offbeat and semi-surrealistic style.  it’s easily the best rock song i’ve heard in 2021, and it was released 7 years ago on Chuck E’s. “Red Beans and Weiss” cd.  better late than never!

so if you dig Chuck E., or if you wanna dig him…….get down and get widdit saturday night at 9 on Echo.  it’s half off night at the rebop shop, sucka!

 

R.I.P. Charles Edward Weiss (March 18, 1945 – July 20, 2021)

There’s not a radio station in the world that plays more Chuck E. Weiss than we do. For years & years. He was a cat’s cat.

Now, the years of waiting for a new album or a chance to see him live at his favorite dive piano bar in L.A., are over. Here’s the ‘obit’ story in the L.A. Times: [HERE]

His music will live on on the airwaves, at least long as Jiveradio exists. This week will be Chuck E. Week, so plan on loads and loads of real Weiss all week. That knucklehead stuff.

More reading: [HERE]

“He is a distant relative of Houdini’s; he’s a praying mantis riding an egret through a bad neighborhood. He’s a reverend waving a pistol around.” ~Tom Waits

Add a little FAT to your diet!

photo: Don Mussell

“Thin may be in, but Fats where it’s at!”

If you were around the S.F. Bay area in the late-70’s and knew anything about music, you heard of, and probably listened to, KFAT radio out of Gilroy, CA. And if you listen to the Jive, you may know we have TWO of the original air staff still on the air 50 years later…“Sister Tiny” and “Sully Roddy”. Both of them can be found in this SmugMug collage of pics around the KFAT studio of that era >HERE<.

Credit: A. West

Gratuitous Echo flashback

hey GE is gonna re-run an old but wonderfully peculiar and charismatic hour this saturday night, july 31st.  hope you like!

 

 

and here’s a poster from May ’66 to remind us……we HAVE made progress in certain key cultural areas.  GE is highly happy to service the ever-growing Dispensary Demo.

That F’n Uncle Sherman: “I ain’t goin’ nowhere yet!”

Another member of the original KFAT airstaff, the gruff but lovable curmudgeon Uncle Sherman, was headed into the final tunnel for geezers and has turned around with the help of hospice folks and some loving care. He’s now active on his facebook page and asking to say Hi! to folks either in-person or via FB [https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=sherman%20caughman].

His recent FB posts are predictably humorous. If you’ve ever loved his shows on KFAT & KPIG like we have, give him a shout and tell him the rascals over at Jive sent you!