Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Tina the Go Go Queen

Back in our undergraduate days, my friend Tina winced every time this Panther Burns song came on. (You really shouldn't play this song for your kids. Don't let your babies grow up to be strippers.) But we didn't play it to offend Tina with the saucy lyrics or the uncomplimentary body images. We liked its laid-back bounce, with that tasty organ sound and the cool horn fills, plus Tav Falco's charmingly amateur voice slipping in and out of synch with his backup singers. And Alex Chilton lays down some cubist blues on the guitar solo.

Gustavo "Tav" Falco is (or was) a Memphis performance artist and modern Delta blues historian. His band, the Panther Burns, have a rather messy discography with releases on many labels, including Rough Trade, New Rose, Chris Stein's short-lived Animal Records, and Falco's own Frenzi label. "Tina the Go Go Queen" appeared on the Panther Burns' first album, Behind the Magnolia Curtain. "Tina" is also included on Characters, a very interesting compilation of story-songs by modern outsiders (ranging from Jim Dickinson to The Ledgendary Stardust Cowboy), which you can buy here for three bucks postpaid.

ADDENDUM: "Tina" actually first appeared on the Sugar Ditch Revisited mini-LP (thanks for the correction, Oliver!) There's a Tav Falco website with news and illustrated discography here.

Tav Falco's Panther Burns: Tina the Go Go Queen

4 Comments:

At 5/14/2006 9:19 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

I thought annoying here was the sole purpose of playing the song. Now that I am all up and grown I see that its got merits beyond that.

 
At 6/05/2006 9:36 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

Actually this song is on the Tav Falco/Panther Burns album Sugar Ditch Revisited.

 
At 6/06/2006 11:28 AM , Blogger jonder said...

Thanks for the correction, Oliver. I don't own those records (my roommate did) so I get them mixed up. I wish I had Sugar Ditch and The World We Knew...

 
At 8/01/2010 12:19 PM , Blogger M.T. Wallet said...

this song was originally performed by the Fiestas as "Tina the Disco Queen", and was written by Sir Mack Rice (the guy who wrote Mustang Sally)

 

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