Let Ray

Ray Charles - I Don't Need No Doctor
Ray Charles - Sticks and Stones
Ray Charles - I'm Movin' On
Ray Charles - Night Time Is the Right Time
Ray Charles - I Chose to Sing the Blues
Ray Charles & Jimmy Lewis - If It Wasn't for Bad Luck

I've been listening to a lot of Brother Ray recently and here are some of the more upbeat (tempo wise) cuts that have been floating my boat. From the Northern favourite 'I Don't Need No Doctor' to the perfect-double-act funky blues of "If It Wasn't for Bad Luck', these are the cream of the cream.

Hit the road Jack - YouTube

Strange Happenings

The Revels - Intoxica
Rex Garvin - Strange Happenings
Vampires' Sound Incorporation - The Lions and the Cucumber
The Gamblers - LSD-25
The Fender Four - Margaya
The Rhythm Rockers - Madness

Some instrumental weird-but-goodness for you all today. Starting with the pioneering surf party band, The Revels, with a song that possibly inspired the name of a great record store in West London. Then onto the mysterious Rex Garvin and the Mighty Cravers from 1971 on the Chieftain label, complete with horror sound effects. This segues nicely into the soundtrack to one of the top films of the lesbian vampire genre. The Gamblers then strum tribute to Albert Hoffman's problem child and were apparently the first group to do so -- thereby starting a whole genre known as psychedelic rock. Reality is ambiguous sometimes. The Fender Four give us their Dick Dale and Buddha inspired 'Margaya' and finally The Rhythm Rockers lose it with 'Madness'.

Vampyros Lesbos trailer