Jamie James

Each Thursday, we shipwreck one of your rock and roll icons on a desert island with eight songs, a crappy disco ball and a cart of their favourite pudding. This time, our very own Marc Freak is joined by rockabilly legend Jamie James of The Kingbees, prided for his partnerships with Harry Dean Stanton and Dennis Quaid. He’s back, re-releasing archive tracks from his long, ecclectic history that have never been heard before. How did that come about?

On Steppin’ Back, his new releases: “I was rummaging through my garage last year and found a bunch of old cassettes. I met an engineer by the name of John Miller and he’s a younger man but in awe of cassettes and old media used to hear music. He listened to a few of my cassettes and said, ‘I tell you, I can digitize these and send them to you so you can listen to them’. When I heard some of these, most had never been released before. I’d print off about a hundred to sell at a show or a park. I listened and thought I really like these, and we put them out as is. I just discovered a cassette from the Kingbees in 1980, and it was a simulcast on WLLR in New York, and I found another from January 1977 from a band I formed with the original player from Steppenwolf and a wonderful sounding band, so I’ll have to investigate whether there’s an interest putting that kind of archaic stuff out too.”

Jamie's Choices:

1.Jailhouse Rock by Elvis Presley
2.Choo Choo Ch’Boogie by Louis Jordan
3.I’m Shakin’ by Little Willie John
4.A Hard Day’s Night by The Beatles
5.Love me again by John Legend
6.Hot Fun in the Summertime by Sly and the Family Stone
7.Rebel Rebel by David Bowie
8.We didn’t get that far - but it would most likely have been Nirvana!

 As for his pudding? “Anything with Butterscotch in it, I want more of it, and I could eat it by the shipload for sure!”