I'd love to hear Paul's answer to the question of why they performed covers in concert. I suspect the answer might be because, in terms of performance, the band didn't see their originals as being much different from the covers. But I doubt the answer would be because they didn't have enough original material. And their originals were all really well known. They didn't perform long sets, they were only on stage about 35 to 40 minutes per show and they would do about 10 - 12 songs so they didn't need that much material.
Interesting. I bought the complete set a few years ago when they were re-issued in paperback with cool retro covers. I read the first one and found it kind of depressing (and I knew going in that they would be very different from the movies). I still hope to read them all someday, but my enthusiasm was diminished. Hmm, there's a comic-book crossover idea. Ah, well. Just for that, I'm going to go stir my tea.
_______ Dragnet 1968 "The Little Victim" Originally aired February 15, 1968 Wednesday, October 18 (1967?): Friday and Gannon are working the day watch out of Juvenile Division when Friday has been assigned to deliver a speech on child abuse at the monthly luncheon of the Pacific Women's Club. I was expecting this to be one of those expository infodump scenes, but it was surprisingly brief. While there, they get a call from a police liaison at a children's hospital about a nine-month old boy with injuries that seem likely to have been caused by abuse. X-rays indicate prior beatings as well. When she eventually visits the hospital, the mother, Louise Marshall (Brooke Bundy), insists that Andy fell down a flight of stairs. They go to the Marshalls' apartment building to talk to a downstairs neighbor, Ruth Fowler (Jean Howell), and get their second indication that Louise's husband, Wally Marshall, is known for his bad temper. Visiting the Marshall apartment, Louise's story indicates that Walter didn't want the baby, and that she's walking on eggshells to keep the baby from bothering him. Wally (Kiel Martin) then comes home, and is angry to learn that she took the baby to the hospital. As he calms down and attempts to project a facade of normality, she becomes more hysterical and openly admits that he's been hurting Andy. Wally goes back to being angrily self-absorbed, and is taken downtown. Wally Marshall: I've got my rights! Joe Friday: Yeah...even you've got your rights. Friday relays in voiceover how Marshall was sentenced to a year in jail; and how after a probation period and the beginning of divorce proceedings, the baby was returned to Louise's custody. Then, over a year later, on March 2 (a partly readable wall calendar indicates a Thursday, which would also match 1967), they get a call from Ruth Fowler that the baby's being beaten again. By the time Friday and Gannon arrive, two black & white units are there along with a doctor, who declares the baby dead. Wally's there, having come by for a visit. Louise insists that now everything can be like it was before the baby. It's noteworthy that the child was never clearly depicted onscreen. We saw a little arm once when the detectives were reacting to his injuries. _______ The Wild Wild West "The Night of the Simian Terror" Originally aired February 16, 1968 Jim and Artie are working the night watch out of Presidential Errands Division when they pay a visit to Senator Buckley (Dabbs Greer) at his home in Kansas to try to get his butt back to Washington to get some legislation back on track. Jim hears a commotion outside and finds that the Senator's caretaker, Fletcher (James Gavin), has been brutally attacked, and his guard dog is acting spooked. The Senator's sons try to stop Jim from investigating, even resorting to ambushing him at one point, obviously trying to hide what's out there. The family doctor, Von Liebig (John Abbott) makes a house call to declare Fletcher dead. Artie thinks he recognizes the doctor's name, but he doesn't recall from where. Artie spies on an expository conference of Buckley's Three Sons through the floor of the room above, but is attacked from behind by the Senator. When he comes to, Artie is able to tell Jim that one of the sons, Benjamin (Felice Orlandi), was heading to the church to destroy the family records there, but when Jim finds him he's dead of an attack similar to the one that killed Fletcher. The Reverend (John S. Ragin) says that he saw something that looked like an ape. Neither of them saw that before Jim got there, Benjamin had been approached by somebody named Dimas (Richard Kiel). With the help of a book of biographies, Artie finds that Von Liebig is a noted anthropologist and expert on apes. He pays a visit to the doctor disguised as a curious colleague, inquiring about his experiments. He then snoops around the place and Dimas comes out of a secret passage. Artie tries to evade Dimas's attacks, learning that the man can break chains and bend bars, but is trapped in a cage, which he later gets out of via thermite. Relating the incident to Jim, he describes Dimas as a "hulk". Jim and Artie hear from a little girl that the Senator's female ward, Naomi (Grace Gaynor) has been abducted by an ape, whom she insists wasn't just a large man. Jim follows the trail to an underground lair where he finds Naomi in a cage, and then Dimas watches as Jim is attacked by an ape whom we later learn is called Johann (George Barrows). Jim comes to in the cage and learns that the ape takes orders from Dimas, who wants to kill the Buckleys. Meanwhile, at Stately Buckley Manor, Artie learns from the family Bible that Dimas was the fourth Buckley son, and surmises that he's out to take the Buckley fortune and let Johann take the blame. Jim and Naomi escape, Jim gets into a brawl with Dimas and wins(!), Johann gets turned into Swiss cheese by a mob of townspeople, and there's no coda. This one strikes me as having been a bit of a mess. They played up the mystery of what was going on for as long as they could, but when it came time for the reveals, everything seemed very perfunctory and half-baked. _______ This brings to mind stories of how they'd fill sets in Hamburg by seeing how long they could keep "What'd I Say" going. If we're talking about their touring years, familiarity would be a big motivator. They couldn't hear themselves play over all the screaming in the big venues, so it was probably easier to knock out the stuff they'd played in clubs for years. And by their last touring year, 1966, they were leaning conspicuously on their older material because their newer studio material wasn't easy to reproduce live. FWIW, most of the books don't end on as tragic a note as Casino Royale...OHMSS being the noteworthy exception. But in general, literary Bond has a rougher time surviving his adventures than film Bond. Enjoy your cup of mud!
Late in The Monkees' original run, but one of their best. Originally recorded during Nesmith's 1968 Nashville sessions, the song made its public debut on the Monkees' TV special, 33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee with Peter Tork still a member of the group (on screen; he did not particiapte on the studio track, and left in December of 1968). The signature song would be played in concert as the group was reduced to a trio, and re-recorded as part of Nesmith's new group, The First National Band in 1970, appearing on that group's second album, Loose Salute. Curious detail about the song (mentioned above) is that it made its debut on a TV special with Tork participating, several months before its October, 1969 release; The Rolling Stones would take a similar journey in that "You Can't Always Get What You Want" made its debut as part of their set on the ill-fated The Rolling Stones' Rock 'n' Roll Circus (shot in December of 1968--less than a month after The Monkees' TV special's production), with Brian Jones in his last public appearance with the group, but the single (recorded without Jones) would not be officially released as a single until July 4th, 1969, a little over 24 hours after Jones's death. Speaking of Jones, it was on June 8th, 1969 that Jagger, Richards and pulled-along Charlie Watts visited Brian at his home (Cotchford Farm) to fire him from the band he created. There's just something about the songs of 1969...wildly different from each other, but they all felt like that year. "Crystal Blue Persuasion" was the far and away greatest of all Tommy James & The Shondells tracks. The finale aired nearly four months after the previous first run episode, "All Our Yesterdays". In between that time, on May 27, Jeffrey Hunter--the original Captain Christopher Pike--died. Despite the mixed opinions of the episode, it has a number of solid character moments for most of the main cast (brief as some were), and a couple of great continuity nods, including Kirk (in Lester's body) referring to events from "The Empath" and "The Tholian Web". Star Trek almost had its leap to animation earlier than how history played out, as Filmation producer Lou Scheimer had met with Gene Roddenberry in 1968, proposing the idea of a cartoon based on the series, but in a far different, kid-oriented form than the straight sequel series launched in 1973. Of course, it would not be long before Star Trek exploded into a pop-culture phenomenon in its early syndication years, and just to focus on 1969, its off-series appeal was maintained by merchandising such as AMT's highly successful model kits (based on the U.S.S. Enterprise and Klingon Battle Cruiser), the early James Blish novel adaptations, the View-Master 3-D reels, coloring books and a host of other items. Gone (from NBC), but certainly not forgotten. Easily one of the top five best Bond films. The espionage angle, ruthlessness of Grant and Bond, and how dangerous their world(s) were all played out in one excellent scene after another. As much as I love Goldfinger, this might be my favorite of the Connery era.
October? It was released as a single in April, and is on the chart in June. The album it ended up on was released in October. Released as the B-side of "Honkey Tonk Women" at that point, though it eventually charted on its own in 1973. Definitely not Uhura.
Then, a year later, in the previous March-- this is how time works in the Dragnet universe. Another horribly grim ending. Okay, apparently she never bonded well. Creepy. Now we're talking. The bigger they are.... All those pitchforks. Too bad. There's nothing like a good trained ape adventure. Good to know. I'm sure I'll get to them someday and enjoy them. Tea is the anti-mud. I had all of those. I had these, too, and I'm fairly certain that I still do.
_______ 50th Anniversary Viewing _______ The Ed Sullivan Show Season 21, episode 32 Originally aired June 1, 1969 As represented in The Best of the Ed Sullivan Show Given the obviously fake applause splattered on at the beginning of this video, I don't think it's using the broadcast audio. It's a decent-sounding but forgettable song, which will be charting just outside of our normal range (June 21; #32 US; #7 R&B). Note that Smokey's workin' a bit of a soul patch at this point. Gwen's doing a routine to an easy listening instrumental called "Mexican Breakfast," accompanied by two "backup dancers". Oddly, there are multiple mashup videos available of this performance, but none with just the original audio. What's with this guy's timing? First he plugs "Classical Gas" a year late...now he's doing his CG-flavored rendition of "Greensleeves" in June! (Charted Apr. 26; #90 US; #13 AC--And that's his second-biggest hit!) There's a video available of him doing it on The Smothers Brothers, but not Sullivan. Here's the studio audio: It sounds decent if self-derivative. The Sullivan performance is accompanied by some footage of Williams wandering around a meadow. To prove he was in the studio, he goes over to shake Ed's hand and exchange a bit of mumbly chat. Alan does a routine about his wife making him take their dog to a dog psychiatrist. He also comes over for a handshake. So what's Lesley up to these days? Performing an awkward medley of "I Could Have Danced All Night" and "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" on Sullivan, that's what. I might have liked her doing a straight-up cover of the second song more, sans the carnivalesque arrangement that holds this unlikely pairing together. Smokey & the Miracles close the Best of installment with a rendition of "Abraham, Martin and John". I couldn't find a video of the performance, but here's the studio audio: I liked the intro in the Sullivan performance, which sounded particularly gospelish...not so much the up-tempo main body of the arrangement. After the song they go over to Ed, shake hands, and plug the songwriters. Also in the original episode according to tv.com: _______ Star Trek "Turnabout Intruder" Originally aired June 3, 1969 Stardate 5928.5 Series finale See my post here. And so ends the show that started me on this immersive retro path.... _______ She seemed more concerned with pleasing her husband. Seems like that was likely an abusive relationship as well. Rifles. I should add that for once, most of the episode did indeed take place at night!
Ahh! That's what I meant to point out--that the song's album debut (on The Monkees Present) was in October of 1969, not the single release. Thanks for the reminder. That's one of those delayed hit situations, sort of like The Moody Blues' "Nights in White Satin" was originally released in 1967, but was reissues in 1972 and became a massive hit. Odd that songs with a sound that's sort of "older" still touched people with ears used to the changing sounds of the early 70's. No, and that always bugged me, but her nascence was unavoidable, since Nichelle Nichols was on a singing engagement at the time "Turnabout Intruder" was filmed.
_______ 55th Anniversary Fly-on-the-Wall Listening On June 1 and 3, 1964, the Beatles were still engaged in the sessions for A Hard Day's Night, which included one unused demo and one demo for a song would be developed for a later album. "I'll Be Back" (Take 2) "I'll Be Back" (Take 3) "You Know What to Do" "No Reply" (demo) _______
I did too. Some bought several times, as I wore out copies, along with the behind the scenes books The Making of Star Trek, The World of Star Trek and The Trouble with Tribbles. The 3-D camera system View-Master used captured some gorgeous images of the Star Trek cast, sets, etc.(from "The Omega Glory"). Its only rivalled by the actual 35mm film of the actual series. We also had View-Master's adaptation of TAS' "Yesteryear" (retitled "Star Trek: Mr. Spock's Time Trek")-- Fun times in the pre-home video period.
They played for hours in Hamburg and the Cavern, I believe. That was the time period I was thinking of. Plus they and the other bands in Britain loved American r&b and wanted to play those great tunes. And their own too.
"I'll Be Back" in 3/4 time. I would have been cool with waltzing to this song. In the right time signature, but obviously still not the bouncy definitive version. I can understand why the band decided not to move forward on this one. Not one of George's best melodies, though I do like the bridge. I also think the Beatles could have massaged this into the best version of itself if they'd tried. I've always thought that No Reply and I'll Be Back were sort of cousins more so than other Beatles songs. Love both. "I'll Be Back", I think, is the better song lyrically and melodically, but No Reply, which sounds like part two of "Back", has always sounded so cool to me.
I would not have even recognized that as "Greensleeves" if you didn't tell me. Ah, I love that song. Sounds good by Smokey. Indeed. Ah, well, it is a Western. They should have been more specific with their time stamps. "Tuesday Afternoon of the Simian Terror." Never mind, that sounds too much like a Don Martin cartoon. I never had Trouble With Tribbles or World of Star Trek, but I loved The Making of Star Trek. I still have my original copy, complete with the crayon marks added by my younger Brother. It was probably the first time I got to see an episode of Star Trek in color. Coincidentally, I just saw an ad on Facebook recently for a company that makes those little viewers and will create reels on demand for you.
_______ 55 Years Ago This Week Will Ringo catch up with his mates in time to join the tour? Spoiler Alert! Selections from Billboard's Hot 100 for the week: Leaving the chart: "Dead Man's Curve," Jan & Dean (14 weeks) "Do You Want to Know a Secret," The Beatles (11 weeks) "The Very Thought of You," Rick Nelson (7 weeks) "White on White," Danny Williams (14 weeks) Recent and new on the chart: "Three Window Coupe," The Rip Chords (Apr. 25; #28 US) "Beans in My Ears," The Serendipity Singers (May 23; #30 US; #5 AC) Four by the Beatles (EP), The Beatles "Roll Over Beethoven" "All My Loving" "This Boy" "Please Mr. Postman"(#92 US) "Can't You See That She's Mine," The Dave Clark Five (#4 US; #10 UK) Total positions occupied by Beatles recordings: 3. I suppose one could note that the Dave Clark Five also occupy 3 spots this week...but they're not on the downswing from having occupied 14 spots a couple of months ago. June 7 on the boob tube, Ed's guests include Billy J. Kramer & The Dakotas performing "Little Children" and "Bad to Me". _______ In that case, in the previously mentioned category of "banter, song stories, schtick in between," you should count John wearing a toilet seat around his neck and yelling "Fucking Nazis! Seig Heil!" I think they could've made that version work if they'd stuck with it. I'd like to have heard the finished version. A homely but sweet song that evokes a memory of early days with the ex. I wonder if he wrote it with Pattie in mind...they were a thing by this point. Both good album tracks, but I've never associated them with each other, other than one being the last track on one British LP and the other being the first track on the next.
That was short. But then, how much longer did it need to be? A lost classic. You never hear this on Oldies radio. The Dave Clark Five seem to be trying to sound like The Beatles.
_______ 50 Years Ago This Week And The Old Mixer is the size of an heirloom tomato. Hair is sprouting on his tiny scalp. Note from Future Self: Enjoy that while it lasts. Selections from Billboard's Hot 100 for the week: Leaving the chart: "The Chokin' Kind," Joe Simon (12 weeks) "Hawaii Five-O," The Ventures (14 weeks) "I Can't See Myself Leaving You," Aretha Franklin (8 weeks) "Time Is Tight," Booker T. & The M.G.'s (13 weeks) New on the chart: "Tell All the People," The Doors (#57 US) "Yesterday, When I Was Young," Roy Clark (#19 US; #6 AC; #9 Country) "Quentin's Theme," The Charles Randolph Grean Sounde (#13 US; #3 AC) "Mother Popcorn (You Got to Have a Mother for Me), Part 1," James Brown (#11 US; #1 R&B) "The Ballad of John and Yoko," The Beatles (#8 US; #1 UK) And new on the boob tube: The Ed Sullivan Show, Season 21, episode 33, featuring Myron Cohen _______ This one popped up on my prepared playlists when it entered the Top 30...apparently I'd neglected to backtrack its chart rise at the time, so you won't find it on the previous weeks' lists, FWIW. I was wondering if you'd be familiar with this one, as with their previous one. This was a borderline purchase for me when I got it, but it has grown on me. I read that it was banned in some markets because of concern that kids would try it at home. And it seems to be working for them at the moment.
Coincidentally, that's also the size of a Chia Pet. I love The Doors so much! I forgot about this one. It has kind of a nostalgic feel now, ironically. Quentin Collins? Squiggy says we need some Werewolf lyrics. I think this one might need some lyrics, too. A catchy little classic. Snarkiness aside, I did enjoy it. It's not as bad as putting beans up your nose. It's a winning strategy, all right.
Great days to be a Star Trek fan. It was probably the first time I got to see an episode of Star Trek in color. [/quote] You know, I've heard others say that too. When I was a kid, I first watched the show on my family's B&W TV. Needless to say, when we purchased a color TV, TOS turned into a greater, eye-opening experience. 've seen services like that before, but I wonder if they could take 4K screen captures of old TV or movies and achieve the same thing...
The Ventures version....ehh...the Mort Stevens TV version leaves this one in the dust. Underrated, and that's largely due to the wrongheaded only associating him with the Hee-Haw TV series. Ah, yes. Dark Shadows was (arguably) at the height of its status as a pop culture phenomenon, and this hit single is some pretty heavy evidence of that. Jonathan (Barnabas Collins) Frid also had a single released, but It did not chart as high as "Quentin's Theme." The song's author--series composer Robert Cobert--was nominated for a Grammy for this track. Further, the songs were available on the LP, The Original Music From Dark Shadows (Phillips 314, 1969), which has been rereleased a number of times over the decades. Common for the period, actors would accompany Cobert's music with strange, spoken word lyrics (in character), so for anyone (at the time) looking for a clean soundtrack, you were not going to get that with this LP. AAAARRGHHH!!
_______ Dragnet 1968 "The Squeeze" Originally aired February 22, 1968 Monday, November 28 (1966?): Friday and Gannon are working the day watch out of Intelligence Division--though the episode takes place on a rainy night--when a "known hoodlum" named George Fox (John Sebastian, still not the one from the Spoonful) comes in voluntarily in advance of a warrant after having been reported by an electronics engineer named Tom Tracy, who claims to be the victim of an extortion scheme. Fox is an ex-con who claims to be a legitimate businessman and denies having mob ties that conveniently helped witnesses against him to disappear in previous cases. The detectives question Fox about the recent disappearance of another potential witness, Paul Carter. Fox initially claims to have nothing to do with him, but Friday produces a picture of the two of them together. Carter allegedly tried to extort a percentage of the $50 million business of Tom Tracy, and the detectives have reason to believe that Carter was working for Fox. Friday produces a tape of Carter talking to Tracy, claiming that his people will kill both of them if Tracy doesn't sell the stock. Friday then produces a couple subsequently made recordings, made from tapping Tracy's phone with his permission--"as legal as eating a hot dog at the ball game" in Friday's words. The first has what sounds like Fox threatening Tracy. The second has somebody whom they believe to be a mob boss named Jack Rock making further threats, and dropping Fox's name along the way. Fox acts unfazed by all of this, but then Friday produces his new-fangled wonder evidence: voice prints, of the first phone recording and of a tape of Fox's voice from a prior taped questioning for comparison...and of course, they match. Another episode with one credited guest that takes place in one setting, but I didn't find it nearly as interesting as the debate with Not Leary. _______ The Wild Wild West "The Night of the Death-Maker" Originally aired February 23, 1968 Season 3 finale The teaser has Artie disguised as President Grant during an assassination attempt in San Francisco that involves a Gatling gun hidden in a crank organ. I knew something was up when they weren't showing us the President's face. The weapon turns out to be one of thirteen recently stolen Gatlings. A clue on the gun leads Jim and Artie to a town in California wine country. Artie poses as a French wine expert, and proves that he's versed enough in that role to notice that the wine from the local monastery doesn't taste right. Jim runs into an actress named Marcia Dennison (Angel Tompkins) who was also on the scene in Frisco. A man dressed as a monk but conspicuously wearing a ring catches their attention, so Jim secretly hitches a ride on his wagon back to the monastery. Also on the ride is another monk who turns out to be Dennison in disguise. We learn that she's been spying for Cullen Dane (Wendell Corey), a uniformed former general who was discharged by Grant. Jim dons Dennison's discarded robe and discovers that the real monks, led by Brother Angelo (Pat O'Malley), have been taken prisoner and the monastery taken over by Dane's men. Angelo is pleased that their SOS of deliberately making bad wine was noticed. Jim gets caught while bringing medicine back for one of the captive monks. Dane's plan is not just to get revenge on Grant, but to take over California. Artie shows up at the monastery in his role, claiming that Brother Angelo contacted him for his expertise. Meanwhile, Jim gets himself smuggled out of the cell when the monks go along with his plan of feigning that their sick member has died, but the coffin is taken to a crematorium. He manages to get out in time and meets up with Artie as Dane and his men move out with artillery to intercept the President's train to Denver at a mountain pass. Jim and Artie go after them and take out Dane's gun emplacements with Molotov cocktails as Grant's train approaches. One of the Dane's hoodlums dressed as a monk, whom Jim gets into a fight with in one scene, is of course Red West. At one point a hotel clerk (Charles Lampkin) opines that the President should have a group of guards whose only job is to protect him full-time. I wonder if Secret Service agent James West might have had anything to do with making that come to pass...? _______ Why do I get the feeling that you're not being entirely honest? This is where that practice at grimacing comes into play for me...a good example of why The Soft Parade tends to be poorly regarded among Doors fans. Notably, the Doors split their songwriting credits with this album--previously all songs had been credited to the group, now they were specifically for Morrison or Krieger--because Jim didn't want people thinking he was responsible for songs like this. Or maybe it's just not their cup of tea. It's certainly not mine. I was inclined to get this for the novelty factor of the show connection...if only it had been connected to a part of the show that I'm familiar with, or had been less aggressively easy listening. You know it's got some, right? About all the lyrics you're gonna get from James Brown. It's not one of my favorite Beatles tracks, but... ...I don't find it painful either. This really feels like it wants to be a John & Yoko single, but Paul participated in its impromptu recording. ETA: Well, CRAP! I just discovered another kink in my viewing plans. Cozi moved Dragnet to a different slot on Saturday afternoons, and it's now one that appears to be preempted on my affiliate every week by an infomercial! That means I've gone from the intended plan of catching up through Dragnet 1969 and including Dragnet 1970 in my regular 50th anniversary viewing in the fall...to only having three episodes left (four including one I just watched but haven't written up), and falling one episode short of finishing Dragnet 1968!