The Classic/Retro Pop Culture Thread

[J.T.B.]

I think Linda Ronstadt is one of those people, like Neil Diamond and Barry Manilow, that people are afraid to admit they like.

Well that's just dumb. Not only did she have an incredible voice and a mastery of control, phrasing and harmony, but she also had great taste in material. Who else would be putting Kate and Anna McGarrigle or Warren Zevon songs on the charts in the '70s? She also put together some excellent touring talent. I think she got backlash because she wasn't a songwriter but got classified as a "rock" act, and rock writers valued the singer-songwriter. If she had been pop or country I don't think anyone would care that she didn't write her own songs. She was criticized for recording in Spanish, for recording albums of American standards, for going to Broadway, but now all that seems ahead of its time.

Here's "Long, Long Time" done live on the Johnny Cash show. She can really put across a sad, regretful feeling in a vocal.

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[TREK_GOD_1]

Well that's just dumb. Not only did she have an incredible voice and a mastery of control, phrasing and harmony, but she also had great taste in material

True. A gifted artist is a gifted artist no matter the genre or pop-cultural ideas on what is "valuable" or "relevant." Ronstadt was a class act from the beginning, made a mark to notice in the 60s, and was undoubtedly created many of those unforgettable, key songs of the 70s.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

"Long Long Time," Linda Ronstadt
(#25 US; #20 AC)

Classic.

"Express Yourself," Charles Wright & The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band
(#12 US; #3 R&B)

Early funk/soul mix (rare, as the decade would wear on) from Los Angeles. This song has been samples or used for commercial purposes so often--likely far beyond the wildest dreams of its writers.

"All Right Now," Free
(#4 US)
"Green-Eyed Lady," Sugarloaf
(#3 US)

Songs of this kind just capture a part of the earthy end of the early 70s like few other hits; the sound is so tied to that brief period, but not in a bad, "its dated" way, but a great, "face of the era" manner.

On top of everything else, there's an ad for a glow-in-the-dark Dark Shadows model in the book!

Yes, MPC jumping on the Dark Shadows merchandising bonanza--but very late in the game, as Dark Shadows--by 1970--was no longer the phenomenon it had been roughly between the debut of Barnabas in April of '67 to about 1969 when the Quentin Collins character was all the rage (including the Charles Randolph Grean Sounde hit recording of "Quentin's Theme"). Still, the announcement that Dan Curtis and crew were going to produce a movie version of the series fired up interest again. Ironically enough, House of Dark Shadows was released in October of 1970--the same month as that issue of Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen (#133) was published--and was a big hit for MGM. Perhaps MPC sill believed there was money to make on the show when they acquired the license for the kits earlier.

_

 

[The Old Mixer]

House of Dark Shadows was released in October of 1970

Which, by the way, I recorded off of Movies! recently, along with Night of Dark Shadows, so both should be coming up as 50th anniversary business...the first quite soon. Also, don't know if you caught upthread where Decades has more episodes of Dark Shadows, running nightly, which I'm now recording for eventual viewing. I did a bit of Googling and caught references to them now having a year's worth of episodes (whereas before they had six months), the new ones picking up where their old set of episodes left off.

 

[RJDiogenes]

She decides that she wants a separation, but neither is willing to vacate the house, so they come up with the titular document to continue sharing it.

But they don't paint a white line down the middle, which is very disappointing.

When he gets filled in on their arrangement, he declares that they're both sick and leaves.

and to that end calls his date...who also thinks that they're sick.

Squaresville, man.

(Barry Nelson, most noteworthy as the first actor to play James Jimmy Bond in a 1954 Americanized TV adaptation of Casino Royale)

I've actually seen that. I might even have it on one of my weird little DVDs somewhere.

Miss Smith (Chelsea Brown)

Interesting. I don't recall her from anywhere but Laugh-In (although I'm sure I must have seen this story).

He tries to make excuses, but learns that she's the woman he's been with, and that they'd just renewed their vows.

Awww.

* I saw this listed somewhere as "Love and the Who"--now that woulda been a helluvan episode!

They're saving that for the HBO reboot.

The revolutionaries intended to just get the weapons back to their country

I like the wide range of plots in this show, but I'm beginning to question their aptitude for international intrigue.

the revolutionaries get into the hospital dressed as workers and smuggle Alcuna out in a laundry hamper.

Lost a little bit of his stature there, I think.

Meanwhile, a dock strike that the revolutionaries are unwilling to defy delays their escape, sowing discord in the band.

"We may be killers, but we're not scabs!"

Alcuna tries to defy them with rifle fire, but Marla drops the news about her condition, persuading him to surrender so that his child may live...

Uh....

and possibly be one of my classmates.

Oh, yeah, that suspicious-looking kid who always smelled of dirty laundry.

Hippies are like Friday and Gannon's HYDRA...

The Hordes of HIPPY! Cut off their hair and it grows back even longer!

The transitions to his last line seem to be getting more forced.

I still like these little history lessons.

Kenneth's parents are shocked, and tell of how he made friends they don't know at his new school.

"It was you, dad! I learned it from you!"

"I've always wondered, what's the difference between a pep pill and a goofball?"

And Friday bites his tongue so hard it bleeds.

conceding to one of the teachers for the sake of argument that it's no worse than alcohol, he rolls off statistics about alcohol abuse and uses those as an argument against pot...kinda totally missing the point of comparing weed to liquor.

He's probably a prohibitionist, too.

It's like Dragnet 1967 all over again!

You might say it's a flashback.

Ernie!

I didn't forget Ernie, but he's timeless.

This one is hauntingly gorgeous, and one of those songs that I associate with the station that my Mom used to listen to in the car when I was little. For me, it captures some of the vibe of what I remember of the very early '70s.

Ditto, although I actually would have placed it about two years later if I had guessed.

This is, needless to say, not the single edit.

I had a feeling.

That's an interesting reaction to me, because my impression of this one is that psychedelic rock is still alive...to my ear, it would've sounded at home in '68.

It's probably associational memories for me, because I also would have placed this a couple of years later.

If you never got into the Fourth World, that's too bad. At the risk of overusing a term, I'd say that it was Kirby's magnum opus as a comics creator. An ambitious attempt for the time to create a sub-line of tightly connected titles within the DC superhero line (which still didn't have a lot of continuity between titles in those days, other than "family" lines like the Superman books). Chock full of wild concepts...New Gods was epic, and imitated by George Lucas and Jim Starlin--as well as Kirby himself later in the decade back at Marvel, from what I know of The Eternals; and The Forever People was a hippie super-team--cosmic hippies from New Genesis, but hippies nevertheless! Mister Miracle was the most conventionally superheroic of the titles...and as such, its original run lasted a bit longer than the others.

Sadly, I did not get into the Fourth World, although I keep meaning to research what collections would be best to pick up to immerse myself in it. My first experience with Kirby's DC work was Kamandi #16, which immediately hooked me. More recently, I've picked up the hardcover reproductions of Spirit World and In The Days of the Mob.

That got me curious, but I'm not finding anything on YouTube.

Odd. Now I'm thinking I have the wrong song. I must mull.

Afraid? I had a poster of her in my bedroom and my first girlfriend was almost a dead ringer for her.

Lucky.

Well that's just dumb. Not only did she have an incredible voice and a mastery of control, phrasing and harmony, but she also had great taste in material.

No argument from me. But she was always considered a lightweight for some reason.

I think she got backlash because she wasn't a songwriter

I used to hear that about Three Dog Night, too, to which I'd reply, "Does Basil Rathbone suck because he didn't create Sherlock Holmes?" (Half the time I'd get, "Who's Basil Rathbone?" but I still think it was a great comeback. ).

 

[The Old Mixer]

_______

50th Anniversary Catch-Up Viewing

_______

Love, American Style
"Love and the Modern Wife / Love and the Phonies / Love and the Single Couple"
Originally aired October 27, 1969

"Love and the Modern Wife" stars Bob Crane as an advertising executive named Howard whose wife, Laurie (Pat Crowley) is taking a course called "Making Your Marriage Work," which involves reading a book titled The Modern Wife. Influenced by what she's learned in the course, she assumes that Howard has been unfaithful to her, citing as evidence that he regularly brings home gifts and flowers. Her suspicions are also fueled by the fact that she's one of his former secretaries. Fed up with being presumed guilty, he decides to prove her right: "Chapter Nine: The accused commits the crime!" He takes off his ring and goes to a swinger bar, where he strikes out twice (one woman is picked up by another guy who claims to have bought her the drink that Howard bought her; another, already thoroughly drunk, passes out). Then a mature married woman buys him a drink...but talking to him, she sees that he's uncomfortable with being there and encourages him to go home to his wife. When he returns home, Laurie is upset at the thought of him cheating (despite what the course teaches about accepting these things as natural), and wishes that she'd never taken the course. Regarding his alleged philandering, Howard promises to "give it up".


"Love and the Phonies" is a short skit in which Boyd and Daphane Daniels (Richard Deacon and Phyllis Diller), returning from a party, exchange gossip about other guests whom they consider to be phonies...all while they slowly change out of their appearance-enhancing clothes and makeup, including her removal of false eyelashes, eyebrows, nails, and a wig; with the final punchline being Boyd taking off his wig.


"Love and the Single Couple" was previously reviewed as part of the unaired pilot.

"Love and the Single Couple," which aired in the fifth episode on October 27, opens with a brief narration. It features Tim (Michael Anderson, Jr.) and Katherine (Diana Ewing), a young, unmarried couple who seem to both want to stay that way, but are facing pressure from Katherine's parents (Don Porter and former room-maker for Daddy Marjorie Lord). Kathy feels strongly about staying unmarried based on her antiestablishment principles, to the point where she and Tim get into a spat when he's willing to consider her parents' argument. He goes out walking for the night, and when he returns, reluctantly reveals that on a trip to Mexico they'd made four months ago, he'd tricked her into signing a marriage certificate. The parents are a lot more pleased about this development that Kathy is, but Tim explains his reasons for doing it, and persuades her to accept the arrangement, along with his ring.

This segment has a song in the middle; and before that the audio was briefly interrupted by an EAS test on my former Decades affiliate.

IMDb indicates that the in-segment song, "To Make Love Grow," was sung by the Wrecking Crew.

_______

Hawaii Five-O
"A Bullet for McGarrett"
Originally aired October 29, 1969

A psychology professor and disciple of Wo Fat (Eric Braeden) is using the power of hypnosis to turn citizens into assassins. Steve McGarrett has to stop these mind games before he becomes the next target of the hypnotist.

And yes, the Actor Formerly Known as Hans Gudegast has indeed rebranded himself as Eric Braeden by this point.

At the Pacific Cultural Institute, student Karen Adamson (Sheila Larken) expresses her love for Dr. Paul Farrar (Braeden) in private after class, then shoots her former boyfriend, Richard Han, while he's diving at the pool. Five-O had been investigating Han for being connected with a Chinese spy ring. They find evidence of Karen's presence at the pool, and Danny subsequently questions Farrar, tipping him off that they know about her involvement. Back at her place, we see her take a call that she only listens to. She then starts to try to shoot herself as McGarrett and Danno are arriving, but resists and flees the scene only to get hit by a truck. Karen mutters in the ambulance about her mother and abusive stepfather before dying, and also drops Farrar's name.

It what seems to have become a formula element for the show, McGarrett recruits a policewoman, Joyce Bennett (Marianne McAndrew), to attend Farrar's class undercover. There's even a similar scene to one in "Just Lucky, I Guess," in which McGarrett drills her about the details of her cover. The team look into Farrar's background, finding that he spent three years as POW in Korea. After Bennett assumes her cover, Farrar meets with Wo Fat, who tips him off about her true nature, and comes up with the idea of using her against McGarrett; he employs the phrase in the episode title as a description for her role.

Farrar hits on Joyce out of class in his suave manner. Meanwhile, a young man identifies Farrar as the man who enlisted him to buy the gun that Joyce used. McGarrett wants to pull Bennett out, but by that point, she and Farrar are having a date on the beach. She rather clumsily asks him about Karen Adamson, though it doesn't matter because her cover is already blown. He chats her up about an abusive boyfriend of her mother's and she gets drowsy from his wine and music. He then starts to hypnotize her right there on the beach, conditioning her to see McGarrett as her mother's boyfriend.

When McGarrett tries to pull Joyce out, she's argumentative, expressing her belief in Farrar's innocence and treating Steve as an antagonist. McGarrett consults another doctor, who explains how transferring childhood hostility could be used to get around the "can't be hypnotized to kill" thing. At Farrar's bidding, Joyce calls Steve to lure him into the trap. He goes to the campus at night, where he finds her crying because she doesn't remember how she got there, and we find Farrar lurking nearby. She grabs a gun out of her purse and wounds McGarrett. Farrar comes out of the bushes to coach her into saving her mother by killing Steve. McGarrett loses his gun while crawling around wounded, so he engages Farrar in fisticuffs while Joyce has her gun trained on them. She hits Farrar, then tries to shoot Steve, but by that point her gun is empty. Steve gently talks her out of her hypnotic state.

_______

Dragnet 1970
"Homicide – Cigarette Butt"
Originally aired October 30, 1969

The smoking habits of a murder victim help Friday and Gannon nab the suspect.

This is the city: Los Angeles, California. There are many well-known residential areas here: Beverly Hills, Bel Air, Holmby Hills...but as a business address, it's hard to top Wilshire Boulevard. Wilshire runs sixteen miles from downtown Los Angeles through Westwood and Santa Monica to the Pacific Ocean...a panorama of glamor, glass, and enterprise. On its way, the famous street bends through MacArthur Park and then straightens out for the Miracle Mile. It passes the County Museum of Art, and many interesting places to shop. One store will sell you clothes that have been worn only once or twice by famous film stars. Another specializes in apparel for the tall and lean woman. A third carries styles for the small women, who wear a size 9 only. The boulevard is lined with thirty-seven banks, ten hotels, seventeen department stores, and fifty-four office buildings. Most of the businesses in the city are reputable...they serve the people and they deliver what they promise. Once in a while one comes along that doesn't. When I hear about 'em, I go to work. I carry a badge.

That seems like it would have been more thematically appropriate for a frauds episode.

Monday, October 6 (1969): Friday and Gannon are working the night watch out of Robbery/Homicide when they get sent to follow up on a call that Two-Adam-8 answered for a 415 but found a dead body instead. The detectives find a knife, a gun, and a bullet hole in the wall. In addition to the victim, Herbert Jackson, they find evidence that the apartment was also occupied by a woman not present. They proceed to question the neighboring building manager, who's also a violinist (Henry Corden). He rented the apartment to a different man, so they deduce that the apartment was sublet to Jackson. Another neighbor, a man from India, Rahmond (Than Wyenn), tells of how Jackson brought a woman named Francie to live with him the night before, and how she ran out of the apartment with another man after the gunfire. When Friday asks why he didn't volunteer this information to the uniformed officers, he clarifies that he's in America to observe, not participate...so he's like a Watcher. When the detectives are about to check around at neighboring establishments, a man and women matching Rahmond's descriptions come in--Jack and Frances Burke (Vic Perrin and a very cute actress of limited credits named Donna Anders...whom I see was in an Ironside that I reviewed, though I don't seem to have mentioned her).

Jack says that Jackson came at him with a knife and that he shot Jackson in self defense. Painting a picture of Frances being not too bright and easily influenced, he tells them that she ran off with Jackson. According to Jack's account, he got drunk and went to the apartment, and Jackson hit Frances (who's sporting a black eye) and came at him with the knife. He says that the gun belonged to a Mike Watson, who lived with the Burkes, and was stolen by Jackson. But Friday's under the impression that the story is too rehearsed, and Jackson objects when a prints expert and photographer are brought in to further examine the scene. During the prints work, Friday gives some voiceover exposition about the details of how fingerprinting works. When the photographer comes in, they notice that Jackson's still holding a cigarette butt in his right hand...the hand with which he was supposed to have been holding the knife. Jack tries to stick to his story but Frances quickly blabs all, confirming that the story was rehearsed.

On December 28th, trial was held in Department 184, Superior Court of the State of California, for the County of Los Angeles....The court found the suspect guilty of 187 PC, first degree murder, which is punishable by life imprisonment or death in the gas chamber.

JACK M. BURKE
Now serving a life sentence in the State Prison, San Quentin, California.

Upon further investigation, it was found Frances Burke was in no way implicated in the murder, and her initial support of Burke's story had been caused by her fear of the accused. No charge was brought against her; she was released from custody.

_______

But they don't paint a white line down the middle, which is very disappointing.

I was wondering if they'd do that!

I've actually seen that.

Heh...I never got around to it.

"We may be killers, but we're not scabs!"

Pretty much.

Uh....

What?

And Friday bites his tongue so hard it bleeds.

But he's there to exposit/infodump!

I didn't forget Ernie, but he's timeless.

It's nice to see Sesame Street making such an early splash. [Ernie laugh.]

Sadly, I did not get into the Fourth World, although I keep meaning to research what collections would be best to pick up to immerse myself in it. My first experience with Kirby's DC work was Kamandi #16, which immediately hooked me. More recently, I've picked up the hardcover reproductions of Spirit World and In The Days of the Mob.

Without having a thorough knowledge of his later work, I'd dare to assert that his original Fourth World work was perhaps the most iconically purely Kirby work that he ever did (if you squint past how DC had other artists draw over Jimmy and Superman's heads...). I know that the issues of the various titles have been collected together in reprint. It looks like Apple Books has individual digital issues.

In the '80s, DC did a two-issues per issue reprint series of New Gods (which is how I originally read that series), which included an all-new twelfth issue, which ignored a brief revival of the series in the later '70s and served as a bridge between the original series and a new graphic novel by Kirby, The Hunger Dogs. I wouldn't recommend the '80s material as highly, as it seemed less like a genuine look at where Kirby would have taken the series if it had continued in the day, and more like he was using the old characters and concepts to tell a new, different story.

 

[RJDiogenes]

she assumes that Howard has been unfaithful to her, citing as evidence that he regularly brings home gifts and flowers.

The bounder!

Regarding his alleged philandering, Howard promises to "give it up".

"No more gifts and flowers, I promise!"

Steve gently talks her out of her hypnotic state.

Steve, the anti-hypnotist. So if I understand this correctly, the professor was working for Wo Fat (who basically just had a cameo) as a remote control assassin, and he was hired to kill the victim in the pool to prevent him from talking to 5-0 because he was associated with Fat somehow.

he clarifies that he's in America to observe, not participate...so he's like a Watcher.

I hope he was bald.

When the photographer comes in, they notice that Jackson's still holding a cigarette butt in his right hand...

I remember that reveal moment.

What?

I didn't understand what Alcuna's surrender had to do with the child being able to live. It was the mom who was pregnant (I'm pretty sure).

But he's there to exposit/infodump!

But not call a well-meaning-but-naive citizen a goofball.

It's nice to see Sesame Street making such an early splash. [Ernie laugh.]

Oh, and I did have the wrong song:

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Without having a thorough knowledge of his later work, I'd dare to assert that his original Fourth World work was perhaps the most iconically purely Kirby work that he ever did (if you squint past how DC had other artists draw over Jimmy and Superman's heads...). I know that the issues of the various titles have been collected together in reprint.

Today I'll check Amazon to see if I can get the collections for my Kindle.

In the '80s, DC did a two-issues per issue reprint series of New Gods (which is how I originally read that series), which included an all-new twelfth issue, which ignored a brief revival of the series in the later '70s and served as a bridge between the original series and a new graphic novel by Kirby, The Hunger Dogs. I wouldn't recommend the '80s material as highly, as it seemed less like a genuine look at where Kirby would have taken the series if it had continued in the day, and more like he was using the old characters and concepts to tell a new, different story.

I've heard of Hunger Dogs. So you think I should just treat the 70s material as an unfinished masterpiece?

 

[The Old Mixer]

_______

50th Anniversary Catch-Up Viewing

_______

Love, American Style
"Love and the Dating Computer / Love and the Busy Husband / Love and the Watchdog"
Originally aired November 3, 1969

I had no segments from this episode in my Decades recordings. But I just discovered that the episode numbers assigned to the YouTube videos don't match airdate order as listed on both Wiki and IMDb. This one is on YT as episode 11, rather than 6.

"Love and the Dating Computer" has a man named Marion Feinstein (Herb Edelman) using a computer dating service for the first time. The lady working at the service won't think of pairing him with a gorgeous young woman who walks in while he's there, still desperate to find a match, because it's not scientific. But the computer turns one up that looks promising, by the lady's ability to read the punch cards: "Just looking at her holes, I'd say you've got a dreamboat."

The first sign that something's amiss is that the computer has determined that Marion should cook and that Frances Adams should drive over. When Frances arrives, bearing flowers, it turns out that he's a Francis (Broderick Crawford). All sorts of awkwardness ensues. Among it, the subject of Francis's plan to end the evening by taking Marion back to his place comes up...

Marion: Just like that (whistles)...right up to the apartment. You thought I was that kind of a girl.​

We also get this sign-o-the-timeser...

Francis: Lousy computers...they can put a man on the Moon, but they get me a date with a guy!​

Marion wants Francis to stay for the chili dinner he cooked, but he catches Francis calling a chick on his phone and gets jealous. Francis asks him to come to the fight that he'd intended to take his date to. Then Marion offers to take him to a bar afterward.


in "Love and the Busy Husband," Harry (Dick Patterson) takes the attention of his wife, Pamela (Emmaline Henry), for granted while he routinely brings his work home with him...which includes taking business-related phone calls and typing reports at the dinner table. She injures herself in the kitchen during the day and goes to a clinic. That night he comes home in his usual mode, yelling instructions to her assuming she's somewhere in the house. It's not until a neighbor comes over to tell him about what happened that he realizes she's not home. When she returns, he offers to take her out for dinner and ignores the phone ringing on their way out.


"Love and the Watchdog" features Michael Callan and Penny Fuller as Gary and Aggie Holmes, who hear noises that turn out to be their neighbor, Mrs. Hennessy (Patsy Kelly), being robbed while home. This is just the lastest in a series of burglaries in the building. Gary wants to move, but Aggie doesn't, so she gets a dog--a Lhasa Apso from Tibet named Puff Puff.

Gary: This thing can't protect you--there are rats in the building bigger than he is!​

The less-than-intimidating watchdog becomes a strain on their relationship...

Gary: Either he goes or I go!
Aggie: Well right now, he has to go.​

While taking Puff Puff for a walk, Gary leaves the dog outside a bar. When he comes back out later, he find Puff Puff missing. Hal Smith appears in this scene as--you guessed it--a drunk. The IMDb unlisted credit describes him as "Dognapper," though he's never revealed as such in the story.

The Holmses get a ransom call for Puff Puff. When Gary, who's a lawyer, tries to figure out what penal code was broken and wants to call the police, Aggie accuses him of being establishment. She takes instructions for a rendezvous at the railroad yard, while he goes ahead and calls the police. The two of them and Puff Puff end up locked in a box car with a hobo on a train to Philly.


I can kind of see why none of the segments in this one made the syndicated cuts that aired on Decades. None of them were that entertaining. Even "Dating Computer," which had a good premise, just kind of meandered around with it.

_______

Hawaii Five-O
"Sweet Terror"
Originally aired November 5, 1969

Hawaii's sugar industry becomes a terrorist target for germ warfare. Can Five-O stop the ensuing sabotage?

The episode opens with Prof. Erich Stoss (Theodore Bikel), codenamed "The Beast," killing a tailing federal agent named Bridger on his plane through the back of his seat with a trick umbrella that punctures him and injects something that simulates a heart attack. Bridger's agency enlists McGarrett's help in finding Stoss on the island. We learn that Stoss is being hosted under duress by a Quon Li (Philip Ahn), who's being persuaded by a Chinese agent named Lao (Soon-Tek Oh, billed here as Soon Taik Oh, in his third of eight roles on the show) by threats to his family back in Shanghai.

The team tracks down Mariana de Nava (Linda Marsh), a female passenger whom Bridger had been sketching on the plane, in the belief that she's an accomplice of Stoss, but she gets hit by a cab while trying to evade them. (If there were a Hawaii Five-O random plot generator, "suspect is hit by a vehicle" would be one of the options.) She survives, but in the hospital evades McGarrett's questions about what she was buying in a Chinese chemist's shop.

Stoss, a mercenary mastermind, has a Bond villain-style evil plot exposition meeting with the Communist agents assigned to help him, for which he seems to have borrowed McGarrett's Giant Daylit Lucite Map Board, this time with the Hawaiian islands drawn on it. His scheme involves destroying the sugar cane fields of Hawaii with a fungus to create a shortage that will benefit a sugar-producing Communist country currently being embargoed. (So the episode title is kind of a "har, har" reference.)

Lao gets to de Nava's room disguised as a doctor to obtain details of the formula she was putting together, and to persuade her to take poison to avoid giving McGarrett any information. It definitely ain't cyanide, though, so McGarrett manages to get some info when he questions her after calling out for help that arrives too late.

The governor holds his own expositional meeting regarding this "diabolical" plan. Skepticism at the table is allayed by a briefing from a Deptartment of Agriculture representative. During his speech, the closed captioning misspells "beetles"...need I specify how? He determines that crop-dusting would be the most effective way to spread the fungus; and back at 5OHQ, Chin brainstorms that the best way to carry out a secret plan like this would be to pressure an existing grower with family back in China. This takes McGarrett to the estate of Quon Li, who turns out to be an old friend. Full of Bondian bravado, Stoss reveals himself and, when McGarrett declares that he's under arrest, brings attention to three men holding rifles on him.

Meanwhile, Danny's end of the investigation has turned up a field that already has the fungus, which the Ag rep declares needs to be burned. Back at the estate, Stoss determines that evacuation is in order, but there's only room for him as a passenger of the helicopter that they'd planned to use to distribute the fungus. When Lao finds out about this, he draws a gun on Stoss, only to be taken out by one of the professor's more loyal snipers. While this is going on, McGarrett overpowers the guard of the room where he and Quon Li are being held, and gets Stoss within the sights of his procured rifle before the helicopter can be boarded. Stoss uses surrender as a ruse to stab Steve's arm with his umbrella, but it doesn't do its poison thing for whatever reason, which isn't explained. Danno arrives and Stoss is taken into custody.

_______

So if I understand this correctly, the professor was working for Wo Fat (who basically just had a cameo) as a remote control assassin, and he was hired to kill the victim in the pool to prevent him from talking to 5-0 because he was associated with Fat somehow.

Pretty much.

I hope he was bald.

Alas, no.

I didn't understand what Alcuna's surrender had to do with the child being able to live. It was the mom who was pregnant (I'm pretty sure).

Ah...they were in the back of the van together when he planned to make his last stand. Both would have become Swiss cheese.

Oh, and I did have the wrong song:

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I've heard of Hunger Dogs. So you think I should just treat the 70s material as an unfinished masterpiece?

Given a choice, yeah. If the extra issue and Hunger Dogs are part of a collection you buy, there's no harm in reading them, but know that there's a story disconnect between the older and newer material.

Doing a bit of searching, it looks like Jimmy Olsen, New Gods, and Mister Miracle are available on Kindle in both individual series collections and as individual issues...though the individual issues for NG and MM took some Search Fu to find. Forever People is only available as individual issues.

The issues to get are Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #'s 133-139 and 141-148 (cover dates Oct. 1970 through Apr. 1972), Forever People #'s 1-11 (Mar. 1971 through Nov. 1972), New Gods #'s 1-11 (Mar. 1971 through Nov. 1972), and Mister Miracle #'s 1-18 (Apr. 1971 through Mar. 1974). If you want to read them across series in the order they were released, I'm your guy, because I just worked up a list for my own planned anniversary reading.

And try not to be put off by religious imagery...like Highfather being Kozmic Kirby Moses and all.

 

[RJDiogenes]

"Just looking at her holes, I'd say you've got a dreamboat."

I can't believe this got past the 60s censors.

I can kind of see why none of the segments in this one made the syndicated cuts that aired on Decades. None of them were that entertaining. Even "Dating Computer," which had a good premise, just kind of meandered around with it.

"Love and the Busy Husband" seems nice. And Herb Edelman and Broderick Crawford make a cute couple.

(Philip Ahn),

Master Kan!

(If there were a Hawaii Five-O random plot generator, "suspect is hit by a vehicle" would be one of the options.)

The undercover policewoman was briefed by McGarrett, then was hit by a car and fell in the drink.

His scheme involves destroying the sugar cane fields of Hawaii with a fungus to create a shortage that will benefit a sugar-producing Communist country currently being embargoed.

Now that's a good plot.

During his speech, the closed captioning misspells "beetles"...need I specify how?

Hmm. First The Who in Love, American Style, then The Beatles in Hawaii Five-0-- maybe Elvis will show up in Dragnet.

Stoss uses surrender as a ruse to stab Steve's arm with his umbrella, but it doesn't do its poison thing for whatever reason, which isn't explained.

He has no hearrrt.

Ah...they were in the back of the van together when he planned to make his last stand. Both would have become Swiss cheese.

Okay, now I get it.

Doing a bit of searching, it looks like Jimmy Olsen, New Gods, and Mister Miracle are available on Kindle in both individual series collections and as individual issues...though the individual issues for NG and MM took some Search Fu to find. Forever People is only available as individual issues.

That's exactly what I found. Why would they skip Forever People? There's also a four-issue Omnibus edition that looks good, but is not available for Kindle and is super-expensive.

The issues to get are Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #'s 133-139 and 141-148 (cover dates Oct. 1970 through Apr. 1972), Forever People #'s 1-11 (Mar. 1971 through Nov. 1972), New Gods #'s 1-11 (Mar. 1971 through Nov. 1972), and Mister Miracle #'s 1-18 (Apr. 1971 through Mar. 1974). If you want to read them across series in the order they were released, I'm your guy, because I just worked up a list for my own planned anniversary reading.

Yes, please and thank you!

And try not to be put off by religious imagery...like Highfather being Kozmic Kirby Moses and all.

Nah, I'm fine with cultural iconography. I use it myself sometimes.

 

[The Old Mixer]

55th Anniversary Cinematic Special

Help!
Directed by Richard Lester
Starring The Beatles, Leo McKern, Eleanor Bron, Victor Spinetti, and Roy Kinnear
Released July 29, 1965 (UK); August 11, 1965 (US)
1966 Grammy Award nominee for Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or Television Show (John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ken Thorne)

Help! is a 1965 British musical comedy-adventure film directed by Richard Lester, starring the Beatles and featuring Leo McKern, Eleanor Bron, Victor Spinetti, John Bluthal, Roy Kinnear and Patrick Cargill. The second film starring the Beatles following Lester's A Hard Day's Night, Help! sees the group struggle to record their new album while trying to protect Starr from a sinister cult and a pair of mad scientists, all of whom are obsessed with obtaining one of his rings. The soundtrack was released as an album, also called Help!

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I think it's typical among Beatles fans to hold A Hard Day's Night in higher regard than this one...and that's as it should be. But revisiting this film for the first time in I don't know how many years, I find myself just enjoying it for the fun, Fab film that it is, rather than apologizing for the film that it isn't.

The black-and-white performance clip above is watched by cultists of Kaili as indication of where their sacred sacrificial ring went. (We learn later that it was mailed to Ringo by the intended victim, who was a fan.) In the full sequence, cult leader Clang (Leo McKern) throws multi-colored darts at the screen and credits are shown.

The sacrificial ring (seen in close-up in the b&w clip above) always reminded me of one of those candy rings that they'd sell in gumball machines. I wonder if the film was a source of inspiration for that?

The Beatles' purely fictitious shared pad is very groovy...I always wanted a pit bed like John's!

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Note that John's visually promoting his current book, A Spaniard in the Works. Note also that the music stand on Paul's organ is filled with comic books--issues of Action Comics, Jimmy Olsen, and Superman can be seen in the above scene and a later one:


The cultists make a couple of attempts at grabbing the ring via covert means at the flat, then try to bribe Paul and John the next day when they're leaving their pad.

Clang: Hey, Be-atle, you shall have fun, eh?
John: No thanks, I'm rhythm guitar and mouth organ.​

This is also where Ahme (Eleanor Bron) starts flirting with Paul. (Offscreen, she's rumored to have had a liaison with John.) The bit of Bond-spoofing music that precedes the title song on the US version of the soundtrack album occurs as the cultists proceed to tail the Beatles, encountering mishaps with their vehicle, which is apparently coin operated.

Other attempts to grab the ring are made in various places, accompanied by stylized onscreen numbers, including this one:

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I still get a good chuckle out of the laughing bit at the end.

Immediately following that is the movie's next musical sequence...the Beatles performing John's "Your Going to Lose That Girl" in the studio. (Stay tuned for the album review!) This is quite a visually striking sequence for a simple in-story performance segment...sort of a color answer to the rehearsal sequence of "And I Love Her" in A Hard Day's Night. The song is followed by another attempt on the ring in the studio, involving sawing a circle around Ringo's drum set from the floor below.

Producer: Boys, are you buzzing?​

The follow-up line innocently jokes on this sounding like "bussing"...when the Beatles were, by their own account, buzzing throughout the making of this film! Anyroad, Ahme covertly helps Ringo escape from having the ring removed via chainsaw!

An instrumental piece based on "She's a Woman" plays as the cultists conduct surveillance on the Beatles in public...including from a Mr. Whippy truck. By this point the lads start seeking information about their situation, starting at an Indian restaurant staffed entirely by Englishmen, but with one resident "from the mystic East". An instrumental of "A Hard Day's Night" is played by Indian musicians (gradually replaced by the cultists) in this scene. It was during the filming of this scene that George was introduced to the sitar, kicking off his trend-setting interest in Indian music.

Also, Jeremy Lloyd (who also had a bit role in AHDN and was later a Laugh-In regular) is a patron in the restaurant. The Beatles manage to learn a bit about what's going on in this scene before they're attacked again.

Following up at a jeweler's, they learn that the ring itself is basically indestructible, as it breaks all of his tools.

John: Jeweler, you've failed!​

Thus they proceed to see the scene-stealing mad scientist Tiberius Foot (Victor Spinetti) and his assistant, Algernon (Roy Kinnear):

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Foot: Fantastic! With a ring like that, I could--Dare I say it?--rule the world.​

Ahme comes to the rescue again and, as a relatively peaceful interlude, the boys take her back to their apartment and perform John's "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away". I really wish some of the music sequences were available on YouTube.

One of my favorite exchanges in the film occurs after this. I suppose it would be considered too culturally insensitive to post without at least censoring the offending compass point.

Ahme (pulling out a huge hypodermic needle): I have here...
[George faints at the sight of it.]
John: Now see what you've done with your filthy ******* ways.
Ahme: No! It is Clang, the high priest, who is filthy in his ******* ways!
John (in mock Holmesian accent): How do we know you're not just as filthy, and sent by him to nick the ring by being filthy, when you've lulled us with your filthy ******* ways?
Paul: What filthy ways are these?​

Ahme announces that because it's a new day, Ringo has now become the sacrificial victim. The catch is that they have to paint him red before they kill him, which leads to some comical difficulties. Next comes the big attack on the Beatles' pad, accompanied by music from Wagner's Prelude to Act III from Lohengrin. This sequence includes the girl-pleasing "Exciting Adventure of Paul on the Floor," and is punctuated by Foot and Algernon driving the cultists away at gunpoint to make their own attempt on the ring. That fails when the gun jams, making Foot wish he had a Luger like a properly equipped mad scientist.

Then we get a change of scene as the Beatles try to get away from things by taking a skiing trip to the Alps...as introduced by the classic sequence for "Ticket to Ride". George in his top hat reminds me of his later pal Tom Petty. Interestingly, the fadeout of the song used in the version of the film that I have is different from the track on the British/current album. More attempts by both the cultists and scientists ensue, including a bomb in a curling stone, which gives us my favorite quotable line in the film...

George: Hey, it's a thingie--A FIENDISH THINGIE!​

Another instrumental piece based on "She's a Woman" plays in a subsequent attack by the cultists.

The Beatles return to London and seek the help of another scene-stealer--Patrick Cargill as a Scotland Yard superintendent who has a habit of describing everything and everyone as "famous," and does an impression of Ringo on the phone that's not a bit like Cagney. Filling him in on the situation...

Ringo: They have to paint me red before they chop me. It's a different religion from ours...I think.​

After an attack via bow and arrow in his office, the Superintendent arranges "protection" for their recording session the following day...an outdoor recording studio is set up on Salisbury Plain, surrounded by army soldiers and tanks within sight of Stonehenge. This is the setting of the the combined musical sequence for George's "I Need You" and Paul's "The Night Before". Prior single B-side "She's a Woman" also makes an appearance via reel-to-reel tape, which Ahme uses to fool the cultists into thinking that they're digging directly under the Beatles...causing their detonation of explosives "exactly one millionth of all the high explosive exploded in one week of the Second World War" (It says so on the box!) to miss the band by a good ways. The 1812 Overture plays when the cultists destroy the tank that they think the Beatles are escaping in with cannon fire.

The boys proceed to seek protection at Buckingham Palace, where we get some very amusing banter as John and Paul try to convince Ringo to sacrifice his finger for the good of the group.

John: No doubt about it, we're risking our lives to preserve a useless member!​

Even this proves to be no sanctuary for the Beatles, as Foot and Algernon get in disguised as palace guards to use their Relativity Condenser...which, fortunately for the boys, blows the Royal Fuse. (The subtitles of the film and multiple online sources identify this gadget, which slows down time in its field of effect, as a "relativity cadenza"....which makes no sense and is likely just a passed-down misunderstanding of how Spinetti pronounces "condenser".) In a subsequent attempt by the cultists, Ringo finds himself trapped with a man-eating tiger in the cellar of a pub...but the Superintendent knows how to lull it into a passive state...

Superintendent: All you have to do is sing Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" from the famous Ninth Symphony in D minor.
John (down to Ringo through the trap door): Of course, why didn't you think of that, you twit!?!​

The Beatles decide that another change of locale is in order...

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(It's funny how much some of them look like they would just a few years later.)

The sequence for Paul's "Another Girl" ensues on a beach, which includes Paul strumming a bikini-clad blonde like a guitar. Infamously, the Beatles kind of shot themselves in the foot deciding on the Bahamas as a filming location, as they filmed there in winter when it was too cold to enjoy the locale.

Ahme shows the boys the sacrificial temple that Clang has had transported from the East, and the boys find themselves on the run from the cultists again...but decide to "go back and get 'em" while circling on their bikes like schoolboys. An instrumental piece based on "A Hard Day's Night" plays as they're lured into another trap, of which they're wary...

Superintendent: Oh, come on lads, don't be windy. Where's that famous pluck?
John: I haven't got any, have you, George?
George: Did have.
Paul: I have had.
Ringo: I will have--read on!​

A jazzy instrumental based on "From Me to You" plays as Ringo is nabbed not by the cultists, but by the scientists. George looks like he's having too much fun hanging onto the back of their car. After George calmly loosens a wheel while they're having trouble getting the vehicle restarted, he and Ringo hook back up with the others...

John (pointing at the Superintendent): He's got a plan.
Superintendent: Yes.
Paul: A very famous plan.
Superintendent: Yes.
John: Superintendent, you have a plan, haven't you...
Superintendent: Yes. You see...
John: ...Superintendent?
Superintendent: I've got a plan.​

More "A Hard Day's Night" instrumental plays as the cultists make various attempts at the other Beatles disguised as Ringo, and the cultists responsible are gradually nabbed by the police. But finally the scientists manage to nab the real Ringo, and Foot plans to surgically extract his finger on a boat. Ahme boards to rescue him bearing more shrinking serum (the stuff that was in the huge needle in the earlier scene, which Paul got a good accidental dose of), and Foot becomes more interested in that than the ring. Thus Ringo and Ahme are easily able to evacuate the boat, only to be nabbed by the cultists.

Which brings us to the climactic scene, in which Ringo is tied down on the beach for sacrifice. Seeing the others approaching into a trap, in an act of courage he tries to warn them...which, as hinted at a couple of times earlier in the film, is all it takes for the ring to slip off his finger. The title song is reprised during the comical chaos that ensues, which involves the Beatles, cultists, Bahaman police, and scientists, and during which the ring changes hands many times.

After an onscreen dedication to Elias Howe, inventor of the sewing machine, the overture to The Barber of Seville plays over the kaleidoscopic end credits sequence.

Help! inspired The Monkees TV series, while its pop art style also influenced the Batman TV series and the direction of the contemporary advertising industry. Although Lester's depiction of Indian culture was largely negative and stereotypical, the film's focus on Kali and other Hindu themes anticipated the counterculture's fascination with Indian philosophy and music.

As already noted, George had a more direct hand in that last part.

_______

I can't believe this got past the 60s censors.

Another case where the times being more innocent allowed them to be more bawdy with double entendre, because people didn't just immediately think of the naughty angle.

maybe Elvis will show up in Dragnet.

I'm sure that Webb/Friday would have had a field day with him in the '50s version...greasy-haired JD!

Why would they skip Forever People?

There was a tendency to leave them out in later revivals of the Fourth World properties...no doubt because the concept seemed too dated.

And FWIW, the continuity of the revivals is all over the place, which started when they gave Jack license to ignore the first revival from the late '70s.

There's also a four-issue Omnibus edition that looks good, but is not available for Kindle and is super-expensive.

If I had to choose from the options available, I'd just get individual digital issues...but then, I went through the trouble of collecting original issues as reader's copies.

Yes, please and thank you!

I was fortunate in that exact release dates were available for all; JO was on one of those odd monthly-but-skipped-some-months schedules, I think, and the other three titles were bimonthlies, so they tended to come out a month earlier than monthlies showing the same cover date.

This just lists title, issue number, and release date; I didn't put in the cover dates.

Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen 133 (08/25/70)
Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen 134 (10/13/70)
Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen 135 (11/24/70)
Forever People 1 (12/01/70)
New Gods 1 (12/22/70)
Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen 136 (01/14/71)
Mister Miracle 1 (01/14/71)
Forever People 2 (02/02/71)
Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen 137 (02/18/71)
New Gods 2 (02/18/71)
Mister Miracle 2 (03/16/71)
Forever People 3 (04/01/71)
Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen 138 (04/13/71)
New Gods 3 (04/20/71)
Mister Miracle 3 (05/18/71)
Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen 139 (05/25/71)
Forever People 4 (06/01/71)
New Gods 4 (06/15/71)
Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen 141 (07/08/71)
Mister Miracle 4 (07/15/71)
Forever People 5 (08/03/71)
New Gods 5 (08/17/71)
Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen 142 (08/19/71)
Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen 143 (09/07/71)
Mister Miracle 5 (09/16/71)
Forever People 6 (10/05/71)
New Gods 6 (10/14/71)
Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen 144 (10/19/71)
Mister Miracle 6 (11/11/71)
Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen 145 (11/18/71)
Forever People 7 (12/02/71)
Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen 146 (12/21/71)
New Gods 7 (12/21/71)
Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen 147 (01/13/72)
Mister Miracle 7 (01/13/72)
Forever People 8 (02/01/72)
Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen 148 (02/17/72)
New Gods 8 (02/17/72)
Mister Miracle 8 (03/16/72)
Forever People 9 (04/04/72)
New Gods 9 (04/18/72)
Mister Miracle 9 (05/11/72)
Forever People 10 (06/01/72)
New Gods 10 (06/15/72)
Mister Miracle 10 (07/13/72)
Forever People 11 (08/01/72)
New Gods 11 (08/17/72)
Mister Miracle 11 (09/14/72)

I didn't work the list up past the 1972 cover dates, but from there you can just read Mister Miracle 12-18.

They're worth reading in order, too, as there is some unveiling of background, concepts, and mysteries going on across the titles. I should also note that the Jimmy Olsen storylines weave in and out of the Fourth World.

 

[RJDiogenes]

The sacrificial ring (seen in close-up in the b&w clip above) always reminded me of one of those candy rings that they'd sell in gumball machines. I wonder if the film was a source of inspiration for that?

Or vice versa.

The Beatles' purely fictitious shared pad is very groovy...I always wanted a pit bed like John's!

I prefer higher ground. What if there's a flood?

Ahme announces that because it's a new day, Ringo has now become the sacrificial victim.

Well, that figures.

...an outdoor recording studio is set up on Salisbury Plain, surrounded by army soldiers and tanks within sight of Stonehenge.

Wow. They should have sacrificed Ringo at Stonehenge. That would have kind of made it worthwhile.

Seeing the others approaching into a trap, in an act of courage he tries to warn them...which, as hinted at a couple of times earlier in the film, is all it takes for the ring to slip off his finger.

Ringo has, yet again, taught us a valuable lesson.

The title song is reprised during the comical chaos that ensues, which involves the Beatles, cultists, Bahaman police, and scientists, and during which the ring changes hands many times.

When you think about it, the final Indy film could pick up right where this left off.

There was a tendency to leave them out in later revivals of the Fourth World properties...no doubt because the concept seemed too dated.

Which explains why I find it the most interesting.

If I had to choose from the options available, I'd just get individual digital issues...but then, I went through the trouble of collecting original issues as reader's copies.

I may have no choice, but I'm a bit miffed that they've done this to me.

This just lists title, issue number, and release date; I didn't put in the cover dates.

That's cool. Thank you very much. I have filed this in my research folder.

They're worth reading in order, too, as there is some unveiling of background, concepts, and mysteries going on across the titles. I should also note that the Jimmy Olsen storylines weave in and out of the Fourth World.

Depending on what metamorphosis he's suffering that particular month, I suppose.

 

[The Old Mixer]

55th Anniversary Album Spotlight

Help!
The Beatles
Released August 6, 1965 (UK); August 13, 1965 (US)
Chart debut: August 28, 1965
Chart peak: #1, September 11 through November 6, 1965
#332 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (presumably the UK version)

Help! is the fifth studio album by the English rock band the Beatles and the soundtrack from their film of the same name. It was released on 6 August 1965. Produced by George Martin, it was the fifth UK album release by the band, and contains fourteen songs in its original British form. Seven of these, including the singles "Help!" and "Ticket to Ride", appeared in the film and took up the first side of the vinyl album. The second side contained seven other releases including the most-covered song ever written, "Yesterday".

For clarity, the track lineup of the now-standard British version of the album:

Side one
1. "Help!"
2. "The Night Before"
3. "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away"
4. "I Need You"
5. "Another Girl"
6. "You're Going to Lose That Girl"
7. "Ticket to Ride"

Side two
1. "Act Naturally"
2. "It's Only Love"
3. "You Like Me Too Much"
4. "Tell Me What You See"
5. "I've Just Seen a Face"
6. "Yesterday"
7. "Dizzy Miss Lizzy"

Note that in the British catalog, this is the last gasp of covers on Beatles albums...there are only two, both on the second side.

The American release was a true soundtrack album, mixing the first seven songs with instrumental material from the film. Of the other seven songs that were on the British release, two were released on the US version of the next Beatles album, Rubber Soul, two were back-to-back on the next US single and then appeared on Yesterday and Today, and three had already been on Beatles VI.

The American album opens with a bit of Ken Thorne instrumental music from the film that spoofs on the James Bond theme, which is not a separate track, but attached to the title song (charted Aug. 7, 1965; #1 US the weeks of Sept. 4 through 18, 1965; #1 UK; #29 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time; #15 on Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Beatles Songs).

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Sirius actually plays the version with the instrumental intro as if it were the single, when that only appeared on the American album, not on either country's single version.

Next is the first of Paul's two soundtrack songs (neither being a single), "The Night Before" (#49 on Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Beatles Songs):

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Following that is the first full instrumental track from the film, "From Me to You Fantasy". IIRC, this played during the build-up to the attack on the Beatles' pad in the film.

While other rock artists were making a new subgenre out of covering Dylan, John was carrying forward Dylan's influence on his own songwriting with "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" (#31 on Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Beatles Songs):

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It's commonly speculated in Beatles scholarship that this song was inspired by Brian Epstein's homosexuality (still a crime in Britain at the time), but apparently John never verified that.

Next is George's contribution to the soundtrack songs, "I Need You"--only his third composition to appear on a Beatles record in the States, following "Don't Bother Me" on Meet the Beatles and "You Like Me Too Much" from the second side of the British Help! album, which has already been released in the US on Beatles VI.

The first side closes with another Ken Thorne instrumental piece, "In the Tyrol," which includes the music that played when Clang was being awarded a skiing medal in the film, bookending the Lohengrin arrangement that played during the attack on the Beatles' pad.

Side two opens with Paul's other contribution to the film songs, "Another Girl". Both of his contributions are perfectly enjoyable numbers, but neither is bringing his A-game. The soundtrack side of the UK album was definitely John's baby. On the second side of that version of the album, however, Paul's playing in a league of his own...

"Another Hard Day's Night" is the instrumental from the Indian restaurant scene that was so influential on George's musical direction, and through him pop culture in general. The Wiki page for the album points out that this record preceded Rubber Soul in having Indian instruments on a rock album (though not in rock songs). In addition to "A Hard Day's Night," this piece includes a brief section based on "I Should Have Known Better".

Next is the soundtrack's first single, released back when the film was being produced under the working title Eight Arms to Hold You..."Ticket to Ride" (charted Apr. 24, 1965; #1 US the week of May 22, 1965; #1 UK; #384 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time; #17 on Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Beatles Songs):

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Thorne instrumental "The Bitter End/You Can't Do That" includes the music that played when Ahme was trying to get the ring off Ringo's finger with a rod while he was sleeping, followed by music from one of the attacks on the Beatles in the Alps, IIRC.

The penultimate song on the American LP is its last Beatles original, John's "You're Going to Lose That Girl" (#27 on Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Beatles Songs):

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Even John's non-singles among the soundtrack songs are consistently stronger than Paul's contributions, I'm afraid.

The American album closes with one last film instrumental, "The Chase". Offhand, I'm not sure where or if this was used in the film.

As far as the Beatles' musical progression in the UK catalog goes, I always considered Help! to be a strong step forward from Beatles for Sale, and toward their peak "middle period". This is more evident when listening to the UK version of the album, with its additional original material...including one song that, in one of Capitol's better moves in their handling of the Beatles catalog, will be released as the band's next single in the States. The US version of the Help! album is a more awkward listen than it British counterpart because of the film instrumentals being interspersed with the original Beatles material.

_______

Ringo has, yet again, taught us a valuable lesson.

So have you ever seen the film? Any interest in it?

I neglected to fit in one of my favorite lines...

Foot: MIT was after me, you know. Wanted me to rule the world for them.​

When you think about it, the final Indy film could pick up right where this left off.

I'm game!

Which explains why I find it the most interesting.

[Mother Box pings happily.]

Depending on what metamorphosis he's suffering that particular month, I suppose.

Even the King couldn't resist continuing that tradition...though the most notable example was an altered clone rather than Jimmy himself transformed.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Note that in the British catalog, this is the last gasp of covers on Beatles albums...there are only two, both on the second side.

Thank goodness.

Sirius actually plays the version with the instrumental intro as if it were the single, when that only appeared on the American album, not on either country's single version.

Interesting. I don't think I've ever heard that version, but it seems to me like the abrupt beginning is too much a part of the song for that to work.

It's commonly speculated in Beatles scholarship that this song was inspired by Brian Epstein's homosexuality (still a crime in Britain at the time), but apparently John never verified that.

You'd think he would if it were so.

"Another Hard Day's Night" is the instrumental from the Indian restaurant scene that was so influential on George's musical direction

No "Ninth Day of the Week?"

The American album closes with one last film instrumental, "The Chase". Offhand, I'm not sure where or if this was used in the film.

Sounds like it was for the comical chase on the beach, but they decided to use the title song instead.

The US version of the Help! album is a more awkward listen than it British counterpart because of the film instrumentals being interspersed with the original Beatles material.

More appropriate as a soundtrack, though, it would seem.

So have you ever seen the film? Any interest in it?

I don't recall if I've ever seen it all the way through, although I do seem to remember it being a big-deal Friday-night movie on TV back in the day. It certainly looks fun, with a cool Pulp-fiction plot, and the quippy dialogue is infectious (and inspiring ).

Even the King couldn't resist continuing that tradition...though the most notable example was an altered clone rather than Jimmy himself transformed.

Somebody should do a mini series: Jimmy Olsen: PTSD.

 

[The Old Mixer]

55 Years Ago This Week

August 15 – The Beatles perform the first stadium concert in the history of music, playing before 55,600 persons at Shea Stadium in New York City.

And check out who's introducing them, 5Xth Anniversary Viewing fans!

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Some "Dizzy Miss Lizzy"
"Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby" (full performance, audio only from Anthology 2)

August 18 – Vietnam War – Operation Starlite: 5,500 United States Marines destroy a Viet Cong stronghold on the Van Tuong peninsula in Quảng Ngãi Province, in the first major American ground battle of the war. The Marines were tipped-off by a Viet Cong deserter who said that there was an attack planned against the U.S. base at Chu Lai.
August 19 – At the conclusion of the Frankfurt Auschwitz trials, 66 ex-SS personnel receive life sentences, 15 others smaller ones.
August 20 – Jonathan Myrick Daniels, an Episcopal seminarian from Keene, New Hampshire, is murdered in Hayneville, Alabama, while working in the civil rights movement.
August 21 – Gemini 5 (Gordon Cooper, Pete Conrad) is launched on the first 1-week flight, as well as the first test of fuel cells for electrical power.

Selections from Billboard's Hot 100 for the week:

1. "I Got You Babe," Sonny & Cher
2. "Save Your Heart for Me," Gary Lewis & The Playboys
3. "Help!," The Beatles
4. "California Girls," The Beach Boys
5. "Unchained Melody," The Righteous Brothers
6. "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction," The Rolling Stones
7. "It's the Same Old Song," Four Tops
8. "Don't Just Stand There," Patty Duke
9. "I'm Henry VIII, I Am," Herman's Hermits
10. "Down in the Boondocks," Billy Joe Royal
11. "Baby, I'm Yours," Barbara Lewis
12. "What's New Pussycat?," Tom Jones
13. "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me," Mel Carter
14. "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag, Part I," James Brown & The Famous Flames
15. "All I Really Want to Do," Cher
16. "Like a Rolling Stone," Bob Dylan
17. "You Were on My Mind," We Five
18. "Nothing but Heartaches," The Supremes
19. "Take Me Back," Little Anthony & The Imperials
20. "I'm a Fool," Dino, Desi & Billy
21. "I Want Candy," The Strangeloves
22. "You'd Better Come Home," Petula Clark
23. "The Tracks of My Tears," The Miracles
24. "Since I Lost My Baby," The Temptations
25. "I Like It Like That," The Dave Clark Five
26. "Cara, Mia," Jay & The Americans
27. "In the Midnight Hour," Wilson Pickett
28. "Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows," Lesley Gore
29. "Ju Ju Hand," Sam the Sham & The Pharaohs
30. "Heart Full of Soul," The Yardbirds

32. "It Ain't Me Babe," The Turtles
33. "Pretty Little Baby," Marvin Gaye
34. "The 'In' Crowd," The Ramsey Lewis Trio

36. "To Know You Is to Love You," Peter & Gordon
37. "Shake and Fingerpop," Jr. Walker & The All Stars

39. "Ride Your Pony," Lee Dorsey
40. "All I Really Want to Do," The Byrds

48. "Too Many Rivers," Brenda Lee

51. "Agent Double-O-Soul," Edwin Starr
52. "Action," Freddy Cannon

55. "Sad, Sad Girl," Barbara Mason

58. "Eve of Destruction," Barry McGuire
59. "Summer Nights," Marianne Faithfull

62. "Catch Us If You Can," The Dave Clark Five

67. "Hang on Sloopy," The McCoys
68. "We Gotta Get Out of This Place," The Animals

70. "Baby Don't Go," Sonny & Cher

83. "Laugh at Me," Sonny
84. "Colours," Donovan

91. "Liar, Liar," The Castaways

95. "You've Got Your Troubles," The Fortunes
96. "Do You Believe in Magic," The Lovin' Spoonful

98. "Ride Away," Roy Orbison

Leaving the chart:

• "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)," Four Tops (14 weeks)
• "Seventh Son," Johnny Rivers (11 weeks)
• "What the World Needs Now Is Love," Jackie DeShannon (13 weeks)
• "Yes, I'm Ready," Barbara Mason (14 weeks)
• "You Turn Me On (Turn On Song)," Ian Whitcomb & Bluesville (13 weeks)

New on the chart:

"Do You Believe in Magic," The Lovin' Spoonful

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(#9 US; #216 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time)

"You've Got Your Troubles," The Fortunes

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(#7 US; #2 UK)

"Catch Us If You Can," The Dave Clark Five

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(#4 US; #5 UK)

"Eve of Destruction," Barry McGuire

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(#1 US the week of Sept. 25, 1965; #3 UK)

_______

No "Ninth Day of the Week?"

That's too much...how about seventeen every two weeks?

Sounds like it was for the comical chase on the beach, but they decided to use the title song instead.

Not sure that would've worked. Also, there were deleted scenes, so maybe it was orphaned.

and the quippy dialogue is infectious (and inspiring )

And there's certainly plenty more of that where the few quotes I managed to include came from.

Something about the Fourth World that I should give a heads-up about...in Mister Miracle, you'll eventually meet a character named Funky Flashman, who's a fast-talking huckster type. He's...based on somebody Jack used to work with.

 

[VR518]

They should have had Jack Lord saying "Sock it to me." Or maybe they tried and he was too much of a stiff.


I

Or maybe Jack was never asked to appear on Laugh-In or was and declined. He was not a stiff. I have seen him in interviews on Mike Douglas and Merv Griffin, and on local TV shows in Hawaii, and he had a personality. He played a character who was serious on Hawaii Five-O because he was ... a chief of police on a crime drama. How absurd, a chief of police on a crime drama being serious. Who has ever heard of that?

 

[The Old Mixer]

55.52nd Anniversary Viewing

12 O'Clock High
"To Heinie, with Love"
Originally aired February 5, 1965

A new navigator (Keir Dullea) displays personality traits that could endanger both missions and crews; guest Ralph Williams.

https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/the-classic-retro-pop-culture-thread.278375/page-64#post-12176427

We've seen Frank on the show...now it's Dave's turn! (Better keep an eye on that bombing autopilot.) His character has a chip on his shoulder because his dad was a Nazi Bundist--It doesn't help that he couldn't find a better picture to carry around in his wallet than one of Pop saluting in front of a swastika. And that's not the only hamfisted element in the story...General Savage also sprouts a backstory detail about an old girlfriend who'd been killed by Bundists; and the father being said to have joined the Bund when Dullea's character was 11 is chronologically problematic. The show's not usually so clumsily written.

I'm ready to give the rest of the season its proper due.

The episode opens with men in the officer's quarters singing "The Whiffenpoof Song". Yeah, I had to look up what it was called, but holy H&I War Heroes crossover! New navigator Kurt Muller (Dullea) seems emotionally aloof from the start, not trying to be friendly and bothering the others by taking the bunk of of his recently deceased predecessor. On his first mission, Muller reacts badly to bombardier Lt. Magill (Stewart Moss) jokingly calling him "heinie," then is promptly hit by flak. Magill frisks him for his wallet for some reason and sees the pic of dear ol' dad. A fight ensues while fighters are attacking, and Savage has to go down to break it up and make Muller take a gun. Back in Savage's office, Lt. Magill won't officially rat on Muller (though word seems to have spread quickly among the men), but Savage has a look at the wallet, as carrying one on a mission is against regulations.

Savage needs his navigator for a tricky mission that involves the Lily breaking formation to slip down and hit a vital bridge while the rest of the group serves as a diversion, so Savage confides with Crowe about the thing he's had against Bundists since they killed his girlfriend for demonstrating against a rally in 1934. Meanwhile, Muller meets a local girl named Nora Burgess (Jill Haworth) while both are literally just wandering the English countryside, and they start getting all romantic subplot-y. On the mission, a bad compass causes Muller's navigation through cloud cover to put them in the wrong place and the Lily is jumped by fighters; Magill gets shot up and bleeds to death, though he could have been saved if Muller had taken the time to check him and put a tourniquet on his leg.

Back at Archbury, Muller wanders back into the countryside to get some exposition about his childhood issues off his chest and the romantic subplot progresses. In Savage's office, we learn that he trusts Muller, but wants to transfer him because the crew doesn't. Muller reports to Savage and explains that he thought it was more important to get the rest of the crew home than to check on one man. Savage questions Muller and learns that Kurt didn't agree with his father politically, but still loved him. Muller leaves without the transfer coming up, and Savage tears up the papers.

On the mission redo, Muller makes a point of trying to be friendly with his new bombardier. Nora watches as the group takes off. The compass having been properly swung this time, Mulller gets the Lily on target and they knock out the bridge. Muller then has to man a waist gun when they're attacked by a single fighter from the less title-worthy angle of one o'clock level. Daniels finds an incendiary bomb still dangling in the bay and drops it out, but a loose charge remains in the plane and Muller burns his hands tossing it out.

In the epilog Muller returns to quarters from the hospital to a surprise party, with Nora in attendance. One of the guys jokingly calls Kurt "heinie," and this time he laughs it off.

_______

He played a character who was serious on Hawaii Five-O because he was ... a chief of police on a crime drama.

Not a chief of police...more the head of a special unit that seemed to operate as a state-level FBI.

 

[gblews]

Help!
Directed by Richard Lester
Starring The Beatles, Leo McKern, Eleanor Bron, Victor Spinetti, and Roy Kinnear
Released July 29, 1965

Haven’t seen Help in so many years. I remember my first impressions of seeing 2 hours of the Beatles on the big screen IN COLOR, was outright awe. I thought the movie was genuinely funny. But looking back, I can see how silly and utterly simple it was. But, I still loved it.

Note that John's visually promoting his current book, A Spaniard in the Works.

For years I was totally confused by this title. Back then, I had never heard the expression, “a spanner in the works,” so I didn’t get the joke.

Thus they proceed to see the scene-stealing mad scientist Tiberius Foot (Victor Spinetti) and his assistant, Algernon (Roy Kinnear):

Spinnetti was great as the mad scientist (just as he was in HDN as the producer). I loved the low key battle going on between him and his assistant over British tech vs American tech.

While other rock artists were making a new subgenre out of covering Dylan, John was carrying forward Dylan's influence on his own songwriting with "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" (#31 on Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Beatles Songs):

Although I loved “Hide”, even back when the movie was released I thought the song’s melody was too commercial, and the lyrics too simple to be mistaken for a Dylan song. But it is “like” a Dylan song.

The penultimate song on the American LP is its last Beatles original, John's "You're Going to Lose That Girl"

Great song by John. I wish you’d posted the performance clip from the movie. It is just beautifully shot.

"Do You Believe in Magic," The Lovin' Spoonful

The Spoonful were also on the bill at that Turtles concert I went too.

 

[Nerys Myk]

There was a tendency to leave them out in later revivals of the Fourth World properties...no doubt because the concept seemed too dated.

Was there? There was a mini series in 1988. They were featured in the Jack Kirby's Fourth World series in the late 90's. They also appeared in The Death of the New Gods and Final Crisis. More recently there was an Infinity Man and the Forever People series.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Spinnetti was great as the mad scientist (just as he was in HDN as the producer). I loved the low key battle going on between him and his assistant over British tech vs American tech.

He was a highlight in both. I think all of the complaining about inadequate British tech was a sort of comedic counterpoint to the trendiness of things British with the youth at the time.

Great song by John. I wish you’d posted the performance clip from the movie. It is just beautifully shot.

Not available on YouTube. But looking elsewhere...

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(sans credits and cultists)

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The Spoonful were also on the bill at that Turtles concert I went too.

A Spoonful of Turtles...?

Was there? There was a mini series in 1988. They were featured in the Jack Kirby's Fourth World series in the late 90's. They also appeared in The Death of the New Gods and Final Crisis. More recently there was an Infinity Man and the Forever People series.

They were ignored in the original late '70s revival. The late '80s miniseries was a revisionist "Big Chill" take on them, and was their bone while New Gods and Mister Miracle each enjoyed multiple longer-term series revivals and a lot more exposure in the wider DC line. The miniseries was ignored by JK4W, which was a decade later. After that was after my time.

 

[RJDiogenes]

And check out who's introducing them, 5Xth Anniversary Viewing fans!

Well, that's certainly appropriate, and nice to see.

"Do You Believe in Magic," The Lovin' Spoonful

Nice song. The Spoonful was pretty reliable.

"You've Got Your Troubles," The Fortunes

Another good one.

"Catch Us If You Can," The Dave Clark Five

Fun and catchy.

"Eve of Destruction," Barry McGuire

This is a protest classic, despite being a kind of awkward homage to Dylan. I often couple the title with "Age of Aquarius" to capture that Dickensian "Best of times, worst of times" aspect of the era.

That's too much...how about seventeen every two weeks?

Sold.

Something about the Fourth World that I should give a heads-up about...in Mister Miracle, you'll eventually meet a character named Funky Flashman, who's a fast-talking huckster type. He's...based on somebody Jack used to work with.

I remember hearing about that. I think maybe Roy Thomas wrote about it in Alter Ego or something.

"To Heinie, with Love"

Oh, my goodness.

New navigator Kurt Muller (Dullea) seems emotionally aloof from the start

Good practice for his breakthrough role.

Savage has a look at the wallet, as carrying one on a mission is against regulations.

Interesting factino. I never thought of it, but it makes sense.

so Savage confides with Crowe about the thing he's had against Bundists since they killed his girlfriend for demonstrating against a rally in 1934.

I had a similar experience about two years earlier.

In the epilog Muller returns to quarters from the hospital to a surprise party, with Nora in attendance. One of the guys jokingly calls Kurt "heinie," and this time he laughs it off.

War can make people more brittle, or less.