The Classic/Retro Pop Culture Thread

[DarrenTR1970]

"Conquistador," Procol Harum

I think it was this song, more than "A White Shade Of Pale", that turned me onto Procol Harum. A few points of interest from the liner notes of the fifty-ish Anniversary CD reissue . . .

Procol Harum's equipment was impounded and dismantled by Canadian authorities looking for drugs/contraband. The equipment didn't arrive until 30 minutes before the day of the concert; meaning a day and a half worth of planned rehearsals with the orchestra had to be scrapped. A quick rehearsal was done before the audience filed into the auditorium. Guitarist's Dave Ball's speaker was damaged by the authorities and a replacement didn't arrive until the actual performance.

The rehearsal and the actual performance were recorded. The album is a combination of both. Not all of the songs played that night made the album. "Luskus Delph", "Shine On Brightly", "Simple Sister" and "Repent Walpurgis" were omitted from the final running order. Only "Repent Walpurgis" is missing from the CD anniversary re-issue; the tapes being too damaged to repair.

"Conquistador" was a last-minute addition to the concert; the decision made on the plane flight up from California, when the band realized they didn't have an up-tempo opening number. Gary Brooker wrote the score for the orchestra on the flight.

The album version is edit piece of the opening banter and a re-recording of the song after the audience went home; the band and producer Chris Thomas feeling that the performance was inadequately captured the first time. The single omits the opening banter.

This is guitarist Dave Ball's only Procol Harum album/tour, having replaced original guitarist Robin Trower. Ball left the band shortly after the conclusion of the tour and the start of the next album "Grand Hotel", finding the rock and roll lifestyle not for him. His replacement, Mick Grahbam, was the guitarist Dave Ball beat for the spot in the audition.

Drummer Barrie James "B.J." Wilson, was Jimmy Page's first choice to replace Jim McCarty as drummer in the Yardbirds (soon to be renamed Led Zeppelin), when Keith Relf and Jim left the Yardbirds to form Renaissance. "B.J." demurred and John "Bonzo" Bonham was chosen instead, on the suggestion of Robert Plant.

"B.J." was nicknamed "Octopus" by Gary Brooker. Unfortunately, there's very little footage of Procol Harum performances, but what there is of it, shows that "B.J." is an absolute beast behind the kit; probably rivaling Keith Moon and Bonham in terms of pounding the skins, but with much more control than those two.

 

[gblews]

Society's Child (BSB, aby I've Been Thinking)," Janis Ian

Although I liked this song well enough, I always thought this song’s lyrics were hilariously on the nose, “she called you boy instead of your name.” Bobby Taylor and the Vancouvers’ “Dows Your Mama Know,” covered the same subject matter in a much more lyrically subtle and melodic way a few years later.

Association - Along Comes Mary | 2/1 (1968) - YouTube

Probably right up there with The Beach Boys in terms of some of the best vocal harmonies of the sixties.

For the most part, the mid-60’s British Invasion nearly missed the inner city entirely. The folk movement missed by an even wider margin with,1-2 exception, like, inexplicably, Dylan’s Like a Rolling Stone, and …Along Comes Mary.

The Association played my high school back then. The response to the band’s mostly “unknown” songs like Wendy, was polite, but reserve$. Their final song was “Mary.” The response practically tore, the place down.

I’v often wondered if the band was aware of just how unlikely it was for a white folkish band to have any songs known by those kids, much less loved by them.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Cassettes?! Wow, you really are dating yourself. I have mine on CD.

Oh, yeah. And I've still got them, too, sitting in my storage cave as a gift to future archaeologists.

Laszlo Toth attacks Michelangelo's Pietà statue with a geologist's hammer, shouting that he is Jesus Christ.

When, in fact, he is Thor.

Later known as the "Watergate burglars", a team associated with the Committee to Re-Elect the President failed in its first attempt at wiretapping the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate complex.

This is what happens when Jim Phelps declines a mission.

"Conquistador," Procol Harum

Ah, Poetry Rock, like the Moody Blues. Great stuff.

"I Wanna Be Where You Are," Michael Jackson

I don't think I ever heard this one. Kind of minor.

"The Happiest Girl in the Whole U.S.A.," Donna Fargo

I love pro-drug songs.

"Too Late to Turn Back Now," Cornelius Brothers & Sister Rose

This is a good one.

What image is that?

This one:

I love how the bottle is caught in mid burst.

Kind of surprising that it did so well at the time given the subject matter.

I think it hit a nerve. There's a reason the church wanted that sort of thing to be illegal.

That's gotten to be kinda po-tay-to, po-tah-to at this point.

Looks like I'm going to have to buy the White Album again.

 

[The Old Mixer]

This is what happens when Jim Phelps declines a mission.

Hmmm...never thought of a Watergate connection to the series ending...

Ah, Poetry Rock, like the Moody Blues. Great stuff.

Has a nice sound once it gets going (the single edit I presume trims out the warm-up), and seems vaguely familiar...something I might have heard on oldies or classic rock radio back in the day.

I don't think I ever heard this one. Kind of minor.

An unmemorable contribution from the future King of Pop.

I love pro-drug songs.

Sounds like she's high on standing by her man. This surprise entry falls into the "never heard it before in my life and doesn't sound like something I'd want to get" category.

This is a good one.

A bona fide oldies radio staple.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Bobby Taylor and the Vancouvers’ “Dows Your Mama Know,” covered the same subject matter in a much more lyrically subtle and melodic way a few years later.

Thought that sounded familiar... (Audio clip in the old post now disabled.)

 

[DarrenTR1970]

Ah, Poetry Rock, like the Moody Blues. Great stuff.

I think that the Moody Blues lyrics were a little more accessible than those of Procol Harum. With the Moody Blues you had five singer/songwriters, whereas Keith Reid was the primary lyricist for Procol Harum, while Gary Brooker provided the music. Sort of an Elton John/Bernie Taupin relationship. And Keith Reid's lyrics could be somewhat abstract/inscrutable. It took reading the liner notes to the deluxe editions to figure out what some of the songs were about.

 

[DarrenTR1970]

Has a nice sound once it gets going (the single edit I presume trims out the warm-up), and seems vaguely familiar...something I might have heard on oldies or classic rock radio back in the day.

The album version is edit piece of the opening banter and a re-recording of the song after the audience went home; the band and producer Chris Thomas feeling that the performance was inadequately captured the first time. The single omits the opening banter.

Unfortunately, Procol Harum is one of those artists that doesn't get played on classic rock radio much anymore; unless the radio station is doing an 'A to Z' weekend, or 'Top something or other' and 'A Whiter Shade of Pale' gets played towards the end in the 'W's'.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Hmmm...never thought of a Watergate connection to the series ending...

Can you imagine all the crap that Nixon sent their way? "Good morning, Mr Phelps. Sorry about this one, Jim. He gets nuttier every day."

Has a nice sound once it gets going (the single edit I presume trims out the warm-up)

I thought there was something wrong with my speakers for a minute.

Sounds like she's high on standing by her man.

I think that the Moody Blues lyrics were a little more accessible than those of Procol Harum. With the Moody Blues you had five singer/songwriters, whereas Keith Reid was the primary lyricist for Procol Harum, while Gary Brooker provided the music. Sort of an Elton John/Bernie Taupin relationship. And Keith Reid's lyrics could be somewhat abstract/inscrutable. It took reading the liner notes to the deluxe editions to figure out what some of the songs were about.

Very true, but I think they're still in the same category. Or at least they're linked in my head.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Can you imagine all the crap that Nixon sent their way? "Good morning, Mr Phelps. Sorry about this one, Jim. He gets nuttier every day."

"The man you're looking at is John Lennon...."

 

[RJDiogenes]

"The man you're looking at is John Lennon...."

"Conventional law enforcement has proven to be no match for him."

 

[DarrenTR1970]

This is what happens when Jim Phelps declines a mission.

Hmmm...never thought of a Watergate connection to the series ending...

Can you imagine all the crap that Nixon sent their way? "Good morning, Mr. Phelps. Sorry about this one, Jim. He gets nuttier every day."

Oddly enough Mission: Impossible 1980, the first of a series of proposed Made-For-TV movies would have opened with Jim Phelps being released from prison after serving a six-year prison sentence for conspiracy, burglary, wiretapping and refusing to testify before a Congressional committee. Phelps is called '. . . the last of the Watergate era', by a reporter who interviews Jim about the IMF.

I'll talk more about the Mission: Impossible Made-For-TV movies that never got the ground once The Old Mixer gets through with the season seven rewatch.

 

[RJDiogenes]

I look forward to that. I had no idea they tried to revive MI at that point. Sounds like it would have been good-- at least, kicking off with Phelps in jail and the IMF exposed is a fascinating way to go.

 

[The Old Mixer]

That sounds very interesting, though I'm not sure where they would have gone with an IMF that everyone knew about. Turn it into a legitimate agency, perhaps? And I'd like to think that Phelps and crew would have been more competent than Liddy and his goons...though I guess if somebody spilled the beans on them...

But, y'know, feel free to talk about it in advance...it's not like M:I is a series with boatloads of continuity or spoiler-worthy developments. That, or wait until the appropriate 50th anniversary year of 2030...

 

[RJDiogenes]

That sounds very interesting, though I'm not sure where they would have gone with an IMF that everyone knew about. Turn it into a legitimate agency, perhaps?

Dealing with government restrictions might have become an ongoing theme. Or they may have gone completely off the grid. I wonder if anyone else, including the Voice, went to jail.

And I'd like to think that Phelps and crew would have been more competent than Liddy and his goons...though I guess if somebody spilled the beans on them...

What I would have done, though the network probably wouldn't have gone for it, is have Phelps turn down a mission from Nixon-- and then he sets them up on the next one. That's just the sort of thing that the bastard would have done.

 

[DarrenTR1970]

Alright then - Instead of one long post dealing with the various attempted 'Mission: Impossible' revivals, I'll break it down into a couple of smaller posts over the next couple of days.

Starting with the first attempt at bringing 'Mission' back to the small screen.

In 1978 Paramount executives Arthur Fellows and Terry Keegan approached president of Paramount Television Gary Nardino with the idea of a 'Mission' reunion tv movie, which would have reunited the 'Classic' line-up with new, younger characters and served as a backdoor pilot for a possible new series.

CBS was approached, and agreed to air the movie, with a commitment to a new series, if the rating were good; however, by the time the script was ready, there had been a regime change and CBS passed on the movie.

NBC picked up the option, and the script was retitled "Mission: Impossible 1980".

As previously mentioned, the tv movie would have opened with Phelps being released from prison. Phelps is approached by Control (the book doesn't mention if Robert Johnson, the voice of Control, would have appeared; or another actor would take his place).

Control offers Jim one last mission to clear the IMF name - recover the remains of "Peking Man", stolen from the Smithsonian by Rollin Hand and Cinnamon Carter, sold to a Chinese tycoon and hidden in San Francisco's Chinatown District. Feeling responsible for Rollin and Cinnamon being disavowed years ago, Phelps agrees to take the mission.

Phelps recruits Barney, now a professor, and his protege, an Amerasian woman to the mission, but Willy, now a successful gymnasium entrepreneur and star of his own tv show, "Workin' It Out With Willy" refuses to go. (As an aside, I can't help but think that Willy's tv show sounds like the title of an adult film.)

Once Rollin and Cinnamon are located, it is discovered that they had nothing to do with the theft, and, in fact, it was Control who had Peking Man stolen in an attempt to break down Sino-American relations.

(It appears that the theft of Peking Man is tied to a summit meeting between the President and the Chinese Premier, with the President handing over the remains as a show of good will between the two nations; as it is mentioned in the book that this is what happens at the end of the movie. No bones, no meeting.)

Phelps quickly prepares a counterplot in which Control is "hospitalized" in a "car crash" and supposedly rendered unconscious for a week. Control panics, thinking that a timer set to destroy the Peking Man has gone off, and rushes to retrieve the fossil; which is what Jim intended. Control is arrested, the remains recovered, and Phelps and the IMF are cleared of any past wrongdoing.

Thanks to the substantial amount of money Phelps has hidden away over the years, Jim takes the IMF private, with the ability to pick and choose whichever mission the IMF feels best benefits the people they're helping.

It should be pointed out that the idea of Control being a rogue agent using the IMF for his own nefarious ends was the most often proposed and rejected story idea during the course of the series.

NBC rejected this script and asked for a more traditional "Mission: Impossible" plot.

End Part One

 

[RJDiogenes]

As previously mentioned, the tv movie would have opened with Phelps being released from prison.

Does it say what went wrong for Phelps? I know the Voice threw him under the bus, but does it give the mission details?

Phelps is approached by Control (the book doesn't mention if Robert Johnson, the voice of Control, would have appeared; or another actor would take his place).

The Voice shows up in person? Wow. The exploding model tape player must have been recalled.

Control offers Jim one last mission to clear the IMF name - recover the remains of "Peking Man", stolen from the Smithsonian by Rollin Hand and Cinnamon Carter, sold to a Chinese tycoon and hidden in San Francisco's Chinatown District.

Love the idea of Peking Man figuring into the plot. Hate the idea of heroes going rogue.

Feeling responsible for Rollin and Cinnamon being disavowed years ago, Phelps agrees to take the mission.

Was this the same incident that put Jim in the pokey?

Phelps recruits Barney, now a professor, and his protege, an Amerasian woman to the mission, but Willy, now a successful gymnasium entrepreneur and star of his own tv show, "Workin' It Out With Willy" refuses to go. (As an aside, I can't help but think that Willy's tv show sounds like the title of an adult film.)

I thought the same thing. And now I have that song by The Sweet in my head.

Once Rollin and Cinnamon are located, it is discovered that they had nothing to do with the theft, and, in fact, it was Control who had Peking Man stolen in an attempt to break down Sino-American relations.

Whew for Rollin and Cinnamon, and WTF for Control. Does it ever reveal what Control's motivations are? Did he go rogue or was he a Bond Villain all along?

Control is arrested, the remains recovered, and Phelps and the IMF are cleared of any past wrongdoing.

Presumably because Control confesses to wrongdoing on that mission too? But why would Control want the IMF out of commission six years ago?

Thanks to the substantial amount of money Phelps has hidden away over the years, Jim takes the IMF private, with the ability to pick and choose whichever mission the IMF feels best benefits the people they're helping.

So that "if you choose to accept it" thing was all hogwash? This new format sounds a lot like that show Leverage, if I'm not mistaken-- I never watched it, but a friend of mine did.

It should be pointed out that the idea of Control being a rogue agent using the IMF for his own nefarious ends was the most often proposed and rejected story idea during the course of the series.

I have to agree that was a bad idea. I don't like the idea of heroes going rogue. One of the reasons I never bothered with the first Mission Impossible movie (aside from Tom Cruise) was that they made Phelps the bad guy.

NBC rejected this script and asked for a more traditional "Mission: Impossible" plot.

Too bad. There's some good stuff in there. If they had just made Bad Control Guy an imposter, it would have been fine.

 

[DarrenTR1970]

Does it say what went wrong for Phelps? I know the Voice threw him under the bus, but does it give the mission details?

Unfortunately, no. I'd like to know if Control set the IMF to fail or if they were legitimately caught by the authorities.

Was this the same incident that put Jim in the pokey?

Again, the outline doesn't say, but I'm assuming it was. Since we don't have a copy of the script, maybe Phelps took the fall for everyone in an arrangement for leniency for the rest of the IMF.

Personally, I've always assumed that when a character was replaced on the show, that person had been "disavowed" and removed from the team. Since Rollin and Cinnamon vanished between the end of the third and the start of the fourth season, there might have been an unseen mission that resulted in their being "disavowed".

Does it ever reveal what Control's motivations are? Did he go rogue or was he a Bond Villain all along?

It would bring into question some of the missions that the IMF went on. Were they for Control's own personal gain?

Presumably because Control confesses to wrongdoing on that mission too? But why would Control want the IMF out of commission six years ago?

Maybe Control was close to being caught, so he set the IMF up to throw suspicion off of himself?

This new format sounds a lot like that show Leverage, if I'm not mistaken-- I never watched it, but a friend of mine did.

It really is quite good. It's sort of "Mission: Impossible - Lite", with Timothy Hutton as the Phelps-type. The plots aren't nearly as complex as "Mission", but it's made up for by the cast. Mark Sheppard was a recurring antagonist and Jeri Ryan filled in for a season when Gina Bellman left to give birth to her child.

One of the reasons I never bothered with the first Mission Impossible movie (aside from Tom Cruise) was that they made Phelps the bad guy.

Yeah, I never made it past the first movie. "Mission: Impossible" isn't about stunts and explosions, it's about "How are the IMF gonna catch the bad guy; and, how are the various plots set in motion at the beginning going to come together in the end to get him?"

 

[DarrenTR1970]

Part Two - After NBC rejected "M:I '80", Keegan and Fellows approached Harold Livingston to write a new script.

"Mission: Impossible 1981" opens with the IMF having been transformed into what Phelps calls "a ponderous think tank" full of "accountants and attorneys and PhD candidates".

Phelps and Barney have been secretly training a new set of candidates reminiscent of the old team. They are called into action when billionaire D.W. Snow threatens to explode a neutron bomb in an unknown location unless the President accedes to his demands. Jim calls on Willy (again a health magnate), Cinnamon (now a physician) and Rollin (an antique dealer) plus his four young proteges.

En route to Las Vegas, Snow watches an IMF news bulletin of impending international trouble. Snow sees "Vegas" (an IMF movie) blown to bits and is rendered unconscious. Snow awakens "ten months later" in the "ruins" of Las Vegas, to find himself a prisoner of war, bearded and crippled, thanks to a Cinnamon who has implanted a device in his spine which has left him temporarily paralyzed.

The Soviet Union has "invaded" the United States and everything West of the Mississippi and East of the Rockies is under Soviet control. (Shades of 'Red Dawn' and several other Soviet invasion movies of the Cold War era.)

Snow and fellow prisoner Barney escape in an attempt to join a resistance movement outside of Vegas. Along the way they are attacked and captured by Soviet forces led by General Phelps. Barney is "killed" but Snow escapes capture thanks to the resistance. Snow tells the resistance the location of the neutron bomb, so that they might have a weapon with which to defeat the Soviets. The IMF locate the bomb, defuse it, and Snow is arrested.

NBC liked the script, but not the proposed budget; a little over two million dollars. NBC asked for a rewrite to bring the budget down, but once the revised script, now titled "Mission: Impossible 1982" was ready, there had been a regime change at NBC, and the new studio head rejected many of the proposed series commissioned by the previous management, including "Mission".

Paramount then looked to turning "Mission" from a made for tv movie into a full-length feature film.

End Part Two

 

[The Old Mixer]

55 Years Ago This Week

May 28

• Israel's government made the decision "to cross the nuclear threshold and assemble nuclear devices" at its nuclear research facility at Dimona.
• Israel received a communication from U.S. President Johnson at 11:00 in the morning Israeli time, advising that the Soviet Union had informed the U.S. that if Israel started military action, the Soviets would "extend help to the attacked states", and urged that he would advise that "Israel just must not take pre-emptive military action". At 3:00, the cabinet held a meeting and voted to wait an additional two to three weeks to allow the international community to reopen the Straits of Tiran before launching a preemptive conventional attack against its neighbors. With the exception of Transportation Minister Moshe Carmel, the cabinet vote had been almost unanimous. Prime Minister Levi Eshkol went on the radio at 8:30 pm local time to deliver what would be called an "ill-fated address" that "had a detrimental impact on morale" as he tried to explain the government's decision to wait.
• Sailing in his 54-foot yacht, Gipsy Moth IV, 65-year old Sir Francis Chichester completed his round-the-world voyage, sailed into England's Plymouth Harbour, where he was greeted with cheers from 250,000 spectators. After docking, he "set a firm foot on dry land for the first time in four months". Chichester had departed Plymouth on August 27 and stopped only at Sydney, Australia.

May 29

• Pope Paul VI named 27 Roman Catholic archbishops to the rank of cardinal, bringing the total number to 120. The 27 were 13 Italians, four Americans, three French, and one each from Poland, West Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Bolivia, Argentina and Indonesia. All 27 would be formally elevated on June 26 in Rome. The new cardinal from Poland was the Archbishop of Kraków, Karol Wojtyla, who would, in 1978, become Pope John Paul II.
• What would have been John F. Kennedy's 50th birthday was honored by the issuance of a new, 13-cent postage stamp bearing the late President's likeness. Because of the Memorial Day holiday, U.S. post offices were not open.

May 30 – In Cairo, King Hussein of Jordan made the fateful decision to sign a five-year mutual defense pact with Egypt, placing Jordan's regular army, the Arab Legion, under President Nasser's command in the event of a war with Israel. Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban would say later that King Hussein's trip to Cairo was "the final step that ensured the inevitability of war", and that until then, Israel had planned to leave Jordan (including the West Bank and East Jerusalem).

May 31 – The first Black Shield operation, reconnaissance photography from 80,000 feet of surface-to-air missile (SAM) sites in North Vietnam by Lockheed A-12 jets, was performed by U.S. Air Force pilot Mel Vojvodich. He took off from Kadena Air Base at Okinawa, refueled at 25,000 feet, then flew over Haiphong, Hanoi and Dien Bien Phu, refueled again over Thailand, then flew over the area above the DMZ, photographing 70 of the 190 known SAM bases.

June 1

• Israel's Prime Minister Levi Eshkol reorganized his cabinet to include his political rivals as part of a "national unity government" in preparation for the expected war with the neighboring Arab nations. Most notably, Eshkol and Foreign Minister Abba Eban brought in Moshe Dayan as the Israeli Defense Minister.
• The McDonald's fast-food chain went international with the opening of its first restaurant in Canada, located at 712 Number Three Road in Richmond, British Columbia, near Vancouver.

June 2

• Protests in West Berlin against the arrival of the Shah of Iran turn into fights, during which 27-year-old student Benno Ohnesorg is killed by a police officer. His death results in the founding of the terrorist group 2 June Movement.
• Luis Monge is executed in Colorado's gas chamber, in the last pre-Furman execution in the United States.
• American F-105 jets attacked the North Vietnamese port of Cam Pha and cannon fire struck a Soviet diesel ship, the Turkestan, as it sat in harbor. Nikolai Rybachuk, a Soviet merchant sailor was killed and six others were injured. The United States initially denied that it had struck the Turkestan and attempted to blame the death on North Vietnamese anti-aircraft fire, but conceded 16 days later that the Soviet ship had been strafed by cannon fire from F-105 jets that had participated that day in a third attack on Cam Pha.
• A race riot began in the predominantly African-American Roxbury section of Boston, the first of many riots during the hot summer of 1967. When the rioting in Boston ended after three days, 70 people had been injured, 100 arrested, and millions of dollars of property damage had taken place. Violence in June would follow in Philadelphia (June 10), Tampa (June 11), and Cincinnati (June 13), Dayton, Ohio and Lansing, Michigan (June 15), Atlanta (June 20) and Buffalo (June 26).

June 3 – With demolition of the 1964 New York World's Fair site completed and reseeding and reclamation finished by fair organizers, Flushing Meadows Park was turned back over to city officials.


Selections from Billboard's Hot 100 for the week:

1. "Respect," Aretha Franklin
2. "Groovin'," The Young Rascals
3. "I Got Rhythm," The Happenings
4. "Release Me (and Let Me Love Again)," Engelbert Humperdinck
5. "Creeque Alley," The Mamas & The Papas
6. "Him or Me, What's It Gonna Be?," Paul Revere & The Raiders
7. "The Happening," The Supremes
8. "Sweet Soul Music," Arthur Conley
9. "Somebody to Love," Jefferson Airplane
10. "All I Need," The Temptations
11. "Mirage," Tommy James & The Shondells
12. "Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon," Neil Diamond
13. "Here Comes My Baby," The Tremeloes
14. "She'd Rather Be with Me," The Turtles
15. "On a Carousel," The Hollies
16. "Somethin' Stupid," Frank & Nancy Sinatra
17. "Little Bit o' Soul," The Music Explosion
18. "Friday on My Mind," The Easybeats
19. "Six O'Clock," The Lovin' Spoonful
20. "I Was Kaiser Bill's Batman," Whistling Jack Smith
21. "Close Your Eyes," Peaches & Herb
22. "Don't You Care," The Buckinghams
23. "When You're Young and in Love," The Marvelettes
24. "Happy Jack," The Who
25. "Shake a Tail Feather," James & Bobby Purify
26. "Do It Again a Little Bit Slower," Jon & Robin & The In Crowd
27. "Sunday Will Never Be the Same," Spanky & Our Gang
28. "Windy," The Association
29. "Come on Down to My Boat," Every Mother's Son
30. "7 Rooms of Gloom," Four Tops
31. "Sunshine Girl," The Parade
32. "Too Many Fish in the Sea & Three Little Fishes," Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels
33. "Can't Take My Eyes Off You," Frankie Valli

35. "Alfie," Dionne Warwick
36. "Let's Live for Today," The Grass Roots

38. "Casino Royale," Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass
39. "Ain't No Mountain High Enough," Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell
40. "Tramp," Otis & Carla

43. "You Got What It Takes," The Dave Clark Five
44. "The Oogum Boogum Song," Brenton Wood
45. "Ding, Dong! The Witch Is Dead," The Fifth Estate
46. "I Think We're Alone Now," Tommy James & The Shondells
47. "When I Was Young," Eric Burdon & The Animals
48. "Dead End Street Monologue/Dead End Street," Lou Rawls
49. "New York Mining Disaster 1941 (Have You Seen My Wife, Mr. Jones)," Bee Gees

53. "Here We Go Again," Ray Charles
54. "Yellow Balloon," The Yellow Balloon
55. "San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)," Scott McKenzie

58. "Shake," Otis Redding

63. "For Your Precious Love," Oscar Toney, Jr.

66. "Society's Child (Baby I've Been Thinking)," Janis Ian

70. "The Tracks of My Tears," Johnny Rivers

75. "Pay You Back with Interest," The Hollies
76. "Don't Sleep in the Subway," Petula Clark

81. "Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat," Bob Dylan

83. "Up, Up and Away," The 5th Dimension

88. "Soul Finger," The Bar-Kays

90. "Step Out of Your Mind," The American Breed

94. "Release Me," Esther Phillips

98. "Light My Fire," The Doors
99. "Make Me Yours," Bettye Swann

Leaving the chart:

• "Jimmy Mack," Martha & The Vandellas (14 weeks)
• "A Little Bit Me, a Little Bit You," The Monkees (10 weeks)

Re-entering the chart:

• "Make Me Yours," Bettye Swann

Recent and new on the chart:

"For Your Precious Love," Oscar Toney, Jr.

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(May 27; #23 US; #4 R&B)

"The Tracks of My Tears," Johnny Rivers

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(#10 US)

"Up, Up and Away," The 5th Dimension

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(#7 US; #9 AC; 1968 Grammy Awards for Song of the Year and Record of the Year)

"Don't Sleep in the Subway," Petula Clark

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(#5 US; #1 AC; #12 UK)

"Light My Fire," The Doors

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(#1 US the weeks of July 29 through Aug. 12, 1967; #35 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time [2004])


And new on the boob tube:

• The Ed Sullivan Show, Season 19, episode 36
• The Saint, "The Angel's Eye"

_______

(the book doesn't mention if Robert Johnson, the voice of Control, would have appeared; or another actor would take his place)

As it would have been Mission: Impossible 1980, maybe they were gonna recast him with Wolfman Jack.

Feeling responsible for Rollin and Cinnamon being disavowed years ago

A-ha! Disavowed! I don't suppose they would have gotten into whether this was also Briggs's fate...?

(As an aside, I can't help but think that Willy's tv show sounds like the title of an adult film.)

I thought the same thing. And now I have that song by The Sweet in my head.

I was reminded of this:
Wide Willy - YouTube

Thanks to the substantial amount of money Phelps has hidden away over the years, Jim takes the IMF private, with the ability to pick and choose whichever mission the IMF feels best benefits the people they're helping.

Strains credibility a bit (even by M:I standards) that they'd be able to operate effectively if they've been exposed enough that Jim is being interviewed by reporters.

The exploding model tape player must have been recalled.

Jim had six years to go cold turkey from the fumes.

Hate the idea of heroes going rogue.

It can be a pretty interesting twist if done well.

Did he go rogue or was he a Bond Villain all along?

Probably calling into question whether his assignments were always in the country's or free world's best interests, which seems like a sensible place for them to take the concept in the post-Watergate era.

If they had just made Bad Control Guy an imposter, it would have been

lame.

End Part Two

'Help!' Intermission & Part Two - YouTube

_______

So...I finally just signed up for frndly (and canceled Netflix). Signed up for the premium plan, on an annual basis to save a bit. I'll have to check the schedules to see if there's anything coming up that I can record in time for this fall's new 50th anniversary season.

I'm also planning to finally get into putting together some hiatus retro business in the meantime. As we've been on the subject of M:I, one of the things I'd been intending to do, which is now on my short list of reduced options, would be to finally catch those seven Season 1 episodes that I missed back in 2017.

 

[RJDiogenes]

maybe Phelps took the fall for everyone in an arrangement for leniency for the rest of the IMF.

That would explain what Barney and Willy were up to, and it's definitely something he'd do.

Personally, I've always assumed that when a character was replaced on the show, that person had been "disavowed" and removed from the team. Since Rollin and Cinnamon vanished between the end of the third and the start of the fourth season, there might have been an unseen mission that resulted in their being "disavowed".

Interesting, and probably likely. That's something that never occurred to me.

Maybe Control was close to being caught, so he set the IMF up to throw suspicion off of himself?

Makes sense.

It really is quite good. It's sort of "Mission: Impossible - Lite", with Timothy Hutton as the Phelps-type. The plots aren't nearly as complex as "Mission", but it's made up for by the cast. Mark Sheppard was a recurring antagonist and Jeri Ryan filled in for a season when Gina Bellman left to give birth to her child.

My friend was a big fan. She also had a big crush on that cowboy guy who was also in The Librarians.

Yeah, I never made it past the first movie. "Mission: Impossible" isn't about stunts and explosions, it's about "How are the IMF gonna catch the bad guy; and, how are the various plots set in motion at the beginning going to come together in the end to get him?"

Very much agreed.

"Mission: Impossible 1981" opens with the IMF having been transformed into what Phelps calls "a ponderous think tank" full of "accountants and attorneys and PhD candidates".

Less interesting than the last opening, and one wonders how it came to be.

Jim calls on Willy (again a health magnate), Cinnamon (now a physician) and Rollin (an antique dealer) plus his four young proteges.

I like the idea of Rollin as an antique dealer.

En route to Las Vegas, Snow watches an IMF news bulletin of impending international trouble. Snow sees "Vegas" (an IMF movie) blown to bits and is rendered unconscious. Snow awakens "ten months later" in the "ruins" of Las Vegas, to find himself a prisoner of war, bearded and crippled

More of a classic IMF scam than the previous one, that's for sure.

thanks to a Cinnamon who has implanted a device in his spine which has left him temporarily paralyzed.

There is no Hippocratic Oath on the IMF clock.

The Soviet Union has "invaded" the United States and everything West of the Mississippi and East of the Rockies is under Soviet control. (Shades of 'Red Dawn' and several other Soviet invasion movies of the Cold War era.)

Yeah, loved the Reagan years.

Snow tells the resistance the location of the neutron bomb, so that they might have a weapon with which to defeat the Soviets. The IMF locate the bomb, defuse it, and Snow is arrested.

Nice.

there had been a regime change at NBC, and the new studio head rejected many of the proposed series commissioned by the previous management, including "Mission".

I'm beginning to think that Control is behind these "regime changes."

A race riot began in the predominantly African-American Roxbury section of Boston, the first of many riots during the hot summer of 1967.

I remember this, if vaguely. Roxbury is adjacent to Dorchester, where we lived in those days.

"For Your Precious Love," Oscar Toney, Jr.

He's not going to win an Oscar or a Tony for this one. Haha.

"The Tracks of My Tears," Johnny Rivers

Unnecessary, but good.

"Up, Up and Away," The 5th Dimension

I love this one.

"Don't Sleep in the Subway," Petula Clark

Decent one from Petula.

"Light My Fire," The Doors

OMG! How can one human be so talented? Actually, I do like this, if only for the nostalgia.

As it would have been Mission: Impossible 1980, maybe they were gonna recast him with Wolfman Jack.

Charles Laquidara probably would have done it. He had aspirations to be an actor. He actually auditioned for the part of Albert DeSalvo that eventually went to Tony Curtis.

A-ha! Disavowed! I don't suppose they would have gotten into whether this was also Briggs's fate...?

Good thought. It would have been cool to bring Briggs back into it somehow-- and, being a character that the audience is less invested in, has potential for going rogue.

I was reminded of this:
Wide Willy - YouTube

Just a gigolo.

Strains credibility a bit (even by M:I standards) that they'd be able to operate effectively if they've been exposed enough that Jim is being interviewed by reporters.

They'd also be constrained by limited resources, but these could be presented as new challenges.

Jim had six years to go cold turkey from the fumes.

It can be a pretty interesting twist if done well.

I'm not going to say it isn't, but it's not easy to do well.

lame.

Heh. I was thinking about it later and I decided that the movie would have been perfect if it had ended with Control being captured and his rubber, Rollin-style mask being ripped off to reveal-- Richard Nixon! "I am not a villain!"

So...I finally just signed up for frndly (and canceled Netflix). Signed up for the premium plan, on an annual basis to save a bit. I'll have to check the schedules to see if there's anything coming up that I can record in time for this fall's new 50th anniversary season.

I forget if I mentioned that Hulu has TCM now-- unfortunately it's in their $80 tier. I'm so torn.