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Twilight Zone – The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine

★★★1/2 October 23, 1959 Season 1 Episode 4

If you want to see where we are…HERE is a list of the episodes.

This episode has more than a strong resemblance to the film Sunset Boulevard. Barbara Jean Trenton who is played by the great actress and director Ida Lupino is an aging actress who continually looks back at her old films and forgets the world has gone on. The ending has a good twist but something about the episode just doesn’t live up to some of the great ones. Saying that, it still is a very good episode…an average Twilight Zone is better than many other’s best shows.

Martin Balsam makes an appearance as her agent Danny Weiss. We will see Martin again in the fourth season in a much scarier role. He was also in the 1985-87 reboot Twilight Zone. I remember him the most in 12 Angry Men and his appearances many 60s and 70s tv shows.

Ida Lupino, who starred in this episode, would later direct The Twilight Zone: The Masks. She became not just the only woman to direct an episode of the The Twilight Zone, but also the only person to both star in an episode and direct one.

Ida Lupino has 42 credits to her name as a Director.

This show was written by Rod Serling

Rod Serling’s Opening Narration:

Picture of a woman looking at a picture. Movie great of another time, once-brilliant star in a firmament no longer a part of the sky, eclipsed by the movement of earth and time. Barbara Jean Trenton, whose world is a projection room, whose dreams are made out of celluloid. Barbara Jean Trenton, struck down by hit-and-run years and lying on the unhappy pavement, trying desperately to get the license number of fleeting fame.

Summary

Former queen of the silver screen, Barbara Trenton’s a woman who lives in her past – watching her movies from more than 25 years earlier. Her housemaid, Sally’s worried by her behavior, and tells Barbara’s friend, and agent Danny Weiss. He tries to make Barbara move on, even getting her a role in an upcoming film. But Barbara lives in the past and won’t accept that she’s older now

Rod Serling’s Closing Narration:

To the wishes that come true, to the strange, mystic strength of the human animal, who can take a wishful dream and give it a dimension of its own. To Barbara Jean Trenton, movie queen of another era, who has changed the blank tomb of an empty projection screen into a private world. It can happen in the Twilight Zone.

CAST

Rod Serling … Narrator (voice)
Ida Lupino … Barbara Jean Trenton
Martin Balsam … Danny Weiss
Jerome Cowan … Jerry Hearndan
Ted de Corsia … Marty Sall
Alice Frost … Sally

Rolling Stones – Shattered

I remember this one very well. I bought the single and then the album a little while later. It’s a great rock song with some punk in it. It’s on the album Some Girls that was released in 1978.

This was the last song on Some Girls. While they were recording this album, Keith Richards had drug charges hanging over his head from a bust in Toronto. Facing a maximum sentence of life in prison, Keith let Mick take control of the album, which is shown on songs like this. Richards ended up getting off easy… he was sentenced to probation and ordered to play a concert for the blind.

Richards came up with the guitar riff on this and the line “Sha-doobie.” Jagger wrote the rest.

They performed this on Saturday Night Live and to this viewer they were not as tight as normal. Turns out they drank a lot of alcohol, did some seventies substances and rehearsed a lot before show time… after watching the rehearsals it seems like they made the mistake of peaking too early during the rehearsals. By showtime they didn’t sound as strong as usual…but it still was a good show.

The song peaked at #31 in the Billboard 100 and #32 in Canada in 1978.

From Songfacts

The lyrics are a bleak picture of life in New York City. The Stones always had a love/hate relationship with the US, and Mick Jagger’s lyrics were often influenced by his thoughts on the country (see “Satisfaction”). New York in particular is a place where you could be wildly successful, but is also a city filled crime, drugs, and poverty. It should be noted that The Stones have taken shots at their home country of England as well, notably on “Hang Fire.”

Just after this was released, The Stones performed it on Saturday Night Live. It was memorable for Mick Jagger licking Ron Wood on the lips for about 5 seconds. This stuff just didn’t happen on TV back them.

When Jagger sings, “Shmatta, shmatta, shmatta, I can’t give it away on 7th Avenue, this town’s been wearing tatters,” he’s making reference to the fashion district of New York City, which is on 7th Avenue. The word “Shmatta” is slang for old, worn clothing.

Shattered

Uh huh shattered, uh huh shattered
Love and hope and sex and dreams
Are still surviving on the street
Look at me, I’m in tatters!
I’m a shattered
Shattered

Friends are so alarming
My lover’s never charming
Life’s just a cocktail party on the street
Big Apple
People dressed in plastic bags
Directing traffic
Some kind of fashion
Shattered

Laughter, joy, and loneliness and sex and sex and sex and sex
Look at me, I’m in tatters
I’m a shattered
Shattered

All this chitter-chatter, chitter-chatter, chitter-chatter ’bout
Shmatta, shmatta, shmatta, I can’t give it away on 7th Avenue
This town’s been wearing tatters (shattered, sha ooobie shattered)

Work and work for love and sex
Ain’t you hungry for success, success, success, success
Does it matter? (shattered)
Does it matter?

Ah look at me
I’m shattered
I’m shattered 0
Look at me, I’m a shattered, yeah (shattered)

Pride and joy and greed and sex
That’s what makes our town the best
Pride and joy and dirty dreams and still surviving on the street
And look at me, I’m in tatters, yeah
I’ve been battered, what does it matter
Does it matter, uh-huh
Does it matter, uh-huh, I’m a shattered

Mmm, I’m shattered, unh
Sha oobie, shattered, unh
Sha oobie, shattered
Sha oobie, shattered, shattered

Don’t you know the crime rate is going up, up, up, up, up
To live in this town you must be tough, tough, tough, tough, tough!
You got rats on the West Side
Bed bugs uptown
What a mess this town’s in tatters, I’ve been shattered
My brain’s been battered, splattered all over Manhattan

Sha oobie, shattered, shattered, what say
Sha oobie, shattered
Sha oobie, shattered
Sha oobie, shattered

Uh-huh, this town’s full of money grabbers
Go ahead, bite the Big Apple, don’t mind the maggots, huh
Sha oobie, my brain’s been battered
My friends they come around they
Flatter, flatter, flatter, flatter, flatter, flatter, flatter
Pile it up, pile it up, pile high on the platter

Twilight Zone – Mr. Denton on Doomsday

★★★★1/2 October 16, 1959 Season 1 Episode 3

If you want to see where we are…HERE is a list of the episodes.

I think very highly of this episode. The more I watch it the more I enjoy it. We travel to the old West for this episode. We meet the town drunk Al Denton who was brilliantly played by Dan Duryea. A gunfighter named Dan Hotaling played by a young Martin Landau is making a fool of Denton by making him sing “How Dry I Am” for whiskey. He picks on Denton one too many times.

The show also has a mystical character (but of course…it’s the Twilight Zone) named Henry J. Fate and he tries to help Denton to redeem himself. I can’t say enough about Dan Duryea’s acting in this episode. The transformation of Denton and the nice twist at the end makes this a great episode.

You get to know Al Denton and feel for him as he was an old gunfighter and it drove him to drinking…will he be forced into that line of work again?

This episode was written by Rod Serling

Rod Serling’s Opening Narration:

Portrait of a town drunk named Al Denton. This is a man who’s begun his dying early—a long, agonizing route through a maze of bottles. Al Denton, who would probably give an arm or a leg or a part of his soul to have another chance, to be able to rise up and shake the dirt from his body and the bad dreams that infest his consciousness. In the parlance of the times, this is a peddler, a rather fanciful-looking little man in a black frock coat. [A revolver mysteriously appears on the ground next to Denton] And this is the third principal character of our story. Its function: perhaps to give Mr. Al Denton his second chance.

Summary

In the Old West, the drunkard Al Denton is bullied by the gunman Dan Hotaling to get some booze. The mysterious Henry J. Fate observes the humiliation and Al Denton finds a revolver on the street. When Dan sees Al Denton with a revolver in his hand, he challenges the drunk to a gunfight. Fate observes again and makes a movement with his hand that will change the life of Al Denton.

Rod Serling’s Closing Narration:

Mr. Henry Fate, dealer in utensils and pots and pans, liniments and potions. A fanciful little man in a black frock coat who can help a man climbing out of a pit—or another man from falling into one. Because, you see, fate can work that way, in the Twilight Zone.

CAST

Rod Serling … Narrator (voice)
Dan Duryea … Al Denton
Martin Landau … Dan Hotaling
Jeanne Cooper … Liz
Malcolm Atterbury … Henry J. Fate
Ken Lynch … Charlie
Arthur Batanide … Leader
Bill Erwin … Man
Robert Burton … Doctor
Doug McClure … Pete Grant

Del Fuegos – I Still Want You

This song has a very garage band sound. It was a minor hit in 1986. The Del Fuegos were an alternative band that was eventually signed to RCA later in their career. They were touring the same circuit as REM and The Replacements.

The Zanes brothers Dan and Warren formed the band in Boston in the early eighties. The brothers had a hard time getting a long and supposedly still do. Tom Petty became a fan of them and appeared on one of their songs. They also opened up for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers on a tour.

Warren quit the band after the 3rd album. He went to college and received a Ph.D in Visual and Cultural Studies. Zanes is the former vice president of education and public programs for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. He ended up writing Tom Petty’s biography shortly before Petty’s death.

This song was written by lead singer Dan Zanes and bass player Tom Lloyd, it was one of the first hits for the band. The Del Fuegos got some attention when Miller beer featured them in a national beer commercial as part of their “Made the American Way” campaign, which got them a lot of exposure and also some critical scorn, as commercials were seen as selling out at the time.

After that commercial their creditability suffered. In the current time having your song in a commercial helps you tremendously and no one things anything about it…but in the 20th century it didn’t go over well. The band would hear “sell out” on tour.

After the commercial though… they did get better tours and more money. This song peaked at #87 in the Billboard 100 in 1986.

I Still Want You

Seasons change and lessons get learned
It’s been awhile, but my heart burns
It said, I still want you

And that’s all I’ll do
Spend my time just thinking about you
Said, I still want you

The car we bought together just started to rust
The world we made came between the two of us
I still want you

When the day was through
We drive through town my arm around you
Said, I still want you

I tried so hard just to fill your cup
I tried so hard just to fill it up
But you only drift away, you drift away
Now you only drift away, you drift away

I hear the rain coming down
The leaves start to fall
I hear your voice I remember it all
Said, I still want you

And that’s all I’ll do
Spend my life just thinking about you
Said, I still want you

I tried so hard, tried to fill your cup
I tried so hard just to fill it up
But you only drift away, you drift away

And baby, I still want you
I still want you
I said, I still want you

Scruffs – Break The Ice —-Power Pop Friday

Memphis in the early 1970s was more than Big Star. Many power pop bands and artists were coming out of there at that time. Not many made it huge but many were recognized later. They formed in 1974 and released their first album Wanna Meet The Scruffs? in 1977. Like the others around this period. Many of the power pop musicians worked with each other. The Scruffs worked with Alex Chilton, Tommy Hoehn, and Jim Dickinson. Break the Ice was the first single off of the album. It reminds me of the Raspberries.

To show what some rock critics thought of the band…here is Robert Christgau (rock critic):

Only a sucker for rock and roll could love this record, and I am that sucker. A middle-period Beatles extrapolation in the manner of Big Star (another out-of-step Memphis power-pop group on a small, out-of-step Memphis label), it bursts with off harmonies, left hooks, and jolts of random energy. The trouble is, these serve a shamelessly and perhaps permanently post-adolescent vision of life’s pain, most of which would appear to involve gurls. To which objection the rockin’ formalist in me responds, “I wanna hear ‘Revenge’ again.”

Pretty good endorsement right? That is just one of many but again they just couldn’t break through. They did not have the influence like Big Star did but they were a great power pop band. I listened to all of this album and that jangle of the guitar is infectious. The song was a regional hit but was not played outside of Memphis too much. They did move to New York in 1978 had some high profile gigs at CBGB and Max’s Kansas City.

The Band broke up in 1981 but Stephen Burns the singer, guitar player, and songwriter would continue recording albums under the Scruffs name into the 2010’s…with Peter Buck from REM guesting on the 2011 Kill! Kill! album .

Sorry I could not find the lyrics.

Lynyrd Skynyrd – Workin’ For MCA

This is a great opening song and the band used it as an opener for many of their concerts. The song is autobiographical in many ways. It was an open letter to their new record company at the time…”But I’ll sign my contract baby, and I want you people to know
That every penny that I make, I’m gonna see where my money goes”

I wrote this post a while back…A Sound Day just told me that today is the 47th anniversary of this album…Second Helping was released on April 15th 1974.

MCA was Lynyrd Skynyrd’s record company. This song is based on how they were signed. The “Yankee Slicker” that is mentioned in the song is no other than Al Kooper. They actually were signed for $9,000.

The “seven years of hard luck” in the opening line is the time from 1966 to 1973. 1966 was when the group changed their name to Lynyrd Skynyrd, and 1973 was when their first album was released.

This song was on their second album called Second Helping. While Skynyrd were in Los Angeles in The Record Plant in a studio, the Eagles were recording in another. One day they were shocked when John Lennon came to see Kooper to talk music and see what he was working on. Lennon’s presence overwhelmed the band so much that they began to fumble over notes they had played thousands of times, Rossington admitted. Lennon introduced himself and shared small talk with the musicians.

After recording “Sweet Home Alabama,” Lynyrd Skynyrd performed at the “Sounds of the South” press party. According to the booklet included with their box set, “When Skynyrd hit the stage with a roaring version of ‘Workin’ For MCA,’ written especially for the event, the party stopped while 500 hardened industry vets stood on chairs to get a glimpse of the unknown band.” A few months later, Lynyrd Skynyrd opened for The Who on their “Fallout Shelter” tour.

The song was written by Ed King and Ronnie Van Zant.

From Songfacts

In spite of the suspicious tone to this song, “Workin’ For MCA” had its perks. Al Kooper, in his memoir Backstage Passes and Backstabbing Bastards, goes to great lengths to describe the studio where Second Helping, Skynyrd’s second album, was recorded. The Record Plant in Los Angeles was a Hollywood crib of decadence and hedonism, with all the hallmarks of 1970s sleaze. Jacuzzis and bedrooms in the building, squealing groupies bounding naked down the halls, and a staff which had standing orders to cater to every whim of the guests. And as for the decor, if it wasn’t wood paneled, it was tie-died.

Workin’ For MCA

Seven years of hard luck, comin’ down on me
From the Florida border, yeah up to Nashville, Tennessee
I worked in every joint you can name, mister every honky tonk
Along come Mr. Yankee Slicker, sayin’ maybe you’re what I want

[Chorus:]
Want you to sign your contract
Want you to sign today
Gonna give you lots of money
Workin’ For MCA

Nine thousand dollars, that’s all we could win
But we smiled at the Yankee Slicker with a big ol’ Southern grin
They’re gonna take me out to California, gonna make me a superstar
Just pay me all of my money and mister maybe you won’t get a scar

[Chorus:]

Suckers took my money since I was seventeen
If it ain’t no pencil pusher, it got to be a honky tonk queen
But I’ll sign my contract baby, and I want you people to know
That every penny that I make, I’m gonna see where my money goes

[Chorus:]

Back To The Future Trilogy

Hanspostcard is hosting a movie draft from 12 different genres…this is my Movie Series entry.

I was telling someone the other day…if you wanted a movie to define a decade…except for John Hughes movies…Back to the Future would be the one for the 1980s.

This movie trilogy has been copied, parodied, praised, and analyzed. The original movie came out in 1985…the year I graduated, and it fit the times so well.

Bob Gale, the writer, is said to have taken inspiration from a look at his father’s yearbook and dreaming about meeting him when he was younger. The basic idea, later formed along with Zemeckis, was having the characters travel inside a refrigerator using the energy of a nuclear blast. After rewrites

At the time we saw these future products that seemed unreal. Now many of them have become real…fingerprint activated payment devices, video-calling, augmented-reality glasses, wearable tech, intelligent home appliances, personal drones, hands-free gaming devices, and even hoverboards have made an appearance.

The movies left their imprint in a huge way.

The first movie to me is the best. As far as liking them…my order from best to worse is the order they came in. The first one introduced us to the 2 main characters…Marty and Doc Brown. Marty’s parents and Biff were also important to the story.

The second movie really crosses itself out! After undoing a mistake by Marty…and I can’t blame him one bit for buying the sports book. The movie ends up where we left off…and then Doc ended up in the west and setup the 3rd movie. Plus, the movie predicted the Cubs winning the World Series and they were only off by one year. They predicted in 2015 and they won it in 2016.

The last movie was good but not as good as the other two. You have Marty and Doc in the old west plus a descendant of Biff to be the bad guy. You also get an appearance from one of the hottest rock bands of the 80s…ZZ Top. The series concludes when Marty is back in 1985 with Jennifer and they get a visit by Doc and family to finish things out.

It’s a movie (any of the three) that I can pick up on in the middle or near the end and watch. Watch these movies and you are back in the 80s…so go find a DeLorean and let’s go back and watch the premier.

I list the plots below…like we need any of them, but they are there just in case and yes there are spoilers.

Summaries by IMDB

Back To The Future 1985

It is the year 1985. Marty McFly, a mild-mannered high school student, stopped by Dr. Emmett L. Brown’s laboratory to play around with an amplifier. Then he receives a message from Doc that he needs help from him for Doc’s latest invention, the time machine made out of a DeLorean sports car that can travel through time instantaneously when it reaches a speed velocity of 88 MPH. Then, Doc was gunned down by Libyan Nationalists, Marty makes an effort to escape from the Libyans by using the time machine. Then Marty accidentally warps himself into 1955. Where he meets both of his parents when they were teenagers, then Marty unintentionally interrupts his parent’s first meeting together, he then finds a younger version of Doc and together they try to find a way to get Marty’s parents-to-be back together, and to get Marty back to 1985.

Back To The Future II 1989

This movie begins where Back to the Future ended; with Marty, Doc and Jennifer going into the future to help Marty and Jennifer’s children. After doing that they return to 1985. But when they arrive they discover that things are not as they remember it. There’s a casino which is owned by, of all people, Biff. Marty learns that his father was killed a few years ago and his mother is now married to Biff. Marty meets with Doc who thinks he knows what happened. Somehow Biff got his hands on a book from the future which has in it all sports results and he used it to bet on sports and amass his fortune. Marty said he considered doing that but Doc nixed it. Somehow the Biff from the future discovered about the time machine and Marty’s plan and used the time machine to give his younger self the book. So they have to find out when Biff got the book so they can take it away from him. So Marty goes to see him and confronts him about it and Biff also tells him that he was the one who killed George. Marty and Doc then go back to, of all places, 1955 on the day of the school dance. So Marty tries to get the book while trying to avoid being seen by Doc’s younger self and himself who’s getting ready to go back to 1985. Marty at times gets the book but when Biff calls him a coward, Marty gets incensed which leads to him losing the book so he has to try and get it again.

Back To The Future III 1990

With the Almanac destroyed by Marty McFly and the timeline back on its original course, things are not all well. Dr. Emmett L. Brown and the time machine were somehow struck by lightning, and Marty somehow received a letter from Doc that he is okay, and in the year 1885. Marty and the 1955 Doc fix up the time machine after digging it up from a mine, then Marty discovers a gravestone with Doc’s name on it, indicating that he will be killed by a man named Buford Tannen (Biff’s great-grandfather). Marty makes an effort to travel to 1885 to save Doc from his bleak future. But Marty damages the time machine causing Marty and Doc to have to figure out how to get back to 1985. Unfortunately, this will not be easy with Doc madly in love with schoolteacher Clara Clayton, and with Tannen causing constant trouble for Marty and Doc.

Twilight Zone – One for the Angels

★★★½ October 9, 1959 Season 1 Episode 2

If you want to see where we are…HERE is a list of the episodes.

This is a good episode of The Twilight Zone. It’s the first time we meet Death. He comes in different forms in the Twilight Zone. 73 year old Ed Wynn does a superb job as a salesman and a Santa Claus figure in the neighborhood. He is beloved by people but especially kids.

Murray Hamilton also is great as Mr. Death. He is very business like and he treats the job like any other job with deadlines and commitments. I must wonder what people thought in 1959 watching a show with Death stalking someone so businesslike.

Murray Hamilton is probably better remembered for his role playing Mr. Robinson in the 1967 film The Graduate.

Dana Dillaway who played Maggie: The scene where I was hit by the car was kind of morbid… I remember they kept spritzing the actor who was driving the car with a water spray bottle, who came around to see if I was okay while laying in the street… there is a publicity shot of me laying there and it’s kind of morbid!”

This show was written by Rod Serling

Rod Serling’s Opening Narration:

Street scene: Summer. The present. Man on a sidewalk named Lew Bookman, age sixtyish. Occupation: pitchman. Lew Bookman, a fixture of the summer, a rather minor component to a hot July, a nondescript, commonplace little man whose life is a treadmill built out of sidewalks. And in just a moment, Lew Bookman will have to concern himself with survival – because as of three o’clock this hot July afternoon, he’ll be stalked by Mr. Death.

Lou Bookman is a street vendor; a pitchman, making a living selling what he can from his valise – radios, toys, ties and the like. After a long day, he returns to his shabby apartment to find someone waiting for him, someone he saw near where he had been selling that day. That person turns out to be Mr. Death who is there to tell Lou that his time on Earth has come to an end and that his “departure” will be at midnight. Lou tries to forestall his death by asking for a delay until he’s able to make a big sales pitch. It’s all a ruse however and Mr. Death shows him that his actions have consequences. As a result, Lou makes the pitch of his life.

Rod Serling’s Closing Narration:

Lewis J. Bookman, age sixtyish. Occupation: pitchman. Formerly a fixture of the summer, formerly a rather minor component to a hot July. But, throughout his life, a man beloved by the children, and therefore, a most important man. Couldn’t happen, you say? Probably not in most places – but it did happen in the Twilight Zone.

CAST

Rod Serling … Narrator (voice)
Ed Wynn … Lou Bookman
Murray Hamilton … Mr. Death
Dana Dillaway … Maggie Polanski
Jay Overholts … Doctor
Merritt Bohn … Truck Driver

Who – A Legal Matter

The early Who singles were first heard in the UK much more than America. They were really exciting and raw and different from anyone else. I first heard this song on the great compilation album Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy. The album was made up of singles and many of them were not heard in America much at all when they were originally released.

It was released both as the B-side to “The Kids Are Alright” in the U.S., and as the A-side of a single that peaked at #32 in the UK in 1965. Both singles were released by Shel Talmy without the permission of the Who and were a result of a legal dispute between Talmy and the band at the time and an attempt to sabotage the release of the band’s chosen single “Substitute”.

This was the first song that Pete Townshend took the lead vocal on.

Pete Townshend on the song: “is about a guy on the run from a chick about to pin him down for breach of contract. What this song was screaming from behind lines like ‘It’s a legal matter, baby, marrying’s no fun/It’s a legal matter, baby, you got me on the run’ was, “I’m lonely, I’m hungry, the bed needs making.’ I wanted a maid, I suppose.”

A Legal Matter

I told you why I changed my mind
I got bored by playing with time
I know you thought you had me nailed
But I’ve freed my head from your garden rails

Now it’s a legal matter, baby
You got me on the run
It’s a legal matter, baby
A legal matter from now on

My mind’s lost in a household fog
Wedding gowns and catalogs
Kitchen furnishings and houses
Maternity clothes and baby’s trousers

Now it’s a legal matter, baby
Marryin’s no fun
It’s a legal matter, baby
A legal matter from now on

I told you why I changed my mind
I got bored by playing with time
I know you thought you had me nailed
Well, I’ve freed my head from your garden rails

Now it’s a legal matter, baby
You got me on the run
It’s a legal matter, baby
A legal matter from now on

You ain’t the first and you ain’t the last
I gain and lose my women fast
I never want to make them cry
I just get bored, don’t ask me why

Just wanna keep doing all the dirty little things I do
And not work all day in an office just to bring my money back to you
Sorry, baby

…

Replacements – I’ll Be You

This song was on their Don’t Tell A Soul album. The sound of this album turned a lot of the older fans off. In order to get more radio play the record company brought in Chris Lord-Alge to mix the album. The album had a lot of those eighties effects used to enhance the music. The result was pop sounding Replacements album.

This was the closest the Replacements came to having a “hit.” It peaked at #51 in the Billboard 100 and #1 on the Modern Rock Charts in 1989. The song did expand their audience with younger kids coming to see them without knowing their back catalog. This was an annoyance to some of the band members who some nights didn’t play I’ll Be You.

The line, “Left a rebel without a clue” was later borrowed by Tom Petty into his hit, “Into the Great Wide Open,” in 1991. The Replacements opened up for Petty in his 1989 tour with the Heartbreakers.

Below are two mixes. The one above the lyrics was the original one with the pop album mix. The top one came off a box set without the pop sheen of the original album.

I’ll Be You

If it’s a temporary lull
Why’m I bored right outta my skull?
Man, I’m dressin’ sharp an’ feelin’ dull

Lonely, I guess that’s where I’m from
If I was from Canada
Then I’d best be called lonesome
And if it’s just a game
Then I’ll break down just in case
Oh yeah, we’re runnin’ in our last race

Well, I laughed half the way to Tokyo
I dreamt I was Surfer Joe
An’ what that means, I don’t know

A dream too tired to come true
Left a rebel without a clue
And I’m searching for somethin’ to do

And if it’s just a game
Then we’ll hold hands just the same
So what, we’re bleeding but we ain’t cut

And I could purge my soul perhaps
For the imminent collapse
Oh yeah, I’ll tell you what we could do
You be me for a while
I’ll be you

A dream too tired to get to
Left a rebel without a clue
Won’t you tell me what I should do?

Oh if it’s just a lull
Why’m I bored right outta my skull?
Oh yeah, keep me from feeling so dull

And if it’s just a game
Then we’ll break down just in case
Then again, I’ll tell you what we could do
You be me for a while
You be me for a while
And I’ll be you

Twilight Zone – Where is Everybody?

★★★☆☆ October 2, 1959 Season 1 Episode 1

If you want to see where we are…HERE is a list of the episodes.

A good episode to start the series. They would explore this topic of being alone in more episodes to greater affect but a good debut. How new this must have been on the tv landscape at the time. On the DVD set Rod Serling is shown in a short clip trying to sell the series to the network with previews of coming episodes. My guess is the first episode they didn’t want to air a really strange one.

This one has the Twilight Zone twist ending and the moral. Rod Serling wrote this episode. The episode originally featured Westbrook Van Voorhis as narrator. When Voorhis was unavailable for later episodes, Serling re-recorded the narration himself for consistency.

Opening narration:

“The place is here, the time is now, and the journey into the shadows that we’re about to watch could be our journey.”

Summary

A man finds himself walking down a country road, not knowing where nor who he is. He comes across a diner with a jukebox blaring and hot coffee on the stove – only there’s no one there. A little further down the road, he comes to the picturesque town of Oakwood, and finds, it too, seems deserted. The only sounds he hears are a clock tower, and a pay phone ringing. At the local movie theater, an ad for Battle Hymn (1957) leads him to believe he’s in the Air Force. In spite of no people to be found, he can’t shake off the feeling, he’s being watched.

Closing narration:

“Up there, up there in the vastness of space, in the void that is sky, up there is an enemy known as isolation. It sits there in the stars waiting, waiting with the patience of eons, forever waiting…in the Twilight Zone.”

Earl Holliman Earl Holliman … Mike Ferris
James Gregory James Gregory … Air Force General
Paul Langton Paul Langton … Doctor
James McCallion James McCallion … Reporter #1
John Conwell John Conwell … Air Force Colonel
Jay Overholts Jay Overholts … Reporter #2 (as Jay Overholt)
Carter Mullally Jr. Carter Mullally Jr. … Air Force Captain (as Carter Mullaly)
Garry Walberg Garry Walberg … Reporter #3 (as Gary Walberg)
Jim Johnson Jim Johnson … Air Force Staff Sergeant

Golden Earring – Twilight Zone

To kick off reviewing the Twilight Zone episodes… I thought this was appropriate.

This song was a great example of MTV’s clout. It was in heavy rotation and it paid off for the band. It peaked at #10 in the Billboard 100 and #13 in Canada in 1983.

I have to wonder how the landscape of music would have changed without MTV in the 80s. Some bands hated videos because it could change the songs perception. Many wanted people to make up their own mind about songs and not think of “guitarists in leather pants.”

The Twilight Zone was written by Golden Earring’s lead guitarist George Kooymans. He was inspired not by the famous TV series of the same name, but by the Robert Ludlum novel The Bourne Identity, which would later be turned into a popular movie.

The song’s intro will stick in your head for days…kind of like the intro to the Twilight Zone TV series a repeating riff. I was happy to hear this song at the time. I knew them for Radar Love and any seventies rock group in the 80s was nice to hear.

Golden Earring was a Dutch band and they were formed in Hauge in 1961. They were a long lasting band. George Kooymans sadly announced this year that he is suffering from ALS and the band officially dissolved.

From Songfacts

Right out front, note that this song has nothing to do with Manhattan Transfer’s “Twilight Zone.” One is not a cover of the other.

The song and especially the video tell the story of an espionage agent, on the run from enemy spies before being cornered. The cover of the album Cut (from which this was the only single) shows a scene repeated in the video, of a bullet slicing through the Jack of Diamonds playing card. The card is supposed to represent the rogue agent.

Interestingly, there was at least one episode of the original Twilight Zone TV series which was also a spy drama. Namely, episode #149 from season five, “The Jeopardy Room,” is about a Soviet KGB agent who wants to defect, but he ends up pinned in a hotel room under surveillance from a hit man and his accomplice, who sadistically make him play a game for his life. And it’s one of the few episodes where a gun is fired – “When the bullet hits the bone,” indeed!

Get ready for a nostalgia blast: This song was also used as the theme to the Twilight Zone pinball machine. This was part of Bally Midway’s series of “Superpin” arcade pinball games that were based on TV shows – other pinball games in the series were based on Star Trek and The Addams Family.

Fittingly, this song is also sometimes used as bumper music for the radio show Coast to Coast AM, the all-night paranormal talk show which also more frequently uses “A Hazy Shade of Winter.”

The video is yet another whose early airplay on MTV paid off. In MTV Ruled the World – The Early Years of Music Video, Rick Springfield talks about the MTV Effect: “The difference that I saw was, before MTV, you’d have to be on like your third successful album before people started recognizing you at the airport. But once MTV hit, you had that one hit single, and you were as recognizable as if you were around for three or four years. It was so instant. That was the power of television.

Twilight Zone

Somewhere in a lonely hotel room there’s a guy
Starting to realize that eternal fate has turned its back on him
It’s two A.M.

It’s two A.M. (It’s two A.M.)
Fear is gone (fear is gone)
I’m sitting here waiting
The Gun still warm (the gun still warm)
Maybe my connection is tired of taking chances

Yeah, there’s a storm on the loose
Sirens in my head
Wrapped up in silence, all circuits are dead
Cannot decode, my whole life spins into a frenzy

Help, I’m steppin’ into the twilight zone
Place is a madhouse, feels like being cold
My beacon’s been moved under moon and star
Where am I to go now that I’ve gone too far? (Oh oh oh)

Help, I’m steppin’ into the twilight zone
Place is a madhouse, feels like being alone
My beacon’s been moved under moon and star
Where am I to go now that I’ve gone too far?

So you will come to know
When the bullet hits the bone
So you will come to know
When the bullet hits the bone

I’m fallin’ down a spiral, destination unknown
Double crossed messenger, all alone
Can’t get no connection, can’t get through
Where are you?

Well the night weighs heavy on his guilty mind
This far from the borderline
When the hitman comes
He knows damn well he has been cheated

And he says
Help, I’m steppin’ into the twilight zone
Place is a madhouse, feels like being cold
My beacon’s been moved under moon and star
Where am I to go now that I’ve gone too far? (Oh oh oh)

Help, I’m steppin’ into the twilight zone
Place is a madhouse, feels like being alone
My beacon’s been moved under moon and star
Where am I to go now that I’ve gone too far?

So you will come to know
When the bullet hits the bone
So you will come to know
When the bullet hits the bone
When the bullet hits the bone

Help, I’m steppin’ into the twilight zone
Place is a madhouse, feels like being cold
My beacon’s been moved under moon and star
Where am I to go now that I’ve gone too far? (Oh oh oh)

Help, I’m steppin’ into the twilight zone
Place is a madhouse, feels like being alone
My beacon’s been moved under moon and star
Where am I to go now that I’ve gone too far?

So you will come to know
When the bullet hits the bone
So you will come to know
When the bullet hits the bone
So you will come to know
When the bullet hits the bone
So you will come to know
When the bullet hits the bone
When the bullet hits the bone
When the bullet hits the bone
When the bullet hits the bone
When the bullet hits the bone
When the bullet hits the bone
When the bullet hits the bone
When the bullet hits the bone
When the bullet hits the bone

Twilight Zone – Walking Distance… #1

Before we get to my number 1 episode…This has been so much fun I’m going to start a huge project. I want to review every Twilight Zone…all 156 episodes…so that will be next…my top 10 is not enough. I’ll start with S01E01 and work myself through and skip the 10 I’ve covered in this section. I’ve never rated shows or movies before but I will try that as well.

This one gets a 5 out of 5 ★★★★★

Since ratings are subjective to who ever is going it…this is my system

★★★★★ This would be an exceptional episode…to me anyway
★★★★☆ This would be above the already high standards of the show
★★★☆☆ This would be a good to very good episode
★★☆☆☆ This would be just a little below average, the 4th season might see this
★☆☆☆☆ This would be a don’t watch…I don’t think this will ever be seen but I’m watching them all over to be sure

Now for my number 1 Twilight Zone episode! This one has my favorite element…Time Travel. How cool would it be to go back and meet your 11 year old self? Episodes 2-156 could change in my rankings but this one remains my favorite.

They really did this episode right. They followed through with everything. You were not wanting for answers at the end. It wasn’t just Martin who figured out he was back in time. It resolves it self nicely…with a valuable lesson. There are spoilers past this.

If you are new to the Twilight Zone this is a great one to start with…

Rod Serling’s opening narration:

Martin Sloan, age thirty-six. Occupation: vice-president, ad agency, in charge of media. This is not just a Sunday drive for Martin Sloan. He perhaps doesn’t know it at the time, but it’s an exodus. Somewhere up the road he’s looking for sanity. And somewhere up the road, he’ll find something else.

Gig Young plays Martin Sloan who does a great job in this episode. Many people try to go back home but it’s never the same because of progress and change…Martin Sloan DOES go home and everything is the same…he even sees himself as a boy…and meets his parents…again. Also…watch out for a 4 year old Ron Howard…soon to be forever known as Opie on the Andy Griffith Show.

Rod Serling wrote this episode.

Martin Sloan (Gig Young), a 36-year-old executive, stops in a fuel station off an isolated country road. Not far away, 1.5 miles, is the sight of his hometown, Homewood, he’s very curious about all the kinds of things that shaped his childhood. Martin ventures to take a closer look, first he goes to an old shop where he used to get ice cream sodas. Martin is surprised to see the prices haven’t changed still a dime for a three scoop ice cream soda. Walking around Martin meets a kid, who is his old neighbor. It is then that he realizes he’s in 1934, when he was only 11-years-old. Things get complicated when he bumps into the young Martin, follows him to his house and meets with his parents. They won’t believe him when Martin says he’s in fact their grown up son. Later, Martin insists in talking with young Martin. He finds him on a carousel, where the child gets hurt falling. Martin will learn, after talking to his father, that every man has his own time and is perhaps better off not looking to the past.

Enough of my favorite episode…what is your favorite?

Rod Serling’s closing narration:

Martin Sloan, age thirty-six, vice-president in charge of media. Successful in most things but not in the one effort that all men try at some time in their lives—trying to go home again. And also like all men, perhaps there’ll be an occasion, maybe a summer night sometime, when he’ll look up from what he’s doing and listen to the distant music of a calliope, and hear the voices and the laughter of the people and the places of his past. And perhaps across his mind there’ll flit a little errant wish, that a man might not have to become old, never outgrow the parks and the merry-go-rounds of his youth. And he’ll smile then too, because he’ll know it is just an errant wish, some wisp of memory not too important really, some laughing ghosts that cross a man’s mind, that are a part of the Twilight Zone.

Gig Young as Martin Sloan
Frank Overton as Robert Sloan
Irene Tedrow as Mrs. Sloan
Michael Montgomery as Tweenage Martin
Ron Howard as Wilcox Boy
Byron Foulger as Charlie
Sheridan Comerate as Gas Station Attendant
Joseph Corey as Soda Jerk
Buzz Martin as Boy with Car
Nan Peterson as Woman in Park
Pat O’Malley as Mr. Wilson

Georgia Satellites – Almost Saturday Night / Rocking All over The World

The Georgia Satellites came out swinging with a number 2 hit in 1986 called Keep Your Hands To Yourself. At the time of Madonna and synth driven songs it was great to hear this band out of Georgia that played raw roots rock and roll.

I almost always post the original songs but I do like the Satellites versions of these two. Both of these songs could have fit in nice with CCR’s catalog.

These two songs they tacked together worked perfect with each other. They are both John Fogerty songs that he released in the mid seventies. The Satellites were on the same touring circuit as the Replacements, REM, and The Fresh Young Fellows. What separated them at the time with those bands was that hit. They also had a minor hit with a song called Battleship Chains.

The two songs were on John Fogerty’s self titled album released in 1975. The Satellites released their version on their greatest hits released in 1993. The lead singer Dan Baird had quit by this time. The band is still together but with only one original member…lead guitarist Rick Richards.

Almost Saturday Night/Rockin’ All Over the World

Oh-ho-ho

Outside my window
I can hear a radio
And I know that motor wagon’s gettin’ ready to fly
And it’s almost Saturday night

Bye-bye, tomorrow
Jody’s gone to a rodeo
And I know some good ol’ boys are gettin’ ready to ride
And it’s almost Saturday night

Gonna push the clouds away
Let the music have its way
Let it steal your heart away
And I know, I know it

Outside me ringin’
The night train is bringing me home
When you hear that locomotion gettin’ ready to ride
And it’s almost Saturday night

Gonna push the clouds away
Let the music have its way
Let it steal my heart away
And I know, I know it

Outside me ringin’
The night train is bringing me home
When you hear that locomotion gettin’ ready to ride
And it’s almost Saturday night

Outside my window
Outside, it’s almost Saturday night
Outside me ringin’
Outside, it’s almost Saturday night

Well, I like it, I like it, I like it, I like it
I li-li-like it, li-li-like it
Here we go, rockin’ all over the world
Well, I like it, I like it, I like it, I like it
I li-li-like it, li-li-like it
Here we go, rockin’ all over the world
Well, I like it, I like it, I like it, I like it
I li-li-like it, li-li-like it
Here we go, rockin’ all over the world
Well, I like it, I like it, I like it, I like it
I li-li-like it, li-li-like it
Here we go, rockin’ all over the world

Van Duren – Chemical Fire —-Power Pop Friday

Van Duren is a power pop musician in Memphis and was managed by Andrew Loog Oldham. He made his first album called Are You Serious in 1978. He is another power pop rocker from the early seventies in Memphis. He was in a band with Big Star’s Chris Bell and drummer Jody Stephens called The Baker Street Regulars. He auditioned as the 2nd guitar player for Big Star just before the band’s demise.

Chemical Fire is an excellent power pop song. It could have very well been played on late seventies radio. It still sounds fresh today.

His style has been compared to Paul McCartney and Todd Rundgren. Personally I hear Marshall Crenshaw also. Big Star wasn’t noticed until over a decade after they recorded their last album. Van Duren waited 30 years before he was properly found.

His second album Idiot Optimism was recorded in 1979 and because of record company problems its wasn’t released until twenty years later. Memphis power artists could not catch a break. There is a documentary about Van Duren that was released in 2019 and his two first albums were re-released also.

According to a documentary, the record label had Scientology connections, which meant they attempted to convert all the acts on their roster. Duren, already in debt, just wanted to finish his record, which he correctly thought was his one shot at stardom. It flopped, and by the mid-80s, after another near-miss with another band, Good Question, his musical career was as good as over.

He is still known in the Memphis area.

Sorry I could not find the lyrics