CB sent me a link to this song. Never did I think in a million years this was the Jackson 5 song that he covered when I saw the title. This cover knocked me out…it’s a mature cover version of the song…and that is no disrespect to the others but I like the way Parker takes this cover.
Parker released this non-album song in 1979. It managed to peak at #103 on the Billboard 100. This one to me must have come out of left field for Graham Parker fans in 1979.
The more I get into Parker’s songs…I don’t understand why he wasn’t played more. He compares to Elvis Costello pretty well. Apparently, radio only had room for one quirky, bespectacled, British pub rocker (Costello).
His record label Mercury Records has been blamed by many for not getting behind Parker and pushing his records. Parker thought the same as he said: “their promotion’s so lame, they could never take it to the real ball game.” He did eventually sign with Arista and Squeezing Out Sparks was the first album on that label for him.
He released this song and on the flip side of the single was a song called Mercury Poisoning. A clear jab at his former label. He didn’t include Mercury Poisoning on the album because he didn’t think it fit. “Sometimes some of the little throwaway things that take a few minutes to write, you just don’t think that they really have the integrity. I mean, ‘Mercury Poisoning’ is a bit of fun and all that, but I didn’t think it had the integrity to be on Squeezing Out Sparks.”
Arista saw that the single was popular so they began to include a free “Mercury Poisoning” single with every purchase of the Squeezing Out Sparks album in the UK. It was also the flip side to Local Girls in America.
The original version is of course by a young Jackson 5. It was written by a team of Motown writers called The Corporation. The head of the label, Berry Gordy, was one of the writers. They were based in California, unlike most Motown writers who were in the Detroit offices.
Michael Jackson reminded Berry Gordy of Frankie Lymon, another teenage star. Gordy helped write this as if he was writing for Lymon. The song was originally envisioned as a vehicle for Gladys Knight but Berry saw it as a way to break the Jacksons into the charts. They released it in 1969.
I Want You Back
Ohh-oh-oh-oh, let me tell you now, uh-huh, uh-uh-uh
When I had you to myself I didn’t want you around
Those pretty faces always make me stand up in a crowd
Someone picked you from the bunch, and that was all it took
And now it’s much too late for me to take a second look
Oh baby, give me one more chance
Won’t you please let me back in your heart
Oh darling, I was blind to let you go
Now that I see you in his arms
Oh I do now
Oh-oh baby
Oh I do now
Oh-oh baby
Tried to live without your love, one of those sleepless nights
But that just shows you, girl, that I know wrong from right
And every street you walk down, I leave tear stains on the ground
Following you girl, I can feel you all around, let me tell you now
Oh baby, give me one more chance
Won’t you please let me back in your heart
Oh darling, I was blind to let you go
But now that I see you in his arms
Oh yeah
Oh yeah
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
You’re all I want
You’re all I want
You’re all I need
Ah yeah, one more chance
Won’t you please let me back in your heart
Oh darling, I must have been blind to let you go
Now that I see you in his arms
Webb Wilder:It’s sorta like we’re a roots band for rock ‘n’ roll fans and a rock band for roots fans” He also uses these phrases…“Swampadelic”, “Service-station attendant music”, “Uneasy listening”, “Psychobilly.”
Good morning everyone…since posting about the Scorchers yesterday…I thought Wilder would be good to go over today. Webb deserved more attention than he got. Good songwriting and his voice fits the roots music he plays.
In 1991 I was walking through a street fair in Nashville and there he was, playing with his band. He had just put out an album called Doo Dad that got some local and national airplay. His music is a mixture of rock/country/rockabilly/punk and anything else he can throw in. The man has the gift of gab also. His music is just different. He looks like he dropped out of a 50’s black-and-white detective show. I also saw him shortly later at the Exit Inn.
Webb Wilder’s quote when asked what kind of music he plays.
“I came to Nashville as kind of a hunch, an educated guess that it would be a good place for me. Rock ‘n’ roll and country have more in common than not. We don’t have the typical Nashville country sound, but we thought we could use that to our advantage. It’s sorta like we’re a roots band for rock ‘n’ roll fans and a rock band for roots fans” he also adds these phrases…“Swampadelic”, “Service-station attendant music”, “Uneasy listening”, “Psychobilly.”
His real name is John “Webb” McMurry and according to wiki “The Webb Wilder character was created in 1984 for a short comedy film created by friend called “Webb Wilder Private Eye.” The character was a backwoods private detective who fell out of the 1950s and happened to also be a musician. The short appeared on the television variety show “Night Flight.”[Whatever it is… it works.
This song I first heard on our local then rock radio station WKDF in Nashville. Poolside is what first drew me in. After I saw him in Nashville at a street fair I was a fan for life. I like unique…and Webb is unique…God bless him…
It also has elements of the 80s cowpunk music and just good rock and roll. I saw him twice through the nineties and he was excellent each time I saw him. This song was released in 1986 and it was on the album It Came From Nashville. Again…the local play in Nashville turned it into a regional hit.
My favorite song by Wilder is this one called Meet Your New Landlord. I purchased the Doodad album and this song is what I zeroed in on. The hit off the album was Tough It Out which peaked at #16 on the Mainstream Charts. It included guest appearances by Al Kooper and Sonny Landreth.
The guitar riff is instantly catchy and the first verse was about losing your house/land in a poker game. A great storytelling song.
He slapped his cards down on the table Said, “Boys, I got me a winning hand.” But the sight that made old T. Jim tremble Was the king that took his land
This was probably his closest thing to a hit in America. In Nashville, it was played a lot on local rock stations. The song peaked at #16 in the Mainstream Rock Songs in 1992. This song came off of Doo Dad and is about the time I saw him for the first time. This song was being played on MTV at the time.
In 1990 this song charted on the Australian charts and it got a lot of airplay here.
Human Cannonball
Saw the ad in the paper Said the hell with it all Took a gig with the circus As the human cannonball
It didn’t take long To learn my trade Very first show, man I blew the folks away Now the job’s a little risky But I’m my own boss I gotta tell ya, Jack It really gets me off
I live in a tent with The world’s strongest man When I met the mother Like to broke my hand My baby she’s a lady In the high wire act When I’m feeling tense She walks on my back
Now the pay’s OK The benefits are great I get to shoot the bull With the world’s smartest ape
Ahh hahhh I’m the human cannonball I’m the human cannonball y’all
Well, I’m a hot shot I’m a cool breeze Underneath the big top I’m the big cheese I lay it on the line Let it all hang When I go least I know I’ll go with a bang
I reckon I’m living Every kid’s dream It’s a buzz, its a gas It’s a real scream
Ahh hahhh I’m the human cannonball I’m the human cannonball y’all
Yeah…
Alright folks, just make yourself at home Have a snow cone and enjoy the show
They put me on the cover Of the USA Today Tell the world what the Human cannonball got to say On the Carson show They said “HC. What you do you got to be Right out of your tree”
Well, it’s a little risky But I’m my own boss I got to tell you, John, It really gets me off
Ahh hahhh I’m the human cannonball I’m the human cannonball y’all
I’m the human cannonball I’m the human cannonball y’all
If you want to see where we are…and you missed a few…HERE is a list of the episodes in my index located at the top of my blog.
This show was written by Gene Roddenberry, D.C. Fontana, and Jerome Bixby
The Enterprise Crew finds themselves being conquered by a superior alien race (Kelvans). A small group of superior alien beings takes the form of humans in order for them to hijack the Enterprise.
They need the ship so they can return to their old world which is beyond the Great Barrier. They turn almost the whole crew into these clay balls, except for Kirk, Spock, Scotty, and Bones, whom they need to help them run the ship. The only weakness the hijackers seem to have is that since they’re in human form for the time being, they’re vulnerable to human emotions.
Once the senior crew realizes the Kelvans are susceptible to human weaknesses things get quite amusing as Scotty gets one of them drunk, McCoy gives injections saying they are vitamin supplements but actually, they just make him very irritable and, perhaps inevitably Kirk sets about seducing the beautiful Kelinda causing Rojan to get jealous.
In human form, they cannot resist the emotions that they are getting. Will it be the Achilles heel that Kirk has been looking for? This is a good solid episode…not a classic one but not all of them can be.
***Spoiler***
The only thing I didn’t like about the episode is… there was no action or punishment for the death of Yeoman Leslie Thompson.
From IMDB:
While drinking with Tomar, Scotty finds a bottle of unidentifiable alcohol, and when Tomar asks, “What is it?” Scotty hesitates for a moment and finally says “It’s green.” This has become an iconic Scotty moment, and is even spoofed in Star Trek: The Next Generation: Relics (1992).
Direct references to two previous episodes were made. After Rojan mentions the galactic barrier, Kirk says, “We’ve been there.” (Star Trek: Where No Man Has Gone Before (1966)); Even Spock repeats his analysis of the barrier word for word: “Density negative. Radiation negative. Energy negative.” When the landing party is detained in a cave, Kirk recalls their imprisonment on Eminiar VII and Spock’s use of a mind-meld to fool the guards. (Star Trek: A Taste of Armageddon (1967)).
Jerome Bixby’s original script was much darker than the filmed episode. The Kelvans (then called the Dvenyens) executed ten Enterprise crew members by opening the shuttle bay doors and letting them be blown out into space. (Technically, they would be blown out by escaping air. This could have been a goof because, even in the Orignal Series, the shuttle bay had force fields to prevent this happening, unless the Kelvans deliberately lowered them.) Kirk was put through “hellish torture”. Also, crew members were chosen to mate with each other (Kirk was paired with Yeoman Leslie Thompson) to breed slaves for the Kelvans. NBC objected to all these, which led producer Gene L. Coon to order a heavy rewrite. The production staff also deemed the mating aspect too similar to Star Trek: The Cage (1966).
Kirk mentions that an intergalactic voyage by a 23rd century starship would take “thousands of years” to reach the Andromeda Galaxy. For the Kelvans, intergalactic travel is a three-century journey. In the 24th century, as seen in Star Trek: The Next Generation: Where No One Has Gone Before (1987), Federation technology has apparently matched the Kelvans, perhaps due to this encounter, when it is discussed that a return trip to the Milky Way from the Triangulum Galaxy would take three hundred years at maximum warp.
A three-dimensional chess set is often seen in the series, but a three-dimensional checkers set can be seen in the rec room in this episode. It is later destroyed in a fight.
The Kelvan word for flower is “sasheer.” Actress Sasheer Zamata of Saturday Night Live (1975) fame was named after it by her Trek-loving parents.
Scotty’s quarters are only seen in this episode. Decorations include a tartan kilt, a sporran, bagpipes, a Scottish targe (shield), medieval armor, and a wall plaque. Although the plaque apparently depicts stylized drafting tools, they also resemble part of a three-dimensional chess set and the primary hull of a Klingon battle cruiser.
A shot in the end credits is an outtake from Star Trek: Return to Tomorrow (1968), which was produced one week earlier and aired two weeks later. It shows actor Bill Blackburn removing his latex make-up as one of Sargon’s androids. It was from a clip later used in the second season blooper reels: Blackburn gratefully peeled off the makeup as assistant director Tiger Shapiro said, “Well, son, you wanted show business. Goddammit, you got it!”
The basis of this episode can be found in Gene Roddenberry’s first ever produced science fiction script, Chevron Hall of Stars: The Secret Weapon of 117 (1956). The episode featured a pair of aliens (the male played by Ricardo Montalban, Star Trek’s “Khan”) who disguise themselves as humans to study Earth people, get overwhelmed by the sensations and experiences of their new host bodies, and decide to remain human.
When Mr. Scott offers to fill the glass of the Kelvan Tomar from his bottle of prized Scotch whisky, on pause you can clearly see that the middle finger on his right hand, which he always tries so hard to cover up, is missing. Doohan lost the finger in battle on D-Day.
Second appearance of the Galactic Barrier at the edge of the galaxy. The first was Star Trek: Where No Man Has Gone Before (1966).
The title is from William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet: “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet.”
Stewart Moss (Hanar) played Joe Tormolean in Star Trek: The Naked Time (1966).
Robert Fortier (Tomar, one of the Kelvans) had played a small role in the earlier William Shatner vehicle Incubus (1966), a novelty horror film famous for being “the Esperanto movie.”
The remastered version of this episode premiered in syndication on the weekend of 8 March 2008. It featured new effects shots of the Kelvan outpost from space, an expanded matte painting of the planet’s terrain as the landing party beams down, a swirling Andromeda Galaxy, and the galactic barrier’s new look.
Julie Cobb (Yeoman Leslie Thompson) was married from 1986 until 2006 to James Cromwell (Zefram Cochrane in Star Trek: First Contact (1996), and numerous other Trek roles).
This was the only episode lensed by cinematographer Keith C. Smith, replacing Gerald Perry Finnerman, who was apparently unavailable for an unknown reason. Smith was the director of photography on Mission: Impossible (1966), filmed next door to Star Trek at Desilu Studios at the time.
The Saurian Brandy container makes an appearance in this episode. The distinctive-shape bottle was actually a modified George Dickel 1964 commemorative edition “powder horn” whisky bottle.
Jerome Bixby based his teleplay for “By Any Other Name” on a short story he wrote and published in 1950, “Cargo to Callisto.” In the story, four Martian criminals, with the ability to take over human beings and assume their shape and mannerisms, use that ability to escape from a Martian prison and flee the planet. The story’s protagonist realizes that his wife and two friends have been taken over, finds the Martians’ bodies, kills them and thus restores to normal the humans that they’d taken. Before Bixby wrote this story, the idea of a hostile alien being able to shape-shift into any human form was used by John W. Campbell Jr. in his novella “Who Goes There?”, the basis of The Thing from Another World (1951), The Thing (1982), and The Thing (2011), although the 1951 version left out the shape shifting element.
As Scotty, Spock, and Kirk left engineering to head to the bridge in the turbolift, it is seen going sideways prior to going upwards to the bridge.
A similar, if not identical, green drink to the one shared between Scotty and Tomar was also seen in Star Trek: Enterprise: In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II (2005), aboard the Defiant.
The swiveling biobed normally situated in sickbay was removed to allow McCoy and Tomar to roll the gurney carrying Spock to the biofunction monitor.
Tomar’s name is the Spanish word for ‘to drink’.
This is the tenth consecutive episode from which Sulu is absent, but he returns to the series in the next episode to be produced, Star Trek: Return to Tomorrow (1968).
According to guest star Stewart Moss after filming was complete, he asked fellow guest star Barbara Bouchet out for a date. She replied, “But for what purpose? You’re an attractive man, but what can you do for me? Six months later Moss married actress Marianne McAndrew, and Bouchet eventually married Italian film producer Luigi Borghese.
This takes place in 2268.
Michael Jan Friedman’s novel ‘The Valiant: The Untold Story of Picard’s First Command’ (2000) is a sequel to both Star Trek: Where No Man Has Gone Before (1966) and ‘By Any Other Name’. After a prologue set in 2069, the main story takes place in the 24th century, in the decades leading up to the start of Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987).
Warren Stevens (Rojan) played Dr. Oslow in Forbidden Planet (1956), one of Gene Roddenberry’s stated inspirations for Star Trek.
Summary
The Enterprise is taken over by Kelvans, an advanced race from the Andromeda galaxy that is intent on making the 300-year journey home. Their leader, Rojan, immobilizes all of the crew but for Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and Scott. As the trip progresses, however, Spock realizes that having taken human form, the Kelvans are now developing emotions. Kirk introduces romance into the equation by purposely wooing Kelinda thereby rendering Rojan insanely jealous.
CAST
William Shatner … Captain James Tiberius ‘Jim’ Kirk Leonard Nimoy … Mister Spock DeForest Kelley … Dr. McCoy Warren Stevens … Rojan Barbara Bouchet … Kelinda James Doohan … Scott Nichelle Nichols … Uhura Majel Barrett … Christine Stewart Moss … Hanar Walter Koenig … Chekov Robert Fortier … Tomar Lezlie Dalton … Drea Carl Byrd … Lt. Shea Julie Cobb … Yeoman Thompson Bill Blackburn … Lieutenant Hadley (uncredited) Frank da Vinci … Lt. Brent (uncredited) Roger Holloway … Lt. Lemli (uncredited) Eddie Paskey … Lieutenant Leslie (uncredited)
I truly love this band. They filled a space in the 80s for me. Loud unprocessed guitars with sparse production. They were close to the Georgia Satellites but more of a Rockabilly band on steroids. I was talking to fellow blogger Obbverse and he brought them up and I was very surprised he knew them. Not many outside the Southeast of America know much about them.
In the mid-eighties, I had a friend who was big into Jason and the Scorchers so I gave them a listen. They were big on college radio and they had many ties with Nashville and played here quite often. I saw them and Webb Wilder live downtown once. That is when I heard them do “The Race Is On”…the old George Jones song and it won me over. Their music seemed to have a kinship to the Georgia Satellites but they were a little more robust. They did have some MTV play with the song Golden Ball and Chain.
The band was formed in 1981. They were together through the 80s till the drummer Perry Baggs was diagnosed with diabetes and could not finish a 1990 tour. They have regrouped since then off and on and altogether have released 15 albums with the last one being in 2010. In 2012 Perry Baggs passed away because of diabetes.
They played a mixture between country and rock but fell into the cracks. They seemed too rock for country and too country for rock. Their concerts were simply unbeatable. They were led by frontman Jason Ringenberg and they released a couple of EPs before releasing their debut album Lost & Found in 1985. They were classified at one time as alt-country but I would add rock/punk/rockabilly in there also.
One of the things that made the band different is Jason wanted to sound country but guitar player Warner Hodges wanted to sound like AC/DC…that interplay made them unique. This song was on their 1985 album Lost and Found. The album peaked at #86 on the Australian album chart in 1987.
Most people will know the song Lost Highway…a hit by Hank Williams. It’s surprising but Hank didn’t write this song. Leon Payne wrote and released this song in 1948. Blind since he was a child, Payne wrote hundreds of songs, some of which were recorded by Hank Williams, John Prine, Elvis Presley, George Jones, Johnny Cash, and many more.
I also added another live cover they did as a bonus…the old George Jones hit The Race Is On.
Jason Ringenberg: “I kinda wanted to make a supercharged roots-rock band, some people were caught by surprise, but by and large people fell in love immediately. There was nobody else like us.”
Lost Highway
I’m a rollin’ stone, all alone and lost
For a life of sin I have paid the cost
When I pass by all the people say
Just another guy on the lost highway
Just a deck of cards, and a jug of wine
And a woman’s lies makes a life like mine
Oh, the day we met, I went astray
I started rollin’ down that lost highway
I was just a lad, nearly twenty-two
Neither good nor bad, just a kid like you
And now I’m lost, too late to pray
Lord, I’ve paid the cost on the lost highway
Now, boys, don’t start your ramblin’ around
On this road of sin, or you’re sorrow bound
Take my advice, or you’ll curse the day
You started rollin’ down that lost highway
If you want to see where we are…and you missed a few…HERE is a list of the episodes in my index located at the top of my blog.
This show was written by Gene Roddenberry and John Meredyth Lucas
This is a very interesting episode. Kirk and crew take on another planet’s Nazis. A plague of thought/speech spread on a planet called Ekos. The Ekosians, a warlike primitive people, are subverted to channel their aggression against their peaceful neighboring planet, Zeon. The Zeons were more advanced up until a few years ago; but now, Ekos have the same technology, and plans are made to exterminate the Zeons. It all started innocently enough. It’s a bit strange.
The Federation has had this non-interference directive, the Prime Directive, in place for at least a century or more. I understand a sometimes aggressive hotshot like Kirk rationalizing around this directive at times of intense situational imperative, but now an elderly Federation historian, a supposed expert on what tampering with history means, decides to re-arrange a culture’s status quo on what appears to be a whim…a chance to play God, as McCoy puts it.
The Ekosians are the Nazis here, whereas the Zeons are stand-ins for the persecuted Jews. The episode does succeed in capturing some of that brutality associated with the Nazi regime and there’s plenty of suspense as Kirk & Spock attempt to infiltrate the Nazi HQ to see their Federation rep, now Fuhrer.
If anything, this is the serious version of “A Piece of the Action” – the scary contemplation of how an entire society can be deluded into following a certain doctrine. The most intriguing aspect is Melakon, the deputy Fuhrer who is, in fact, the actual incarnation of Hitler or Himmler…take your pick.
From IMDB:
Due to the post-war German ban on Nazi-related imagery and paraphernalia, this was the only Star Trek episode that was not shown on German TV until mid-1990s, when these restrictions were gradually relaxed to allow for artistic expression.
All the Nazi uniforms used in this episode are taken from Paramount’s costume storage, and were previously featured in many of the studio’s World War II-era films. Many of them featured mismatched epaulets, collar tabs, and other rank-identifying insignia. However, McCoy’s collar tabs, bearing a single silver oak leaf, correctly identify him as a colonel, as Kirk had ordered.
Leonard Nimoy refused to have any publicity pictures taken of him in Nazi uniform. He was due to attend Hanukkah services later that month (filming took place in December), and did not want any controversies to arise.
This episode with its Nazi storyline proved rather difficult to make for a lot of the cast and crew who were Jewish. This included William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy.
The name of the planet Zeon is a variation of the word “Zion”, a Hebrew term, as in Mount Zion, near the city of Jerusalem. The names of the Zeons: Isak, Davod and Abrom are obvious references to Isaac, David and Abraham, traditional Hebrew biblical names.
According to Valora Noland (Daras), her costume originally did not have a swastika on it and it was added right before filming. Noland, whose parents fled Nazi Germany, was offended by this and stated that she would not have taken the role if she knew she would be wearing a swastika. Noland quit acting entirely after this episode.
This is the second mention of Nazi Germany in Star Trek, the first being in Star Trek: The City on the Edge of Forever (1967). However, in Star Trek: Mirror, Mirror (1967), Scotty did compare Evil Sulu’s security system to “the ancient Gestapo”.
In one of the sequences of news footage, all of which consisted of stock shots and stock footage, a car with Adolf Hitler accompanied by soldiers is used to represent John Gill as the Führer on the planet Ekos. The sequence is a use of stock footage from The Triumph of the Will (1935), the infamous Nazi propaganda film for whose production Leni Riefenstahl was responsible.
The “leader principle” Kirk mentions at the end of the episode was a foundation of the leadership in Nazi Germany. Known in German as “Führerprinzip”, it essentially can be described as a state of law in which there are no laws above those of the Führer, and that the government must obey and enforce such laws.
The character Eneg (Patrick Horgan) is Gene Roddenberry’s first name, spelled backwards.
Skip Homeier, who plays Melakon, would later play the insane demagogue Dr. Sevrin in Star Trek: The Way to Eden (1969).
The front of the Ekosian Chancellery has all of its windows and shutters closed, for the real world reason that the actual building was an active office of Paramount Pictures with daily business going on inside while the film crew and actors were shooting the exterior. Even so, two individuals who appear to be curious Paramount Pictures employees can be seen looking down on the courtyard from an upper window.
This is the only episode of Star Trek besides Star Trek: The City on the Edge of Forever (1967) in which Leonard Nimoy is seen without a shirt.
The underground area is the same set as was used for Star Trek: The Devil in the Dark (1967).
The remastered version of “Patterns of Force” aired in many North American markets during the weekend of 19 May 2007. While the episode required very few new effects, an entirely new shot of the Enterprise phasering the Ekosian warhead was substituted. In addition, Ekos was given a CGI-makeover as a more Earth-like planet, with new orbital shots of the Enterprise, and the rubindium crystal beam was refined.
The Schulberg Building (formerly, the Directors Building) and the Lubitsch Building (formerly, the Producers Building), both located on the Paramount Studios lot, were used for the exterior shots of the Ekosian Nazi headquarters complex.
The attacking V-2 rocket on the viewscreen of Enterprise was reused footage of the Orion scout ship from Star Trek: Journey to Babel (1967) earlier in the season.
This episode was finally shown on German pay TV in 1996 and included on all DVD/Blu-ray season sets. This episode was also finally shown on the public network channel ZDFneo on November 4, 2011.
The missile fired at the Enterprise was shown to be a V2. In 1942, one of these ethanol/liquid oxygen-fueled rockets reached an altitude of 118 miles, making it the first man-made object in space.
Skip Homeier, who plays Melakon, had his feature film debut playing a Nazi youth in Tomorrow, the World! (1944).
Several uniforms, such as Kirk and McCoy’s, show cuffbands reading “Adolf Hitler”. They represent members of the Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler, special bodyguards of the Führer.
V-2 rocket footage from World War II Germany is used in the newscast showing Ekosian missiles.
Due to a re-rating in late 2016, this episode is now suitable for ages 12 and up in Germany.
An early draft had the source of cultural contamination arriving aboard a small Ambassador-class vessel called the Magellan. The name was later applied in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) to the Ambassador-class of ships in the mid-24th century.
Gilbert Green, who played the S.S. Major, also played Nazi General Hans Stofle in Hogan’s Heroes: Hello, Zolle (1966).
The second occasion, after Star Trek: The City on the Edge of Forever (1967), where Vulcans are shown to have body hair, with Spock fully removing his shirt to show a full front torso covered in hair.
This takes place in 2268.
Two of the main guest stars, Richard Evans (Isak) and Patrick Horgan (Eneg), died four days apart on October 2 and 6, 2021, respectively. Eddie Paskey (as a Nazi storm trooper rather than his regular role of Lt. Leslie) had died a few weeks earlier on August 17, 2021. Two other iconic Trek guest stars would die just a matter of days after Evans and Horgan. They were Jan Shutan (Lt. Mira Romaine in Star Trek: The Lights of Zetar (1969)) just a day after Horgan on October 7, 2021, and then, three days later, the repeat Trek actor and stunt performer Bob Herron (Jeffrey Hunter’s stunt double in the pilot Star Trek: The Cage (1966)), Kirk’s gym buddy Sam in Star Trek: Charlie X (1966) and the recreation of the villainous Klingon warrior Kahless the Unforgettable in Star Trek: The Savage Curtain (1969)). Evans’s passing had not been widely known until a time after the later death of Horgan was reported. Learning afterward that Evans had died first lent an oddly spiritual twist to his most famous line, referring to their respective characters, when Isak says “Eneg is one of us.”
Summary
The Enterprise travels to the planet Ekos to search for the missing Federation cultural observer Professor John Gill. When they arrive, they find that Ekosian society has been completely patterned after Nazi Germany – down to its uniforms and the hatred of everyone from their neighboring planet Zeon – and the Fuhrer of this neo-Nazi regime is John Gill! Kirk and Spock are soon taken prisoner, but they also learn that there is an underground movement that opposes the totalitarian and vicious regime. As they realize that Gill has been incapacitated, they focus their efforts on dethroning the real power – Melakon, the Deputy Fuhrer.
HERE IS THE PREVIEW…I TRIED 5 DIFFERENT VIDEOS AND ALL CAME UP AS “AGE RESTRICTED” AND WOULD NOT LET YOU GET TO THE VIDEO…SO CLICK ON THE LINK.
CAST
William Shatner … Captain James Tiberius ‘Jim’ Kirk Leonard Nimoy … Mister Spock DeForest Kelley … Dr. McCoy Richard Evans … Isak Valora Noland … Daras Skip Homeier … Melakon David Brian … John Gill James Doohan … Scott Nichelle Nichols … Uhura Patrick Horgan … Eneg William Wintersole … Abrom Gilbert Green … S.S. Major Walter Koenig … Chekov Lev Mailer … S.S. Lieutenant (as Ralph Maurer) Ed McCready … S.S. Trooper Peter Canon … Gestapo Lieutenant Paul Baxley … First Trooper Chuck Courtney … Davod Bart La Rue … Newscaster Benjie Bancroft … Soldier at Party (uncredited) Bill Blackburn … Lieutenant Hadley / S.S. Trooper (uncredited) John Blower … Ekosian Gestapo Lt. Col. (uncredited) Frank da Vinci … Soldier at Party (uncredited) Len Felber … Soldier at Party (uncredited) Adolf Hitler … Self (archive footage) (uncredited) Roger Holloway … Soldier at Party (uncredited) Jeannie Malone … Blonde in Audience (uncredited) Sean Morgan … Second Trooper (uncredited) Basil Poledouris … Trooper (uncredited) Robert Strong Robert Strong … Soldier at Party (uncredited) Bob Whitney … Soldier at Party (uncredited)
I’ve almost written this song up on numerous occasions so I thought I would finish it because it’s been in my drafts for a while. Great power pop from this band.
The Hoodoo Gurus are an Australian rock band combining elements of power pop, Beatleesque harmonies, psychedelia, and grungy garage rock. Guitarists Dave Faulkner, Rod Radalj, and Kimble Rendall were joined by drummer James Baker when the band formed in Sydney in 1981.
I Want You Back” was the final single to be released for the band’s debut album, Stoneage Romeos. The band’s debut Stoneage Romeos, full of garage punk songs and pop references, was named Australian Debut Album of the Year and was released in America where it stayed at number 1 in the Alternative / College charts for 7 weeks, becoming one of the most played albums for the year on the college network. Their next two albums also reached #1 on the Alternative College charts.
This song was played alongside The Replacements, R.E.M., and other alternative bands at the time throughout America. They were not well known to the masses here but in Australia they were huge. In 2007 were inducted into the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Hall of Fame.
They have released 10 studio albums and the last one, Chariot of the Gods, was released last year in 2022.
I Want You Back
I can still recall the time
She said she was always mine
Then she left as people do
And forget what we’ve been through
It’s not that she’s gone away, yeah
It’s the things I hear that she has got to say
About me and about my friends
When we, we’ve got no defense
That’s her, I’ll never believe her again
She might have deceived all my friends
I know they will see in the end
What it all means when she says, yeah
(Ah, ah) I want you back
(Ah, ah) I want you back
I, I, I want you
She says (she says)
She says (she says)
She says (she says)
She says, yeah, yeah
But what’s worse, she thinks it’s true
But that’s just her, she always was a little bit confused, and
She’s not worth the time I had to lose
That’s her, I’ll never believe her again
She might have deceived my friends
I know they’ll see what it means when she says, yeah
(Ah, ah) I want you back
(Ah, ah) I want you back
I, I, I want you
She says (she says)
She says (she says)
She says (she says)
She says
She says (ah, ah)
She says (ah, ah)
I want you back
She says (ah, ah)
She says (ah, ah)
I want you and only you (ah, ah)
She says (she says)
She says (she says)
She says (she says)
She says
I can’t get enough of the early Animals. At the time I would say they were the grittiest-sounding band of the British Invasion. The Animals were one of the many British bands I learned about through reading about the Beatles. The Animals influenced the future of rock from the garage rock of the 60s to 70s punk.
I’m Crying was written by the group’s lead vocalist Eric Burdon and organist Alan Price. The song was released as a single in September 1964 and became their second transatlantic hit after “The House of the Rising Sun”, which was released earlier in the year.
The Animals first appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show on October 18th, 1964. With young girls screaming, The Animals rocked the audience as they played “I’m Crying” followed by their massive hit “House of the Rising Sun.” The audience got so out of control that Sullivan shushed them several times.
They formed in 1963, from the fusion between two rival groups, one headed by bassist Chas Chandler, the other headed by organist Alan Price, stage veteran, former jazz pianist, and disciple of Ray Charles. Eric Burdon, who had played with Price until 1962, was hired as the singer. The Kontours changed their name first to The Alan Price Combo, after adding drummer John Steel, and then to The Animals, after adding guitarist Hilton Valentine.
The original lineup only recorded three albums, yet nevertheless managed to break out eight Top 40 hits between 1964 and 1966. Alan Price left in 1965, and John Steel the following year. Also in 1966, Chandler left to start managing artists, and he discovered Jimi Hendrix in Greenwich Village. Now a very different group, they were known as Eric Burdon & The Animals and had six additional Top 40 hits before finally disbanding in 1968.
Bruce Springsteen:For some, the Animals were just another one the really good beat groups that came of the Sixties, but to me, the Animals were a revelation. The first records with full-blown class consciousness that I had ever heard.
John Steel:We were hot enough to get on several times on The Ed Sullivan Show, and at that time in 1964, we were rated in the Top 5 bands of the British Invasion along with The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Kinks, so we were pretty highly regarded.
I’m Crying
I don’t hear your knock upon my door
I don’t have your lovin’ anymore
Since you been gone I’m a-hurtin’ inside
Well I want you baby by my side, Yeah
I’m cryin’, I’m cryin’
Hear me cryin’ baby
Hear me cryin’
Im lonely and blue baby every night
Yeah, you know you didn’t treat me right
And now my tears begin to fall
Well I want you baby and that’s all
I’m cryin’, I’m cryin’
Hear me cryin’ baby
Hear me cryin’
I don’t hear your knock upon my door
I don’t have your lovin’ anymore
Since you been gone I’m hurtin’ inside, yeah
Well I want you baby by my side
But I’m cryin’, you know I’m cryin’
Hear me cryin’ baby
Hear me crying
Hear me crying
Hope you all are having a good week…happy Wednesday!
And he dug up her grave and built a cage with her bones Excitable boy, they all said well, he’s just an excitable boy …. Warren Zevon
I’ll be in my basement room with a needle and a spoon And another girl can take my pain away…Rolling Stones
We were the first band to vomit at the bar and find the distance to the stage too far meanwhile it’s getting late at ten o’clock rock is dead they say Long Live Rock…The Who
Cause when life looks like Easy Street there is danger at your door… The Grateful Dead
Then here come a man with a paper and a pen tellin’ us our hard times are about to end… The Band
I could walk like Brando right into the sun then dance just like a Casanova… Bruce Springsteen
Elementary penguin singing Hare Krishna man, you should have seen them kicking Edgar Allen Poe …The Beatles
Mother, you had me but I never had you I, I wanted you You didn’t want me so, I just got to tell you goodbye … John Lennon
Exchanging “good luck”s face to face checkin’ his stash by the trash at St. Mark’s place …The Replacements
We come from the land of the ice and snow from the midnight sun where the hot springs flow… Led Zeppelin
Every day, I look at the world from my window but chilly, chilly is the evening time Waterloo sunset’s fine… The Kinks
I don’t wanna be a candidate for Vietnam or Watergate… Queen
If I ventured in the slipstream between the viaducts of your dream… Van Morrison
I am just a dreamer but you are just a dream and you could have been anyone to me… Neil Young
So we bought a pack of cigarettes and Mrs. Wagner pies and walked off to look for America…Simon and Garfunkel
If you want to see where we are…and you missed a few…HERE is a list of the episodes in my index located at the top of my blog.
This show was written by Gene Roddenberry and John T. Dugan
A very good episode of three survivors of a race that were killed millions of years ago. They are just energy without form. The crew has to transport under 112.37 miles of rock. As Spock would say…the episode is fascinating.
In a region of space where no other Federation sip has yet been, the Enterprise comes across a planet with three impressive survivors. All that remains of these beings is pure energy, their bodies lost in some cataclysmic war fought 500,000 years ago.
Their minds are capable of feats that 23rd-century humanity can scarcely dream of. So they’ve been waiting around in these containment globules for half a million years, waiting for their probable descendants to start exploring space. The reason the survivors contacted the Enterprise was to borrow three humanoid bodies (Kirk, Spock, and Ann Mulhall) in order to construct android shells for themselves. They borrow Kirk’s (now call him Sargon), Spock’s (now Henoch, from the ‘other’ side), and Dr. Mulhall’s (now Thalassa). It was just to be temporary. The longer they stay in the body the more the body deteriorates.
There’s a kink in the plans though. Apparently, Henoch hasn’t spent the past half million years contemplating peaceful pursuits… we learn this in short order when Spock’s face assumes an uncharacteristically evil grin as Henoch confidently makes plans to remove Sargon from the equation and take over everything. He plans to be free and live as a human. Will Spock, Kirk, and Doctor Mulhall’s bodies and souls die?
We get to see Spock act out as a sadistic villain…there’s a creepy chilling tone to some of this as Thalassa starts turning bad also. Majel Barrett as Christine Chapel does a great job in this episode as well. She gets to share something that she has always wanted.
From IMDB:
As a lieutenant commander, Ann Mulhall has the distinction of being the highest-ranking female Starfleet character shown in The Original Series.
The voice of Sargon was played by James Doohan. Sargon of Akkad was a Mesopotamian king, who by most accounts, began ruling around 2269 B.C. In the show the year is around 2268 A.D.
First Star Trek appearance of Diana Muldaur. She would also appear as Miranda Jones in the episode Star Trek: Is There in Truth No Beauty? (1968), and as Dr. Kathryn Pulaski in 20 episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987).
This episode marks George Takei’s return to the series after an absence of some months while filming The Green Berets (1968). His last appearance was Star Trek: I, Mudd (1967), which was ten episodes earlier in production order.
One of the fiberglass globes was re-used later as part of the Romulan cloaking device in Star Trek: The Enterprise Incident (1968), and for M-4 in Star Trek: Requiem for Methuselah (1969).
Thalassa is a Greek name for the sea. Henoch is a variation of the Hebrew name Enoch, who in the Book of Genesis was a man taken bodily to Heaven without dying.
Writer John T. Dugan wrote the original script of this episode after he had read an article about highly sophisticated robots. In his original draft, Sargon and Thalassa continue their existence as spirits without bodies, floating around the universe. However, Gene Roddenberry, who did an uncredited re-write on the script, changed the ending to the aliens fading out into oblivion. This led to Dugan using his pen-name John Kingsbridge in the episode’s credits.
Joseph Pevney was originally slated to direct this episode; however, he quit the series after Star Trek: The Immunity Syndrome (1968), citing the lack of discipline from the actors after producer Gene L. Coon left the show.
A still image taken from blooper reel of Bill Blackburn (Hadley/Android) removing the latex android make-up from his head appears in the end credits of Star Trek: By Any Other Name (1968). That episode was produced the week before this one and aired two weeks later, on 23 February 1968.
The stand for one of the globes was later turned upside-down and used as a piece of technology on Atoz’s desk in Star Trek: All Our Yesterdays (1969).
This episode features colorful back lights on the Enterprise sets, mostly green and purple, which were not used since the early episodes of the first season.
The name of the planet itself, Arret, is never mentioned onscreen. Arrete means “stop” in French, from which the English word “arrest” is derived.
The remastered version of this episode aired in many North American markets during the weekend of 7 July 2007. It featured new effects shots of the Enterprise and a new, more realistic version of planet Arret. It also included shots of the planet matted into interior viewscreen shots.
Still photos of a smiling Spock leaning against a doorway and a non-canonical image of Bill Blackburn, dressed as the android, were used in the end credits of Star Trek: The Immunity Syndrome (1968). That episode was produced before this one, but did not go to air until 19 January 1968.
This episode and its writer, John T. Dugan, earned a Writers Guild of America Award nomination in the category Best Written Dramatic Episode in 1968.
This is the second time a reference is made in Star Trek about the Apollo moon program, after Star Trek: Tomorrow Is Yesterday (1967). Filmed more than a year-and-a-half before the first lunar landing, Kirk rhetorically asks McCoy in this episode, “Do you wish that the first Apollo mission hadn’t reached the Moon?” The first manned Apollo mission, Apollo 1 (intended to be a test-flight of the Command and Service Module in Earth orbit only), never flew, since a tragic fire claimed the lives of three astronauts. This happened on 27 January 1967, months before the script was submitted to the production team and a full year before this episode aired. The first Apollo mission in which astronauts orbited, and technically “reached”, the moon was Apollo 8 in December 1968, ten months after this episode aired. However, the Apollo 11 astronauts were the first to “reach” the moon by landing on it in 20 July 1969, after Star Trek was canceled. Kirk’s next comments about going “on to Mars and then to the nearest star” seem to suggest that he is referring to the Apollo 11 lunar mission.
This takes place in 2268.
This episode is the latest in any season to feature a new score, albeit a partial one, by George Duning. Parts of the new score would be heard for the rest of the season, including the menacing Henoch cues in Star Trek: Patterns of Force (1968) and Star Trek: The Omega Glory (1968). However, most of this score, notably the love themes, would never be reused in another episode. This sets it apart from other scores, such as those from Star Trek: Who Mourns for Adonais? (1967) and Star Trek: Elaan of Troyius (1968), whose themes would be reused extensively.
Summary
Brought deep into an uncharted part of the galaxy, the Enterprise comes across three disembodied beings, their essence each contained in a globe-like receptacle. Their leader, Sargon, asks only one thing of Kirk and his crew – lend them the bodies of Kirk, Spock and crew member Ann Mulhall long enough for them to build robot bodies to inhabit for perpetuity. The beings have been without physical form since their civilization was destroyed over 500,000 years ago but have powers far greater than ordinary humans. Kirk and the rest agree to the exchange, but the alien occupying Spock’s body, Henoch, clearly has designs on keeping the body he has just obtained. When he manages to convince Thalassa to do the same, Sargon – and the body of Capt. Kirk – is in trouble.
CAST
William Shatner … Captain James Tiberius ‘Jim’ Kirk / Sargon Leonard Nimoy … Mister Spock / Henoch DeForest Kelley … Dr. McCoy Diana Muldaur … Ann Mulhall / Thalassa James Doohan … Scott / Voice of Sargon Nichelle Nichols … Uhura George Takei … Sulu Cindy Lou … Nurse Majel Barrett … Christine Chapel Bill Blackburn … Lieutenant Hadley / Android (uncredited) Frank da Vinci … Lt. Brent (uncredited) Roger Holloway … Lt. Lemli (uncredited) Jeannie Malone … Nurse (uncredited) John Hugh McKnight … Command Lieutenant (uncredited) Eddie Paskey … Guard (uncredited)
I first heard this song by Springsteen before I ever heard it by Patti Smith. I’m not sure how I kept missing her version.
Patti Smith has more of a cult following and this is by far the biggest hit she ever had.
Bruce Springsteen started to write this song in 1976. That was a troubled year for the singer. He sued his manager Mike Appel and Bruce wanted to work with Jon Landau. This went on for around 10 months. This was coming after 1975 which was huge in Springsteen’s life. He would be on the cover of Newsweek and Time at the same time. His Born To Run album blanketed rock at the time and he was hailed as the future of Rock and Roll. But instead of capitalizing on his success and hitting the studio to record another album he put on a suit and went to court.
Springsteen did what a lot of artists at that time did…he signed a management contract on the hood of a car in a New Jersey parking lot, Springsteen’s contract allotted him 18¢ per album sold. Appel made a minimum royalty of 40¢ per record. On top of that, the contract called for Springsteen to record 10 albums for CBS but it only called for Springsteen to record five for Appel’s Laurel Canyon management and production company. It was a terrible contract and although Springsteen didn’t care about the money then…he was always broke because he was keeping less than 10 percent of his income.
Appel wanted to stop Landau from working with Bruce also…who had just helped Springsteen with Born To Run. When Appel started to tell Bruce what he could and could not do…that was it. Bruce sued Appel and they went to court. Two days after Springsteen filed suit against Appel for fraud, undue influence, and breach of trust, Appel responded by seeking a permanent injunction in New York State Supreme Court barring Springsteen and Landau from entering the recording studio together. He stated that only he and Springsteen would make a “winning combination.”
So long story short…he was barred from recording until this was settled. All he could do was tour…and tour he did. They ended up settling the suit. Appel gave up publishing rights on most of Springsteen’s music in exchange for $800,000, and he took a cut in production points from six to two. Bruce was free to record.
So this song was born in this chaos. It wasn’t completely finished but he could not record the song. The song lay dormant until Springsteen’s producer, Jimmy Iovine, convinced him to give a copy to Patti Smith, who eventually got around to filing in the verses and recording the song. Iovine was also producing Smith’s Easter album and convinced her to record it for the set.
Smith’s boyfriend at the time was Fred “Sonic” Smith and while waiting for him to call…she finished the verses in 1977. It makes sense because she used the longing for Smith for some of the verses like… Have I doubt when I’m alone Love is a ring, the telephone.
The song appeared on Smith’s album called Easter. At first,. she didn’t want to use the song because she didn’t write all of it. Jimmy Iovine, her producer, along with bandmates convince Smith to record the song.
Fred Smith died of a heart attack in 1994. A year before 10,000 Maniacs recorded the song and it was a hit. The royalties from that song helped keep Smith above water and care for her two young children.
The Patti Smith version peaked at #13 on the Billboard 100, #13 in Canada, and #5 in the UK in 1978. The album Easter peaked at #20 on the Billboard Album Charts.
Bruce Springsteen: “It was a love song and I really wasn’t writing them at the time. I wrote these very hidden love songs like For You, or Sandy, maybe even Thunder Road, but they were always coming from a different angle. My love songs were never straight out, they weren’t direct. That song needed directness and at the time I was uncomfortable with it. I was hunkered down in my samurai position. Darkness… was about stripping away everything – relationships, everything – and getting down to the core of who you were. So that song is the great missing song from Darkness On The Edge. I could not have finished it as good as she did. She was in the midst of her love affair with Fred ‘Sonic’ Smith and she had it all right there on her sleeve. She put it down in a way that was just quite wonderful.”
Patti Smith: “I could have never written a song like that. I’d never write a chorus like that.”
Because The Night
Take me now, baby, here as I am
Pull me close, try and understand
Desire is hunger, is the fire I breathe
Love is a banquet on which we feed
Come on now, try and understand
The way I feel when I’m in your hands
Take my hand, come undercover
They can’t hurt you now
Can’t hurt you now, can’t hurt you now
Because the night belongs to lovers
Because the night belongs to love
Because the night belongs to lovers
Because the night belongs to us
Have I doubt when I’m alone
Love is a ring, the telephone
Love is an angel disguised as lust
Here in our bed until the morning comes
Come on now, try and understand
The way I feel under your command
Take my hand as the sun descends
They can’t touch you now
Can’t touch you now, can’t touch you now
Because the night belongs to lovers
Because the night belongs to love
Because the night belongs to lovers
Because the night belongs to us
With love we sleep
With doubt the vicious circle
Turns and burns
Without you, oh, I cannot live
Forgive, the yearning burning
I believe it’s time, too real to feel
So touch me now, touch me now, touch me now
Because the night belongs to lovers
Because the night belongs to love
Because the night belongs to lovers
Because the night belongs to us
Because tonight there are two lovers
If we believe, in the night we trust
Because the night belongs to lovers
Because the night belongs to love
Because the night belongs to lovers
Because the night belongs to love
‘Cause we believe tonight we’re lovers
‘Cause we believe, in the night we trust
Because the night belongs to lovers
Around 1990 I was playing a club and we usually got off around 2am in the morning. Early on a Sunday morning around 2:30…the guitar player and I packed the car and headed out to Pensacola Florida. One of those spontaneous trips. On the way, we listened to a Dennis Leary comedy tape and The Rolling Stone’s Tattoo You. This is the song that stuck with me on that trip for some reason.
Tattoo You was made up of outtakes and songs that were almost a decade old going back to Emotional Rescue, Black and Blue, and the Goats Head Soup album. Tattoo You to me…was their last great album. They originally recorded this song around 1972 (that version at the bottom). They worked on this song at least 4 different times. : Dynamic Sounds Studios, Kingston, Jamaica, Nov. 25-Dec. 21 1972; Village Recorders, Los Angeles, USA, Jan.13-15 1973; EMI Pathé Marconi Studios, Paris, France, Jan. 5-March 2 1978; June 10-Oct. 19 1979. In 1981 Mick redid all of his vocals to the song.
Even though he had left the band seven years earlier, Mick Taylor’s guitar solo was left on this track and it is fantastic. Pianist Nicky Hopkins also appears on the track, as does the band’s old producer Jimmy Miller, who plays percussion.
Associate producer Chris Kimsey remembers there was a need to put an album out very quickly. A tour was already planned and Mick and Keith were not talking that much at the time. Kimsey told the band that he could probably make an album just out of the unused songs they had going back to 1972. Despite coming from different eras the songs fit together quite nicely. Personally, I think the album was much better than it’s predecessor Emotional Rescue.
The song was written by Jagger/Richards and was pulled from 10 years prior…it was one of the few not pulled as a single.
A version they recorded in 1972
The Tattoo You version from 1981
Tops
Every man is the same, come on
I’ll make you a star
I’ll take you a million miles from all this
Put you on a pedestal
Come on (come on, come on)
Have you ever heard those opening lines?
You should leave this small town way behind
I’ll be your partner, show you the steps
With me behind, you’re tasting of the sweet wine of success
‘Cause I’ll, I’ll take you to the top, baby (hey, baby)
I’ll take you to the top
I’ll take you to the top, baby
I’ll take you to the top
Step on the ladder, toe in the pool
You’re such a natural, you don’t need no acting school
Don’t need no casting couch or be a star in bed
And never, never let success go to you pretty head
‘Cause I’ll, I’ll take you to the top, baby
I swear I would never gonna stop, baby
I’ll take you to the top
Don’t let the world pass you by
Don’t let the world pass you by
Don’t let the world pass you by
You take your chance now, baby
I’m sorry for the rest of your sweet loving life, baby
Oh, sugar
Hey sugar, I’ll take you to the top
I’ll take you to the top
I’ll take you to the top, sugar
I’ll take you to the top
Oh, baby
I’ll take you to the top
I’ll take you to the top
I’ll take you to the top
I’ll take you to the top
I’ll take you to the top
The first time I heard this song, I loved it. John Hiatt always releases songs of quality, and they are all solid. Saying that, he is most remembered for his songs that other people cover. I don’t understand that because he has a fine, distinctive voice with a consistently excellent band behind him. The keyword here is distinctive, I guess, which I look for.
I first noticed Hiatt with the song Slow Turning. When Bonnie Raitt released Thing Called Love in 1989, I knew the song from Hiatt…I was just getting into him. I’m glad Raitt covered that song because it helped him. He has released 25 albums in total, ranging from 1974 through 2021, and it’s about time for another. My friend Christian does a good review of the album here...check it out if you can.
This song was the title track on his 1993 eleventh studio album. The album peaked at #47 on the Billboard 100, #34 in Canada, #67 in the UK, and #19 in New Zealand. It was his last album on A&M Records and his highest-charting album on Billboard. This album was probably the most rock & roll-oriented album of Hiatt’s career. I do like the guitar tone that Matt Wallace, the producer, got on this album. He had previously produced The Replacements.
The song peaked at #16 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Charts and #76 in Canada. The record company pulled 5 singles off of this album, and 2 were in the top 40 in the Mainstream Charts.
Perfectly Good Guitar
Well he threw one down form the top of the stairs Beautiful women were standing everywhere They all got wet when he smashed that thing But off in the dark you could hear somebody sing
Oh it breaks my heart to see those stars Smashing a perfectly good guitar I don’t know who they think they are Smashing a perfectly good guitar
It started back in 1963 His momma wouldn’t buy him That new red harmony He settled for a sunburst with a crack But he’s still trying to break his momma’s back
He loved that guitar just like a girlfriend But ever good thing comes to an end Now he just sits in his room all day Whistling every note he used to play
There out to be a law with no bail Smash a guitar and you go to jail With no chance for early parole You don’t get out till you get some soul
Late at night the end of the road He wished he still had the old guitar to hold He’d rock it like a baby in his arms Never let it come to any harm
If you want to see where we are…and you missed a few…HERE is a list of the episodes in my index located at the top of my blog.
This show was written by Gene Roddenberry and Don Ingalls
This episode gets philosophical at the end and will make you think.
While conducting a survey on a planet Captain Kirk visited several years earlier he is surprised to discover the primitive yet peaceful people he once knew are now armed with flintlock firearms. Not enough time progressed for them to be that far ahead.
As the team prepares to leave Spock is shot and seriously injured. While he is being treated a Klingon ship is sighted and Kirk is convinced that they are responsible for arming the people on the planet. Leaving Spock in the capable hands of Dr M’Benga, Kirk and McCoy return to the planet to investigate further.
Soon after landing Kirk is attacked by a creature with a poisonous venom; unable to return to the ship McCoy takes him to the village of his old friend Tyree where he is cured by Tyree’s wife. We learn that there are two main tribes; the peaceful Hill People and the Villagers who are using weapons against them. Tyree’s wife wants him to press Kirk to supply even better weapons and she with the help of a few select plants, can be very persuasive. When it is confirmed that the Klingons have helped the Villagers Kirk has a difficult decision… does he stay uninvolved or does he arm the Hill People to create a balance of power?
This isn’t a classic episode but it is entertaining. Thanks to Spock’s injury we learn more about the Vulcans… in particular how they consciously fight to heal themselves. The story on the planet was interesting too; clearly a metaphor for the various proxy wars of the cold war era where the East and West would arm allies in third-world countries rather than getting involved in direct conflict.
From IMDB:
The Mugato was called The Gumato in the original script. But DeForest Kelley kept mispronouncing it so it was changed. The closing credits still name the creature as The Gumato.
(At around 17 mins) Is the first clear close-up ever of the Sick Bay panel. The vertical scales are, from left to right: Temperature – left scale in °F and right in °C -, Brain – K3 (unknown unit)-, Lungs – no units, but it seems to measure FRC (Functional Residual Capacity) in liters, Cell Rate – no units -, Blood – Q5 (or possibly Qs; perhaps pressure; corrected to %O2 in some mock-ups/merchandise) – and Blood – T2 × 10 (Blood transverse relaxation time – ms ×10). Center symbols: Top Circle “Respiration”, second Circle “Pulse” then two legends: Adjust for Normal, Recorder. The inclusion of both Fahrenheit and Centigrade is odd.
This episode features the last production credit for showrunner Gene L. Coon who resigned halfway through Season 2. His replacement John Meredyth Lucas struggled to come to terms with the show’s unrelenting schedules and the budget cuts that Paramount was insisting on. NBC were also unhappy about the show’s implications about sex, threatening the airing of a show that was already on the borderline of cancellation.
Nancy Kovack’s character (Nona) displays her navel, despite the folklore that broadcast standards censors prohibited showing that part on a woman.
First of two appearances of Booker Bradshaw as Dr. M’Benga, the expert in Vulcan physiology. Second appearance in Star Trek: That Which Survives (1969).
The mugato was designed by Janos Prohaska, who had also created the Horta for Star Trek: The Devil in the Dark (1967).
The Star Trek Universe has been known to tackle societal, political, environmental, and other types of issues throughout the history of the franchise. This one tackled the Vietnam War head-on, not only specifically pointing out the “20th-Century brush wars on the Asian continent”, but also as portraying the Federation and the Klingon Empire as superpowers using an otherwise peaceful world as pawns in their struggle for power (a direct allegory of the Cold War at that time, between NATO and the Red Bloc).
The original writer, Don Ingalls, put the pseudonym Jud Crucis on it after Gene Roddenberry rewrote it. Ingalls’ original contained many more overt Vietnam analogies than what finally appeared. According to Allan Asherman’s ‘The Star Trek Compendium’, this script referred to Apella as a “Ho Chí Minh-type” and the tribesmen as wearing Mongolian clothes. Though friends with Roddenberry since their days as LAPD officers, Ingalls did not like the changes, and the pseudonym was his wordplay on “Jesus Crucified”.
The planet they’re on is named Neural in the script, but this name is never heard in the show itself.
This is the only episode in Season 2 to not have a happy ending music.
Janos Prohaska owned the ape suit, having acquired it from a previous film project.
An obvious reference to the western classic cliché of white and black hats (white hat = good guy, black hat = bad guy), the use of blond hair for the ‘good guys’ and black hair for the ‘bad guys’.
This episode is preceded, both in production and airing order, by Star Trek: Journey to Babel (1967). Given McCoy’s reluctance in that episode to operate on a Vulcan due to his unfamiliarity with Vulcan physiology, it is probable that, between that episode and this, he recruits M’Benga to serve on the Enterprise as a safeguard should anything happen to Spock.
It is stated a flintlock would be the first firearm developed. In fact, it was the match lock then the wheel lock, then the flint lock.
In Don Ingalls’ original story outline, the Klingon antagonist was Kor from Star Trek: Errand of Mercy (1967).
The Mugato is the same suit used as a white gorilla in Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea: Fatal Cargo (1967) and as a Garboona – a cross between a gorilla and a baboon – in Here’s Lucy: Lucy’s Safari (1969). However, it did not have the spikes on its head and back in either of those appearances. All three creatures were played by Janos Prohaska.
This is the only episode in which Spock and Kirk are both incapacitated in two separate incidents, with different causes, for an overlapping time period.
Nona uses the same dagger as seen in Star Trek: Wolf in the Fold (1967).
Krell’s name is never mentioned but is shown in the script.
They shot a scene of Nancy Kovack showering semi-nude (shot from the back) and put it in the final cut presented to NBC. This aim to have Standards and Practices (the NBC censors) lock onto that scene and demand it be removed. This was to distract them from the other more sensual elements of the rest of the story that they might have taken issue with. The showering scene is shown on the blooper reels which can be tracked down on Youtube.
This takes place in 2268.
Ned Romero (Krell) also appeared in Star Trek: The Next Generation: Journey’s End (1994) as Anthwara, and Star Trek: Voyager: The Fight (1999) as Chakotay’s great-grandfather.
Sulu does not appear in this episode.
When McCoy is heating the rocks with pulses from his phaser, a close up shots shows his finger is not even pushing the button on his phaser.
Summary
Kirk gets to return to the planet where, 13 years earlier as a young lieutenant, he conducted his first planetary survey. The natives live a simple Eden-like existence with little or no technology to speak of. Bows and arrows are their main weaponry. When Kirk, Spock and McCoy beam down, they find a rival tribe now has flintlock rifles, centuries ahead of normal development. With Spock almost mortally wounded and taken back to the Enterprise, Kirk and McCoy see if Klingons have been upsetting the planet’s natural development, but Kirk’s soon waylaid by a mugatu (a wild, poisonous primate), and it’s up to the wife (a healer of sorts) of his old friend Tyree to save him. She’s an ambitious, opportunistic “witch” woman who heals Kirk while also ensnaring his soul. Her price: nothing less than Kirk’s violation of the Prime Directive.
Another Age Restricted video
CAST
William Shatner … Captain James Tiberius ‘Jim’ Kirk Leonard Nimoy … Mister Spock DeForest Kelley … Dr. McCoy Nancy Kovack … Nona Michael Witney … Tyree James Doohan … Scott Nichelle Nichols … Uhura Ned Romero … Krell Majel Barrett … Nurse Chapel Walter Koenig … Chekov Booker Bradshaw … Dr. M’Benga Arthur Bernard … Apella Janos Prohaska … The Gumato Paul Baxley … Patrol Leader Bill Blackburn … Lieutenant Hadley (uncredited) Roger Holloway … Lt. Lemli (uncredited) Jeannie Malone … Native Woman (uncredited) Eddie Paskey … Lieutenant Leslie (uncredited) Roy N. Sickner … Villager (uncredited)
I can’t comment on the title…or I’d be in trouble. I will say this…this is a different song than the song written by Cat Stevens on Tea For The Tillerman.
This song was first recorded and released by Elvis Presley with The Jordanaires in 1958. A great straight-up no-frills rock and roll song. Elvis’s version was part of the soundtrack for his 1958 motion picture King Creole and was included on the record album of the same name. The song was also released as a single and in 1958 peaked at #1 on the Billboard charts and went to number two for two weeks on the R&B chart.
The song was written by Claude Demetrius, who also composed songs like “Mean Woman Blues” and “Ain’t That Just Like A Woman,” and the Christmas classic “Santa Bring My Baby Back (To Me.).” When “Hard Headed Woman” first came out in 1958, the BBC restricted when it could be played on the air because of the biblical references in the lyrics.
Wanda Jackson did date Elvis in 1955. He gave her a ring to hold on to and Wanda still has it. They toured together building up their fanbase. Wanda released this song that was on the Live at Town Hall Party 1958.
Wanda Jackson:“I had never heard of him when we met, but we had a lot in common. We were two happy-go-lucky kids.”
This is Wanda’s appearance on California’s Town Hall Party TV show, calling the tune “one of the most beautiful love songs that’s ever been written.” Accompanied in the clip by guitarist Joe Maphis, Jackson recorded her sizzling version in Nashville in the fall of 1960. Among the musicians on those sessions was young guitar whiz Roy Clark.
Hard Headed Woman
Well, a hard headed woman a soft hearted man
Been the cause of trouble ever since the world began
Oh yeah, ever since the world began, ah oh oh oh oh
A hard headed woman is a thorn in the side of man
Now Adam said to Eve listen here to me
Don’t you let me catch you messin’ round that apple tree
Oh yeah, ever since the world began, ah oh oh oh oh
A hard headed woman is a thorn in the side of man
Now Samson told Delilah loud and clear
Keep your cotton pickin’ fingers out of my curly hair
Oh yeah, ever since the world began, ah oh oh oh oh
A hard headed woman is a thorn in the side of man
Well, I heard about a king who’s doing swell
Till he started playin’ with that evil Jezabel
Oh yeah, ever since the world began, ah oh oh oh oh
A hard headed woman is a thorn in the side of man
If you want to see where we are…and you missed a few…HERE is a list of the episodes in my index located at the top of my blog.
This show was written by Gene Roddenberry and Robert Sabaroff
This episode has flown under the radar of some fans. I rate it very highly and it’s one of my favorites of the 2nd season.
The Enterprise is on its way for a well-deserved rest on some planet but then they find a disruption in the Gamma VII-A solar system. The U.S.S. Intrepid, manned by Vulcans, is in the area and all on board died. Mr. Spock sensed the 400 deaths, being a Vulcan himself.
The Enterprise continues its investigation when they see a dark hole on the screen it’s not a black hole, it’s not a cloud but what is it? They are being sucked into the hole, the ship’s energy is being drained and the members of the Enterprise are being drained of their lives. it is a living organism much like a cell that is 11,000 miles wide.
Bones volunteers to go out in a shuttlecraft to inspect it closer to send back the information to the ship. Spock steps up and insists that he is the person for the job. Kirk insists that it is his decision. What is this Amoeba-like creature? Who will Kirk send out on the suicide mission?
Again I can’t say much else or I would give it away. Personally, I really like this episode.
From IMDB:
This is the last time the interior of a shuttlecraft is shown in the series.
The space amoeba optical effects were created by Frank Van der Veer of Van der Veer Photo Effects. The amoeba itself was a mixture of liquids pressed between two thin sheets of glass. As the sheets were moved, the liquid would flow, as if the amoeba were pulsating.
This is the last episode directed by Joseph Pevney who, along with Marc Daniels, holds the record for directing the most number of episodes for the series (14).
This was the last time in which Kirk’s green wrap-around tunic was used. The last time viewers would see the shirt would be in Star Trek: Bread and Circuses (1968), which had been filmed earlier but not aired for almost a year.
This is the first episode ending with a “Paramount Television” logo instead of the “Desilu” logo, after Desilu was sold to Paramount Pictures.
The end credits include a make-up test shot of Bill Blackburn (who normally played Hadley) as the android from Star Trek: Return to Tomorrow (1968) wearing a brown velour zippered top.
Although the name was cut from the final draft, the captain of the USS Intrepid was named Satak.
John Winston (Kyle) wears a gold uniform for the only time in the series. This was done so that he would match the stock footage from the captain’s chair viewpoint, showing Chekov and Hadley’s right shoulder. This was apparently arranged partway through filming, because, in the teaser, Kyle can briefly be seen at the helm wearing his typical red uniform.
The equipment inside the shuttlecraft included computer banks that were previously seen in the Starbase operations room in Star Trek: The Menagerie: Part I (1966) and the Eminian war room in Star Trek: A Taste of Armageddon (1967).
The remastered version of this episode features never-before-seen effects shots of the Enterprise in total darkness illuminated only by its windows and running lights.
This was what is known as a “bottle” episode, which is often done to save money. Star Trek was often at odds over its budget and often exceeded it due to special effects and set constructions. The network insisted they produce a “cheap” episode to save money. This one had no expensive guest stars (which saves a lot of money), no outdoor location filming, and no new set construction, and therefore came significantly under budget.
The young crew woman whom Kirk admires, as he records his log at the end of this show, appears to be the same extra who portrayed the second female Klingon in Star Trek: Day of the Dove (1968).
Kirk’s deep compassion for his crew is shown somewhat more prominently than usual at around 10:10. Due to exhaustion, Lt. Uhura is sitting with her head leaning on her hand in an uncharacteristically distracted manner. As Kirk approaches her to give her instructions to send a signal to Star Fleet, he squeezes her shoulders and pats the right one affectionately.
In the remastered version of Star Trek: The Doomsday Machine (1967), two shuttle craft are seen in Enterprise’s hangar. In this one, the “Galileo” is the only one seen. This is because Commodore Matthew Decker used the “Columbus” in a suicidal attempt to destroy the planet killer. The Enterprise had not put in for re-supply since that incident, so the “Columbus” had not yet been replaced.
The scene where Spock telepathically feels the loss of the Intrepid’s crew is famously mirrored in the original “Star Wars.” As Obi-Wan Kenobi, he suffers much the same reaction when a planet is destroyed by imperial forces.
Only episode of the series that doesn’t have a guest cast, other than semi regulars John Winston and Eddie Paskey.
The usual banter between Spock and McCoy takes on an uncharacteristically dark tone as Spock is preparing to board the shuttlecraft. His exhausted condition obviously affects his behavior, McCoy accuses Spock of ambition and spite. “You’re determined not to let me share in this, aren’t you?” Had he been thinking more clearly, he would have realized Vulcans do not act on ambition or spite. (More accurately, they *profess* not to do so.)
The CGI shots in the remastered version appear in 16:9 (widescreen), instead of the standard 4:3 (fullscreen) aspect ratio.
47 reference: Spock states that the shuttle’s shields will last only 47 minutes.
Spock explains that Vulcan was never conquered, and that Vulcan collective consciousness cannot conceive of the feeling of being conquered. However, in Star Trek: The Conscience of the King (1966) McCoy says “Now I know why they were conquered” in response to Spock’s refusal to drink alcohol. This might be explained by Vulcan never having been conquered, but one or more of their colonies having been annexed by another power at some point. Or, more likely, that McCoy just doesn’t know Vulcan history very well.
This takes place in 2268.
As Enterprise applies thrust in an attempt to break free, McCoy grabs Chapel to keep her from hitting the wall. One (possibly intentionally) botched take of this, with McCoy holding her by her breasts, can be seen in the famous blooper reels.
Summary
The Enterprise is sent to investigate the disruption of the Gamma VII-A solar system and the destruction of the U.S.S. Intrepid, staffed solely by Vulcans. When they arrive they find a large dark mass floating in space that is draining energy from everything around it, including the Enterprise. Drawn into the mass, they find a huge amoeba-like creature and Kirk must decide which of his two friends, McCoy or Spock, to send into it aboard a shuttle craft on a mission of no return.
CAST
William Shatner … Captain James Tiberius ‘Jim’ Kirk Leonard Nimoy … Mister Spock DeForest Kelley … Dr. McCoy James Doohan … Scott Nichelle Nichols … Uhura Walter Koenig … Chekov John Winston … Lt. Kyle Majel Barrett … Christine Chapel Bill Blackburn … Lieutenant Hadley (uncredited) John Blower … USS Enterprise Lt. Cmdr. (uncredited) Frank da Vinci … Lt. Brent (uncredited) Bob Johnson … Starbase 6 Commander (voice) (uncredited) Jeannie Malone … Yeoman (uncredited) Eddie Paskey … Lieutenant Leslie (uncredited)
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