Badfinger (Max)

Twilight Zone – The Silence

★★★★★ April 28, 1961 Season 2 Episode 25

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

This one is a very good episode with some fine acting by Franchot Tone and Liam Sullivan. There is not just one twist at the end of the episode but two of them. This episode has no supernatural events and it is not a typical episode of the Twilight Zone. It’s pure story and what a story. It was set in a prestigious Gentlemen’s Club with a talkative younger man named Jamie Tennyson (Liam Sullivan) and the grumpy older fellow named Colonel Archie Taylor (Franchot Tone).

Tennyson annoyed Taylor to no end with his non stop chatter. We didn’t get to see a lot of this but Taylor does hate the man. After handing him a note and then announcing to every one…he bet Tennyson $500,000 that he could not be completely quiet for a year. The story goes from there.

Below is a very interesting real life story on the set about the wonderful character actor Franchot Tone.

Franchot Tone Liam Sullivan

The episode present a lot of challenges. The first headache went to George Clemens (Cinematographer). The set where the character Sullivan was to be imprisoned was made up entirely of panes of glass. When I saw the set, I pretty near lost my lunch, Clemens recalls. How in the world am I going to get a light in there, and show light, without getting reflections? But Buck Houghton had hired the right man, and Clemens persevered. Once I started on the thing, he says, I think I only had to take two panes of glass out in the whole picture.

The first days shooting went just fine. The opening and closing scenes of the episode, both of which take place in the main room of the mens club, were completed. The company broke for the weekend. But the biggest problem was yet to come.

On the second day of shooting, Franchot Tone didn’t show up, Serling recalled years later. And we waited and we waited. The call is six in the morning. When it got to be ten a.m. and everybody had been sitting there in their own smoke waiting and no Franchot Tone, we get his agent who tracks him down. He is in a clinic.

Stories differ. According to Liam Sullivan, Tone told him that he’d been at a party and, in attempting to pick a flower for his date off a bush on the terrace, had fallen down a hillside and landed on the driveway of the house next door. According to Serling, Tone had approached a girl in the parking lot of a restaurant and her boyfriend had taken offense and beaten him up. Whatever the truth, the result was still the same: half of Tones face was scraped raw.

With one days shooting in the can, recasting was out of the question. Serling: I said, So be it. Come on in, Franch, and well shoot the other side of your face, which we did.

The result was indeed odd. During the opening scene of the episode, we see Tone full face. When the scene changes to the glass cage in which Sullivan is imprisoned, we only see Tones face in profile or with half of it obscured. Then in the final scene, we see Tone full-face again.

Surprisingly, the effect works to the episodes advantage. The scenes in the middle are those in which Tone tries to convince Sullivan to break his silence, using every dirty trick he can think of, including relaying ugly rumors about Sullivans wife. Speaking out of the corner of his mouth, only half-turned toward Sullivan, Tone seems predatory and sly, what he says takes on an added suggestiveness. The impact was not lost. In fact, director Boris Sagal once recalled that at the time a number of critics complimented him on the effect!

This show was written by Rod Serling

Rod Serling’s Opening Narration:

The note that this man is carrying across a club room is in the form of a proposed wager, but it’s the kind of wager that comes without precedent. It stands alone in the annals of bet-making as the strangest game of chance ever offered by one man to another. In just a moment, we’ll see the terms of the wager and what young Mr. Tennyson does about it. And in the process, we’ll witness all parties spin a wheel of chance in a very bizarre casino called the Twilight Zone.

Summary

Jamie Tennyson is an overly talkative member of a private men’s club. He is challenged by fellow member Col. Archie Taylor to keep his mouth shut for one year. Should he do so, he would win $500,000. Taylor dislikes Tennyson and if nothing else, finds this a way to get a bit of peace and quiet at the club. Tennyson will live in a room in the club, under observation and will communicate in writing only. As the months go by, Taylor begins to worry that Tennyson may just succeed. He can’t believe Tennyson’s will but neither party proves to be completely honorable.

SPOILER VIDEO…DON’T WATCH

Rod Serling’s Closing Narration:

Mr. Jamie Tennyson, who almost won a bet, but who discovered somewhat belatedly that gambling can be a most unproductive pursuit, even with loaded dice, marked cards, or, as in his case, some severed vocal cords. For somewhere beyond him, a wheel was turned, and his number came up black thirteen. If you don’t believe it, ask the croupier, the very special one who handles roulette – in The Twilight Zone.

CAST

Rod Serling…Narrator
Franchot Tone…Archie Taylor
Liam Sullivan…Jamie Tennyson
Jonathan Harris…George Alfred
Cyril Delevanti…Franklin
Everett Glass…Club Member
Felix Locher…Club Member

…

Fuzztones – Bad News Travels Fast

This song rocks… The riff sounds like it was borrowed from Jethro Tull’s “Locomotive Breath” but he goes somewhere else with it.

This was the debut single of the Fuzztones in 1984. The band was formed in 1980 by Rudi Protrudi in New York. The band was nicknamed “The Gurus of Garage Grunge.” a decade before grunge existed. They played a large role in the mostly underground ’60s revival during the 1980s.

Their debut studio LP, Lysergic Emanations, was released in 1985. Thanks to praise from Ian Astbury of the Cult… the newly relocated Los Angeles-based Fuzztones were one of the few to get a major label deal. Thanks to a hugely successful tour of Europe in 1985, the group built a loyal and dedicated fan base there, and they toured there regularly ever since.

The band broke up in 1987 but Rudi Protrudi recruited other members to form a new Fuzztones and they have touring and releasing albums ever since…with Rudi being the only original member.

According to Discogs they have released over 21 studio and live albums between 1984 through 2020.

Bad News Travel Fast

Well I got somethin’ to say girl
I hope you’re listenin’ close
‘Cause here’s one fish you caught that’s
Slippery than most
Baby You’re just a schoolgirl
Well here’s a lesson you can use
All the other women
Say that I’m Bad News
You’re not the first
You won’t be the last
Bad News Travels Fast

Well you’re friends they all warned you
My heart is black as coal
So if you wanna ride my highway baby
You gotta pay the toll
You know I’m bad
That’s where it’s at
Bad News Travels Fast
Well, don’t you try to change me
I’ll just string you along
Sit back and enjoy the ride
Tomorrow I’ll be gone

Baby you’re just a schoolgirl
Here’s a lesson you should learn
If you want my lovin’, baby
You gotta wait your turn
Well You’re not the first
You won’t be the last
Bad News Travels Fast
Bad News Travels Fast
Bad News Travels Fast

Pixies – Here Comes Your Man ….80’s Underground Mondays

Thanks to Dave at A Sound Day for bringing this song back up to me a few months ago. That 12 string caught my ear right away.

Songwriter and guitarist Black Francis (Charles Thompson IV), he called this song “Hobo film noir.” He said the song was about hobos traveling by train and dying in a big earthquake in California. He started writing it when he was about 15 and was inspired by small earthquakes experienced growing up in California.

This was probably their most popular song, getting lots of airplay on college radio stations. They couldn’t be bothered promoting it but it did well on the alternative charts.

This song was released in 1989 and it was on the album Doolittle. It peaked at #3 in the Alternate Charts and #54 in the UK.

The band broke up in 1993 and reunited in 2004.

Black Francis: “This is a pre-Pixies song that I wrote when I was about 15. It’s about winos and hobos travelling on the trains who dies in the California earthquake. Before earthquakes everything gets very calm, animals stop talking and birds stop chirping and there’s no wind. It’s very ominous. I’ve been through a few earthquakes actually ‘cos I grew up in California. I was only in one big one in 1971. I was very young and I slept through it. I’ve been awake through lots of small ones at school and at home. It’s very exciting actually, a very comical thing. It’s like the earth is shaking, and what can you do? Nothing.”

From Songfacts

The Pixies included this song on their first demo when they set out to get a record deal. Once they were signed, Frank Black had no intention of recording the song, and didn’t until their third album, Doolittle. “People have been telling us to record it ever since so we finally did,” he said.

This became a concert favorite for the Pixies after they reunited in 2004 (they broke up in 1993), but when it first came out, Frank Black had no intention of playing it. “The poppiest song on Doolittle, which we couldn’t even play live if we tried, is ‘Here Comes Your Man,'” he told The Catalogue in 1989. “We would never play that song live; we’re too far removed from it. It’s too wimpy-poppy.”

Joey Santiago played a 12-string Rickenbacker to get the jangly guitar sound on this track.

Here Comes Your Man

Outside there’s a box car waiting
Outside the family stew
Out by the fire breathing
Outside we wait ’til face turns blue

I know the nervous walking
I know the dirty beard hangs
Out by the box car waiting
Take me away to nowhere plains

There is a wait so long
You’ll never wait so long

Here comes your man
Here comes your man
Here comes your man

Big shake on the box car moving
Big shake to the land that’s falling down
Is a wind makes a palm stop blowing
A big, big stone fall and break my crown

There is a wait so long
You’ll never wait so long

Here comes your man
Here comes your man
Here comes your man
Here comes your man

There is a wait so long
You’ll never wait so long

Here comes your man
Here comes your man
Here comes your man
Here comes your man

Here comes your man

Twilight Zone – The Rip Van Winkle Caper

★★★★ April 21, 1961 Season 2 Episode 24

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

This episode shows what greed and selfishness can do to the best laid plans. Oscar Beregi Jr who plays Farwell, was in three Twilight Zones including the classic Deaths-Head Revisited and is very good. This is a time travel episode…sort of. Four expert criminals and one is a professor (Farwell) rob a gold shipment. There is no way they can cash in with everyone looking for the gold and them.

The professor Farwell devised a way ( suspended animation) for them to sleep a 100 years so they would be able to sell the gold in the future . The show is carried by the two veteran character actors, Oscar Beregi, Jr. and Simon Oakland. Like most Twilight Zones…I enjoyed the twist at the end. It’s a good solid episode.

If Farwell would have used his head, he could have patented the suspended animation process and would have been rich without turning to a life of crime.

The Rip Van Winkle Caper was filmed at the same location as the previous episode “A Hundred Yards Over The Rim.”

The futuristic vehicle which is shown at the end of the episode is a modified version of Robby the Robot’s car, first constructed by MGM for the science fiction classic Forbidden Planet

$1,000,000 in gold in 1961 ($35.50/oz.) would weigh over 28,000 ounces or 1760 lbs.

This show was written by Rod Serling

Rod Serling’s Opening Narration:

Introducing, four experts in the questionable art of crime: Mr. Farwell, expert on noxious gases, former professor, with a doctorate in both chemistry and physics; Mr. Erbie, expert in mechanical engineering; Mr. Brooks, expert in the use of firearms and other weaponry; and Mr. De Cruz, expert in demolition and various forms of destruction. The time is now, and the place is a mountain cave in Death Valley, U.S.A. In just a moment, these four men will utilize the services of a truck placed in cosmoline, loaded with a hot heist cooled off by a century of sleep, and then take a drive into The Twilight Zone.

Summary

Four thieves steal $1 million in gold bullion in a train robbery and hide the money in a mountainside cave. The four plan to go into suspended animation for approximately 100 years when they hope to awaken as extremely rich men with their heist long forgotten. When they awaken, they’re not quite sure what year it is. One of them, De Cruz, has his eye on getting as much of the gold for himself as he possibly can. The world they have awakened in isn’t exactly what they had hoped for.

Rod Serling’s Closing Narration:

The last of four Rip Van Winkles, who all died precisely the way they lived, chasing an idol across the sand to wind up bleached dry in the hot sun as so much desert flotsam, worthless as the gold bullion they built a shrine to. Tonight’s lesson – in The Twilight Zone.

CAST

Rod Serling…Narrator
Simon Oakland…DeCruz
Oscar Beregi Jr….Farwell
Lew Gallo…Brooks
John Mitchum…Erbie
Wallace Rooney…George
Shirley O’Hara…George’s wife

Jan and Dean – Surf City

You know we’re going to Surf City ’cause it’s two to one, now…Two girls for every boy”

It’s time to mix it up a little before Fall arrives and think about summer and fun. This will wrap up the surfing weekend at powerpop…it’s been fun to feature these surfing songs and they will occasionally pop up here and there. I know people who look down upon songs like this…What do I tell them? Lighten up Moondog and catch a wave while you are at it.

As I said in a previous post…When I was a senior in High School…1985… for some unknown reason I really got into surf music at the beginning of the year. I listened to Jan and Dean, the Beach Boys, Dick Dale, Link Wray, and The Ventures. I loved those songs then and now.

I remember watching Dead Man’s Curve when I was a kid about Jan and Dean and the terrible car wreck Jan Berry was involved in.

This song was written by Brian Wilson and he didn’t think he would ever finish it. Jan met him at a party and helped Brian finish the song. Dean also contributed some lines but never asked for any writing credits. “Two girls for every boy”…what teenage boy didn’t want to go there for a visit. It was the first surf record to hit #1 nationally.

Brian Wilson’s controlling dad Murry was furious at Brian for giving away a number 1 hit to someone else. Brian was happy that another group took his song and made a hit with it.

Surf music is bout fun… The Beach Boys expanded surf music and then left it with Pet Sounds. By that time Surf purists didn’t like it. They wanted the old formula songs… I wasn’t a purist…I like them all.

Surf City

Two girls for every boy

I bought a ’34 wagon and we call it a woodie
(Surf City, here we come)
You know it’s not very cherry, it’s an oldie but a goodie
(Surf City, here we come)
Well, it ain’t got a back seat or a rear window
But it still gets me where I wanna go

Yeah, we’re going to Surf City ’cause it’s two to one
You know we’re going to Surf City, gonna have some fun
You know we’re going to Surf City ’cause it’s two to one
You know we’re going to Surf City, gonna have some fun, now

Two girls for every boy

They say they never roll the streets up ’cause there’s always somethin’ goin’
(Surf City, here we come)
You know they’re either out surfin’ or they’ve got a party growin’
(Surf City, here we come)
Yeah, there’s two swingin’ honeys for every guy
And all you gotta do is just wink your eye

And I’m going to Surf City, gonna have some fun, now
Going to Surf City ’cause it’s two to one
You know we’re going to Surf City, gonna have some fun
You know we’re going to Surf City ’cause it’s two to one, now

Two girls for every boy

And if my woodie breaks down on me somewhere on the surf route
(Surf City, here we come)
I’ll strap my board to my back and hitch a ride in my wetsuit
(Surf City, here we come)
And when I get to Surf City, I’ll be shootin’ the curl
And checkin’ out the parties for a surfer girl

And I’m going to Surf City ’cause it’s two to one
You know, we’re going to Surf City, gonna have some fun
You know, we’re going to Surf City ’cause it’s two to one
You know, we’re going to Surf City, gonna have some fun, now

Two girls for every
Two girls for every boy

Twilight Zone – A Hundred Yards Over the Rim

★★★★★ April 07, 1961 Season 2 Episode 23

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

This one is an excellent quality episode. A time travel episode that uses a place over the rim instead of a time machine. Future Walton’s sheriff John Crawford plays the café owner Joe. This episode resolves it self and has a satisfying end…and really plays on some of the time elements.

The episode has many good performances, but Cliff Robertson holds the show together. As Chris Horn, he plays his role with intelligence and conviction, seeming in movement, expression, and even his accent is on the mark. He really got into this role as you will read below and it shows. His performance is worth the price of admission by itself.

In order to save money, whenever possible Buck Houghton liked to schedule two shows utilizing similar locations back to back, so that the crew would only have to make one trip outside the studio. Both A Hundred Yards Over the Rim and The Rip Van Winkle Caper were shot in the desert near Lone Pine, California. First to be filmed was A Hundred Yards Over the Rim.

Some trivia from IMDB: Cliff Robertson did extensive research on the 1840s time period in which the episode is set. Robertson concluded that an easterner like Horn would have worn a stovepipe hat, whereas the director, fearing that such a hat would make Horn look comical, wanted him to wear an ahistorical Stetson. The dispute was finally taken to producer Rod Serling who, after hearing both sides, decided to let Robertson wear the stovepipe hat, as seen in the filmed version.

John Astin appears in this and I will watch anything Astin is in. This was before he became known as Gomez Addams.

This show was written by Rod Serling

Rod Serling’s Opening Narration:

The year is 1847, the place is the territory of New Mexico, the people are a tiny handful of men and women with a dream. Eleven months ago, they started out from Ohio and headed west. Someone told them about a place called California, about a warm sun and a blue sky, about rich land and fresh air, and at this moment, almost a year later, they’ve seen nothing but cold, heat, exhaustion, hunger, and sickness. This man’s name is Christian Horn. He has a dying eight-year-old son and a heartsick wife, and he’s the only one remaining who has even a fragment of the dream left. Mr. Chris Horn, who’s going over the top of a rim to look for water and sustenance and in a moment will move into the Twilight Zone.

Summary

Christian Horn is member of an 1847 wagon train headed west. They are 1500 miles from St. Louis and are now in the New Mexico desert. Many in the wagon train are ready to turn back but Chris wants everyone to persevere. His son has had a fever for 11 days now and Chris goes off looking for water, only 100 yards or so from the others and suddenly finds himself in the present day. He can’t quite bring himself to believe what he sees or where he is but those he meets believe he’s a man from the past. The trip in time does have one positive outcome.

Rod Serling’s Closing Narration:

Mr. Christian Horn, one of the hearty breed of men who headed west during a time when there were no concrete highways or the solace of civilization. Mr. Christian Horn, and family and party, heading west, after a brief detour to The Twilight Zone.

CAST

Rod Serling…Narrator
Cliff Robertson…Chris Horn
John Crawford…Joe
Miranda Jones…Martha Horn
Evans Evans…Mary Lou
John Astin…Charlie
Edward Platt…Doctor
Ken Drake…Man
Robert L. McCord III…Sheriff

Chantays – Pipeline

The Chantays, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Dick Dale, Anthrax, and Lawrence Welk. We will tie all of these artists together by the end of the post.

I thought I might as well continue the surf music theme that was started Thursday and ride the wave into the weekend.

This is one cool classic instrumental. Pipeline was originally the B side and the A side was a song called Move It. As with a few other singles through history…the B side took off and the A side became a trivial question.

Dick Dale also recorded this song with no other than Stevie Ray Vaughan in 1987. They really rocked up Pipeline for the movie Back to the Beach. You want variety? This song was covered by Lawrence Welk and Anthrax (video below). I would be willing to bet not many songs would be in that rare club.

I always wondered what “pipeline” meant…being a Tennessee guy I would not know that first hand. The title “Pipeline” refers to a term in surfing slang, in which a wave closes over your head while you ride it horizontally, so it looks like you’re in a rolling pipe made of water. This maneuver is also sometimes called “shooting the tube.”

Some odd trivia about the Chantays…they were the only rock and roll band to perform on The Lawrence Welk Show (something tells me Anthrax would not have been invited if they would have been around then). The Chantays were also honored on April 12, 1996, by Hollywood’s Rock Walk ,that was founded to honor individuals and bands that have made lasting and important contributions to music.

The song peaked at #4 in Billboard 100, #11 on the R&B Charts, and #16 in the UK in 1963.

From Songfacts

This was surf-rock group The Chantay’s only charting Billboard Top-40 hit. However, it is considered today one of the staples of the surf-rock genre. It was actually the B-side of a single; the A-side, “Move It,” never charted.

The unique sound of this track is partly due to its composition, which is inverted from standard practice. The bass and rhythm guitars are at the fore, while the lead guitar, keyboard, and drums are in the background. Also it was recorded in stereo even though it was going to be released in mono as the typical 45-RPM single record of the day.

Perhaps you’ve noticed that surf-rock tends to have a lot of instrumental work? That’s because it started out as strictly an instrumental form, where speed and precision playing was highly valued. In a way, it fathered the speed metal genre. We have The Beach Boys to thank for bringing vocal harmonies to surf music.

Dick Dale, who earned the title “King of the Surf Guitar,” recorded a new version of “Pipeline” with Stevie Ray Vaughan for the 1987 movie Back To The Beach. The movie reunited Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello 24 years after they starred in one of the first beach movies, Beach Party, which featured Dick Dale’s music.

Dick Dale with SRV

Dick Dale – Miserlou

I thought I would continue with the surfing theme of the Beach Boys song yesterday.

Love the beginning to this song…the twangy guitar that Dale plays like a rubber band. When I heard this song in the beginning of Pulp Fiction I knew I was going to enjoy the movie. Miserlou being used in the movie helped revive his career all over the world.

The song is a traditional Mediterranean song dating to the 1920s and originating in Greece. Dick Dale then reworked and beat the song over the head to his surf rock tone and sound…and it works perfectly.

In March 2005, Q magazine placed Dale’s version at number 89 in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks.

This song was released in 1962.

Dick Dale: “The sound is a Stratocaster guitar. It’s the solidity of the wood – the thicker the wood, the bigger and purer the sound. It was a Strat. Not the Jaguar, not the Jazzmaster, all these things we created later, for different reasons. Even the reverb – reverb had nothing to do with the surfing sound, and here they got ’em on the cover going ‘That’s the wet, splashy sound of reverb.’ No! We created the reverb because Dick Dale did not have a natural vibrato on his voice. I wanted to sustain my notes while singing. So we copied the Hammond organ, which had a tank in it. We took the tank out, rewired it, and had an outboard reverb! It was for the vocal. Our first album, Surfer’s Choice, sold over 88,000 albums – locally! That’s like more than 4 million today. Dick Dale was already established as King of the Surf Guitar, and that album did not have reverb on it. It wasn’t even invented!”

From Songfacts

Variations of the song have appeared in numerous movies, but when Dick Dale’s version was used to open the 1994 movie Pulp Fiction, it revived both Dale’s career and the Surf Music genre. Dale earned his first appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman a few weeks after the movie came out, and became a popular live act once again. His success in the ’60s was limited to America, but this time he was welcomed in the UK, as well as Australia and Japan, where his sound caught on and he made tour appearances for the first time. Dale’s “Miserlou” was also used in the movies Space Jam and Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle.

Dale included a traditional version of the song on his 1993 album Tribal Thunder as a hidden track (you can thank Nirvana for the hidden track craze of the early ’90s). Dale was showing his producer how the song was done originally, and they decided to include it with the set.

Dick Dale got his start in the late ’50s playing with his band The Del-Tones for surfers at the Rendezvous Ballroom in Balboa, California. With authorities concerned about the mix of young people and guitars, one of the requirements at the Ballroom was that every male patron wear a tie, so the audience was often made up of barefooted guys in surfer garb wearing ties that were handed out at the door.

This was used on Friends when Ross, Chandler, and Joey squared off against Monica, Rachel, and Phoebe in a game of touch football in the 1996 Thanksgiving episode “The One With The Football.”

…

Beach Boys – Don’t Worry Baby

This is my fourth song pick for Hanspostcard’s song draft. The Beach Boys Don’t Worry Baby.

Those who follow my blog and know me…know I like older music than my generation. I was once told by a co-worker that it’s “unnatural” to like music before you were born…which I think is hilarious and totally idiotic. I go through phases with music. When Hans and I talk about The Beatles I tend to listen to them and nothing else for a while…and the same with other bloggers.

I have done this my entire life…I get into something and I’m obsessed. I never really discard anything after my obsession dies down…it keeps coming back and in the case of the Beatles and others… never goes away.

In my senior year of high school I went through a surf music phase. I wore Hawaiian shirts and coco butter everywhere. I was looking forward to the Florida trip my friends and I were planning in spring. I would roll in the high school parking lot with Jan and Dean, Dick Dale, or The Beach Boys blaring out of my Mustang. I had a hell of a stereo system in my car. When Jan and Dean’s “Surf City” can drown out The Scorpions coming from another car…the system is loud.

During this time surf music hit the musical spot in me. The musicians on those surf records were incredible. This song dug deeper…much deeper. I still listen to the song. Don’t Worry Baby is about a girl and a car…when you are an 18 year old boy…a girl and a car are the two most important topics…at least they were to me. It has always stuck with me and I’ll never forget that year. My first serious girlfriend, a 66 Mustang, and Don’t Worry Baby… 1985 was a good year.

We did go on that spring trip to Cocoa Beach Florida. A fifteen-hour drive one way in a Celica Sports Coupe with 4 guys packed in there. We picked the name (Cocoa Beach) because it sounded great…Yep pretty stupid because we could have driven 7 hours to Pensacola instead.

It was written by Brian Wilson and DJ Roger Christian. This was conceived as a follow-up to the Ronettes #2 hit “Be My Baby.” When Brian Wilson heard the Be My Baby on the radio, he wondered aloud if he could match it. Wilson’s wife Marilyn reassured him, saying, “Don’t Worry, Baby.”

This is pop perfection by the Beach Boys.

Don’t Worry Baby

Well it’s been building up inside of me
For oh I don’t know how long
I don’t know why
But I keep thinking
Something’s bound to go wrong

But she looks in my eyes
And makes me realize
And she says “don’t worry, baby”
Don’t worry, baby
Don’t worry, baby
Everything will turn out alright

Don’t worry, baby
Don’t worry, baby
Don’t worry, baby

I guess I should’ve kept my mouth shut
When I started to brag about my car
But I can’t back down now because
I pushed the other guys too far

She makes me come alive
And makes me wanna drive
When she says “don’t worry, baby”
Don’t worry, baby
Don’t worry, baby
Everything will turn out alright

Don’t worry, baby
Don’t worry, baby
Don’t worry, baby

She told me “Baby, when you race today
Just take along my love with you
And if you knew how much I loved you
Baby, nothing could go wrong with you”

Oh what she does to me
When she makes love to me
And she says “don’t worry, baby”
Don’t worry, baby
Don’t worry, baby
Everything will turn out alright

Don’t worry, baby
Don’t worry, baby
Don’t worry, baby

Stems – Love Will Grow

I posted a song by the Stems earlier called Tears Me In Two and they recorded this song at the same session. They released their first EP Rosebud Volume 1 in 1985 and it included Love Will Grow.

The EP reached #72 in the Australian charts in 1986.

The Stems were a garage punk band formed in Perth, Western Australia in late 1983. They were hugely popular in Australia. The band broke up in 1987 and reunited in 2003 and are still together. The still have three of the original members. Dom Mariani, Julian Matthews, and David Shaw.

They are very popular to this day in Australia. Their debut single “She’s a Monster/Make you Mine” reached the top of the independent charts and also sold 500 copies in England. The single was to be the 2nd highest selling independent single for Australia in 1985, second only to the Hoodoo Gurus.

They were one of the few indie bands that sometimes made it on the mainstream charts.

Love Will Grow

Feeling down and not so bright
Another lost and lonely night
I try so hard not to feel this way
I could not fight these blues away

Then you came along and you made me know
How it is our love will grow
How it is our love will grow

Yesterday I could not speak
My days were sad, confused, and weak
A cut was bleeding deep inside of me
Anxiety that I could not hide

Then you came along and you made me know
How it is our love will grow
How it is our love will grow
How it is our love will grow
How it is our love will grow

Twilight Zone – Long Distance Call

★★★★★ March 31, 1961 Season 2 Episode 22

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

This one is one of my favorites. It’s dark and it still works today. It’s a great episode and features Bill Mumy as little Billy Bayles who just lost his grandmother or did he? The grandmother played by Lili Darvas tried to live through Billy vicariously in many ways and ignored what the mother of the child said or thought. You can feel the tension between the grandmother and her daughter in law.

This can happen in a family and cause trouble so it made the episode much more relatable. The darkness of the episode is shocking considering the time it was made.

**SPOILERS** below

This show was really heavy. It addressed the loss of a grandparent and two attempted suicides of a five year old boy. Not your average show in the 60s or now for that matter. Who knew a toy telephone could be so damn frightening? That was one determined grandmother…she wasn’t letting go of Billy even in the afterlife.

This episode is videotaped and it benefits from it…adding to eerie feeling.

Bill Mumy would appear in three Twilight Zones. He would later become known in the TV show Lost In Space.

This show was written by Charles Beaumont, Bill Idelson, and Rod Serling

Rod Serling’s Opening Narration:

As must be obvious, this is a house hovered over by Mr. Death, an omnipresent player to the third and final act of every life. And it’s been said, and probably rightfully so, that what follows this life is one of the unfathomable mysteries, an area of darkness which we, the living, reserve for the dead—or so it is said. For in a moment, a child will try to cross that bridge which separates light and shadow, and, of course, he must take the only known route, that indistinct highway through the region we call The Twilight Zone.

Summary

Billy Bayles loves his Grandma Bayles and likes the present she’s given him, a toy telephone which she says will allow them to communicate forever. Grandma Bayles is ill however and soon dies but Billy claims he can speak to her on their special telephone. When he tells his parents that she wants him to join her, wherever she’s gone to, they pay no mind. When he throws himself in front of their neighbor’s car however, it all gets deadly serious.

Rod Serling’s Closing Narration:

A toy telephone, an act of faith, a set of improbable circumstances, all combine to probe a mystery, to fathom a depth, to send a facet of light into a dark after-region, to be believed or disbelieved, depending on your frame of reference. A fact or a fantasy, a substance or a shadow—but all of it very much a part of The Twilight Zone.

CAST

Rod Serling…Narrator
Philip Abbott…Chris Bayles
Lili Darvas…Grandma Bayles
Patricia Smith…Sylvia Bayles
Bill Mumy…Billy Bayles
Jenny Maxwell…Shirley
Reid Hammond…Mr. Peterson
Henry Hunter…Dr. Unger
Lew Brown…Fireman
Arch Johnson…Fireman

…

Rolling Stones – Sister Morphine

A dark country blues song by the Stones with help from Marianne Faithfull.

Mick Jagger wrote the music in Rome in 1968. Marianne Faithfull wrote the lyrics, but The Stones did not give her an official songwriting credit until they released it on their 1998 live album No Security. The Stones were very protective about songwriting credits to say the least…they made sure most of their songs were credited to Jagger/Richards.

The Stones recorded this in 1968. Ry Cooder played the bottleneck guitar on this track. He was filling in for the Brian Jones, who died before this song was released. This was the only song on Sticky Fingers that Mick Taylor, who replaced Jones, didn’t play on.

A little trivia on Sticky Fingers… The Sticky Fingers album had an actual zipper on the cover. On many copies, this track was damaged because the zipper pressed into it. To solve the problem, the zipper was opened before the album shipped, this way it just dented the label.

Marianne Faithfull: “I just liked the name, and loved Lou Reed’s work, ‘Sister Ray and ‘Heroin.’ I liked the idea poetically. I thought it was like Baudelaire, but the song doesn’t glamorise anything. It was a really interesting vision.”

From Songfacts

Marianne Faithfull recorded this during The Stones’ Let It Bleed sessions (she was Mick Jagger’s girlfriend at the time). Her version was released in 1969 and tanked. Decca Records pulled it after 2 weeks.

The song is about a man who gets in a car accident and dies in the hospital while asking for morphine.

Faithfull was not a heavy drug user when she wrote the lyrics, but became an addict in 1971, at the same time The Stones’ version was released. She called this her “Frankenstein,” consuming her and leading her into an abyss of drugs. In later years, she was able to break the habit resume a successful career as both a singer and an actress.

Some of the lyrics were inspired by the time Anita Pallenberg, Keith’s girlfriend, was hospitalized and given morphine.

The Stones recorded this in 1968, but their version was not released until 1971.

This was left off the Spanish release of Sticky Fingers because of the explicit content. It was replaced with “Let It Rock.”

This was influenced by the Velvet Underground, who were writing dark songs about drugs, especially heroin.

Not long after writing the song, the lyrics came painfully true to Marianne Faithfull. She recalled to The Guardian: “The story is about a man in a car accident in hospital, who’s very damaged and wants to die. It isn’t exactly what happened to me, but my feelings about it are probably the same. I was hospitalized in Sydney after an attempted suicide after Brian Jones died. It was a terrible time.”

Sister Morphine

Here I lie in my hospital bed
Tell me, sister Morphine, when are you coming round again?
Oh, I don’t think I can wait that long
Oh, you see that I’m not that strong

The scream of the ambulance is sounding in my ears
Tell me, sister Morphine, how long have I been lying here?
What am I doing in this place?
Why does the doctor have no face?

Oh, I can’t crawl across the floor
Ah, can’t you see, Sister Morphine, I’m trying to score

Well it just goes to show
Things are not what they seem
Please, sister Morphine, turn my nightmares into dreams
Oh, can’t you see I’m fading fast?
And that this shot will be my last

Sweet cousin Cocaine, lay your cool cool hand on my head
Ah, come on, sister Morphine, you better make up my bed
‘Cause you know and I know in the morning I’ll be dead
Yeah, and you can sit around, yeah and you can watch all
The clean white sheets stained red

Embarrassment – Sex Drive ….80’s Underground Mondays

This song’s drums caught my attention…and the use of sex drive in a little different way.

The Embarrassment formed in Wichita, Kansas in 1979. The group consisted of John Nichols – vocals, organ, Bill Goffrier, vocals, guitar, Brent “Woody” Giessmann, drums, Ronnie Klaus, bass…

Bill, John, and Woody more or less grew up together, started a punk rock trio in 1977. They recorded between November 1979 and May 1983, touring and playing out more or less continuously during this time.

Towards the end of 1983, the band decided that it was best for each member to pursue their own interests (musical and otherwise) and the group stopped functioning as a full-time project. The separation was not brought about by the typical personal or musical differences. It was more a matter of wanting to explore other parts of what life had to offer.

Their fans called them The Embos and they never really broke up or reformed – they never stopped writing songs together. So finally, in 1990 The Embarrassment came back with their first new studio recording in seven years, God Help Us on Bar/None Records. They also released an album in 2000 called Blister Pop.

The band has played random concerts after that including one at The Roadhouse, in Wichita.

After they broke up in 1983 the drummer Brent “Woody” Giessmann would go play with the Del Fuegos.

Sex Drive

Scott’s Trans Am has the windows down
But he’s in a jam when the girl’s around
He yells “Hey, get outta my way
I haven’t had any sex all day”
He stops at the curb and he opens the hood
He’s on the main drag and he thinks that’s good
He thinks that’s good
He’s on the main drag and he thinks that’s good
He’s on the main drag and he thinks that’s good

I’m going on a sex drive
I’m going on a sex drive
Sex drive
Sex drive

Jim took the bus, the engine is missing
He tries for the lust of Sarah’s kissing
If Jim gets his way and the bus makes a trip
They’ll have a highway lane with none of her lip
None of her lip
A highway lane with none of her lip
Highway lane with none of her lip

I’m going on a sex drive
Sex drive
Sex drive

Mr. Brown drove out of town
Takin’ his wife he took his wife
He took his wife
Takin’ his wife he took his wife
Takin’ his wife he took his wife

I’m going on a sex drive
I’m going on a sex drive
Sex drive
Sex drive

Twilight Zone – The Prime Mover

★★★★ March 24, 1961 Season 2 Episode 21

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

Buddy Ebsen who plays Jimbo Cobb has always been a favorite of mine. The soon to be Beverly Hillbilly star and the original Tin Man does a great job in this Twilight Zone. It is a good episode and keep an eye out for a car crash near the start…the crash was from the movie 1958 movie Thunder Road. Buddy has a talent (Psychokinesis) of being able to move things with his mind. Jimbo has a level head unlike his greedy friend Ace Larsen.

As Rod says in the closing narration… Some people possess talent, others are possessed by it. When that happens, the talent becomes a curse…which I thought was great.

The Prime Mover was based on an unpublished story by George Clayton Johnson. Explains Johnson… Charles Beaumont could get an assignment, he needed a story, he didn’t have a story, none of his stories seemed suitable. He therefore bought from me my story. He paid me six hundred dollars for it. My name never ended up on the screen, it was an accident of production for which Buck Houghton apologized. I felt bad that my name wasn’t on it, but I thought it was a good show.

The slot machine seen at the first of the show was in the episode The Fever.

This show was written by Charles Beaumont, Rod Serling and George Clayton Johnson (uncredited)

Rod Serling’s Opening Narration:

Portrait of a man who thinks and thereby gets things done. Mr. Jimbo Cobb might be called a prime mover, a talent which has to be seen to be believed. In just a moment he’ll show his friends, and you, how he keeps both feet on the ground, and his head in the Twilight Zone.

Summary

Ace Larson owns a roadside diner. It’s a dreary existence for him, his girlfriend Kitty Cavanaugh, and his friend and employee Jimbo Cobb. Through a serious accident just outside his diner, Ace learns for the first time that Jimbo has telekinetic powers. Ace the gambler sees an easy way to make his fortune, and the three of them set off for Las Vegas. Jimbo has little trouble making roulette balls fall on the right number or making any point with a pair of dice. Ace learns the hard way, however, that there can be too much of a good thing.

Rod Serling’s Closing Narration:

Some people possess talent, others are possessed by it. When that happens, the talent becomes a curse. Jimbo Cobb knew, right from the beginning, but before Ace Larsen learned that simple truth, he had to take a short trip – through The Twilight Zone.

CAST

Rod Serling…Narrator
Dane Clark…Ace Larsen
Buddy Ebsen…Jimbo Cobb
Jane Burgess…Sheila
Christine White…Kitty Cavanaugh
William Keene…Desk clerk
Nesdon Booth…Big Phil Nolan
Clancy Cooper…Trucker
Robert Riordan…Hotel Manager
Joe Scott…Croupier

…

Guadalcanal Diary – Ghosts On The Road

Ghosts On The Road was on their first LP Walking in the Shadow of the Big Man released in 1984. So far this will be the third song I’ve posted from Guadalcanal Diary and all three have been on this album. I will be getting this album soon. My next post by them will be a selection from a different album…but I know of 2 more on this album that this album that I will post in the future.

Walking in the Shadow of the Big Man drew a huge response from college radio and critics and college radio programmers. That in turn got the attention of the big labels. In 1985 Elektra Records signed them and reissued the album. More touring followed, as did a cameo appearance in a comedy called Rockin’ Road Trip playing Ghosts Of The Road.

The band formed in the early eighties in Marietta, Georgia. They broke up in 1989. They would reform in 1997 but didn’t release any more new material.

Give this band a listen…you may like them.

Ghosts On The Road

Phantom headlights, broken white line
Bloodstains on the highway, glowing power lines
Signal thirty whispers softly through the pine

He said that no one could take her away
None that could tear them apart
The song she was singing made a mans blood run cold
Like a moth in flames, torn from his heart

Ghost on the road, ah
Ghost on the road, ah
Ghost on the road, ah
Ghost on the road, ah

Flashing road signs misty red eyes
lost on the highway, not a soul in sight
endless black ribbon racing through the night

She said that nothing in the world would survive
lonely spirit float on the wind
No candles burned to light his way in this life
No one saw the veil of sorrow closing to an end

Ghost on the road, ah
Ghost on the road, ah
Ghost on the road, ah
Ghost on the road, ah

Four barrells roll, down a country road
Driver never sleeps, engine never slows
They say he’ll stop one day and look back to see
a girl who waits by the bend
Her silvery laugh will remind him of one past
by his side until the night must call her home again

Ghost on the road, ah

…