Badfinger (Max)

Twilight Zone – Static

★★★1/2 March 10, 1960 Season 2 Episode 20

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

Robert Emhardt as Professor Ackerman does a great job in this. I have watched many shows with this great character actor. Dean Jagger is very good in the pivotal role of Ed Lindsay.

I’ve always liked this episode. The episode plays heavily into nostalgia and someone stuck there. People today would probably not think of old radio shows but it still works and with the radio it gives it a different feeling than an old tv show would. Now with Satellite radio you could live in the past with radio and it would not be strange.

When you watch something you have to keep in mind what time period it was filmed in. It relies on nostalgia a little too much but I did like the episode and it’s worth watching. This one was one of the episodes on videotape and unlike the scarier ones…this one suffers from it.

Static was based on a story by OCee Ritch (I’ve seen his name spelt OCeo and OCee), a friend of Charles Beaumont. The idea for it came from a party given by Richard Matheson attended by both Ritch and a fan of old-time radio who performed bits of radio nostalgia.

This show was written by Charles Beaumont, Oceo Ritch and Rod Serling

Rod Serling’s Opening Narration:

No one ever saw one quite like that, because that’s a very special sort of radio. In its day, circa 1935, its type was one of the most elegant consoles on the market. Now with its fabric-covered speakers, its peculiar yellow dials, its serrated knobs, it looks quaint and a little strange. Mr. Ed Lindsay is going to find out how strange very soon when he tunes in to the Twilight Zone.

Summary

Ed Lindsay has been living in the same boarding house for over 20 years and he has become an embittered old man. He doesn’t like how the world has changed around him and his crotchety behavior has made him certainly the most disliked man there. When he turns on his old radio however, he gets music from the 1940’s on a station that, it turns out, has been off the air for 15 years. There’s a reason he hears the music however, a reason a fellow boarder reminds him of.

Rod Serling’s Closing Narration:

Around and around she goes, and where she stops nobody knows. All Ed Lindsay knows is that he desperately wanted a second chance and he finally got it, through a strange and wonderful time machine called a radio, in the Twilight Zone.

CAST

Rod Serling…Narrator
Dean Jagger…Ed Lindsay
Carmen Mathews…Vinnie
Robert Emhardt…Professor Ackerman
Arch W. Johnson…Roscoe Bragg
Alice Pearce…Mrs. Nielson
Clegg Hoyt…Shopkeeper (the “junk dealer”)
Stephen Talbot…Boy
Lillian O’Malley…Miss Meredith
Pat O’Malley…Mr. Llewellyn
Eddie Marr…Real Estate Pitchman (uncredited)
Bob Crane…the disc jockey (uncredited)
Roy Rowan…the radio announcer (uncredited)

…

Church – The Unguarded Moment

This is another band I wish I would have known more about in the 80s.

This song’s main riff reminds me a little of Ticket To Ride after being juiced up a little. The Church was an Australian alternative band that released this song in 1981. It was the second single from their 1981 debut album, Of Skins and Heart.

It was written by Steve Kilbey, lead singer and bassist and Mikela Uniacke, who was his wife at the time. The lyrics caught my attention in this song. They are well put together and clever

The song peaked at #22 in Australia and #19 in New Zealand in 1981. The band is still together but Steve Kilbey remains the only original member. They have released 25 albums in their career and have charted everywhere.

The album peaked at #7 in New Zealand, #22 in Australia, and #31 in Canada.

From Wiki: In January 2018, as part of Triple M’s “Ozzest 100”, the ‘most Australian’ songs of all time, “The Unguarded Moment” was ranked number 57.

The Unguarded Moment

So hard
Finding inspiration
I knew you’d find me crying
Tell those girls with rifles for minds
That their jokes don’t make me laugh
They only make me feel like dying
In an unguarded moment

So long
Long between mirages
I knew you’d find me drinking
Tell those men with horses for arms
That their jokes don’t make me bleed
They only make me feel like shrinking
In an unguarded moment

So deep
Deep without a meaning
I knew you’d find me leaving
Tell those friends with cameras for eyes
That their hands don’t make me hang
They only make me feel like breathing

In an unguarded moment
In an unguarded moment
In an unguarded moment
In an unguarded moment
In an unguarded moment
In an unguarded moment
In an unguarded moment
In an unguarded moment
(In an unguarded moment)
In an unguarded moment
(In an unguarded moment)
In an unguarded moment
(In an unguarded moment)

Bevis Frond – Lights Are Changing ….Power Pop Friday

The slightly distorted 12 string guitar and Nick Saloman’s voice gives a strong Byrds sound. The song though is just good with or without the Byrds sound. Lights Are Changing was released in 1987 and this is what I wish was playing on the radio in my area.

Nick Saloman began performing thirty years ago as a guitarist in cover bands during the late 1960s in London. In 1979 he formed a band called the Von Trap Family.

In 1986, Saloman released a ninety minute cassette to a few friends of himself playing original material under the alias The Bevis Frond name. The first releases was under his own record company Woronzow records.

This song was on the Triptych album released in 1988. Saloman is productive if nothing else. They have released 27 albums. https://bevisfrond.bandcamp.com/

On the bands first recordings Saloman played many of the instruments. Members include Cyke Bancroft, Dominic Colletti, Martin Crowley, Graham Cumming, and Rie Gunther.

The band has had many members through the years but they are there to do Nick Saloman’s music projects. Their albums have had underground success.

Nick Saloman: “When you’re [as old as I was at the time] and you’ve never gotten anywhere, you kind of think that you’ve had it. So I just started doing self-indulgent stuff on my own without worrying about things like getting a record deal. I honestly didn’t think anyone would care. But lo and behold, people were interested, and it changed my life.”

Lights Are Changing

Disappearing out of sight along the open road
Into indistinct horizons – they had no time to reload
Like a silver bullet from a gun, an arrow from a bow
Like an equine star you hear about me everywhere you go

All through nebulae I was racing in my mind
I tripped on the light fantastic and I’ve never looked behind
You slow down you slow down my lights are changing
You slow down you slow down our lights are changing
You fly so high yeah and you move so fast
You’re running blindly from the past
Slow down you slow down green lights are changing

Oh changing all the time
Oh changing all the time

Looking through these hollow eyes across the great unknown
Growing greater every second, growing harder with each stone
Yeah and you who judge your freedom by the quantity you score
Would it make you any freer if you took a little more?

All that summertime I revolved around your eye
In accelerating spirals in an asymmetric sky
You slow down you slow down my lights are changing
You slow down you slow down my lights are changing
You fly so high yeah and you move so fast
You’re running blindly from the past
Slow down slow down green lights are changing

Oh changing all the time
Oh changing all the time
You slow down you slow down lights are changing
You slow down you slow down my lights are changing
Well you slow down you slow down my lights are changing

…

Who – 5:15

A good song off of the Quadrophenia album.

This was a rare Who song that had no demo made of it. Townshend’s demo’s were sometimes just as good as the studio versions the band recorded. The whistle on the song came about after Townshend’s driver bribed a British train driver with five pounds to sound the train’s whistle as it pulled out, despite breaking the station rules.

This song was not released as a single in America…at the time of the album release in 1973 they released it in Europe and Germany.

In 1979 the soundtrack from the movie came out and it was released as a single in America. It charted at #45 in the Billboard 100.

The Who had a contest in 2011 for someone to make a video for this song.

It was announced :

To commemorate the album’s release and pay homage to 1960s mod culture — Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey are launching a “5:15” video contest, inviting filmmakers and animators to submit a music video for “5:15” that “does for the track what the Quadrophenia film did for the album.”

Townshend and Daltrey say the video should “reflect the 1960s mod culture and show inspiration from the musical and visionary journey portrayed in that era. The winning video will be produced as the official video for ‘5.15’.”

I have the winner at the bottom and it is a really cool video. The winning video was directed by Jeff Rodenberg. The George Harrison estate did the same thing for the song What Is Life.

Roger Daltrey: Ron Nevison, who was the producer at the time with Pete, recorded it with echo on the vocal which can never be removed now,” he explained. “It just makes the vocal sound thin. It was the biggest recording mistake we ever made. The echo diminishes the character as far as I’m concerned. It always pissed me off. From day one I just f—ing hated the sound of it. He did that to my voice and I’ve never forgiven Ron for it.”

From Songfacts

This is the first track on the second disc of Quadrophenia, Pete Townshend’s rock opera about Jimmy, a pill-popping mod cockney who tries to find reality from sexual encounters, the company he keeps, and the clothes he wears. Only when he drowns in the ocean does he discover himself.

In this song, Jimmy The Mod takes the train (the 5:15) back to Brighton, once the site of the Mods’ triumph against the Rockers, and en route he remembers various experiences of himself and his fellow Mods. Jimmy’s recollections are in the main unhappy – anger, confusion, violence, sexual frustration, and rootlessness dominate his thoughts as he keeps returning to the thought: “Inside, outside, leave me alone. Inside, outside, nowhere is home.”

The term “Quadrophenia” was coined by Pete Townshend, referring to schizophrenia, times two. The character Jimmy The Mod was a quadrophenic: Townshend wanted each of his four personalities to represent one of the four band members. This didn’t work as planned, as he was so much more involved in the project than the other members.

During an infamous performance of the song on BBC’s Top Of The Pops, Townshend demolished the Gretsch guitar that he’d used for the bulk of Who’s Next and Quadrophenia. The Who went on to earn a life ban from BBC premises after Townshend flicked two fingers at the show’s producer and Keith Moon attacked a steward who refused him entry to the bar.

Townshend’s rage was genuine: The BBC, enforcing union rules, made the group record a new track for their lip-synched performance. The Who recorded their segment on October 3, 1973, which was broadcast on the 500th Edition special of the show the the next evening with the offensive gestures edited out. The ban was lifted after representatives for The Who sent a letter of apology to the BBC.

5:15

Why should I care, why should I care?

Girls of fifteen
Sexually knowing
The ushers are sniffing
Eau-de-coloning
The seats are seductive
Celibate sitting
Pretty girls digging
Prettier women

Magically bored
On a quiet street corner
Free frustration
In our minds and our toes
Quiet storm water
M-m-my generation

Uppers and downers
Either way blood flows

Inside outside, leave me alone
Inside outside, nowhere is home
Inside outside, where have I been?
Out of my brain on the five fifteen

Out of my brain on the train
Out of my brain on the train
On a raft in the quarry
Slowly sinking
Back of a lorry
Holy hitching
Dreadfully sorry
Apple scrumping
Born in the war
Birthday punching

He man drag
In the glittering ballroom
Gravely outrageous
In my high heel shoes
Tightly undone
They know what they’re showing
Sadly ecstatic
That their heroes are news

Inside outside, leave me alone
Inside outside, nowhere is home
Inside outside, where have I been?
Out of my brain on the five fifteen

Out of my brain on the train
Out of my brain on the train, on the train, out of my brain
Woo
Out of my brain on the train
Here it comes
Woo
Out of my brain on the train, on the train
Out of my brain on the train
Why should I care?
Why should I care

…

Twilight Zone – Mr. Dingle, the Strong

★★★1/2 March 3, 1961 Season 2 Episode 19

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

This is a comedic episode that does have humorous moments. This is another one Serling wrote about human nature. Burgess Meredith plays Luther Dingle, a vaccum salesmen, who is pretty much a human punching bag. He lets people walk over him like the character played by Don Rickles . He is given the gift of strength by aliens and is observed. He then proceeds to over use the gift.

A year before, in an article about The Twilight Zone, a reporter had mistakenly referred to the main character of Mr. Denton on Doomsday as Mr. Dingle. Serling must have liked the name, for he created Mr. Dingle, the Strong. The casting as always is superb… it’s a very entertaining episode.

In this episode and many others like The Twilight Zone: Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?, a majority of the actors are smoking due to the demand of one of the Twilight Zone’s sponsors, a cigarette company.

This show was written by Rod Serling

Rod Serling’s Opening Narration:

Uniquely American institution known as the neighborhood bar. Reading left to right are Mr. Anthony O’Toole, proprietor, who waters his drinks like geraniums but who stands foursquare for peace and quiet and for booths for ladies. This is Mr. Joseph J. Callahan, an unregistered bookie, whose entire life is any sporting event with two sides and a set of odds. His idea of a meeting at the summit is any dialogue between a catcher and a pitcher with more than one man on base. And this animated citizen is every anonymous bettor who ever dropped rent money on a horse race, a prize fight, or a floating crap game, and who took out his frustrations and his insolvency on any vulnerable fellow barstool companion within arm’s and fist’s reach. And this is Mr. Luther Dingle, a vacuum cleaner salesman whose volume of business is roughly that of a valet at a hobo convention. He’s a consummate failure in almost everything but is a good listener and has a prominent jaw. And these two unseen gentlemen are visitors from outer space. They are about to alter the destiny of Luther Dingle by leaving him a legacy, the kind you can’t hardly find no more. In just a moment, a sad-faced perennial punching bag, who missed even the caboose of life’s gravy train, will take a short constitutional into that most unpredictable region that we refer to as The Twilight Zone.

Summary

Luther Dingle is a meek and mild-mannered vacuum cleaner salesman. He spends some time in a bar but always seems to be in the middle of others arguments and always seems to get the worst of it. Courtesy of visiting – but invisible – aliens, he is given great strength, some 300 times greater than that of a normal human being. Dingle becomes something of a local celebrity but just how long will his powers last?

Rod Serling’s Closing Narration:

Exit Mr. Luther Dingle, former vacuum cleaner salesman, strongest man on Earth, and now mental giant. These latter powers will very likely be eliminated before too long, but Mr. Dingle has an appeal to extraterrestrial notetakers as well as to frustrated and insolvent bet losers. Offhand, I’d say that he was in for a great deal of extremely odd periods, simply because there are so many inhabited planets who send down observers, and also because, of course, Mr. Dingle lives his life with one foot in his mouth—and the other in The Twilight Zone.

CAST

Rod Serling…Narrator
Burgess Meredith…Luther Dingle
Don Rickles…Bettor
James Westerfield…Anthony O’Toole
Edward Ryder…Callahan
James Millhollin…Abernathy
Douglas Spencer…1st Martian
Michael Fox…2nd Martian
Donald Losby…1st Venusian
Greg Irwin…2nd Venusian
Douglas Evans…Man
Phil Arnold…Man
Frank Richards…Man
Jo Ann Dixon…Woman with carriage
Jay Hector…Boy wearing white helmet
Bob Duggan…Photographer
Robert McCord…Customer

…

Replacements – Answering Machine

This is raw, raw, and more raw. It didn’t fit in with the 80s mainstream and is one of the reasons I like it so much.

There are not as many answering machines anymore…although we still have one that is connected to our VOIP phone. We live in the middle of the country where cell phones are iffy sometimes.

Paul is the only Replacement on this song. He did the guitars, percussion, and vocals.

Westerberg liked a girl in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and would court her long-distance. Sometimes he’d call to talk her and get her answering machine instead. He said at the time that he wasn’t a modern person and that technology irritated him. If technology did in the 80s I can’t imagine what he feels today.

He poured that frustration into “Answering Machine.” He considers it one of the best songs he did with the Replacements. The song was on the album Let It Be released in 1984 and is considered one of their best albums. It was ranked number 241 on Rolling Stone‘s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

At the song’s conclusion, amid a wall of noise and effects, he would shout out Michigan’s 313 area code; he also threw out a couple others, including New York City’s 212, to cover his bases with a few other girls, just in case.

Paul Westerberg: “There was real passion, and there was a real person on the other end, and that made it all come to life.”

Answering Machine

Try and breathe some life into a letter
Losing hope, we’ll never be together
My courage is at its peak
You know what I mean
How do you say you’re okay
To an answering machine?
How do you say goodnight
To an answering machine?

Big time’s got its losers
Small town’s got its vices
A handful of friends
One needs a match, one needs some ice
Call-waiting phone in another time zone
How do you say I miss you
To an answering machine?
How do say good night
To an answering machine?

(If you’d like to make a call, please hang up and try again
If you need help, dial the number…)

I get enough of that

Try to free a slave of ignorance
Try and teach a whore about romance

How do you say I miss you
To an answering machine?
How do you say good night to
An answering machine?
How do you say I’m lonely to
An answering machine?
The message is very plain
Oh, I hate your answering machine
I hate your answering machine
I hate your answering machine…

(If you’d like to make a call, please hang up and try again…
If you need help…)

…

Connells – ’74-’75 ….80’s Underground Mondays

This is a very good acoustic pop song by the Connells.

The Connells were an alternative rock group formed in Raleigh, North Carolina in 1984 by David Connell (bass), his brother Mike Connell (guitar), Doug MacMillan (vocals) and John Shultz (drums), who was soon replaced by former Johnny Quest percussionist Peele Wimberley. In 1990 they added Steve Potak (keyboards) to their line up.

The band placed some songs in the alternative charts in the late 80s and 90s as they were played heavily on college radio The band released their 8th album in 2001 and since then haven’t done much. They never broke up but would get together and play various concerts… they are about to release their 9th album Steadman’s Wake on September 24, 2021.

This acoustic 1993 song became an unexpected smash hit in Europe, topping the pop charts in a couple of countries. The song peaked at #14 in the UK and was #1 in Sweden and Norway…It was on their Ring album.

The video is pretty cool. It was originally shot at Needham B. Broughton High School in the band’s hometown Raleigh, North Carolina in 1993, and features members of the Class of 1975 showing their yearbook pictures and them in 1993. In 2015 they remixed the song and updated the video to show the classmates they filmed in 1993 originally… and what they looked like now.

’74 – ’75

Got no reason for coming to me
And the rain running down
There’s no reason
And the same voice coming to me like it’s all slowin’ down
And believe me

I was the one who let you know
I was your sorry-ever-after seventy-four, seventy-five

It’s not easy
Nothin’ to say ’cause it’s already said
It’s never easy
When I look on in your eyes then I find that I’ll do fine
When I look on in your eyes then I’ll do better

I was the one who let you know
I was your sorry-ever-after ‘seventy-four, seventy-five
Giving me more and I’ll define
‘Cause you’re really only after seventy-four, seventy-five

Got no reason for coming to me
And the rain running down
There’s no reason
When I look on in your eyes then I find that I’ll do fine
When I look on in your eyes then I’ll do better

I was the one who let you know
I was sorry-ever-after seventy-four, seventy-five
Giving me more and I’ll define
‘Cause you’re really only after seventy-four, seventy-five

Seventy-four, seventy-five
Seventy-four, seventy-five
Seventy-four, seventy-five

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%2774%E2%80%93%2775

Twilight Zone – The Odyssey of Flight 33

★★★★★ February 24, 1960 Season 2 Episode 18

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

This one is one of my all time favorite Twilight Zone episodes. It is a time travel episode and this time it gives you a reason for the time travel. After picking up a freak tail wind that accelerates the plane past three thousand knots and through a shock wave, the crew of Global 33 is unable to raise anyone on the radio. Descending below the cloud cover to get a site reading, they see a Manhattan Island devoid of buildings. They are back in time but when?

Something happened to Serling to inspired him to write the episode… There was some mail on his desk at the production company, and on the top was an envelope from American Airlines, and he opened that one first. It was a brochure offering a mockup of a 707 passenger cabin to any studio that was going to film a scene. It was something they used in stewardess training and they decided to build another one. They had this one on the West Coast and they were going to rent it out or sell it. This gave Serling the idea…he even consulted with pilots to get the dialog accurate in the cockpit.

SPOILER

The most expensive piece of film ever shot for Twilight Zone was the dinosaur watching the plane go by..

This show was written by Rod Serling

Rod Serling’s Opening Narration:

You’re riding on a jet airliner on route from London to New York. You’re at 35,000 feet atop an overcast and roughly fifty-five minutes from Idlewild Airport. But what you’ve seen occur inside the cockpit of this plane is no reflection on the aircraft or the crew. It’s a safe, well-engineered, perfectly designed machine. And the men you’ve just met are a trained, cool, highly efficient team. The problem is simply that the plane is going too fast, and there is nothing within the realm of knowledge or at least logic to explain it. Unbeknownst to passenger and crew, this airplane is heading into an uncharted region well off the beaten track of commercial travelers—it’s moving into The Twilight Zone. What you’re about to see we call “The Odyssey of Flight 33.”

Summary

Global Flight 33 is en route from London to New York in what appears to be a routine flight in a modern jetliner. Suddenly however, the jet’s speed increases to an incredible 3000 knots and they arrive in New York rather quickly. Neither the captain or his well-trained crew can explain what happened – a strange tail-wind perhaps – but they are certainly not prepared for what they find as they survey the land below them.

Rod Serling’s Closing Narration:

A Global jet airliner, en route from London to New York on an uneventful afternoon in the year 1961, but now reported overdue and missing, and by now, searched for on land, sea, and air by anguished human beings, fearful of what they’ll find. But you and I know where she is. You and I know what’s happened. So if some moment, any moment, you hear the sound of jet engines flying atop the overcast—engines that sound searching and lost—engines that sound desperate—shoot up a flare or do something. That would be Global 33 trying to get home—from The Twilight Zone.

CAST

Rod Serling … Narrator / Self – Host (uncredited)
John Anderson … Capt. ‘Skipper’ Farver
Paul Comi … 1st Officer John Craig
Sandy Kenyon … Navigator Hatch
Wayne Heffley … 2nd Officer Wyatt
Harp McGuire … Flight Engineer Purcell
Betty Garde … Passenger
Beverly Brown … Janie
Nancy Rennick … Paula
Jay Overholts … Passenger
Lester Fletcher … RAF Man
Robert McCord … Passenger (uncredited)

…

Lyres – Help You Ann

The guitar on this song hooked me…it has a tremolo effect that resembles The Smiths How Soon Is Now.

A band named DMZ broke up in 1979 and from that lead singer and organist Jeff “Monoman” Conolly formed Lyres in Boston. The original lineup of the band featured Conolly, Rick Coraccio (bass), Ricky Carmel (guitar), and Paul Murphy (drums). The nickname Monoman for Jeff Conolly came because of his love of monophonic recordings of the ’60s and in part because of his monomaniacal obsession with vintage rock & roll.

A four-song EP that came out in 1981 called AHS-1005. The EP won the group attention outside of Boston, and a single followed in 1983, “I Really Want You Right Now” with the B side “Help You Ann.” Jeff Conolly wrote Help You Ann.

The band has released 8 studio and live albums and 3 EPs. The band is still together and playing.

The song was included on the On Fyre album released in 1984. From Wiki: Trouser Press called the album “simply the [garage-rock] genre’s apotheosis, an articulate explosion of colorful organ playing, surging guitars and precisely inexact singing. AllMusic gave it 4 out of 5 stars.

In 2018 Jeff Conolly announced that a new album by the Lyres was being recorded.

Help You Ann

There he go and he talk to you just like a fool
He’s got no use for you now and that’s why I feel the same way too

Well, he’s done putting you down and as cynical as he can be
He spending money on some things that you used to give to me for free

Sometimes I get so mad
And I wanna hurt you
But I did the best I can
And I wanna, I wanna help you, Ann

He’s so bad, he stole up all the money that you made
Yeah, he’s got a use for you now
An apartment on the choo choo train

Well, he’s no good for you Ann
When I kill him, I’ll snatch you one day
That’s right, I want you myself
Spend up all the money I could save

So I’m back here again
‘Cause I wanted you so
Said, I wanna be your man
And I wanna, I wanna help you, Ann

And I wanna help you, Ann
Said, I wanna help you, Ann
And I wanna help you, Ann
And I wanna, I wanna help you, Ann
Said I wanna, I wanna help you, Ann
Just as fast as I can
And I wanna help you, Ann
Just as fast as I can
And I wanna help you, Ann

And I wanna help
Said, I wanna help you, Ann
Just as fast as I can
And I wanna help you, Ann
And I wanna help
Said, I wanna help you, Ann
Just as fast as I can, right

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyres_(band)

Twilight Zone – Twenty-Two

★★★★ February 10, 1961 Season 2 Episode 17

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

I like how diverse the Twilight Zone was from week to week. The last episode was a good comedic episode Penny For Your Thoughts…and this one is anything but comedic. I know some people who say the Twilight Zone really scares them. This one would fit that bill. It is one of the most frightening episodes of the show. This is one of the videotaped episodes that benefits from it. It gives it an eerie look that only helps the story.

Rod Serling adapted Twenty-Two from a short story in Famous Ghost Stories, edited by Bennett Cerf. In the original, an attractive young New York girl visits the Carolina plantation of some distant relatives. In adapting the story, Serling kept the basics but changed the setting from plantation to hospital and the vision from coach to morgue.

Arlene Martel (credited here as Arlene Sax) plays the nurse in the morgue who taunts Liz Powell with the “room for one more,” line. In order to make her look more sinister, they used makeup to give her a somewhat demonic look, complete with arched eyebrows.

This show was written by Rod Serling and Bennett Cerf

Rod Serling’s Opening Narration:

This is Miss Liz Powell. She’s a professional dancer and she’s in the hospital as a result of overwork and nervous fatigue. And at this moment we have just finished walking with her in a nightmare. In a moment she’ll wake up and we’ll remain at her side. The problem here is that both Miss Powell and you will reach a point where it might be difficult to decide which is reality and which is nightmare, a problem uncommon perhaps but rather peculiar to the Twilight Zone.

Summary

Liz Powell – an exotic dancer – is suffering from exhaustion and is being treated at hospital prior to a scheduled engagement in Miami. She has a recurring nightmare where she takes the elevator down to the morgue and is invited in by an ominous-sounding nurse, who tells her, ‘room for one more’. Her doctor assures her there’s nothing wrong with her physically and she’s just overworked and tired. To Liz, the nightmare’s very real. The doctor suggests she try to break the pattern to see if she can get them to stop. The next time she has the dream, she travels down to the morgue but the dream goes off as before. With her medical issues taken care of, and her Miami engagement a day away, it’s time for Liz to leave. But it’s her nightmare over?

Rod Serling’s Closing Narration:

Miss Elizabeth Powell, professional dancer. Hospital diagnosis: acute anxiety brought on by overwork and fatigue. Prognosis: with rest and care, she’ll probably recover. But the cure to some nightmares is not to be found in known medical journals. You look for it under ‘potions for bad dreams’ – to be found in the Twilight Zone.

CAST

Rod Serling … Narrator / Self – Host (uncredited)
Barbara Nichols … Liz Powell
Jonathan Harris … The Doctor
Fredd Wayne … Barney Kamener
Arlene Martel … Nurse in Morgue (as Arline Sax)
Mary Adams … Day Nurse
Norma Connolly … Night Nurse
Wesley Lau … Airline Agent
Angus Duncan … Ticket Clerk
Carole Conn … Sax Double (uncredited)
Jay Overholts … PA Announcer (voice) (uncredited)
Joseph Sargent … Ticket Clerk (uncredited)

…

Nomads – Where The Wolf Bane Blooms

When I see a title like that I just have to listen. I could not just sit by and not listen. I told John at 2loud2oldmusic that some songs and song titles are like big red giant buttons…that you just have push. With that title I had to listen…I’m I’m glad I did.

They have a huge sound. I have to wonder how many bands have gone by the name The Nomads in the history of garage bands? They are a Swedish Garage Punk band founded in 1981. The were founded by by Hans Östlund, Nick Vahlberg, Joakim Tärnström, and Ed Johnson.

They are still together with only Hans Östlund and Nick Vahlberg.

The Nomads released an album with this name in 1983. They released the single in 1987. They have never got big airplay on radio or much TV exposure but they still have a huge fanbase built on releasing albums and touring.

The Nomads have released 19 albums…the last being in 2015…add to that around 40 singles.

Where The Wolf Bane Blooms

I know a place, it seems really strange
Some things will never change
Thunder and lightning lining my eyes
Even though the bats fill up the skies
But in the pale light of the moon
You’ll maybe see the wolf bane bloom

Ancient voices will appear
Call the hunted don’t tread here
You may be pure of heart and pure of soul
But you’ll become a wolf when the moon is full
And in the pale light of the moon
You’re gonna see the wolf bane bloom

James Gang – Midnight Man

This is my third song pick for Hanspostcard’s song draft. The James Gang Midnight Man.

My next door neighbor while growing up was named Clint. He was a teenager my sister’s age. He would sometimes let me tag along with him and his friends. They would play albums in his room and this James Gang album was one of the most popular. He only let me tag along because he liked my sister…being nice to me didn’t help him in that department but he was a good sport about it.

I knew better than to cause trouble with the guys….I just stayed quiet and listened to the music or I would be kicked out of the room. I was mesmerized by this song as a kid and still am. I was only 7 or 8 but hanging out with older kids was cool and listening to this new…to me…music stirred something in me.

This was about the time in my young life I realized…the Osmonds weren’t cool and I had to tell that to my Osmond obsessed sister…she didn’t give a flip what I thought and continued on with Puppy Love and with her Donny posters.

When I think of the James Gang I think of this simple slower song. Yes Funk #49, The Bomber, and Walk Away are more popular but this song stayed with me. I think Joe Walsh’s guitar tone and voice are absolutely perfect in this song.

In the third verse Joe steps aside and lets Mary Sterpka take it and it works well. When she sings “be mine” and then goes up high…it gives me chills. Joe plays some simple but creative guitar throughout the closing minute but doesn’t over play. I also like the Hawaiian guitar licks which makes the song different than their other songs.

It peaked at #80 in 1971. Thirds was the last James Gang album made with Joe Walsh. It was never a big song but that doesn’t matter…it filled a musical need when I needed it. Walsh wrote the song.

Thank you Clint for letting a little kid tag along and hear this wonderful music…sorry my sister wasn’t interested.

I just realized I have picked two Cleveland picks in a row… The Raspberries and the James Gang both hail from Cleveland…hey Cleveland Rocks!

Midnight Man

I’m the midnight man
I do what I can
To make sure that I am
The midnight man
Midnight man’s on time
Everything is fine
All the words in rhyme
With everything

[solo]

Midnight man, you’re pretty
Midnight man, you’re fine
Midnight man, be careful
Midnight man
Midnight man, be mine

Cutting Crew – (I Just) Died In Your Arms ….Power Pop Friday

I hardly ever post #1 songs but when this song came out our radio station liked it. No they LOVED IT. I kid you not it was on every hour. It got to be a running joke with my friends on how many times we would hear this song in an afternoon.

It was either this song or the Outfield song “Your Love”…they were a year apart but they seemed joined at the hip on our rock radio station. The two songs had distinctive openings…Oh I, I just died in your arms tonight and Josie’s on a vacation far away…

Our band was playing in a bar at this time and we would just play the opening line and mock it… Oh I, I just died in your arms tonight It must have been something I ate… everyone applauded and laughed because they were as tired of it as we were.

After a few years I hardly heard it anymore and then something happened…I started to like it…a lot! It is a fun 80s style power pop song that I probably liked when I first heard it but I heard it too many times back then. It was written by Cutting Crew lead singer Nick Van Eede.

They formed in London in 1985 and hit big with their first album Broadcast with two hit singles.

The song was huge…it peaked at #1 in the Billboard 100, #1 in Canada, #4 in Canada, and #50 in New Zealand.

Nick Van Eede:“Yes, I cannot tell a lie. It’s a song written about my girlfriend (who is actually the mother of my daughter). We got back together for one night after a year apart and I guess there were some fireworks but all the time tinged with a feeling of ‘should I really be doing this?’ Hence the lyric, ‘I should have walked away.

I know it sounds corny but I awoke that morning and wrote the basic lyrics within an hour and wrote and recorded the demo completely within three days.”

From Songfacts

Richard Branson started Virgin Records in England in 1972, but it wasn’t until 1987 and the release of Cutting Crew’s Broadcast album that Virgin broke through in America. Nick Van Eede told us about his experience with the record company: “We were signed to Siren records which was part of Virgin so we were always a little bit on the outside but it was the ’80s and they certainly put their money where their mouth was. We were flown to New York for the initial recordings of the album and this is where we got a great recording of ‘I’ve Been In Love Before.’ Then we were flown to Australia to shoot videos… all a bit crazy really. We gave them their first US #1 with ‘(I Just) Died In Your Arms’ but the company soon outgrew us as music stars were changing in the early ’90s. We wrote one slightly veiled song having a pop at US A&R antics in our ‘Between A Rock And A Hard Place’ from The Scattering (1989) album. I sang, ‘I got a brick but I can’t find a window,’ as they continually blocked our album’s release for months making us lose so much momentum.”

Mika used a great deal of this song on his 2007 track “Relax (Take It Easy).” Says Nick: “I know as well as any other song writer that these things can happen and its just the way of the composing world. I am completely confident Mika stumbled in to it accidentally and I am proud to be given the co write… Kerching!!!”

This song has been sampled or interpolated by a number of rap and R&B artists. Jay-Z did a remake of the song, and Amerie used it on her track “I Just Died.”

This was used in the Stranger Things episode “Suzie, Do You Copy?” (2019) and the Cold Case episode “Lonely Hearts” (2006). It also appears in these movies:

The Lego Batman Movie (2017)
Hot Tub Time Machine (2010)
Hot Rod (2007)
Never Been Kissed (1999)

In a 2020 Planters commercial that aired during the Super Bowl in 2020, Matt Walsh and Wesley Snipes are riding the Peanutmobile, singing along as this song plays on the radio. Mr. Peanut is driving. When he swerves to avoid an armadillo, the vehicle goes off a cliff and the three are left hanging by a tree. To save the others, Mr. Peanut plunges to a fiery death. His elegy reads: “Mr. Peanut. 1916-2020.”

(I Just) Died In Your Arms

Oh I, I just died in your arms tonight
It must have been something you said
I just died in your arms tonight

I keep lookin’ for somethin’ I can’t get
Broken hearts lie all around me
And I don’t see an easy way to get out of this
Her diary, it sits by the bedside table
The curtains are closed, the cats in the cradle
Who would’ve thought that a boy like me could come to this

Oh I, I just died in your arms tonight
It must’ve been something you said
I just died in your arms tonight
Oh I, I just died in your arms tonight
It must’ve been some kind of kiss
I should’ve walked away
I should’ve walked away

Is there any just cause for feelin’ like this?
On the surface, I’m a name on a list
I try to be discreet, but then blow it again
I’ve lost and found, it’s my final mistake
She’s loving by proxy, no give and all take
‘Cause I’ve been thrilled to fantasy one too many times

It was a long hot night
She made it easy, she made it feel right
But now it’s over, the moment has gone
I followed my hands not my head, I know I was wrong

Oh I, I just died in your arms tonight
It must’ve been something you said
I just died in your arms tonight
I, I just died in your arms tonight
It must’ve been some kind of kiss
I should’ve walked away
I should’ve walked away

…

Laika and The Cosmonauts – Psycko

I don’t feature many instrumentals but this one reminds me of the great Telstar. Laika and The Cosmonauts formed in 1987 and was a working band until 2008. The band was named after Laika, a Soviet space dog that died on board Sputnik 2 in 1957. This song came out in 1994 on the Instruments of Terror album…without a hint of the 90s….80s, or 70s for that matter.

They are a Finnish band that take surf rock, ‘60s spy movie music and other twangy influences and give them a spacey feeling.

The song on the album is listed as Psyko (Themes From “Psycho” And “Vertigo”) and they give you an early 60s feel. It seems they take Telstar as a base and go from there.

Musicians who like this band? Del Rey, Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench from the Heartbreakers, and Dick Dale just to name a few.

They released 6 studio albums, 2 compilation albums, and a live album. If you have some time look them up on youtube.

No Lyrics…just sit back and dig the groovy music

Twilight Zone – A Penny for Your Thoughts

★★★★1/2 February 3, 1961 Season 2 Episode 16

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

This one is a comedic episode where everything goes right. It’s well written and acted. The 2000 movie What Women Want is related to this episode. Dick York is fantastic in this episode. One of two consecutive Twilight Zone episodes to star a future Bewitched regular, the previous episode The Invaders starred Agnes Moorehead.

This was the first of George Clayton Johnsons four Twilight Zone scripts and was his lightest story, but the easy tone doesn’t detract from it. The episode is charming and funny, and it does have a point…that people do things without thinking about them and think things without having the slightest intention of doing them.

The title comes from the old English expression “A penny of your thoughts” which dates back to John Heywood’s compilation of proverbs “A Dialogue Containing the Number in Effect of all the Proverbs in the English Tongue.”

George Clayton Johnson: Rod came through with a couple of people, visitors that he had brought on, and he saw me and Lola (wife) and he stopped to introduce us to these people. And his attitude toward me was one of great respect. It wasn’t like, Tm Rod Serling and this is one of the flunkies on the set, it was more like, Look, here’s the man who wrote this absolutely wizard thing that were making right now. It really built my ego and made me feel worthwhile.

This show was written by Rod Serling and George Clayton Johnson

Rod Serling’s Opening Narration:

Mr. Hector B. Poole, resident of the Twilight Zone. Flip a coin and keep flipping it. What are the odds? Half the time it will come up heads, half the time tails. But in one freakish chance in a million, it’ll land on its edge. Mr. Hector B. Poole, a bright human coin – on his way to the bank.

Summary

Bank clerk Hector Poole develops telepathic powers after tossing a coin to a newspaper vendor that miraculously stands on its edge. He discovers the positive and negative effects of listening in on other peoples thoughts, plans and fantasies

Rod Serling’s Closing Narration:

One time in a million, a coin will land on its edge, but all it takes to knock it over is a vagrant breeze, a vibration, or a slight blow. Hector B. Poole, a human coin, on edge for a brief time – in the Twilight Zone.

CAST

Rod Serling … Narrator / Self – Host (uncredited)
Dick York … Hector B. Poole
June Dayton … Helen Turner
Dan Tobin … E.M. Bagby
Cyril Delevanti … L.J. Smithers
Hayden Rorke … Sykes
James Nolan … Jim
Frank London … Driver
Anthony Ray … Newsboy
Patrick Waltz … Brand
Aileen Arnold … Pedestrian (uncredited)
Sig Frohlich … Pedestrian (uncredited)

…