Badfinger (Max)

Star Trek – The Menagerie Part 1

★★★★★ October 27, 1966 Season 1 Episode 11

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

My star rating system goes to 5…but this one…I would give a 12 if I could…that includes Part 1 and Part 2. I point this episode out to people who have never seen the original series before. This two-parter would be a great place to start. It gives you some history of the crew, especially Spock and Captain Pike from the unseen pilot at the time.

Spock charged with mutiny and court marshal? Has the world gone mad? This is part one of a two-parter. They used the unseen pilot (The Cage) to make this one. It takes place 13 years after the episode The Cage that had Captain Pike.

You don’t know how Spock will not be in trouble for all the chaos he has caused. When Spock turns himself into Bones to be arrested…the shock of all the crew around them is priceless. When Kirk tries to pry the Enterprise from Spock’s control he fails. Spock has thought this out down to every single detail.

I have to give Roddenberry a lot of credit for writing this one. He took the pilot and developed this fantastic story around it and got to use the pilot’s footage that the network rejected. It could have been easily a patch job all the way around but it’s a great episode. Even some of the plot holes were explained. While watching the video screen of detailed past events, Kirk remarked that the Enterprise didn’t keep that good of video records but it was explained.

We learn that Vulcans are fiercely loyal, and seeing that Spock served under Captain Pike for over 11 years it would make sense that he still feels a sense of loyalty to his old Captain. Even though Pike rejects Spock’s plan with a series of beeps (Pike cannot talk) Spock still takes Pike against his will with good intentions. We also learn that Vulcans cannot lie, but it certainly appears that Spock did indeed lie in this episode, which seems impossible until Bones acknowledges that Spock is only half-human.

I remember first watching this episode in the 1980s. I totally bought the plot and still do. You are thinking, why is Spock risking everything, his career, and life, against his old Captain’s wishes? Kirk trusts Spock and is shocked when he finds out Spock has taken over the ship. You can see the hurt and confusion in the character. Good acting all the way around. Part II is just as good and has the payoff.

From IMDB

Although scenes from Star Trek: The Cage (1966) feature Jeffrey Hunter as Captain Christopher Pike, he was unavailable and unaffordable for the framing story into which the scenes were to be inserted. Sean Kenney, an actor who resembled Hunter, was used instead. He plays the mute, crippled Captain Pike, now wheelchair-bound after an accident.

According to James Doohan, Gene Roddenberry originally wanted to sell the failed pilot as a theatrical film. However, it needed to be expanded with additional material to reach the feature length. Roddenberry planned to film the crash of the Columbia on Talos IV, because it didn’t require Jeffrey Hunter, who was neither available nor affordable to reprise his role as Captain Pike. However, plans for the feature release were soon abandoned.

The “frame” story of Captain Pike’s injury and abduction to Talos IV was necessitated because the producers’ inability to use the original pilot Star Trek: The Cage (1966) in its unedited form. Normally, series producers count on being able to use the pilot as an episode of the season, despite possible minor changes from the regular series, such as differences in uniform styles, terminology, and props; the second pilot, Star Trek: Where No Man Has Gone Before (1966), was used despite such discrepancies. But the differences between the series and the original pilot were too stark to be used unaltered – without the elaborate “frame” placing it 13 years in the past.

This episode was the first Star Trek material to be officially released by Paramount on any home video format in the United States, first in 1980 on VHS and Betamax, followed by a RCA SelectaVision CED videodisc release in 1981, and a US Laserdisc release in 1984.

The novel “Burning Dreams” establishes that the subspace message summoning Enterprise to Starbase 11 was not a fabrication by Spock, but instead an illusion by the Talosians making Spock think he actually did receive a message. The Talosians then spoke telepathically to Spock, making him aware of Pike’s condition and asking him to bring Pike to Talos IV. The novel also establishes that at the end of the teaser, when Spock tells Pike, “I have no choice,” their conversation continued with Spock telling Pike that the Talosians were aware of his condition and wanted to give him a chance for a better life than what he had and that Spock actually asked Pike for permission to try to help him.

Jeffrey Hunter accepted the lead role of Captain Christopher Pike in “The Cage”, the first pilot episode of Star Trek, but declined to film a second Star Trek pilot, requested by NBC in 1965, deciding to concentrate on films. Footage from the original pilot was subsequently adapted into a two-part episode called “The Menagerie” and screened in 1966. It wasn’t until 1988 that it was screened intact as a filler episode in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) due to a writers’ strike.

There have been many reasons given for Jeffrey Hunter not continuing as the captain. The one that rings most true is from Shatner’s book, where he relates that Hunter’s wife was a constant irritant to the production staff, with never-ending demands for how Hunter was to be handled and treated. Other books say that his wife came to a screening pitch for the pilot and declared that he wasn’t interested because he “was a movie star”. It seems likely the second story is a cover for the first and the first is the closest to the truth. Roddenberry decided that he wanted to be rid of Hunter, his wife, and their demands, and so never actually offered him a contract to continue.

It seems the nation of Cuba still exists in the 23rd century. During the court-martial scene, if you look carefully (to the right of where Captain Kirk is seated), you can see a flag stand in the back of the room. The flag hanging on it has the blue stripes and red triangle, which are part of the Cuban flag.

Summary

The Enterprise is summoned to Starbase 11 only to learn that no one there sent a message to them. The base is home to Fleet captain Christopher Pike, Kirk’s predecessor as Captain of the Enterprise. Unfortunately, Pike has recently had a serious accident, rendering him unable to speak and confining him to an automated chair. The base Commander, Commodore Mendez, begins to suspect Mr. Spock but Kirk defends his friend. That is until Spock takes command of the Enterprise and heads to Talos IV, a planet for which all Federation personnel are forbidden to visit under the sentence of death. Kirk and Mendez catch up with the Enterprise in a space shuttle at which time Mr. Spock is arrested. At his trial, he pleads guilty and offers mitigating circumstances in the form of detailed video logs recounting the time the Enterprise visited Talos IV 13 years before with Pike in command and Spock as its science officer.

CAST

William Shatner … Captain James Tiberius ‘Jim’ Kirk
Leonard Nimoy … Mister Spock
Jeffrey Hunter … Captain Christopher Pike (archive footage)
Susan Oliver … Vina (archive footage)
Malachi Throne … Commodore José Mendez
Majel Barrett … Number One / Enterprise Computer (archive footage) (as M. Leigh Hudec)
Peter Duryea … Lt. José Tyler (archive footage)
John Hoyt … Dr. Phil Boyce (archive footage)
Adam Roarke … C.P.O. Garrison (archive footage)
DeForest Kelley … Doctor Leonard ‘Bones’ McCoy
James Doohan … Lieutenant Commander Montgomery ‘Scotty’ Scott
Nichelle Nichols Nichelle Nichols … Lieutenant Nyota Uhura
Sean Kenney … Christopher Pike
Hagan Beggs … Lt. Hansen
Julie Parrish … Miss Piper
Bill Blackburn … Lieutenant Hadley (uncredited)
Tom Curtis … Jon Daily (uncredited)
Frank da Vinci … Guard (uncredited)
Brett Dunham … Guard (uncredited)
Sandra Lee Gimpel … Third Talosian (archive footage) (uncredited)
James Holt … Starfleet Officer (uncredited)
Clegg Hoyt … Transporter Chief Pitcairn (archive footage) (uncredited)
Anthony Jochim … Third Survivor (archive footage) (uncredited)
Bob Johnson … First Talosian / Transporter Chief Pitcairn (voice) (uncredited)
Jon Lormer … Dr. Theodore Haskins (archive footage) (uncredited)
Tom Lupo … Security Guard (uncredited)
Ed Madden … Enterprise Geologist (archive footage) (uncredited)
Leonard Mudie … Second Survivor (archive footage) (uncredited)
Eddie Paskey … Lieutenant Leslie (uncredited)
Jan Reddin … Enterprise Court Recorder (uncredited)
Serena Sande … Second Talosian (archive footage) (uncredited)
George Sawaya … Chief Humboldt (uncredited)
Georgia Schmidt … First Talosian (archive footage) (uncredited)
Meg Wyllie … The Keeper (archive footage) (uncredited)

Joan Jett – I Love Rock And Roll ….Under The Covers Week

Our small town got a record store in 1982. We had one in the seventies but it went out of business. In the new one…this is the first single I bought there. The store only lasted a year at the most but we enjoyed it while we had it. In 1982 you could not go to school, a store, or anywhere without hearing this song. If you didn’t hear it you heard someone hum it. Much like Another One Bites The Dust from two years earlier…you just couldn’t escape it.

In 2016 I saw The Who in Nashville and I didn’t know who was opening up. I was pleasantly surprised when Joan Jett was announced. She and her band were tight and very loud. The Who had ties with Jett back in 1979 as they helped finance Jett’s debut album Bad Reputation.

This was originally recorded by a British group called The Arrows in 1975, and it was written by their lead singer Alan Merrill and guitarist Jake Hooker. The song was released as a B-side with The Arrows’ “Broken Down Heart.” Co-writer Alan Merrill said “That was a knee-jerk response to the Rolling Stones’ ‘It’s Only Rock ‘N’ Roll.’ I remember watching it on Top of the Pops. I’d met Mick Jagger socially a few times, and I knew he was hanging around with Prince Rupert Lowenstein and people like that – jet setters. I almost felt like ‘It’s Only Rock and Roll’ was an apology to those jet-set princes and princesses that he was hanging around with – the aristocracy, you know. That was my interpretation as a young man: Okay, I love rock and roll. And then, where do you go with that?”

The Arrows did get their own TV show called The Arrows Show. It ran from 1976-1977 in the UK for two full 14-week seasons on the ITV network. It was this show that Joan Jett saw in 1976. A fun fact about the song. The Arrows were based in England, where they don’t use dimes. At that time they would put a sixpenny in the jukebox to buy a song. That would have had a different ring to it, but the original producer Mickie Most liked dime because it sounded American, and that’s the way The Arrows recorded it. Joan Jett didn’t really differ much from the Arrows version…just a little louder.

When the Runaways broke up in 1979, Joan Jett and her producer Kenny Laguna put her first solo album together with studio time and travel arrangements fronted by The Who. They struggled to get a record deal and had to form their own label, Blackheart Records, to release the album in America. Joan remembered The Arrows singing I Love Rock N Roll in 1976 while touring the UK and knew it sounded like a hit. She wanted the Runaways to cover the song but they turned it down. The reason they turned it down was that they had already covered a song called Rock and Roll by Lou Reed on their debut album and didn’t want another song with “rock” in the title at that time.

Jett recorded it with Paul Cook and Steve Jones of The Sex Pistols and released it as a B-side in 1979. Polygram Records owned that version of the song but they were not excited about the song or Joan Jett. They basically let her go and signed some of the other Runaways. Boy was that a mistake! Joan would end up being the best-known Runaway. Lita Ford was successful also along with Michael Steele with the Bangles but neither became as popular as Joan Jett…and this song was a big reason.

I like the original and both Jett covers. The hit version peaked at #1 on the Billboard 100, #1 in Canada, #1 in New Zealand, and #4 in the UK in 1982.

The album was called I Love Rock And Roll released in 1981. The album peaked at #2 on the Billboard Album Charts, #1 in Canada, #1 in New Zealand, and #25 in the UK in 1982.

The producers were Ritchie Cordell, Kenny Laguna, and Glen Kolotkin.

The song’s co-writer, Alan Merrill, died at 69 on March 29, 2020. Joan Jett offered condolences on Twitter, posting: “I can still remember watching the Arrows on TV in London and being blown away by the song that screamed hit to me.”

Joan Jett: “I think most people who love some kind of rock ‘n’ roll can relate to it. Everyone knows a song that just makes them feel amazing and want to jump up and down. I quickly realized, this song is gonna follow you, so you’re either gonna let it bother you, or you gotta make peace with it, and feel blessed that you were involved with something that touched so many people.”

Producer Kenny Laguna on Polygram Records: “They could care less about Joan Jett, they were busy signing every other Runaway. They thought Joan was the loser and they signed the other girls, who we’re all friends with, but I looked at the band and thought she was the Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of the band. The company decided that if I would pay the studio cost of $2,300, I could have all the rights, and I got three songs. I got ‘I Love Rock and Roll’ with The Sex Pistols, I got ‘You Don’t Own Me’ – they did a great version of the Lesley Gore hit, and they did a song Joan wrote called ‘Don’t Abuse Me.’ So I buy these songs back. In the meantime, Joan has a couple of fans. Rodney Bingenheimer of K-ROCK, KMAC in Long Beach, BCN in Boston, LIR in Long Island, they were playing The Sex Pistols’ kind of cruddy version of the song, and it was #1 on the alternative stations. It was really alternative music, they were way-out stations that would play some pretty adventurous stuff, that’s why they would play Joan, because Joan was not getting a record deal, Joan was way on the outside, like a Fugazi of her day. We saw some kind of potential there. I remember these guys from the big record distributors in Long Island kept calling and saying, ‘This is a hit record, we’re getting so many requests for it.’ So we cut it over and did a really good version of it.”

THE 1979 VERSION

I Love Rock and Roll

I saw him dancin’ there by the record machine
I knew he must a been about seventeen
The beat was goin’ strong
Playin’ my favorite song
An’ I could tell it wouldn’t be long
Till he was with me, yeah me, singin’

I love rock n’ roll
So put another dime in the jukebox, baby
I love rock n’ roll
So come an’ take your time an’ dance with me

He smiled so I got up and’ asked for his name
That don’t matter, he said,
‘Cause it’s all the same

Said can I take you home where we can be alone

An’ next we were movin’ on
He was with me, yeah me

Next we were movin’ on
He was with me, yeah me, singin’

I love rock n’ roll
So put another dime in the jukebox, baby
I love rock n’ roll
So come an’ take your time an’ dance with me

Said can I take you home where we can be alone

An we’ll be movin’ on
An’ singin’ that same old song
Yeah with me, singin’

I love rock n’ roll
So put another dime in the jukebox, baby
I love rock n’ roll
So come an’ take your time an’ dance with me

…

Creedence Clearwater Revival – I Heard It Through The Grapevine ….Under The Covers Week

Creedence cut through his song and stripped it bare with their version. I love Marvin Gaye’s version of this song but Creedence spun it into a garage band’s dream. I really like the steady drums that keep it tethered to earth. CCR’s drummer Doug Clifford played off of John Fogerty’s rhythm and it created the atmosphere of the song.

This is embarrassing but this song really hit my radar through constant commercials in 1987. It was used in California Raisin commercials that played, and played, and played more. When I would go to Hardees for lunch…they would give me a plastic figure of one of the raisins. Yea…I collected them. Former drummer of the Jimi Hendrix Band of Gypsies, Buddy Miles, sang lead in those commercials.

Creedence’s album version was a whopping (I love using that word) 11-minute song. This was a change from their other compact songs. This of course was not an original. It was written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong. Strong came up with the idea and asked Motown writers Holland-Dozier-Holland to work on it with him. They refused to credit another writer, so Strong took it to Whitfield, who helped put it together…so it was credited to Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong.

In December 1975, CCR’s label Fantasy Records re-released the song as a single, which peaked at #43 on the Billboard 100 and #76 in Canada. This release came in the middle of some heated legal battles between the band and the label, which resulted in John Fogerty taking a 10-year break from making music. The song was edited down to a more reasonable length for radio.

The song was originally on their Cosmo’s Factory album released in 1970 which is possibly their best album.

Below….the first is one of the many commercials, the second was the single version, and the third is the album’s 11-minute version.

I Heard It Through The Grapevine

Ooh-ooh, bet you’re wondering how I knew
‘Bout your plan to make me blue
With some other guy that you knew before?
Between the two of us guys, you know I love you more
Took me by surprise, I must say, when I found out yesterday

Ooh-ooh, I heard it through the grapevine
Not much longer would you be mine
Ooh-ooh, I heard it through the grapevine
And I’m just about to lose my mind
Honey, honey yeah

You know that a man ain’t supposed to cry
But these tears I can’t hold inside
Losing you would end my life, you see
‘Cause you mean that much to me
You could’ve told me yourself that you found someone else
Instead

I heard it through the grapevine
Not much longer would you be mine
Ooh-ooh, I heard it through the grapevine
And I’m just about to lose my mind
Honey, honey yeah

People say “You hear from what you see
Not, not, not from what you hear.”
I can’t help but being confused
If it’s true, won’t you tell me dear?
Do you plan to let me go
For the other guy that you knew before?

Ooh-ooh, I heard it through the grapevine
Not much longer would you be mine
Ooh-ooh, I heard it through the grapevine
And I’m just about to lose my mind
Honey, honey yeah

Ooh-ooh, I heard it through the grapevine
Not much longer would you be mine
Ooh-ooh, I heard it through the grapevine
And I’m just about to lose my mind
Ooh-ooh, I heard it through the grapevine
Not much longer would you be mine
Aah-aah, I heard it through the grapevine
And I’m just about to lose my mind
Honey, honey yeah

Faces – Maybe I’m Amazed ….Under The Covers Week

This week I want to mix it up a bit so I’m doing cover versions all this week. I thought I would kick it off with The Faces. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a version of this that I don’t like. A blog that I would highly recommend that specializes in covers is Randy at Mostly Music Covers. Check him out when you can…he goes in-depth on music covers.

The Faces were fun…any band that would have a bartender on stage with a bar…has my vote. Ronnie Lane would sing the first part of this song with Rod the Mod Stewart would pick it up after the first verse. I like Ronnie’s voice a lot…it wasn’t Rod Stewart but it was very rootsy. Lane was a very good singer in a band with a great singer…twice. He was in the Small Faces with Steve Marriott and The Faces with Rod Stewart. Those two types of singers don’t come very often.

The song was on their album Long Player… They did an excellent version of this song. They added to it without losing its charm. The album was their sophomore album and it peaked at #29 on the Billboard Album Charts, #32 in Canada, and #31 in the UK in 1971. Their next album A Nod Is As Good As a Wink… to a Blind Horse (that is a great title!) peaked at #6 on the Billboard Album Charts later that year.

This song was written by Paul McCartney on his debut album. It should have been released as a single. He did release it as a single in 1976, a live version off the triple record set…Wings Over America. Paul wrote this song for Linda who helped pull him through a bad depression after The Beatles broke up. I did read an interesting fact about this song. “This was the first song with the word “amazed” in the title to reach the Hot 100. Another didn’t appear until 1999 when Lonestar charted with “Amazed.”

It’s hard to believe that the Faces single didn’t chart because McCartney never released it as a single himself…you would think the market would have been ready for it. Although FM stations did play the McCartney version.

Stewart always called Ronnie Lane the heart of the band and that was probably true. Lane got frustrated not being able to sing many songs and was upset at Stewart’s lack of commitment… and quit. After Lane quit in 1973, Tetsu Yamauchi took his place for touring but then they broke up in 1975 when Ron Wood joined the Stones and Stewart continued his solo career.

Ron Wood talks about Maybe I’m Amazed and has a special guest in this 1:24 clip.

Maybe I’m Amazed

Baby I’m amazed at the way you love me all the time
Maybe I’m afraid of the way I’ll leave you
Baby, I’m amazed at the way you fool me all the time
You hung me on a line
Baby, I’m amazed at the way I really need you

Baby, I’m a man, oh baby,
I’m a lonely man who’s in the middle of something
That he doesn’t really understand
Baby, I’m a man, oh baby,
You’re the only woman that could ever help me
Baby, won’t you try to understand

Baby, I’m a man, oh baby,
I’m a lonely man who’s in the middle of something
That he does not really understand
Baby, I’m a man, oh baby,
You’re the only one that could ever help me
Baby, won’t you try to understand

Baby, I’m amazed at the way you’re with me all the time
Baby, I’m afraid of the way I’ll leave ya’
Baby, I’m amazed at the way you help me sing the song
You right me when I’m wrong
Baby I’m amazed at the way I really need you

Baby, I’m a man, oh baby,
I’m a lonely man who’s in the middle of something
That he does not really understand
Baby, I’m a man, oh baby,
You’re the only woman that could ever help me
Baby, won’t you try to understand

Star Trek – The Corbomite Maneuver

★★★★1/2 November 10, 1966 Season 1 Episode 10

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 episode was written by Jerry Sohl and Gene Roddenberry

This was a really good episode. It’s a very dramatic and suspenseful episode. Kirk is seen as a commander worthy of the title as this episode shows his skills quite well. The Enterprise wanders into a part of space where they are warned to turn back and proceed no further…but that is not part of the 5-year mission.

A mysterious alien attacker claims to be able to destroy the ship with no risk of anything stopping him, and therefore grants the crew ten minutes…but they didn’t count on Captain Kirk pulling victory out of defeat. I love the look of the alien as his image gets transmitted to the Enterprise… a very handsome young man.

Kirk has a lot of boldness in this episode. He is risking the ship on a bluff but he didn’t have many options at that point. I have to say, the most disturbing thing to me was the episode’s final reveal of Balok. His appearance and the ship’s interior design, mixed with the incongruous voice really had an uncomforting effect. The episode offers a good look at the political climate of the Cold War.

The ending of this episode will throw you. You will not see it coming. I watched this one for the first time in years a few weeks ago…and yes I completely forgot about the ending. Great episode.

From IMDB

Although the script instructed Leonard Nimoy to emote a fearful reaction upon his first sight of Big Balok, director Joseph Sargent suggested to Nimoy that he ignore what the script called for and instead simply react with the single word “Fascinating.” The suggestion of this response helped refine the Spock character and provide him with a now-legendary catchphrase.

McCoy says “What am I, a doctor or a moon shuttle conductor?” which can be considered the first of the “doctor not a” quotes. In later days, the quote would have been phrased “I’m a doctor, not a moon shuttle conductor!”

James Doohan’s wartime injury to his right hand (incurred at Normandy on D-Day) is briefly visible in the conference room scene when he passes a coffee thermos. Generally this was carefully hidden off-camera, but it can also be seen when he’s holding a phaser in Star Trek: Catspaw (1967), as he carries a large bundle of tribbles in Star Trek: The Trouble with Tribbles (1967), as he reverses the probe polarity in Star Trek: That Which Survives (1969) and very briefly in freeze-frame when he’s reaching into the box to restrain the evil dog in Star Trek: The Enemy Within (1966).

This episode was originally scheduled to air much earlier than it did, but the large amount of visual effects took several months to complete. The producers had to delay the planned airdate twice, before eventually broadcasting it as the tenth episode of the season.

Both in terms of its order on the production schedule, and its order of televised broadcast, this episode marks the very first time that the Enterprise fires its phasers. The actual burst that the ship fires at the warning buoy is unique to this episode.

Summary

In a section of unexplored space, the Enterprise comes across a marker of sorts that will not let it pass. They destroy the marker and move on but soon find themselves in conflict with an unknown alien who accuses them of trespassing and tells them they have only 10 minutes to live. Kirk decides it’s time to play a little poker and literally bluff his way out of the situation by telling the alien that the Enterprise has a device on board that will destroy the alien as well as the Enterprise. The bluff works but the alien turns out to be something quite unexpected.

CAST

William Shatner … Captain James Tiberius ‘Jim’ Kirk
Leonard Nimoy … Mister Spock
Anthony D. Call … Dave Bailey (as Anthony Call)
Clint Howard … Balok
DeForest Kelley … Doctor Leonard ‘Bones’ McCoy
Grace Lee Whitney … Yeoman Janice Rand
George Takei … Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu
James Doohan … Lieutenant Commander Montgomery ‘Scotty’ Scott
Nichelle Nichols … Lieutenant Nyota Uhura
Majel Barrett … Nurse Christine Chapel (voice) (uncredited)
Bill Blackburn … Lieutenant Hadley (uncredited)
Ted Cassidy … Balok’s Puppet (voice) (uncredited)
Frank da Vinci … Crewman (uncredited)
Walker Edmiston … Balok (voice) (uncredited)
Jeannie Malone … Yeoman (uncredited)
Sean Morgan … Crewman (uncredited)
Eddie Paskey … Lieutenant Leslie (uncredited)
Eddie Smith … Crewman (uncredited)
Ron Veto … Crewman (uncredited)

Gary U.S. Bonds – Out Of Work

Lately, I needed to do something different so…tomorrow I will start“Under The Covers Week” here…nothing but covers next week. I hope you enjoy it. It’s good to breakup things once in a while.

When I posted the song Soul Deep by the Box Tops…CB reccomended the Gary US Bonds version and yes…it’s very soulful and and a great version. That got me listening to Bonds again and I can’t believe I forgot about this song. I remember this song in the early 80s but I haven’t heard it in forever. When heard This Little Girl in the early 80s I didn’t know much about Bonds. I soon found the song Quarter Till Three and more of his sixties hits. His voice is just golden and still is. He puts a ton of soul and grit into every song I’ve heard from him.

This song has a Springsteen feel for good reason. Bruce wrote it and backed Bonds in a comeback in the early eighties. This song and This Little Girl were the first hits Bonds had since the 60s. This one was on the album On The Line released in 1982.

Springsteen wrote more songs than he could record, and three of them went to Bonds: “This Little Girl,” “Your Love” and the title track. Springsteen and members of his E Street band also played on the album and worked on the production. “This Little Girl” was a hit, going to #11 in the US and reviving Bonds’ career. When Springsteen brought Bonds on stage a few times in 1981, the crowds were far more familiar with him. In 1982, Springsteen and his band worked on another album for Bonds… On the Line and more songs like Out of Work

The album Dedication peaked at #27 on the Billboard Album Charts, and On The Line peaked at #52. Out of Work peaked at #21 on the Billboard 100 and #22 in Canada in 1982. This was the last single to date to chart in the Billboard 100.

Out Of Work

Eight a.m., I’m up and myFeet beatin’ on the sidewalkDown at the unemployment agencyAll I get’s talkI check the want ads but thereJust ain’t nobody hiringWhat’s a man supposed to doWhen he’s down and

Out of workI need a job, I’m out of workI’m unemployed, I’m out of workI need a job, I’m out of work

I go to pick my girl upHer name is Linda BrownHer dad invites me inHe tells me to sit downThe small talk that we’re makingIs going pretty smoothBut then he drops a bomb“Son, what d’ya do?”

I’m out of workI need a job, I’m out of workI’m unemployed, I’m out of workI need a job, I’m out of workYeah, yeah, yeah

Hey, Mr. PresidentI know you got your plansYou’re doing all you can nowTo aid the little manWe got to do our best toWhip that inflation downMaybe you got a job for meJust driving you around

These tough times, they’re enoughTo make a man lose his mind(I’m out of work)Up there you got a job but down here below

I’m out of workI need a job, I’m out of workI’m unemployed, I’m out of workI need a job, I’m out of work

Ooh, I’m out of workI’m out of workI’m out of workI’m out of workI’m out of workI’m out of workI’m out of work

…

Star Trek – Dagger Of The Mind

★★★★1/2 November 3, 1966 Season 1 Episode 9

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 Shimon Wincelberg and Gene Roddenberry

This episode is excellent. Morgan Woodward played Dr. Simon van Gelder and did a superb job. He stated that the part of Van Gelder was perhaps the most physically and emotionally exhausting role he played…and it affected him for weeks. James Gregory as Dr. Tristan Adams turned in a nice performance as the sadistic doctor that has been corrupted by his power over the patients. James Gregory had a long successful career. He played on Barney Miller and many other shows.

Marianna Hill as Helen Noel did a great job as well but I felt she was underutilized in the row. She played a psychologist who knew Kirk in the past and helps save him in this episode. Her character is independent, strong, and viral. She holds her own throughout the episode and displays a strong female, not usually common, for 1960s television.

This episode also shows Spock doing the first mind meld in the series with a distraught Dr. Simon van Gelder. Provocative, intriguing, and intelligent, with some good tension with some great acting, makes this one a must. This episode is a pure human drama that explores the consequences of not only experimentation on humans but also of the need for past experiences to define us.

From IMDB

In several interviews, Morgan Woodward noted that his work on the episode greatly affected him on both a personal and professional level. Woodward felt the part of Van Gelder was perhaps the most physically and emotionally exhausting role he played. He also stated his experience in playing the part resulted in his being in a largely anti-social state of mind for a few weeks following. However, Woodward, who would later play Captain Tracey in Star Trek: The Omega Glory (1968), credits his work on Star Trek in helping him to finally break away from his being typecast in Western roles.

James Doohan and George Takei do not appear in this episode. Scotty appeared in the original script, operating the transporter in the first scene, when Van Gelder is beamed aboard. His appearance was nixed by Robert H. Justman, who saw this as a way of saving costs by eliminating Doohan, who would have been paid $890 for the episode, and replacing him with a random performer (Anthony Larry Paul, playing Lieutenant Berkeley), hired for a much lower salary.

A shipping label produced for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993) shows that a (now elderly) Dr. Van Gelder is still in charge of the Tantalus Penal Colony in the 2370s. TBF More likely to be the son or even grandson of the original Dr. Van Gelder given he would have to be at least 153 years old by the time of DS9.

This episode marks the first appearance of the Vulcan mind meld. The final shooting draft of this script had Spock placing his hands on Van Gelder’s abdomen while performing the mind meld. According to The Making of Star Trek, the mind meld was developed as an alternative to the scripts use of hypnosis to stabilize Van Gelder. They did not want to inaccurately depict hypnosis as a medical technique. Nor did they want to shoehorn into the script a pretext that Spock was qualified to act as a hypnotist in a medical capacity. Lastly, they did not want to risk accidentally hypnotizing viewers at home.

During filming of this episode, William Shatner was pulled away from the sound stage and rushed to a recording studio where, in 2 takes, he recorded the famous “Where No Man Has Gone Before” monologue, which had been re-written several times by different writers (mostly John D.F. Black). He read the first take flawlessly, but associate producer Robert H. Justman felt it should have a subtle echo, so he had the sound engineer create it for the second take. Since most of the effects sequences of the Enterprise were late and not yet been completed for the series debut, the opening credits were hurriedly assembled from existing shots from Star Trek: The Cage (1966) and Star Trek: Where No Man Has Gone Before (1966).

Summary

After a psychologically disturbed patient from the Tantalus penal colony, Dr. Simon Van Gelder manages to escape to the Enterprise, Dr. McCoy begins to suspect that something is amiss on the colony. Captain Kirk and Dr. Helen Noel beam down to the planet to investigate.

CAST

William Shatner … Captain James Tiberius ‘Jim’ Kirk
Leonard Nimoy … Mister Spock
James Gregory … Dr. Tristan Adams
DeForest Kelley … Doctor Leonard ‘Bones’ McCoy
Morgan Woodward … Dr. Simon van Gelder
Marianna Hill … Helen Noel
Nichelle Nichols … Lieutenant Nyota Uhura
Susanne Wasson … Lethe
John Arndt … First Crewman
Ed McCready … Inmate
Eli Behar … Therapist
Frank da Vinci … Lt. Brent (uncredited)
Walt Davis … Tantalus (uncredited)
Louie Elias … Inmate Guard (uncredited)
Ron Kinwald … Tantalus Inmate (uncredited)
John Hugh McKnight John Hugh McKnight … Inmate Guard (uncredited)
Eddie Paskey … Lieutenant Leslie (uncredited)
Anthony Larry Paul … Crewman (uncredited)

Kinks – Till The End Of The Day

Growing up I had a greatest hits album by the Kinks and this song was on it. Later, I would buy Give The People What I Want, Low Budget, and their 80s albums. It was later when I got The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society and I started to listen to more of their 60s music that wasn’t just the big hits… but was just as good or in some cases better. I also know the song through Big Star as they covered it on their album Third/Sister Lovers. Ace Frehley also covered the song.

By 1966 The Kinks were in a touring, recording, and promotion cycle that put enormous strain on the band. Ray Davies was married and had a child and was still counted on writing more songs. Ray was growing as a songwriter. Their career started with You Really Got Me and as they went along…the sophistication of the songs grew with Davies’s songwriting ability.

This single was one of the last early harder-rocking songs. What came after this was introspective pop songs like Waterloo Sunset and Dedicated Follower of Fashion. I like the jarring guitar intro plus Mick Avory’s drums. Nicky Hopkins, the supersession piano player, played on this track. The harmonies by Dave Davies and Peter Quaife elevate this song also.

The song peaked at #8 in the UK, #34 in Canada, and #50 on the Billboard 100 in 1966. For me, it ranks high on my list of early Kinks songs.

Ray Davies: “That song was about freedom, in the sense that someone’s been a slave or locked up in prison. It’s a song about escaping something. I didn’t know it was about my state of mind.”

Ray Davies: “I remember how ‘Till the End of the Day’ came about. I had a bit of writer’s block, and my managers were getting worried because I hadn’t produced anything in almost a month. They sent Mort Shuman around to my house, one of my hit-writing heroes. He wrote ‘Save the Last Dance For Me” with Doc Pomus. This mad, druggy New Yorker came ’round to my little semi-detached house in London. He said, ‘I’m here to find out what you’re thinking about. I’m not interested in what you have written; I’m interested in what you’re gonna write.’ He was completely paid off by my managers to say it. I thought it was ridiculous that there was so much importance put on it. If I don’t want to write for a month, I won’t. To say the least, I was pressured into doing it. Then I went off to stay with my sister and bought a new toy, a little upright piano, and wrote ‘Till The End Of The Day.”

Till The End Of The Day

Baby, I feel good
From the moment I arise
Feel good from morning
Till the end of the day
Till the end of the day
Yeah, you and me
We live this life
From when we get up
Till we go sleep at night
You and me were free
We do as we please, yeah
From morning, till the end of the day
Till the end of the day
Yeah, I get up
And I see the sun up
And I feel good, yeah
Cause my life has begun
You and me were free
We do as we please, yeah
From morning, till the end of the day
Till the end of the day
You and me were free
We do as we please, yeah
From morning, till the end of the day
Till the end of the day
Till the end of the day
Till the end of the day
Till the end of the day
Till the end of the day

Knack – Good Girls Don’t ….Power Pop Friday

Good girls don’tGood girls don’tBut, she’ll be telling youGood girls don’tBut I do

The Knack was huge after their debut album but the record company wanted another one quickly. That was a huge mistake. A band takes years and years to make their first album. What I mean is they are writing songs as teenagers and later until they get a record deal. They use most of them up for the debut and now are stuck with coming up with a new album in a few months. That is a hard chore to do and why there is a sophomore slump with some bands.

Good Girls Don’t was released by the Knack in 1979 off the album Get the Knack. It was written by Knack singer Doug Fieger and peaked at 11 on the Billboard Charts. Everyone knows their other big single off that album “My Sharona” but I really liked this one at the time and still do. I was going to write…this song would not fly today but…I’ve heard rap songs that make this sound like Mother Goose.

One of the main reasons I like this song is the bridge. I don’t talk about a song’s bridge very much but it’s put together well. It starts with it’s a teenage sadness and builds. I will say this…I still like My Sharona…but I’ve My Sharonaed out. I still like it but in small doses. This one is a lot of fun.

I was 12 about to be 13 when I heard this song for the first time. For a new teenage boy, it was a great song. Fieger wrote this song in 1972 and didn’t want to record it for the album until the producer talked him into it. It is a strong power pop song with some edgy lyrics for 1979 and a “clean” single was released also that edited out the naughty things. It is a teenage song but it’s still fun.

The first video is the cleaner version of them in the studio…the second is the real version.

Good Girls Don’t

She’s your adolescent dreamSchool boy stuffA sticky, sweet romanceAnd she makes you wanna screamWishing you could get inside her pants

So you fantasize awayWhile you’re squeezing herYou thought you heard her saying

Good girls don’tGood girls don’tBut, she’ll be telling youGood girls don’tBut I do

So you call her on the phoneTo talk about the teachers that you hateAnd she says she’s all aloneAnd her parents won’t be coming home ’til late

There’s a ringing in your brain‘Cause you could have sworeYou thought you heard her saying

Good girls don’tGood girls don’tBut, she’ll be telling youGood girls don’tBut I do

And it’s a teenage sadnessEveryone has got to tasteAn in-between age madnessThat you know you can’t erase‘Til she’s sitting on your face

You’re alone with her at lastAnd you’re waiting ’til you think the time is right‘Cause you’ve heard she’s pretty fastAnd you’re hoping that she’ll give you some tonight

So, you start to make your play‘Cause you could have sworeYou thought you heard her saying

Good girls don’tGood girls don’tBut, she’ll be telling youGood girls don’tBut I do

And it’s a teenage sadnessEveryone has got to tasteAn in-between age madnessThat you know you can’t erase‘Til she’s sitting on your face(And it hurts)

Good girls don’tGood girls don’tBut, she’ll be telling youGood girls don’tBut I do

Good girls don’tGood girls don’tBut, she’ll be telling youGood girls don’tBut I doBut I doBut I doBut I do

Hot Chocolate – Everyone 1’s A Winner

Some songs take me back to a point in time. This one is no different but it takes me to two points. I remember this when I was a small kid growing up. I didn’t hear it again until the early 2000s.

I was driving around in Panama City Beach Florida and this song came on the radio. As soon as I heard it I knew the song but I didn’t know what band did it. I loved that riff and that tone…was it a guitar or synth??? Whatever it was I had to find it. I searched for it on the internet…I used the only word I remembered…”winner” plus a great guitar riff. This one finally came up and I was on my way. I grew up with a single my sister had by them called “You Sexy Thing.”

1978 Roland GR500

Everyone 1’s A Winner came off an album of the same name by Hot Chocolate. It peaked at #6 on the Billboard 100,#5 in Canada, #7 in New Zealand, and #12 in the UK in 1978.

It’s known for the great guitar riff that was played using the first Roland guitar synth with the Les Paul-type guitar-the GR500. Yea my urge that my wife hates is kicking in…the urge to track one of these babies down and buy it.

They are best known for “You Sexy Thing” but this is one that sticks with me. Hot Chocolate was briefly signed with The Beatle’s Apple Records and they did a reggae version of John Lennon’s “Give Peace a Chance.”

This band charted a song every year between 1970 and 1984. The song was written by Errol Brown the lead singer.

Lead Guitar player Harvey Hinsley: The guitar I used on most of our records was an SG standard, It had a thicker sound than Fenders, Usually double-tracked the riffs, etc; The amp was a sound city 200 watt, or 125 pa amp, [no distortion on amps back then-just turned amp up] – they sounded much the same; On early stuff like Brother Louis, You’ll always be a friend & I believe in love, -I used Larry Ferguson’s Leslie cab; On Cadillac, I used a phaser pedal; On Emma, Sexy thing, so you win, I used a foot volume pedal too, on Every 1′ a winner I used the first Roland guitar synth with the Les Paul type guitar-the GR500; Put your love in me I used a Watkins echo & a waa-waa pedal set half on to give a more trebly sound

Lead singer Errol Brown: “I was getting nowhere with it when I heard my eldest daughter crying in a particular rhythm and used that for the melody.”

Every 1’s A Winner

Never could believe the things you do to me,Never could believe the way you are.Every day I bless the day that you got through to me,‘Cause baby, I believe that you’re a star.

Everyone’s a winner, baby, that’s the truth (yes, the truth)Making love to you is such a thrill.Everyone’s a winner, baby, that’s no lie (yes, no lie)You never fail to satisfy (satisfy)

Never could explain just what was happening to me,Just one touch of you and I’m a flame.Baby, it’s amazing just how wonderful it isThat the things we like to do are just the same.

Everyone’s a winner, baby, that’s the truth (yes, the truth)Making love to you is such a thrill.Everyone’s a winner, baby, that’s no lie (yes, no lie)You never fail to satisfy (satisfy)

Let’s do it again.

Everyone’s a winner, baby, that’s the truth (yes, the truth)Making love to you is such a thrill.Everyone’s a winner, baby, that’s no lie (yes, no lie)You never fail to satisfy (satisfy)

Star Trek – Miri

★★★★★ October 27, 1966 Season 1 Episode 8

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.

***Dave at A Sound Day has given me the honor to host his site today…check it out if you can***

This show was written by Adrian Spies and Gene Roddenberry

This is a wonderful episode of Star Trek. Miri is a name of a girl played by Kim Darby and she is brilliant in that role. I’m reminded of Lord of the Flies with a dash of a dark Peter Pan while watching this episode. A planet that is a replica of earth that has a disease that affects kids as soon as they start puberty. They start the symptoms with sores and then go berserk and die shortly thereafter.

The problem started with the earlier people on the planet experimenting with trying to prolong life. They ended up creating a serious virus (hmmm been there done that). The catch is the kids do have prolonged lives and are hundreds of years old before they reach puberty but they still have the maturity of children. The crew get there and because of their age start contracting the disease.

Bones and Spock are trying to come up with the vaccine while the children steal the communicators of the crew. Miri is a young woman about to hit puberty and is showing signs of the disease. She is not trusting of the Enterprise crew at first but then warms up to Captain Kirk and develops a crush on him. She is also jealous of Yeoman Janis Rand because of her close relationship with Kirk. She wants to help the captain and crew, to find a cure but she is scared and jealous. Can Kirk find the rest of the kids to get their help along with Miri?

This is one of my favorite episodes

From IMDB

Leonard Nimoy was asked to allow his children to appear as extras but Nimoy refused to let his children be involved in show business. His son, Adam Nimoy, did grow up to become a television director, including a few episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987).

The first of several “parallel Earth” plots in the series, contrived to save money by avoiding the necessity for “alien” sets, costumes, and makeup.

The outdoor scenes of this episode were filmed on the same back lot streets that also were used to create Mayberry on The Andy Griffith Show (1960), except that the streets were piled with debris and dirt to create the appearance that the town was in ruins. Several building exteriors familiar from Mayberry can be seen in those exterior shots, including the courthouse, Walker’s Drugstore, the Grand movie theater, Floyd’s barber shop, and the Mayberry Hotel.

John Decker and Scott Dweck are Grace Lee Whitney’s sons. As an adult, Scott would return in a feature film appearance as a Vulcan members of the Enterprise crew in Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979).

Leonard Nimoy and Grace Lee Whitney both named this as one of their favorite episodes of the show. William Shatner was more critical, however, feeling that the story dragged and that the initial hook of “another Earth” was interesting, but didn’t amount to anything.

This episode has a number of connections to The Andy Griffith Show (1960). The outdoor scenes are shot on the streets of the set that stood in for the town of Mayberry. Visible are the old courthouse, barber shop, feed and grain store, Walker’s Drugs, bank, grocery store, the Grand movie theater; and the building with the small porch into which the crew runs is the old Hotel Mayberry. Michael J. Pollard, who plays Jahn, the leader of the Onlies, played Barney Fife’s bumbling cousin in The Andy Griffith Show: Cousin Virgil (1962). And, when Kirk asks Spock to estimate in what time period the town seems to be, Spock responds with “1960,” the year that series debuted.

Summary

The Enterprise receives an old-style SOS signal and finds on arrival a planet that is virtually identical to Earth. Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and Yeoman Rand beam down to the planet only to find that it is inhabited solely by children. Kirk befriends one of the older children, Miri, but they soon learn that experiments to prolong life killed all of the adults and that the children will also die when they reach puberty. They also learn that the children are in fact, very old. Soon, the landing party contracts the virus and has seven days to find a cure.

CAST

William Shatner … Captain James Tiberius ‘Jim’ Kirk
Leonard Nimoy … Mister Spock
Kim Darby … Miri
Michael J. Pollard … Jahn
DeForest Kelley … Doctor Leonard ‘Bones’ McCoy
Grace Lee Whitney … Yeoman Janice Rand
Keith Taylor … Jahn’s Friend
Ed McCready … Boy Creature
Kellie Flanagan … Blonde Girl
Stephen McEveety … Redheaded Boy (as Steven McEveety)
David L. Ross … Security Guard #1 (as David Ross)
Jim Goodwin … Farrell
John Megna … Little Boy
Tom Anfinsen … Crewman (uncredited)
John Arndt … Ingenieur Fields (uncredited)
Iona Morris … Little African American Girl (uncredited)
Phil Morris … Boy – Army Helmet (uncredited)
Eddie Paskey … Lieutenant Leslie (uncredited)
Darleen Anita Roddenberry … Flowered Dress Girl (uncredited)
Dawn Roddenberry … Little Blonde Girl (uncredited)
Irene Sale … Louise (uncredited)
Leslie Carol Shatner … Brunette Girl (uncredited)
Elisabeth Shatner … Girl in Red-Striped Dress (uncredited)
Scott Whitney … Small Boy (uncredited)

Rolling Stones – Start Me Up

I’ve been running hot
You got me ticking gonna blow my top
If you start me up
If you start me up I’ll never stop

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!

I’ve never covered this song before because of all the Stones songs…this one is up there with the ones that radio has simply worn out. But the bottom line is…it’s a great rock song. Even if you don’t like it…you would have to admit that. It might be one of their albums’ best intro songs.

Let’s go back to 1981…I was over at my friend Kenny’s house and I heard this song. Kenny loved animals and had a tarantula, piranha, and other sorts of fun animals. I think it was his radio alarm that went off but I heard this song and knew exactly who it was and I was hooked. This was before it was worn completely out. The opening riff is straight out of the 5-string open G tuning for all of you guitarists. That tuning helped Keith come up with all of those great riffs.

All the news at the time was on their tour. They were called old and over the hill…funny now thinking back…they were only in their late 30s and early 40s. Nowadays that is a young band. I went out and bought the album and loved it. The next year I bought the live (from that tour) Time is On My Side and Going To A Go-Go singles. I then broke down and bought the Still Life live album they came from.

In my opinion, Tattoo You was their last brush with greatness. They did have Undercover, Steel Wheels, and others but this one is very good. The album was made up of outtakes and songs that were almost a decade old going back to Emotional Rescue and the Goats Head Soup album. They would never be this raw again…but there still is time.

Start Me Up started as a reggae-type song but soon developed into a full-blown rock song that kicked the doors down. It has become a staple in their concerts along with Jumpin’ Jack Flash and Satisfaction.

It peaked at #2 on the Billboard 100, #2 in Canada, #7 in the UK, and #33 in New Zealand in 1981. I loved the low quality of the main video for the song. It looked like it was made by a poor high school rock band…it fit perfectly. It’s what you call a one-take video. You can see Charlie laughing at the front three.

The early version of Start Me Up

Start Me Up

If you start me up
If you start me up I’ll never stop
If you start me up
If you start me up I’ll never stop

I’ve been running hot
You got me ticking gonna blow my top
If you start me up
If you start me up I’ll never stop
Never stop, never stop, never stop

You make a grown man cry
You make a grown man cry
You make a grown man cry
Spread out the oil, the gasoline
I walk smooth, ride in a mean, mean machine

Start it up
If you start it up
Kick on the starter give it all you got, you got to, you got to
I can’t compete with the riders in the other heats

If you rough it up
If you like it I can slide it up, slide it up, slide it up, slide it up

Don’t make a grown man cry
Don’t make a grown man cry
Don’t make a grown man cry
My eyes dilate, my lips go green
My hands are greasy
She’s a mean, mean machine

Start it up
Start me up
Give it all you got
You got to never, never, never stop

Slide it up
Baby up just slide it up
Start it up, start it up, start it up
Never, never, never

You make a grown man cry
You make a grown man cry
You make a grown man cry
Ride like the wind at double speed
I’ll take you places that you’ve never, never seen

If you start it up
Love the day and we will never stop, never stop, never stop, never stop
Tough me up
Never stop, never stop

You, you, you make a grown man cry
You, you make a dead man cum
You, you make a dead man cum

Jimmy Buffet – Come Monday

Buffet has always lived on the pop/country side of music…and soon after this, it was pop/country/tropical music. I bought his greatest hits in the 80s and I became a fan. I saw him live twice and if you ever want a concert that is more like a giant party or a Hawaiian Lūʻau…go see Buffet live. Also If you like tailgating before the concert… this is the man to see. His truly devoted fans are called “parrotheads.”

This song was written by Buffet and released in 1973 and peaked at #30 on the Billboard 100, #23 in Canada, and #58 on the Country Charts. The song was off of Living & Dying in ¾ Time and the album was Buffet’s first album to reach the top 200 at #176. Come Monday was his first top-40 hit. He would have some minor hits after this like Pencil Thin Mustache, A Pirate Looks at Forty, and others but it was Margaritaville in 1977 that broke it open for him.

The single version of the song replaces the third line, “I’ve got my Hush Puppies on,” with “I’ve got my hiking shoes on.” Some broadcast outlets, including the BBC, would not play songs with brand names in the lyrics, something that forced an edit on the Kinks song “Lola.”

Jimmy Buffet was quite the partier in the 70s. I’ve talked to a music producer who knew him back then and it’s a wonder he survived. He did have a run-in with a famous Tennessee sheriff…6’6″ Bufford Pusser. If you have a few minutes…it’s worth the story!

He wrote this song for his girlfriend, who he was missing and she ended up in the video. When he sings the first line, “Headed out to San Francisco for the Labor Day weekend show,” he’s talking about a specific concert in 1973.

Buffet explains quickly how the video was made and then the video.

Come Monday

Headin’ up to San Francisco
For the Labor Day weekend show,
I’ve got my hush-puppies on,
I guess I never was meant for
Glitter rock and roll.
And honey I didn’t know
That I’d be missin’ you so.

Come Monday It’ll be all right,
Come Monday I’ll be holding you tight.
I spent four lonely days in a brown L.A. haze
And I just want you back by my side.

Yes it’s been quite a summer,
Rent-a-cars and west bound trains.
And now you’re off on vacation,
Somethin’ you tried to explain.
And darlin’ I love you so that’s
The reason I just let you go.

Come Monday It’ll be all right,
Come Monday I’ll be holding you tight.
I spent four lonely days in a brown L.A. haze
And I just want you back by my side.

I can’t help it honey,
You’re that much a part of me now.
Remember the night in Montana when
We said there’d be no room for doubt.

I hope you’re enjoyin’ the scenery,
I know that it’s pretty up there.
We can go hikin on Tuesday,
With you I’d walk anywhere.
California has worn me quite thin,
I just can’t wait to see you again.

Come Monday It’ll be all right,
Come Monday I’ll be holding you tight.
I spent four lonely days in a brown L.A. haze
And I just want you back by my side.

Star Trek – What Are Little Girls Made Of?

★★★★1/2 October 20, 1966 Season 1 Episode 7

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 episode was written by Robert Bloch and Gene Roddenberry

This episode highlights Majel Barrett as Nurse Christine Chapel. Nurse Chapel and Kirk beam down to a planet to meet with Chapel’s old fiancee Dr. Roger Korby. What they find is extraordinary. Making copies of humans into Androids who gain their consciousness and live practically forever.

This episode has Ted Cassidy as Ruk. If that name doesn’t ring a bell, he was Lurch in the Addams family as well as the voice or growl of The Incredible Hulk over a decade later. He plays a survivor still running the machinery of the old civilization that died out long ago. He’s also quite protective of that and those that are on the planet.

Another guest star in this episode is Sherry Jackson who plays Andrea… who is an android. She was in many television shows from the 50s through the 90s. In this episode, she has an interesting relationship with Kirk.

Dr. Korby was so overcome with his obsession with eliminating the bad aspects of human nature, he didn’t consider the consequences of the good. He was trying to build the perfect human but stripping away everything that makes us humans. This is an excellent episode.

From IMDB

Sherry Jackson’s revealing costume never failed to get an enthusiastically appreciative response, whether it be stunning a noisy commissary into silence, when the actress showed it off there, or when it was displayed at a SF convention and the model for it found herself being approached by a large number of men, including Harlan Ellison, trying to secure a date from her.

The only TOS episode to prominently feature Nurse Christine Chapel, who was played by Majel Barrett. Also featured is Ted Cassidy, best known for playing Lurch on The Addams Family (1964) TV series. Barrett would later play Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987)’s gag character Lwaxana Troi, whose valet Mr. Homm was played by Carel Struycken, who played Lurch in The Addams Family (1991) and Addams Family Values (1993).

To test the effectiveness of Ted Cassidy’s Ruk costume and makeup, the producers arranged for Cassidy to receive a visiting clothes dealer while costumed as Ruk. Sure enough, the salesman, who thought he was calling on Gene Roddenberry, was so frightened at Cassidy’s intimidating character, he was barely coherent even as he attempted to do his pitch. However, the salesman eventually recovered, and Roddenberry ended up purchasing some pants from him.

William Shatner kisses Sherry Jackson so hard that when they pull apart you can see that her lips are swollen a little, and that most of her lipstick is gone and all over his lips. Also, when he holds her in his arms and pulls her in close to kiss her, he squeezes her arms so tight when kissing, that he leaves his fingerprints there. In 1998, the Sci-Fi Channel aired all the original episodes in their complete, non-syndicated format, with added interviews from some of the series stars, guest stars and production people. It was called “Star Trek Insights”. Jackson said in her interview, “I must say when he kissed me on screen, he really kissed me!”

Ruk is Ted Cassidy’s only appearing role in Star Trek. He provided voice overs in Star Trek: The Corbomite Maneuver (1966) and Star Trek: Arena (1967). Ironically, in a few scenes of this one, his own voice is dubbed over by other actors to show Ruk’s mimicking abilities.

Summary

The crew of the Enterprise arrives at the planet EXO-III with some trepidation and great anticipation. They are there to see if they can locate the renowned scientist Dr. Roger Korby. The man hasn’t been heard from for 5 years and the general belief is that he is dead. For Nurse Christine Chapel, however, a reunion with Corby will be a reunion with her fiancé. They find Korby alive but when Kirk and Chapel beam down to the planet, they find a man obsessed who is using alien technology to reproduce the humans around him in the form of androids.

CAST

William Shatner … Captain James Tiberius ‘Jim’ Kirk
Leonard Nimoy … Mister Spock
Michael Strong … Dr. Roger Korby
Sherry Jackson … Andrea
Ted Cassidy … Ruk
Majel Barrett … Nurse Christine Chapel
Nichelle Nichols … Lieutenant Nyota Uhura
Harry Basch … Brown
Vince Deadrick Sr. … Mathews (as Vince Deadrick)
Budd Albright … Rayburn
Eddie Paskey … Lieutenant Leslie (uncredited)

Bessie Smith – Down Hearted Blues

Let’s go back…way back. Music did exist before the 50s and sometimes I like to explore it. These are the talented artists who inspired later generations that we listen to. We cannot forget the pioneers of any genre. Artists like Mahalia Jackson, Janis Joplin, and Norah Jones have all given Bessie Smith credit as their inspiration.

Whenever I hear Bessie Smith I hear pain and greatness all at once. I’ve written about her song No One Loves You When You’re Down And Out and I’ve been revisiting her lately. This song was her debut single in 1923.

I got into Bessie Smith from listening to Janis Joplin and reading about her. Bessie’s voice sends chills up my spine…that is my litmus test. This particular song grabs me because of Smith’s voice and the recording vibe. She sings it, means it, and she damn well lived it. The sound of the record and her voice is just unbeatable. Yes, we have digital now but digital could not give you this sound.

She was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on April 15, 1894. She lost her dad while she was an infant and her mom when she was 7-8 years old. She was raised by her tough older sister. To help support her orphaned siblings, Bessie began her career as a Chattanooga street musician, singing in a duo with her brother Andrew to earn money to support their poor family.

She is credited with recording more than 160 songs between 1923 and 1933. Smith performed on stage throughout the southern United States and recorded with such jazz greats as Benny Goodman, Louis Armstrong, and Coleman Hawkins.

Before the Great Depression, Bessie was the highest-paid black entertainer in the world, collecting as much as two thousand dollars a week to perform. She was accompanied by great musicians such as Louis Armstrong, Lonnie Johnson, and Benny Goodman.

This song was written by Alberta Hunter and Lovie Austin. The song is about a mistreated woman and had been recorded by fellow blues singer Alberta Hunter in 1922. A year later Bessie Smith sang it with pain, passion, and power as if it was her own song. The record sold more copies than any blues or jazz record had before…780,000 in the first six months after the release, #1 in the Billboard charts for 4 weeks, it helped to save Columbia from imminent bankruptcy and made Bessie a star.

They called Bessie Smith the “Empress of the Blues,” and for good reason.

Down Hearted Blues

Gee, but it’s hard to love someone
when that someone don’t love you!
I’m so disgusted, heart-broken, too;
I’ve got those down-hearted blues.

Once I was crazy ‘bout a man;
he mistreated me all the time,
The next man I get has got to promise me
to be mine, all mine!

Trouble, trouble, I’ve had it all my days,
Trouble, trouble, I’ve had it all my days,
It seems like trouble
going to follow me to my grave.

I ain’t never loved but three men in my life,
I ain’t never loved but three men in my life,
My father, my brother,
the man that wrecked my life.

It may be a week, it may be a month or two,
It may be a week, it may be a month or two,
But the day you quit me, honey,
it’s comin’ home to you.

I got the world in a jug, the stopper’s in my hand,
I got the world in a jug, the stopper’s in my hand,
I’m gonna hold it until
you meet some of my demands.