1960s – Page 42 – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

Beatles – Ticket To Ride

According to John Lennon, when the Beatles were in Hamburg, prostitutes had to have a piece of paper proving they have a clean bill of health…as in a Ticket To Ride. McCartney said it was “a British Railways ticket to the town of Ryde on the Isle of Wight.” Lennon’s description caught a 9-year-old boy’s imagination much more.

George Harrison came up with the way the riff was played. Ringo came up with a distinctive staccato drum pattern for this song based on the way George played it. He said a big part of his drumming style is being a left-handed drummer trying to play right-handed.

I remember this the most by it being used in the Beatles movie Help! in the scene where The Beatles ski… poorly. Copies of the original single released on Capitol Records say: “From the United Artists Release ‘Eight Arms To Hold You’,” which was the original working title of Help!

The Beatles were one of the first groups to make music videos, which were done so they could promote their songs without showing up at TV stations. They made one for “Ticket To Ride” in a shoot where they did four other songs as well. All the footage was shot in the studio; this one saw the band performing in front of oversized tickets for trains and busses.

The song peaked at #1 in the Billboard 100, Canada and the UK in 1965.

Carl Palmer: “One of the most exciting, rhythmical patterns and parts and songs that I ever heard, which I thought was really big-time and had it all going is a track by The Beatles called ‘Ticket To Ride, the drum part on that I always thought was exceptional.”

From Songfacts

The Beatles taped a performance of this song that was broadcast on an episode of Ed Sullivan Show that aired September 12, 1965 (the last Ed Sullivan show broadcast in black and white). The Beatles recorded it prior to their Shea Stadium concert that took place August 15.

The Carpenters covered this in 1969 with the gender reversed to suit lead vocalist Karen Carpenter (“he’s got a ticket to ride…” Their mellow version was released as the duo’s first single and included on their first album, which was also called Ticket To Ride. Their rendition didn’t chart, but made its way onto plenty of light rock playlists.

In Stephen King’s 1977 novel The Shining, a supernatural Big Band ensemble plays a swing version of this at The Overlook Hotel.

Ticket To Ride

I think I’m gonna be sad
I think it’s today, yeah
The girl that’s driving me mad
Is going away

She’s got a ticket to ride
She’s got a ticket to ride
She’s got a ticket to ride
But she don’t care

She said that living with me
Is bringing her down yeah
For she would never be free
When I was around

She’s got a ticket to ride
She’s got a ticket to ride
She’s got a ticket to ride
But she don’t care

I don’t know why she’s ridin’ so high
She ought to think twice
She ought to do right by me
Before she gets to saying goodbye
She ought to think twice,
She ought to do right by me
I think I’m gonna be sad
I think it’s today yeah
The girl that’s driving me mad
Is going away, yeah

She’s got a ticket to ride
She’s got a ticket to ride
She’s got a ticket to ride
But she don’t care

I don’t know why she’s ridin’ so high
She ought to think twice
She ought to do right by me
Before she gets to saying goodbye
She ought to think twice
She ought to do right by me
She said that living with me
Is bringing her down, yeah
For she would never be free
When I was around

Ah, she’s got a ticket to ride
She’s got a ticket to ride
She’s got a ticket to ride
But she don’t care

My baby don’t care, my baby don’t care
My baby don’t care, my baby don’t care
My baby don’t care, my baby don’t care

Comedian Quotes III

This week we are going to feature some Comedians from the 70s and 80s. My personal favorite is Bill HIcks…the darkest comedian I have listened to but funny. Steven Wright takes the quotes to a different level.

Steven Wright

If a man says something in the woods and there are no women there, is he still wrong?

Right now I’m having amnesia and déjà vu at the same time. I think I’ve forgotten this before.

The other night I was lying in bed, looking up at the stars, and I wondered, ‘Where the hell is my roof?

Last night I played a blank tape at full blast. The mime next door went nuts.

Whose cruel idea was it for the word “lisp” to have an “s” in it?

I have an inferiority complex, but it’s not a very good one.

Is it true that cannibals don’t eat clowns because they taste funny?

Bill Hicks

I loved when Bush came out and said, ‘We are losing the war against drugs.’ You know what that implies? There’s a war being fought, and the people on drugs are winning it.

We all pay for life with death, so everything in between should be free.

I believe that there is an equality to all humanity. We all suck.

When two or more people agree on an issue, I form on the other side.

On the theft of his material by Denis Leary: “I have a scoop for you. I stole his act. I camouflaged it with punchlines, and to really throw people off, I did it before he did.

It’s all about money, not freedom, y’all, okay? Nothing to do with fuckin’ freedom. If you think you’re free, try going somewhere without fucking money, okay?

The whole image is that eternal suffering awaits anyone who questions God’s infinite love. That’s the message we’re brought up with, isn’t it? Believe or die! Thank you, forgiving Lord, for all those options.

Sam Kinison

If I get married again, I want a guy there with a drum to do rimshots during the vows.

Folks, I’ve been straight for seventeen days… Not all in a row.

My view of life is, ‘If you’re going to miss Heaven, why miss it by two inches? Miss it!

Rock Against Drugs, what a name. Somebody was high when they came up with that title. It’s like Christians Against Christ. Rock created drugs.

I don’t worry about terrorism. I was married for two years.

I look for women I know are gonna bust me up good. Come on, man, who can resist that? Who can resist that emotional pain? Yeah, they all have the same line, they’re so sweet: I’m not gonna hurt you like all the others. Really I’m not. I’m gonna introduce you to a whole new level of pain!

Jesus is still up in Heaven, thumbing through his Bible, going ‘Where did I say build a water slide?

I called a detox center – just to see how much it would cost: $13,000 for three weeks! My friends, if you can come up with thirteen grand, you don’t have a problem yet.

Eddie Murphy

I spent my 30s fixing everything I broke in my 20s.

The best way you hurt rich people is by turning them into poor people.

The advice I would give to someone is to not take anyone’s advice.

Getting divorced didn’t sour me on the institution of marriage. I’ll tell you what I’ll never do: I’ll never get divorced again.

As you get older, you get different, and I’m a mushier, softer person as I get older.

Steve Martin

You know that look that women get when they want to have sex? Me neither

I believe that sex is one of the most beautiful, natural, wholesome things that money can buy.

Boy, those French! They have a different word for everything

I gave my cat a bath the other day…they love it. He sat there, he enjoyed it, it was fun for me. The fur would stick to my tongue, but other than that…

Thinking too much also creates the illusion of causal connections between unrelated events.

George Burns

There’s an old saying, ‘Life begins at forty.’ That’s silly. Life begins every morning you wake up.

I get up every morning and read the obituary column. If my name’s not there, I eat breakfast.

You can’t help getting older, but you don’t have to get old.

It takes only one drink to get me drunk. The trouble is, I can’t remember if it’s the thirteenth or the fourteenth.

I’d rather be over the hill than under it.

When I was a boy the Dead Sea was only sick.

Twilight Zone – The Last Night of a Jockey

★★★1/2 October 25, 1963 Season 5 Episode 5

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

Rod Serling was great at this kind of low-life character. They were not evil but just the bottom of society. Mickey Rooney plays Grady who was small in more ways than one. He was a jockey who was disqualified from racing and he blames everyone but the one responsible…himself. Mickey Rooney runs a gamut of emotions from rage to grief to terrible self-loathing and is credible throughout. He carries the show…although he must because he is the only actor in it. A bit of Twilight Zone justice is dished out at the end.

This is another character that you won’t have much sympathy with at all. It is an impressive one-man show. Agnes Moorehead did this in The Invaders and was incredible.

This one is by no means a bad episode. It’s just not a classic one. I think the basic story was done better in Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room, another episode of a self-pitying loser being lectured by his alter ego.

From IMDB: With exactly one performer appearing–either in image or voice, not counting Rod Serling’s routine turn as host–this episode features the smallest cast of any in the series. Close runner-ups include The Twilight Zone: Where Is Everybody? (1959), The Twilight Zone: King Nine Will Not Return (1960), The Twilight Zone: Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room (1960), The Twilight Zone: The Invaders (1961) and The Twilight Zone: Two (1961).

This show was written by Rod Serling

Rod Serling’s Opening Narration:

The name is Grady, five feet short in stockings and boots, a slightly distorted offshoot of a good breed of humans who race horses. He happens to be one of the rotten apples, bruised and yellowed by dealing in dirt, a short man with a short memory who’s forgotten that he’s worked for the sport of kings and helped turn it into a cesspool, used and misused by the two-legged animals who’ve hung around sporting events since the days of the Coliseum. So this is Grady, on his last night as a jockey. Behind him are Hialeah, Hollywood Park and Saratoga. Rounding the far turn and coming up fast on the rail—is the Twilight Zone.

Summary

Grady is a champion jockey who has recently been banned from the sport owing to his participation in race fixing and the drugging of horses. He claims he is innocent and currently has an appeal with the racing commission but his agent isn’t hopeful. Suddenly, Grady begins hearing a voice – his own as it turns out, speaking to him from his own mind. As Grady rages over the unfairness of it all, he is granted his one true wish.

WARNING…VIDEO SPOILERS

Rod Serling’s Closing Narration:

The name is Grady, ten feet tall, a slightly distorted offshoot of a good breed of humans who race horses. Unfortunately for Mr. Grady, he learned too late that you don’t measure size with a ruler, you don’t figure height with a yardstick, and you never judge a man by how tall he looks in a mirror. The giant is as he does. You can make a parimutuel bet on this, win, place, or show, in or out of the Twilight Zone.

CAST

Rod Serling…Narrator / Self – Host (uncredited)
Mickey Rooney … Grady

Hollies – Carrie Anne

I have a soft spot for the Hollies. They started in the early sixties and continued through the seventies without Graham Nash who quit the Hollies for what he thought was a hipper band…Crosby, Stills, and Nash. Soon to include the elusive Neil Young.

Hollies members Allan Clarke, Tony Hicks, and Graham Nash wrote this song and shared the lead vocals, with each taking a verse (Clarke, then Hicks, then Nash). The Hollies had great harmonies and also a secret weapon in Tony Hicks as a guitar player. He was and still is outstanding but was never as known as his later neighbor George Harrison and his other peers.

Tony’s son Paul Hicks was in Dhani Harrison’s band and has worked with Giles Martin on Beatle remastering projects.

This song is about the British singer and actress Marianne Faithfull, who is well known for her relationship with Mick Jagger. She also had a brief fling with lead singer Alan Clarke. For a short time. “Marianne” was changed to “Carrie-Anne” so it wouldn’t be so obvious.

The song peaked at #9 in the Billboard 100, #9 in Canada, #3 in the UK, and #2 in New Zealand in 1967. This song was a straight-ahead pop hit, but changes were coming. Sgt Peppers was released so The Hollies, with the urging of Nash, tried going the more psychedelic route. The next single was King Midas In Reverse which only peaked at #18 in the UK and was considered a failure. Personally…it’s my favorite early Hollies song.

A side note…The Canadian actress Carrie-Anne Moss, best known for playing Trinity in The Matrix, was named after this Hollies hit. The song was on the charts at the time of her birth in August 1967.

From Songfacts

The group didn’t let on that the song was about Faithfull until 1995, when Graham Nash spilled the beans in a documentary.

In the song, the singer recalls the schoolyard days when he and Carrie Anne were friends, but she went for the older boys. Now their older and he tells her that although she’s lost her charm, he’s willing to “be her teacher” and take her on. By the end of the lesson, he’s sure she’ll be his girl.

According to the book Forty Years of Steel by Jeffrey Thomas, this song marks the first use of steel drums in a commercial pop record. Steel drums evoke an island vibe, but there’s nothing tropical about this song and none of The Hollies played the instrument (it’s not clear who played it on the record, but their producer, Ron Richards, apparently arranged it). Still, inserting a steel drum solo where a guitar solo would be certainly made the song stand out. Stephen Stills, Nash’s bandmate in Crosby, Stills & Nash, incorporated steel drums into his 1970 hit “Love The One You’re With.”

The Hollies had a very impressive run of hits starting in 1963, but Graham Nash wanted to put hit-making aside so they could create songs with more weight behind them. He ended up leaving the group in 1968 and forming Crosby, Stills & Nash. In an interview with Bruce Pollock, Nash said listeners “want to hear songs that mean more to them than ‘Hey Carrie Ann, what’s your game.'”

Carrie Anne

Hey, Carrie Anne
Hey, Carrie Anne
When we were at school, our games were simple
I played a janitor, you played a monitor
Then you played with older boys and prefects
What’s the attraction in what they’re doing

Hey, Carrie Anne, what’s your game now
Can anybody play
Hey, Carrie Anne, what’s your game now
Can anybody play

You were always something special to me
quite independent, never caring
You lost your charm as you were aging
Where is your magic disappearing

Hey, Carrie Anne, what’s your game now
Can anybody play
Hey, Carrie Anne, what’s your game now
Can anybody play

You’re so, so like a woman to me
(So like a woman to me)
So, so like a woman to me
(Like a woman to me)

Hey, Carrie Anne, what’s your game now
Can anybody play
Hey, Carrie Anne, what’s your game now
Can anybody play

People live and learn but you’re still learning
You use my mind and I’ll be your teacher
When the lesson’s over, you’ll be with me
Then I’ll hear the other people saying

Hey, Carrie Anne, what’s your game now
Can anybody play
Hey, Carrie Anne, what’s your game now
Can anybody play

Carrie Anne, Carrie Anne, Carrie Anne

Twilight Zone – A Kind of a Stopwatch

★★★★ October 18, 1963 Season 5 Episode 4

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

Richard Erdman plays Patrick Thomas McNulty who is an insufferable know it all bore. He is a self-proclaimed idea man…but not a good one. He is given a gift…a very special gift that he wanted to exploit. Mr. McNulty was given a stopwatch that could control time. This story is made for the Twilight Zone but it helps when you have sympathy for the main character. You don’t in this one but yet it still works. It does have a good Twilight Zone ending.

It reminds me a little of Time Enough at Last but not as good. Erdman does a great job playing McNulty because he is a convincing pain. The inspiration for the episode came from a book written by John D. MacDonald published a year earlier called “The Girl, the Gold Watch, and Everything”. Much later the book was made into a movie called The Girl, the Gold Watch and Everything in 1980.

The biggest disappointment is Potts, he is the fellow that gave McNulty the stopwatch. The dialogue doesn’t give us many clues…its supposed to make Potts seem the kind of eccentric character who might give a total stranger a mysterious and magical device, but it plays very flat. Potts is no more than a plot device, the intention being to get the watch into McNulty’s hands as quickly as possible. It was a wasted opportunity in not exploring that charcacter.

The reason I bring it up is an early draft of the script featured an alternate closing shot: One of the “frozen” people, whom McNulty has just run past, turns to face the camera after McNulty vanishes around a corner. It’s Potts, who smiles and winks at us…indicating that, as with the watch he gave McNulty, there’s a lot more to him than meets the eye.

This show was written by Rod Serling and Michael D. Rosenthal

Rod Serling’s Opening Narration:

Submitted for your approval or at least your analysis: one Patrick Thomas McNulty, who, at age forty-one, is the biggest bore on Earth. He holds a ten-year record for the most meaningless words spewed out during a coffee break. And it’s very likely that, as of this moment, he would have gone through life in precisely this manner, a dull, argumentative bigmouth who sets back the art of conversation a thousand years. I say he very likely would have except for something that will soon happen to him, something that will considerably alter his existence—and ours. Now you think about that now, because this is The Twilight Zone.

Summary

After Patrick Thomas McNulty gets fired from his job, he goes to a neighborhood bar where his non-stop chatter drives all of the customers away. One of the last patrons in the bar has a gift for him: a stopwatch. It’s a strange gift and he has no idea what he might do with it. When he presses the button however everything around him stops. He returns to work the next day and tries to market it, but to no avail. He then returns to the bar and again drives everyone out the bar with his bombast.

Rod Serling’s Closing Narration:

Mr. Patrick Thomas McNulty, who had a gift of time. He used it and he misused it, and now he’s just been handed the bill. Tonight’s tale of motion and McNulty – in the Twilight Zone.

CAST

Rod Serling … Narrator / Self – Host (uncredited)
Richard Erdman … Patrick Thomas McNulty
Herbie Faye … Joe Palucci, the bartender
Leon Belasco … Potts, the drunk who gives McNulty the stopwatch
Doris Singleton … Secretary to McNulty’s boss Mr. Cooper
Roy Roberts … Mr. Cooper, McNulty’s annoyed boss
Richard Wessel … Charlie, drinker in Palucci’s bar
Ray Kellog … Fred, who delivers coffee to McNulty’s office
Ken Drake … Daniel, last patron in Palucci’s bar who tells McNulty, “Come on fella, we’re trying to watch.”
Sam Balter: … sports announcer on TV in Polucci’s bar
Al Silvani … one of the drinkers in Polucci’s bar

Twilight Zone – Nightmare at 20,000 Feet

★★★★★ October 11, 1963 Season 5 Episode 3

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

As far as classics go…you can’t get much more classic than this one. Nightmare at 20,000 Feet goes beyond the Twilight Zone into pop culture. It’s been parodied and remade, but this is the definitive version. The Twilight Zone the movie redid this one and they did a good job but it’s not as eerie as this one. The new Twilight Zone in 2019 also did a version.

William Shatner does a great job in this episode as a man (Bob Wilson) who just recovered from a nervous breakdown. Wilson is complex, intelligent, and insecure. He is a man on the brink, trying desperately to hold on to his recently regained normalcy. Shatner’s over-the-top mannerisms work in this episode. The episode still works, partly because of the claustrophobic airplane setting with an added violent thunderstorm. I’ve heard criticism on the monster makeup but if I saw that thing on the wing of a plane I was on…I would freak out also.

Shatner’s character reminds me of The Boy Who Cried Wolf, but this time will he be vindicated?

Richard Donner (Superman and the Omen) directed this episode. The logistics involved in filming Nightmare at 20,000 Feet were enormous. The set consisted of the interior of an airline passenger cabin with the left airplane wing attached to the outside. This was all suspended over a huge water tank, in order to contain the water from the rain effect. Donner remembers the shooting as one big headache.

Richard Matheson’s scripts were so respected that they were filmed almost exactly as written. The only change was one of title, from Flight to The Last Flight.

To show what a great sense of humor Rod Serling had…read the last quote by him down below.

Richard Donner: Because you were suspended up, you had no stage floors. Every movement was a bitch. He lists the factors that had to be considered in virtually every shot. A man flying in on wires. Wind. Rain. Lightning. Smoke, to give the effect of clouds and travel and speed. Actors. You couldnt hear yourself think because of the noise of the machines outside. And fighting time, all the time. It was just unbearable. If any one of those things went wrong, it ruined the whole take. All of this consumed lots of time. We were supposed to take a fourth day in the tank set with the airplane

Then they found out that the studio had committed it to another company. We had to work all night to finish it up. We went overtime till early the next morning.

I love it, I do love it. Its just such an unusual thing for television, really, to see that much energy go into a little half-hour film. And the story was good, too.

From IMDB: William Shatner played an elaborate prank on set when he conspired with a friend who was visiting the filming, actor Edd Byrnes, to trick director Richard Donner into thinking Shatner died. Between takes, and when Donner was off set getting coffee, Shatner and Byrnes staged a fake fight on the set, which was suspended some 30 feet above a giant, empty tank. When Donner ran back in the studio to see what was happening the two men chased each other around the back of the airplane set and wound up atop the plane wing. Donner saw a body falling off the wing and Byrnes yelling in terror as it impacted the concrete floor. Donner said when he ran to the fallen, motionless figure, thinking it was a dead or grievously injured William Shatner, he was greeted with laughter the moment he realized it was just an articulated human dummy the two men had found in another part of the studio and threw off the wing. Donner later joked, “Honestly, my first reaction was, ‘Don’t tell me I have to shoot the whole show over again.'”

Rod Serling: The final story on Nightmare at 20,000 Feet occurred several months after the shooting. Matheson and I were going to fly to San Francisco. It was like three or four weeks after the show was on the air, and I had spent three weeks in constant daily communication with Western Airlines preparing a given seat for him, having the stewardess close the [curtains] when he sat down, and I was going to say, Dick, open it up. I had this huge, blownup poster stuck on the [outside of the window] so that when he opened it there would be this gremlin staring at him. So what happened was we get on the plane, there was the seat, he sits down, the curtains are closed, I lean over and I say, Dick at which point they start the engines and it blows the thing away. It was an old prop airplane. … He never saw it. And I had spent hours in the planning of it. I would lie in bed thinking how we could do this.

This show was written by Rod Serling and Richard Matheson

Rod Serling’s Opening Narration:

Portrait of a frightened man: Mr. Robert Wilson, thirty-seven, husband, father and salesman on sick leave. Mr. Wilson has just been discharged from a sanitarium where he spent the last six months recovering from a nervous breakdown, the onset of which took place on an evening not dissimilar to this one, on an airliner very much like the one in which Mr. Wilson is about to be flown home—the difference being that, on that evening half a year ago, Mr. Wilson’s flight was terminated by the onslaught of his mental breakdown. Tonight, he’s traveling all the way to his appointed destination, which, contrary to Mr. Wilson’s plan, happens to be in the darkest corner of the Twilight Zone.

Summary

Bob Wilson is on a flight when he sees a creature of some sort out on the wing of the aircraft. He’s only recently recovered from a nervous breakdown and isn’t sure that what he is seeing is real. Every time someone else looks out the window, the creature hides from view. When the creature begins to tamper with one of the engines he begs his wife to tell the pilots to keep an eye on the engines. If they see nothing, he agrees to commit himself to an asylum when they arrive at their destination. His paranoia drives him to a desperate act

WARNING…VIDEO SPOILERS

Rod Serling’s Closing Narration:

The flight of Mr. Robert Wilson has ended now, a flight not only from point A to point B, but also from the fear of recurring mental breakdown. Mr. Wilson has that fear no longer… though, for the moment, he is, as he has said, alone in this assurance. Happily, his conviction will not remain isolated too much longer, for happily, tangible manifestation is very often left as evidence of trespass, even from so intangible a quarter as the Twilight Zone.

CAST

Rod Serling … Narrator / Self – Host (uncredited)
William Shatner…Bob Wilson
Christine White…Julia Wilson
Edward Kemmer…the flight engineer
Asa Maynor…stewardess Betty Crosby
Nick Cravat [uncredited]…the gremlin

Animals – Sky Pilot

I bought this song on a single along with San Franciscan Nights when I was getting into the Animals as a pre-teen. This was not the same Animals of House of the Rising Sun and others…everyone but Eric Burdon and drummer Barry Jenkins had been replaced.

A Sky Pilot is a military chaplain, in the lyric he blesses the boys as they stand in line. The song finds the chaplain telling the soldiers that they are fighting for a greater cause, as they are soldiers of God. Eric Burdon tape-recorded The Royal Scot’s Dragoon Guards at a school and used the music during the middle of the song along with the war sound effects.

The song peaked at #14 in the Billboard 100, #7 in Canada, and #40 in the UK in 1968. The single was split into two parts to fit on the 45 so to hear the rest of the song… you had to flip the record over.

Eric Burdon received an angry letter from the British government for his use of pipe music. The song he used was “All The Bluebonnet’s Are Over The Border,” which is a classic Scottish war piece written as an anti-war epic during the Vietnam War.

Sky Pilot

He blesses the boys as they stand in line
The smell of gun grease and the bayonets they shine
He’s there to help them all that he can
To make them feel wanted he’s a good holy man

Sky pilot…..sky pilot
How high can you fly
You’ll never, never, never reach the sky
He smiles at the young soldiers

Tells them its all right
He knows of their fear in the forthcoming fight
Soon there’ll be blood and many will die
Mothers and fathers back home they will cry

Sky pilot…..sky pilot
How high can you fly
You’ll never, never, never reach the sky
He mumbles a prayer and it ends with a smile

The order is given
They move down the line
But he’s still behind and he’ll meditate
But it won’t stop the bleeding or ease the hate

As the young men move out into the battle zone
He feels good, with God you’re never alone
He feels tired and he lays on his bed
Hopes the men will find courage in the words that he said

Sky pilot… sky Pilot
How high can you fly
You’ll never, never, never reach the sky
You’re soldiers of God you must understand

The fate of your country is in your young hands
May God give you strength
Do your job real well
If it all was worth it

Only time it will tell
In the morning they return
With tears in their eyes
The stench of death drifts up to the skies

A soldier so ill looks at the sky pilot
Remembers the words
“Thou shalt not kill”
Sky pilot…..sky pilot

How high can you fly
You never, never, never reach the sky

Comedian Quotes II

I did this last week with the earlier comedians….this week I’ll concentrate on the 60s-70s.

George Carlin

Here’s all you have to know about men and women: women are crazy, men are stupid. And the main reason women are crazy is that men are stupid.

Most people work just hard enough not to get fired and get paid just enough money not to quit

Ever wonder about those people who spend $2 apiece on those little bottles of Evian water? Try spelling Evian backward

Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that

Fighting for peace is like screwing for virginity

Richard Pryor

Who you gonna believe, me or your lying eyes?

I’m not addicted to cocaine. I just like the way it smells

I had to stop drinking, ‘cause I got tired of waking up in my car driving ninety

Marriage is really tough because you have to deal with feelings… and lawyers

There’s a thin line between to laugh with and to laugh at

Rodney Dangerfield

I could tell my parents hated me. My bath toys were a toaster and a radio

My marriage is on the rocks again. Yeah. My wife just broke up with her boyfriend

My wife has to be the worst cook. In my house, we pray after we eat

When I was born, I was so ugly the doctor slapped my mother

Marriage. It’s not a word. It’s a sentence

When I was a kid my parents moved a lot, but I always found them

Lenny Bruce

Every day people are straying away from the church and going back to God

Alright, let’s admit it, we Jews killed Christ – but it was only for three days

I am influenced by every second of my waking hour

It’s the suppression of the word that gives it the power, the violence, the viciousness

Bob Newhart

I don’t like country music, but I don’t mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means ‘put down’

Stammering is different than stuttering. Stutterers have trouble with the letters, while stammerers trip over entire parts of a sentence. We stammerers generally think of ourselves as very bright

I think you should be a child for as long as you can. I have been successful for 74 years being able to do that. Don’t rush into adulthood, it isn’t all that much fun

Phyllis Diller

The reason women don’t play football is because 11 of them would never wear the same outfit in public.

I spent seven hours in a beauty shop… and that was for the estimate.

I’ve tried Buddhism, Scientology, Numerology, Transcendental Meditation, Qabbala, t’ai chi, feng shui and Deepak Chopra but I find straight gin works best

I never made `Who’s Who,’ but I’m featured in `What’s That?’

I want my children to have all the things I couldn’t afford. Then I want to move in with them

Redd Foxx

If you can see the handwriting on the wall… you’re on the toilet

I feel sorry for people who don’t drink or do drugs. Because someday they’re going to be in a hospital bed, dying, and they won’t know why

You make me wish that birth control was retroactive

Beauty may be skin deep, but ugly goes clear to the bone.

Lily Tomin

The best mind-altering drug is the truth.

The road to success is always under construction.

I always wondered why somebody doesn’t do something about that. Then I realized I was somebody.

I always wanted to be somebody, but now I realize I should have been more specific.

Reality is the leading cause of stress among those in touch with it.

Twilight Zone – Steel

★★★★1/2 October 4, 1963 Season 5 Episode 2

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

Steel is very good starring the movie star…Lee Marvin.

This episode has a parallel to the NFL in present day to me. With CTE (Chronic traumatic encephalopathy), football as I knew it is gone. In 20 years it probably won’t resemble the game now. Steel is set in 1974 and boxing between humans is illegal. It was deemed as too dangerous and now robots fight each other intead of humans.

Lee Marvin plays Steel Kelly who was a former boxer until the law was passed to ban human boxing. He now owns an older model robot (an old B2) named Battling Maxo. Marvin is a determined, sad, and desparate character. He believes in his outdated fighter and will do anything to keep the broken down Maxo going…including doing the unthinkable.

Marvin’s gritty performance brings this episode up above normal ones. Taking the place of the boxing trainer would be mechanic Pole…played by Joe Mantell. He keeps Maxo going but knows the robot is washed up and busted. He wants to scrap him but Steel won’t hear of it…they keep looking for parts that just aren’t made anymore.

The two robot faces were crafted by William Tuttle. Lifemasks were taken of the actors, atop which the robot faces were sculpted in clay. Foam rubber and latex copies were cast of these, which were then glued onto the actors faces. As for the inhuman, expressionless eyes, those were sections of ping-pong balls, painted black, with pinpoint eye holes through the center.

This show was written by Rod Serling and Richard Matheson

Rod Serling’s Opening Narration:

Sports item, circa 1974: Battling Maxo, B2, heavyweight, accompanied by his manager and handler, arrives in Maynard, Kansas, for a scheduled six-round bout. Battling Maxo is a robot, or, to be exact, an android, definition: ‘an automaton resembling a human being.’ Only these automatons have been permitted in the ring since prizefighting was legally abolished in 1968. This is the story of that scheduled six-round bout, more specifically the story of two men shortly to face that remorseless truth: that no law can be passed which will abolish cruelty or desperate need—nor, for that matter, blind animal courage. Location for the facing of said truth: a small, smoke-filled arena just this side of the Twilight Zone.

Summary

In the not too distant future, boxing has been banned and replaced by robot fighters in the ring. Sam “Steel” Kelly is a former boxer but now owns one of these pugilistic machines. Unfortunately his robot, which he’s named Battling Maxo, is getting old and many of its parts are no longer available. Kelly is broke and is doing everything he can to ensure Battling Maxo can enter the ring as the promoter has made it clear there’s no payment if there’s no bout. When Maxo breaks down however, Kelly decides to takes its place.

Rod Serling’s Closing Narration:

Portrait of a losing side, proof positive that you can’t outpunch machinery. Proof also of something else: that no matter what the future brings, man’s capacity to rise to the occasion will remain unaltered. His potential for tenacity and optimism continues, as always, to outfight, outpoint and outlive any and all changes made by his society, for which three cheers and a unanimous decision rendered from the Twilight Zone.

Sorry I could NOT find a video clip without a reviewer. He does give it away…just so you know.

CAST

Rod Serling…Narrator / Self – Host (uncredited)
Lee Marvin…Steel Kelly
Joe Mantell…Pole
Chuck Hicks…Maynard Flash
Merritt Bohn…Nolan
Frank London…Maxwell
Larry Barton…Boxing Match Spectator (voice) (uncredited)
Slim Bergman…Boxing Match Spectator (uncredited)
Louis Cavalier…Boxing Match Spectator (uncredited)
Ken DuMain…Boxing Match Spectator (uncredited)
Tipp McClure…Battling Maxo (uncredited)
Edwin Rochelle…Boxing Match Spectator (uncredited)

Byrds – Mr. Spaceman

After I graduated, I purchased the Byrds Greatest Hits and this one caught my attention immediately. It continued to build my love for the Rickenbacker 12 string electric guitar.

Now, this is some cool hype. The release of the single was accompanied by a spoof press announcement from the Byrds’ co-manager, Eddie Tickner, stating that he had taken out a one-million-dollar insurance policy with Lloyd’s of London against his clients being kidnapped by extraterrestrial visitors.

This song was on their Fifth Dimension album. With this song, you could almost hear Sweetheart of the Rodeo coming around the corner. Mr. Spaceman was written by Roger McGuinn. This was their third album, and it was recorded shortly after Gene Clark left the band. When he left, it left a songwriting hole in the band. McGuinn and David Crosby tried to step up and fill the void, but they still had to have four cover songs on the album.

The album peaked at #24 in the Billboard Album Charts and #27 in the UK in 1966. Mr. Spaceman peaked at #36 in the Billboard 100.

Despite its country-style backing with a touch of psychedelia…it was called “space rock” in the press. Some critics have said it was one of the earliest examples of country rock.

The first video below has Gram Parsons who didn’t join the band until 2 years after this song was released. It was filmed at the Roman Colosseum while the Byrds were in town to play the first International European Pop Festival in 1968.

In that video, we see original Byrds Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman joined by new members Gram Parsons, Kevin Kelley, and Douglas Dillard.

Roger McGuinn: “I was interested in astronomy and the possibility of connecting with extraterrestrial life and I thought that it might work the other way round, if we tried to contact them. I thought that the song being played on the air might be a way of getting through to them. But even if there had been anybody up there listening, they wouldn’t have heard because I found out later that AM airwaves diffuse into space too rapidly.”

The Byrds with Gram Parsons video

Mr. Spaceman

Woke up this morning with light in my eyes
And then realized it was still dark outside
It was a light coming down from the sky
I don’t know who or why

Must be those strangers that come every night
Those saucer shaped lights put people uptight
Leave blue green footprints that glow in the dark
I hope they get home alright

Hey, Mr. Spaceman
Won’t you please take me along
I won’t do anything wrong
Hey, Mr. Spaceman
Won’t you please take me along for a ride

Woke up this morning, I was feeling quite weird
Had flies in my beard, my toothpaste was smeared
Over my window, they’d written my name
Said, “So long, we’ll see you again”

Hey, Mr. Spaceman
Won’t you please take me along
I won’t do anything wrong
Hey, Mr. Spaceman
Won’t you please take me along for a ride

Twilight Zone – In Praise of Pip

★★★★★ September 27, 1963 Season 5 Episode 1

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

This one is not known as a classic, but it should be. Jack Klugman plays a bookie with a drinking problem named Max Phillips. Klugman’s transformation will resonate with viewers. Max gets a telegram that his son is dying in Vietnam. He realizes he wasted a great deal of his life dreaming instead of doing and working instead of spending more time with his son. He makes a deal with God for one more hour with his son. Afterward, he makes one more deal.

Klugman’s performances in his last scenes were some of the best of the series. How much time do we spend doing other things (even work) other than to be with our love ones? In Praise of Pip is a thought-provoking and touching drama about a man’s love for his son and a reminder to pay attention to what is really important in life.

This is Anne Serling’s (Rod Serling’s daughter) favorite episode of the Twilight Zone. She noticed a lot of the dialog in this episode that happened between her and her father.

The script originally had Pip stationed in Laos, but the network had Rod Serling change it to Vietnam.

I was surprised about the early mention of Vietnam in this one. There were officially no combat or special forces in Laos. The implication that the U.S. had troops fighting in Laos (even in The Twilight Zone) could be an embarrassment and might cause repercussions. U.S. Special Forces were fighting (in an advisory capacity) in South Vietnam. Suggest South Vietnam. This episode was produced about two years before the massive intervention of American forces in South Vietnam.

From IMDB: Bill Mumy’s father rarely joined his son on sets, but joined him on this occasion because the two often visited the pier they filmed on. His father recalled being impressed with Jack Klugman who introduced himself to the family and explained that father and son would be extremely affectionate. Mumy joined his own son Seth Mumy on set of Dear God (1996) with Klugman 30 years later.

This show was written by Rod Serling

Rod Serling’s Opening Narration:

Submitted for your approval: one Max Phillips. A slightly-the-worse-for-wear maker of book, whose life has been as drab and undistinguished as a bundle of dirty clothes. And t fhough it’s very late in his day, he has an errant wish that the rest of his life might be sent out to a laundry, to come back shiny and clean. This to be a gift of love to a son named Pip. Mr. Max Phillips, homo sapiens, who is soon to discover that man is not as wise as he thinks. Said lesson to be learned in the Twilight Zone.

Summary

In the early 1960s, small-time bookie Max Phillips (Jack Klugman) hates his life. His only pride is his son, Pip, who is serving the U.S. Armed Forces in Vietnam. When a young man uses company funds to place a bet with Max, the man loses the wager. Max then returns his money, which angers Max’s bosses.

Rod Serling’s Closing Narration:

Very little comment here, save for this small aside: that the ties of flesh are deep and strong; that the capacity to love is a vital, rich, and all-consuming function of the human animal. And that you can find nobility and sacrifice and love wherever you may seek it out: down the block, in the heart or in the Twilight Zone.

CAST

Rod Serling…Narrator / Self – Host (uncredited)
Jack Klugman…Max Phillips
Connie Gilchrist…Mrs. Feeny
Robert Diamond…Pvt. Pip
Billy Mumy: Young Pip
Ross Elliott: doctor in Vietnam
Gerald Gordon: lieutenant in Vietnam
Russell Horton: George Reynold
S. John Launer: Mr. Moran
Kreg Martin: Mr. Moran’s enforcer
Stuart Nisbet…surgeon in Vietnam

Twilight Zone Season 4 Review

Again I will say…I want to thank you all who have stuck with me through this long haul. We are now finished with the 4th season! The 5th and also last season lasts 36 episodes.

I do have one to add that was on The Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse that was a precurser to the Twilight Zone called The Time Element. It was a teleplay that premiered on November 24, 1958. It was Rod Serling’s first science fiction story.

After going through 4th season …it was better than I gave it credit for earlier. The hour long episodes changed the way I graded them because they were different than the 30 minute episode. Some did suffer from too much padding but some were able to tell a more complete story. You did have a few that didn’t click well at all.

If you want… please comment on what you think I got wrong, right, or just your favorite episodes.

In the spring of 1963, CBS renewed Twilight Zone for a fifth season, shortening it back to a half hour. The networks experiment had failed: Twilight Zone’s expanded size had not made for an expanded audience. The season contained 18 long episodes.

Rod Serling: Our shows this season were too padded. The bulk of our stories lacked the excitement and punch of the shorter dramas we intended when we started five years ago and kept to for a while. If you ask me, I think we had only one really effective show this season, On Thursday We Leave for Home. … Yes, I wrote it myself, but I overwrote it. I think the story was good despite what I did to it.

Looking back, Serling’s assessment was too hard. There had been a number of really good hour-long episodes, among them On Thursday We Leave for Home, Death Ship, In His Image, Valley Of The Shadows, Printer’s Devi and The New Exhibit. The Twilight Zone had not embarrased itself in this season.

The 5th season was not as consistent as the first 3 but it contains some of my favorite episodes.

Season 4
Total	Episode	Date	Episode	Stars
103	1	Jan 3, 1963	In His Image	4.5
104	2	Jan 10, 1963	The Thirty-Five Fathom Grave	3.5
105	3	Jan 17, 1963	Valley Of The Shadows	5
106	4	Jan 24, 1963	He’s Alive	5
107	5	Jan 31, 1963	Mute	4
108	6	Feb 7, 1963	Death Ship	5
109	7	Feb 14, 1963	Jess-Belle	4
110	8	Feb 21, 1963	Miniature	4.5
111	9	Feb 28, 1963	Printer’s Devil	5
112	10	Mar 7, 1963	No Time Like The Past	3.5
113	11	Mar 14, 1963	The Parallel	4.5
114	12	Mar 21, 1963	I Dream Of Genie	2.5
115	13	Apr 4, 1963	The New Exhibit	5
116	14	Apr 11, 1963	Of Late I Think Of Cliffordville	4
117	15	Apr 18, 1963	The Incredible World Of Horace Ford	3.5
118	16	May 2, 1963	On Thursday We Leave For Home	5
119	17	May 9, 1963	Passage On The Lady Anne	4.5
120	18	May 23, 1963	The Bard	2

Turtles – Happy Together

When I was a kid some relative gave me The Turtles Elenore single and I became a fan. This song was their biggest hit and it is a great song.

The band was formed by Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan. They were saxophone players who did whatever was trendy in order to make a living as musicians. They were also in the choir together in high school.

They played surf-rock mostly at the time. They also played backup for The Coasters, Sonny And Cher and The Righteous Brothers when they came through. After a while, Howard and Mark gave up the sax and became singers. They signed a deal with White Whale Records as The Crosswind Singers. When British groups took over America, they tried to pass themselves off as British singers and renamed themselves The Turtles.

Like The Byrds, The Turtles recorded a Bob Dylan song for their first single It Ain’t Me Babe and it was a hit. They recorded some more songs that that were top 40 hits but this one did the trick. They decided to record Happy Together after many other artists passed on it. The song peaked at #1 in the Billboard 100, #2 in Canada, and #4 in the UK in 1967.

After Happy Together hit they flew to England and met The Beatles, Brian Jones, Graham Nash, Donovan, The Rolling Stones and Jimi Hendrix. The Beatles played them the unreleased Sgt Pepper’s album. Howard Kaylan would later write the 2003 Comedy movie “My Dinner With Jimi” with events surrounding and leading up to this trip.

Kaylan and Volman sang backing vocals on several recordings by T. Rex, including their worldwide 1971 hit “Get it On (Bang A Gong). Later they did the backup vocals on Bruce Springsteen’s Hungry Heart.

They became known as Flo (Phlorescent Leech) and Eddie. Kaylan and Volman joined Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention as Flo and Eddie because of contractual restrictions of their record company.

Volman and Kaylan were very smart. When White Whale’s master recordings were sold at auction in 1974, the duo won the Turtles’ masters, making them the owners of their own recorded work. They also hosted some radio shows in the 70s and 80s and recorded soundtrack music for children’s shows like the Care Bears and Strawberry Shortcake.

If you are in any way interested in watching band documentaries… watch The Turtles doc! It is hilarious. I will include the full doc above the song.

Here is the documentary…watch it if you have time. What they did to their last manager (who was also their first) is classic!

Happy Together

Imagine me and you, I do
I think about you day and night, it’s only right
To think about the girl you love and hold her tight
So happy together

If I should call you up, invest a dime
And you say you belong to me and ease my mind
Imagine how the world could be, so very fine
So happy together

I can’t see me lovin’ nobody but you
For all my life
When you’re with me, baby the skies’ll be blue
For all my life

Me and you and you and me
No matter how they toss the dice, it had to be
The only one for me is you, and you for me
So happy together

I can’t see me lovin’ nobody but you
For all my life
When you’re with me, baby the skies’ll be blue
For all my life

Me and you and you and me
No matter how they toss the dice, it had to be
The only one for me is you, and you for me
So happy together

Ba-ba-ba-ba ba-ba-ba-ba ba-ba-ba ba-ba-ba-ba
Ba-ba-ba-ba ba-ba-ba-ba ba-ba-ba ba-ba-ba-ba

Me and you and you and me
No matter how they toss the dice, it had to be
The only one for me is you, and you for me
So happy together

So happy together
How is the weather
So happy together
We’re happy together
So happy together
Happy together
So happy together
So happy together (ba-ba-ba-ba ba-ba-ba-ba)

Twilight Zone – The Bard

★★ May 23, 1963 Season 4 Episode 18

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

This show closed out the 4th season and the one hour long experiment was over. The Bard is my least favorite episode of the entire series. I’ve seen some lists where it’s the bottom or near the bottom. On the other hand, I’ve seen some have it high. It’s a comedy episode that just doesn’t work. One thing that is interesting about this episode is the appearance of Burt Reynolds playing a Marlon Brando character. That added a star in my rating but even Burt couldn’t save this one.

Jack Weston plays Julius Moomer and the character is a no-talent writer who uses black magic to bring William Shakespeare back to write a television program. Even typing it sounds cringe-worthy. The plot had some good elements of a Twilight Zone but Weston’s character is just not likable. It might have worked in a shorter format with a different script.

Some may think this is a hilarious episode…I just never did.

From IMDB: William Shakespeare (John Williams) quotes lines from his plays nine times with a trumpet flourish sounding each time, and most of the time, him telling what play, act, and scene the quote came from. Three from ‘Romeo & Juliet,’ two from ‘Twelfth Night,’ and one each from ‘Troilus and Cressida,’ ‘As You Like It,’ and ‘A Mid-Summer’s Night Dream’, plus a partial one from ‘Hamlet’ (cut short when Shakespeare forgets the end of the “To be or not to be” line.

Cora (Judy Strangis) looks at the book , “Ye Book of Ye Black Art”, Julius (Jack Weston) is using to conjure black magic and refers to him as Faust. In a classic German legend based on Johann Georg Faust, he makes a pact with the devil, exchanging his soul for unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasures. The devil sends his representative, Mephistopheles. He makes a bargain with Faust: Mephistopheles will serve Faust with his magic powers for a set number of years, but at the end of the term, the Devil will claim Faust’s soul, and Faust will be eternally enslaved.

Burt Reynolds’s character is clearly an amalgam of Marlon Brando and Paul Newman.

Rod Serling’s Opening Narration:

You’ve just witnessed opportunity, if not knocking, at least scratching plaintively on a closed door. Mr. Julius Moomer, a would-be writer, who if talent came 25 cents a pound, would be worth less than car fare. But, in a moment, Mr. Moomer, through the offices of some black magic, is about to embark on a brand-new career. And although he may never get a writing credit on the Twilight Zone, he’s to become an integral character in it.

Here is a clip that I could not embed becasue it’s on Dailymotion.

Summary

Julius Moomer, a talentless, but relentless, self-promoting hack who dreams of becoming a successful television writer, uses a book of magic to summon William Shakespeare to write dramatic teleplays that Moomer will pass off as his own. Shakespeare becomes irritated by Moomer’s lack of appreciation and is even more appalled when he discovers the changes wrought on his plays by cynical television executives.

Rod Serling’s Closing Narration:

Mr. Julius Moomer, a streetcar conductor with delusions of authorship, and if the tale just told seems a little tall, remember a thing called poetic license, and another thing called the Twilight Zone.

CAST

Rod Serling … Narrator / Self – Host (uncredited)
Jack Weston … Julius Moomer
John Williams … William Shakespeare
Burt Reynolds … Rocky Rhodes
Henry Lascoe … Gerald Hugo
John McGiver … Mr. Shannon
Howard McNear … Bramhoff
Judy Strangis … Cora
Marge Redmond … Secretary
Doro Merande … Sadie
William Lanteau … Dolan
Clegg Hoyt … Bus driver
John Newton … TV interviewer
John Bose … Daniel Boone (uncredited)
Rudy Bowman … Robert E. Lee (uncredited)

Cream – Born Under A Bad Sign

When I first started to listen to Cream, what stood out was not Clapton’s guitar or Baker’s drumming…no it was Jack Bruce’s bass. There are three bass players I listened to while starting out playing. John Entwistle, Jack Bruce, and Paul McCartney. Those three covered the chaotic, the sliding, and melodic. Jack Bruce had all of these traits.

Cream recorded this and released it on their 1968 album Wheels Of Fire. It was written by Booker T Jones and William Bell for Albert King. King released it on his first Stax album Born Under A Bad Sign in 1967. Clapton stuck close to King’s guitar style on this song.

The Wheels of Fire album peaked at #1 in the Billboard Album Charts, #1 in Canada, and #3 in the UK in 1968.

Cream played this when they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on January 12, 1993, in tribute to Albert King, who died the previous year. It was one of two times the band has played together since they broke up in 1968. The first time was at Clapton’s wedding in 1979…three Beatles also played together at his wedding.

Booker T Jones: “My recollection is that we wrote it in my den, late the night before the session. We had been trying to come up with something for Albert. He was coming to town and it was the last opportunity we had to write a song. But you know, now that I think of it, the fact that the song was in D flat, there is definitely an Indiana influence because, you know, a blues song in d flat? I tell you, I learned the value of flat keys and sharp keys and how to use them for emotional value so I could have more range and capacity for touching the human heart. I think that was one of the reasons that song became as huge as it did. Because it was in D flat.”

King’s song is also included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s list of the “500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll”

From Songfacts

When Albert King signed with Stax Records in Memphis, Booker T. Jones, who was a member of the Stax house band Booker T. & The MGs, was assigned his producer. In an interview with National Public Radio (NPR), Jones explained: “At that time, my writing partner was William Bell. He came over to my house the night before the session. William wrote the words and I wrote the music in my den that night. That was one of my greatest moments in the studio as far as being thrilled with a piece of music. The feeling of it, it’s the real blues done by the real people. It was Albert King from East St. Louis, the left-handed guitar player who was just one of a kind and so electric and so intense and so serious about his music. He just lost himself in the music. He’s such a one of a kind character. I was there in the middle of it and it was exhilarating.”

The “bad sign” is an astrology reference: if you’re “born under a bad sign,” it means the stars are aligned against you from birth. It was the song’s co-writer William Bell who came up with the title – he wanted to do a blues song about astrology.

Born Under A Bad Sign was Albert King’s first album released by Stax. It became King’s signature song, with the classic lyrics, “If it wasn’t for bad luck, I wouldn’t have no luck at all.”

The song harkens back to blues of the ’30s and ’40s which had similar lyrical content.

King was an American blues musician. Known for his size (6′ 4″, 250 pounds) and custom-made, left-handed Gibson guitar, he died in 1992.

Their guitarist, Eric Clapton, idolized American blues artists and often performed their songs. It marked a change of guitar style for Clapton, who adopted a harder, attacking style on this song in place of the sweeter, sustaining notes he called “woman tone,” which were more apparent on Cream’s first two albums.

The Paul Butterfield Blues Band played this at Woodstock in 1969. They went on Monday morning, two sets ahead of Jimi Hendrix.

Jimi Hendrix and Buddy Miles, recorded an instrumental cover in 1969 as a tribute to King.

This song’s lyricist William Bell performed it at the Grammy Awards in 2017 with Gary Clark Jr. “When you spend your life making music, you were born under a good sign, Bell said when they finished the song.” Bell won the award for Best Americana Album.

Janis Joplin’s guitarist Sam Andrew borrowed the riff for Big Brother & The Holding Company’s song “I Need A Man To Love.”

Christian posted this video in the comments…I thought I would add it…

Born Under A Bad Sign

Born under a bad sign
Been down since I begin to crawl
If it wasn’t for bad luck
You know I wouldn’t have no luck at all

Hard luck and trouble is my only friend
I’ve been on my own ever since I was ten
Born under a bad sign
Been down since I begin to crawl
If it wasn’t for bad luck
You know I wouldn’t have no luck at all

I can’t read, haven’t learned how to write
My whole life has been one big fight
Born under a bad sign
I been down since I begin to crawl
If it wasn’t for bad luck
I say I wouldn’t have no luck at all

I ain’t no lyin’

You know if it wasn’t for bad luck
I wouldn’t have no kinda luck
If it wasn’t for real bad luck
I wouldn’t have no luck at all

You know, wine and women is all I crave
A big-legged woman is gonna carry me to my grave
Born under a bad sign
I been down since I begin to crawl
If it wasn’t for bad luck
I tell I wouldn’t have no luck at all

Yeah, my bad luck boy
Been havin’ bad luck all of my days, yes

Steven Wright

Bill Hicks

Sam Kinison

Eddie Murphy

Steve Martin

George Burns

***WARNING…VIDEO SPOILERS***

***WARNING…VIDEO SPOILERS***

George Carlin

Richard Pryor

Rodney Dangerfield

Lenny Bruce

Bob Newhart

Phyllis Diller

Redd Foxx

Lily Tomin

WARNING…VIDEO SPOILERS

WARNING…VIDEO SPOILERS