Great rocker by Paul that was on his most successful album Band On The Run. “Helen Wheels” was Paul’s tongue-in-cheek nickname for his Land Rover vehicle (“Hell-on-Wheels”). Paul originally wanted this song to be a stand-alone single but Capitol overruled him…. and placed it on US versions of the Band On The Run album.
Drummer Denny Seiwell and guitarist Henry McCullough quit Wings right before Paul was heading to Lagos, Nigeria to record this album. Paul only had himself, Linda, and Denny Laine to get it done. He wanted to record outside of the UK and got a list from Capitol of all of ther studio locations. He picked Africa and was accused of going there to expand his music with their percussion and rythms.
They got to Lagos ready to work but it didn’t go well at first. Paul and Linda walked home one night from the studio and were pestered by a group of men in a car, who repeatedly asked if they wanted a lift. After arguing with the men…six of them got out of the car and robbed Paul and Linda by gun point. They ended up handing over over demo tapes, cameras and cash. Al the music and lyrics he had for Band On The Run was gone. He had to reconstruct everything in the Lagos studio.
They went out of their way to avoid an African sound after the mugging and being accused of coming to Lagos to exploit their music. After 6 weeks in Lagos, the album was completed in London.
I do wish Paul would have made more songs like Juinors Farm, Let Me Roll It, and this one. He could do edgy songs when he wanted to.
The song peaked at #10 in the Billboard 100, #4 in Canada, and #12 in the UK in 1973. It was a non-album single in the UK and Europe but included on Band on the Run in America.
The Band on the Run album peaked at #1 in the Billboard Album Charts, Canada, The UK, and #23 in New Zealand in 1973-1974.
Helen Wheels
Said farewell to my last hotel, it never was much kind of abode Glasgow town never brought me down when I was heading out on the road Carlisle city never looked so pretty, and the kendal freeway is fast Slow down driver, wanna stay alive, i wanna make this journey last
Helen! (Helen) Helen Wheels Ain’t nobody else gonna know the way she feels Helen! (Helen) Helen Wheels And they never gonna take her away
M6 south down Liverpool, where they play the west coast sound Sailor Sam, he came from Birmingham, but he never will be found Doin’ fine when a London sign, greets me like a long lost friend Mister motor won’t you check her out, she’s gotta take me back again
Helen! (Helen) Helen Wheels Ain’t nobody else gonna know the way she feels Helen! (Helen) Helen Wheels And they never gonna take her away
Got no time for a rum and lime, i wanna get my right foot down; Shake some dust off of this old bus, i gotta get her out of town Spend the day upon the motorway, where the carburettors blast; Slow down driver, wanna stay alive, i wanna make this journey last
Helen! (Helen) Helen Wheels Ain’t nobody else gonna know the way she feels Helen (Helen) Helen Wheels And they never gonna take her away
As you probably have seen…I’ve beening listening to some blues lately…this one is great. King’s clean piercing guitar hits the spot.
When Duane Allman was helping Eric Clapton on the Derek and the Dominos album they had Layla’s main track laid out. Duane suggest a new intro…he got that intro from this song that King did and expanded on it. It’s very faint…but Duane saw something in there and made it work. That shows you how some songs influence other artists. Just a riff here or there that they build on.
This is a great song all by itself. It was written by “Deadric Malone”, a pseudonym for Don Robey. It was first recorded by Fention Fenton Robinson and released as a single in 1959.
Albert started to record in the 50s and would eventually go to Memphis to join Stax Records in the 60s. In 1967 we would relased the album Born Under A Bad Sign which contained this song. Love that cover design!
As The Years Go Passing By
Ah the blues The ball and chain that is ’round every English musician’s leg In fact every musician’s leg Tryin’ to kick it off baby? No no. You’ll just never do it And these are the blues of time And the blues of a woman And a man thinkin’ of her As time goes by
There is nothin’ I can do If you leave me here to cry There is nothin’ I can do If you leave me here to cry You know my love will follow you baby Mmm until the day I die
I’ve given you all I own; That is one thing you cannot deny Oh I’ve given you all I own; Baby that is one thing you cannot deny And my love will follow you baby Yeah Till the day this man dies.
I’ve got failure all around me No matter how hard I try. I’ve got failure It’s all around me No matter how hard I Try try You know my ghost will haunt you baby Until the day you stop down and die Well you better get up Right now right now
Well You think that you have left me behind And that with your other man you’re safe And you’re away from me baby but uh One o’ these days you’re gonna break down and cry Because there is no escape from this man Because this man’s love is so strong He’s gonna haunt you You know my love will follow you Mmm until the day I die
There is just one thing I want to tell you before I go I’m gonna leave it I’m gonna leave it Leave it up to you So long baby bye-bye Hey I’m gonna leave it up to you baby So long baby bye-bye
Well you know my love will follow you Mmm ’til the day I die Till the day I die Till the day I die Till the day I die Till the day I die Till the day I am dead Till the day that they rest my head Till the day I die Till the day I I I I die Till the day I die Till the day I die Till the day I die Till the day that you die and I die Till the day I die Till the day I die Till the day I die Till the day I die Till the day I die Till the day I die Till the day I die Till the day I die Till the day I die Till the day I die
The title says it all with this song. It is one of the best Zeppelin pure rock and roll songs. As with most things with Zeppelin the drums made this song…John Bonham was the key element to their songs just as Keith Moon was to The Who. The two drummers helped shape the sound of their respective bands more than most.
This song came about when the band was working on “Four Sticks” at the Headley Grange mansion they had rented in Hampshire, England to record the album. With a pretty much unplayable drum pattern, John Bonham got frustrated with the session, and tensions rose. In a pique of anger, he started playing something completely different: a riff based on the intro to the 1957 Little Richard song “Keep a Knockin.'”
If you want more Led Zeppelin…yesterday Dave from A Sound Day had a post on their first album.
The band was not a singles band in any sense but this one peaked at #47 in the Billboard 100 and #38 in Canada in 1972. They didn’t release singles in the UK in the band’s lifetime.
The album did much better…it peaked at #1 in the Billboard 100, Canada, and the UK in 1971.
1971 was maybe the best year of rock albums ever. A few months before this one…The Who released Who’s Next, The Allman Brothers – At Fillmore East, David Bowie – Hunky Dory, The Stones – Sticky Fingers, Doors – L.A. Woman, Alice Cooper – Killer, and many more.
Jerry Lee Lewis did a cover of this song with Jimmy Page…I like the short opening raw riff Jimmy plays.
Jimmy Page:“We were recording something else when John Bonham started playing the drum intro to ‘Keep a Knockin’ by Little Richard and I immediately started playing the riff for ‘Rock And Roll.’ Instead of laughing it off and going back to the previous song, we kept going. ‘Rock And Roll’ was written in minutes and recorded within an hour.”
Robert Plant:“We just thought rock and roll needed to be taken on again,” “I was finally in a really successful band, and we felt it was time for actually kicking ass. It wasn’t an intellectual thing, ’cause we didn’t have time for that – we just wanted to let it all come flooding out. It was a very animal thing, a hellishly powerful thing, what we were doing.”
From Songfacts
As the title suggests, the song is based on one of the most popular structures in rock and roll; namely, the 12-bar blues progression (in A). The phrase “Rock and Roll” was a term blues musicians used, which meant sex.
Robert Plant wrote the lyrics, which were a response to critics who claimed their previous album, Led Zeppelin III, wasn’t really rock and roll. Led Zeppelin III had more of an acoustic folk sound, and Plant wanted to prove they could still rock out.
Infused with creative energy, they put “Four Sticks” aside and started working on this new song, which they called “It’s Been a Long Time.” Jimmy Page blasted out a guitar part, and the bones of the song were completed in about 30 minutes.
The band often used this either as an encore or to open live shows from 1971-1975.
Ian Stewart, known for his work with The Rolling Stones (he was almost a member of the group, but their manager didn’t think he looked the part), played piano on this track. Stewart was on hand because Led Zeppelin was using the Rolling Stones’ mobile recording unit to record the album, as the Headley Grange mansion didn’t have a studio. Stewart was sent as a technician to assist with recording, but he came in quite handy on “Rock And Roll” when they needed some serious boogie-woogie piano.
Plant, Jimmy Page, and John Paul Jones played this at Live Aid in 1985. It was the first time they played together since the death of John Bonham in 1980. Tony Thompson and Phil Collins sat in for Bonham on drums, which didn’t go over well with Page and Plant. When the band reformed for a benefit show on December 10, 2007, it was with John Bonham’s son Jason on drums. This was the last song they played at the show, which raised money for the Ahmet Ertegun education fund.
Besides Live Aid, the remaining members of Led Zeppelin played this on two other occasions. When Robert Plant’s daughter Carmen turned 21 in 1989, they played it at her birthday party. They also played it at Jason Bonham’s wedding in 1990. Jason is John Bonham’s son, and he sat in on drums on both performances.
This has been covered by many other artists, including Def Leppard and Heart. In 2001, it was recorded by Double Trouble (Stevie Ray Vaughan’s backup band), for their 2001 album Been A Long Time. Susan Tedeschi sang lead on the track.
All four band members got writing credits for this. Many Zeppelin songs are credited only to Page and Plant.
This was the first Led Zeppelin song used in a commercial. Cadillac used it to kick off a new advertising campaign in 2002 with the tagline “Breakthrough.” The company was going for a hip, new image, since their audience was slowly dying off. The spots aired for the first time on the Super Bowl, and sales rose 16% the next year.
The lyric “It’s been a long time since the book of love” is a reference to the Monotones’ 1958 hit “Book Of Love,” which is also referenced in “American Pie.”
Since the death of his father, Jason Bonham has filled in behind the drum set for various Led Zeppelin reunion gigs. He told American Songwriter this is the hardest Zeppelin song to play as, “a lot of people out there try and play it, and really it’s a two-handed shuffle all the way through, playing the sixteenth notes, it’s not just boom bap-boom-bap-boom- bap, it’s boom-boom-bap-bap-boom-boom-bap-bap on the snare and the hi-hat. It’s a hard one to play properly.”
Stevie Nicks added this to her live set in 2001.
Rock and Roll
It’s been a long time since I rock and rolled It’s been a long time since I did the stroll Ooh, let me get it back, let me get it back, let me get it back Mmm, baby, where I come from
It’s been a long time, been a long time Been a long, lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely time Yes, it has
It’s been a long time since the book of love I can’t count the tears of a life with no love Carry me back, carry me back, carry me back Mmm, baby, where I come from, whoa, whoa, oh
It’s been a long time, been a long time Been a long, lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely time
Oh, oh, ahh, ahh
Oh, it seems so long since we walked in the moonlight Making vows that just couldn’t work right Ah, yeah, open your arms, open your arms, open your arms Baby, let my love come running in, yeah
It’s been a long time, been a long time Been a long, lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely time
Yeah, hey, yeah, hey Yeah, hey, yeah, hey
Ooh, yeah, ooh, yeah Ooh, yeah, ooh, yeah It’s been a long time, been a long time Been a long, lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely time
This episode is one of the light ones. You will notice the star of this episode right off the bat if you are a fan of the Andy Griffith Show. It’s Howard Morris…who is better known as Earnest T Bass. He does what he can do with the script. It’s slow paced and dull in spots. It does have a good moral to the story and a good twist at the very end…getting there is the challenge in this one. I feel like a broken record in a few of these longer episodes…but the hour works against itself in this one. One thing I will say…Howard Morris and Jack Albertson as the Genie are good in their parts.
The best moments in I Dream of Genie is when Howard Morris is in the fantasy roles imagining how a wish would turn out if he made it. There are some funny moments but the journey is too long to get there. A thirty minute version of this still wouldn’t save much.
This show was written by Rod Serling and John Furia
Rod Serling’s Opening Narration:
Meet Mr. George P. Hanley, a man life treats without deference, honor or success. Waiters serve his soup cold. Elevator operators close doors in his face. Mothers never bother to wait up for the daughters he dates. George is a creature of humble habits and tame dreams. He’s an ordinary man, Mr. Hanley, but at this moment the accidental possessor of a very special gift, the kind of gift that measures men against their dreams, the kind of gift most of us might ask for first and possibly regret to the last, if we, like Mr. George P. Hanley, were about to plunge head-first and unaware into our own personal Twilight Zone.
Summary
A smart aleck genie appears from a lamp to a meek man, George P. Hanley. Hanley is so used to bad luck, he imagines how each of three possible wishes could go very wrong – but the genie will grant him only one wish.
Rod Serling’s Closing Narration:
Mr. George P. Hanley, former vocation; jerk. Present vocation; genie. George P. Hanley, a most ordinary man whom life treated without deference, honor, or success, but a man wise enough to decide on a most extraordinary wish, that makes him the contented, permanent master of his own altruistic Twilight Zone.
CAST
Rod Serling … Narrator / Self – Host (uncredited) George P. Hanley…Howard Morris Ann…Patricia Barry Watson…Loring Smith Starlet…Joyce Jameson Genie…Jack Albertson Roger…Mark Miller[1] May…Molly Dodd The P.R. Man/Scientist were played Milton Parsons Masters…James Millhollin Sam…Bob Hastings
What a great song by the one and only Muddy Waters.
The song was written by the great blues writer Willie Dixon. Muddy Waters recorded this song in 1954. Before Waters recorded it, he tested it out at the Chicago blues club Zanzibar. Willie Dixon gave Waters some advice before the band hit it: “Well, just get a little rhythm pattern, do the same thing over again, and keep the words in your mind.”Muddy recorded it a few weeks later with Dixon on bass.
Record label head Leonard Chess went south to bolster sales, and
partner Phil Chess told the magazine that the record had sold an astounding 4,000 copies in a single week. It became Muddy’s top selling single, and spent three months in the national charts, where it peaked at #3 in the R&B charts in 1954.
Willie Dixon would bring Muddy other songs that solidified his hoochie
coochie image: “Just Make Love To Me,” “I’m Ready,” and “Natural Born Lover.”
What a band backing Muddy! The musicans on the recording were Muddy Waters on lead vocals, guitar, Little Walter on harmonica, Otis Spann on piano, Jimmy Rogers on guitar, Willie Dixon on bass and Fred Below on drums.
British blues musician Long John Baldry named his 1964 band Long John Baldry And His Hoochie Coochie Men in honor of this song.
Willie Dixon:“People believe in mystic things. Like people today believe in astrology. That’s been going on for generations, since biblical days. People all over the world believe in it. Even before Jesus was born, according to the Bible. The wise men saw the stars in the East and were able to predict about things. All of these things are mystic. They say, ‘Hoochie coochie people are telling fortunes.’ You know, like the wise men of the East. They call them ‘voodoo men’ or ‘hoochie coochie men.’ They used to call them ‘hoodoo folk’ and ‘two-head people.’ They got many names for everybody.” (this appears in Zollo’s book Songwriters On Songwriting)
Wilie Dixon:“There was quite a few people around singing the blues,” “But most of ’em was singing all sad blues. Muddy was giving his blues a little pep, and I began trying to think of things in a peppier form.”
Author/musician Roger Reale: “The stark realism, the drama, and especially the vocal delivery are what do it for me on ‘Hoochie Coochie Man.’ It’s half conversational; Muddy gets your attention without overdoing it. And those lyrics about ‘a gypsy woman’ always felt kind of fascinating.”
Hoochie Coochie Man
Gypsy woman told my momma, before I was born You got a boy-child comin’, gonna be a son-of-a-gun Gonna make these pretty women, jump and shout And the world will only know, a-what it’s all about
Why’know I’m here Everybody knows I’m here And I’m the hoochie-coochie man Everybody knows I’m here
On the seventh hour, of the seventh day, On the seventh month, the seventh doctor said: “He’s born for good luck, and I know you see; Got seven hundred dollars, and don’t you mess with me
Why’know I’m here Everybody knows I’m here And I’m the hoochie-coochie man Everybody knows I’m here
Gypsy woman told my momma Said “Ooh, what a boy, He gonna make so many women, Jump and shout for joy”
Why’know I’m here Everybody knows I’m here And I’m the hoochie-coochie man Everybody knows I’m here
Gypsy woman told my momma, before I was born You got a boy-child comin’, gonna be a son-of-a-gun Gonna make these pretty women, jump and shout And the world will only know, a-what it’s all about
Why’know I’m here Everybody knows I’m here And I’m the hoochie-coochie man Everybody knows I’m here
I got a black cat bone, I got a mojo too I got John the Conqueror, I’m gonna mess with you I’m gonna make you, pretty girl, lead me by the hand Then the world will know, the Hoochie-Coochie Man
This is one of those transport songs. It takes me to a time when I wasn’t around…the mid sixties…at least my interpretation of it.
They were a great singles band but had a short window. From 1965 to 1967 they had 7 top 10 hits. This single peaked at #1 in the Billboard 100, #1 in Canada, #11 in the UK, and #3 in New Zealand in 1966.
The song was a collaboration between John Sebastian, Steve Boone (bass player), and John Sebastian’s brother Mark. Mark was 15 years old when he wrote a poem that John used as the basis for the song – John especially liked the line that went, But at night there’s a different world.
Steve Boone came up with the middle eight, which John thought sounded like the Gershwin composition “An American in Paris,” where the orchestra implies the sound of traffic and city noises. This gave him the idea of incorporating car horns and other city ambiance into the track
Things started to fall apart due to repercussions from guitarist Zal Yanovsky and bassist Steve Boone’s 1966 pot bust in San Francisco. They were pressured into a deal where they agreed to introduce an undercover cop to partygoers in the city, one of whom got busted. A backlash ensued that damaged their reputation in the counterculture.
In 1967 Zal Yanovsky left the band citing musical differences with John Sebastian. Yanovsky would later become a Chef in Kingston, Ontario, Canada in his restaruarnt Chez Piggy. His daughter Zoe Yanovsky took over the restaurant after Zal’s death in 2002 and still runs it.
In 1968 Sebastian left for a solo career and the band carried on until 1969 without a significant hit.
The original group (John Sebastian, Zal Yanovsky, Joe Butler and Steve Boone) reunited briefly in the fall of 1979 for a show at the Concord Hotel in the Catskills for an appearance in the Paul Simon film One Trick Pony.
John Sebastian:“That song that came from an idea my brother Mark had, he had this great chorus, and the release was so big. I had to create some kind of tension at the front end to make it even bigger. That’s where that jagged piano part comes from.”
From Songfacts
This song contrasts what it’s like to live in a large city during the day and during the night. According to the song, it’s difficult to walk around a crowded and hot city during the day, but it’s great at night because you have plenty of opportunities to chase women. This particular city is New York, where the band formed.
.The band was rather particular about the traffic sounds. Instead of just using what was available on the sound effects records in the studio, they found an old-school radio engineer – a guy who used to create the soundscapes for shows, so if a guy was riding a horse, you’d hear the hooves hitting the ground and the wind whistling by. This guy, whom John Sebastian referred to as a “hilarious old Jewish sound man,” came in with a huge library of street sounds, which the band went through for hours. They wanted the scene to build, so it starts softly (the horn at the beginning comes from a Volkswagen Beetle), and grows to a gridlock nightmare. To close the scene, they used a pneumatic hammer pounding away at the pavement.
This was recorded over two days: At the first session, they put down the instruments: guitar, bass, autoharp, drums, organ, electric piano and percussion. The second session was for vocals and sound effects.
The sound of car horns and traffic was the first time these sounds appeared on a hit song. A year later, Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff used the idea when they produced the Soul Survivors track “Expressway (To Your Heart).”
Appropriately, this song was released in the summer of 1966 – July 4, to be exact. It quickly climbed the chart, reaching #1 on the chart dated August 13, where it stayed for three weeks.
This is used during the looting sequence on The Simpsons episode “Poppa’s Got a Brand New Badge.”
The song served as the theme song for German art-director Wim Wenders’ first film, 1970’s Summer in the City. It plays during an incongruous scene in which the protagonist Hans is seen walking on a brutally cold day, surrounded by snow.
This was used at the beginning of the movie Die Hard: With A Vengeance. The song plays throughout the opening credits, showing different scenes of New York City until a building blows up.
From 2006-2007, the piano portion was used in various Gatorade ads depicting the history of the sports drink, which was created in 1965.
Summer In The City
Hot town, summer in the city Back of my neck getting dirty and gritty Been down, isn’t it a pity? Doesn’t seem to be a shadow in the city All around, people looking half dead Walking on the sidewalk, hotter than a match head
But at night it’s a different world Go out and find a girl Come on, come on and dance all night Despite the heat it’ll be alright
And babe, don’t you know it’s a pity That the days can’t be like the nights In the summer, in the city In the summer, in the city
Cool town, evening in the city Dressing so fine and looking so pretty Cool cat, looking for a kitty Gonna look in every corner of the city Till I’m wheezing like a bus stop Running up the stairs, gonna meet you on the rooftop
But at night, it’s a different world Go out and find a girl Come on, come on and dance all night Despite the heat, it’ll be alright
And babe, don’t you know it’s a pity That the days can’t be like the nights In the summer, in the city In the summer, in the city
Hot town, summer in the city Back of my neck getting dirty and gritty Been down, isn’t it a pity? Doesn’t seem to be a shadow in the city All around, people looking half dead Walking on the sidewalk, hotter than a match head
But at night, it’s a different world Go out and find a girl Come on, come on and dance all night Despite the heat, it’ll be alright
And babe, don’t you know it’s a pity That the days can’t be like the nights In the summer, in the city In the summer, in the city
This was on the soundtrack to their 1968 trippy movie Head. Where else would you find Annette Funicello, The Monkees, and Frank Zappa in the same movie?
They may have been seeking some countercultural acceptance after their show ended. The movie blew the image of the Monkees up…some say deconstruction of the Monkees completely. It was a stream of consciousness black comedy that mocks war, America, Hollywood, television, the music business, and the Monkees themselves.
If kids went into the theater expecting the Monkees TV show…they were in for a big surprise. On the other hand, kids couldn’t watch the movie because of its R rating.
Carole King and Gerry Goffin wrote this song and Goffin produced it…even recording a porpoise for good measure.
I’ve watched the movie and it’s interesting but you have to remember what kind of movie it is. Jack Nicolson help write it with the band along with Bob Rafelson. Nicholson hung out with The Monkees for several weeks, even going with them on tour. Once this movie was made, Rafelson abandoned The Monkees and went off to bigger projects, starting with Easy Rider.
Mickey Dolenz – “It wasn’t so much about the deconstruction of the Monkees, but it was using the deconstruction of the Monkees as a metaphor for the deconstruction of the Hollywood film industry”
The Porpoise Song
My, my, the clock in the sky Is pounding away And there’s so much to say
A face, a voice An overdub has no choice An image cannot rejoice
Wanting to be To hear and to see Crying to the sky
But the porpoise is laughing Goodbye, goodbye Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye
Clicks, clacks, riding the backs of giraffes for laughs S’alright for a while
sings of castles And kings and things that go With a life of style
Wanting to feel To know what is real Living is a, is a lie
The porpoise is waiting Goodbye, goodbye Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye
I kept saying that the 4th season was not a great season of the Twilight Zone. As someone (Paul) pointed out…there are some really good to great episodes. He was right…there are some great episodes in the season. This is one of them. After watching this season over…it’s much better than I gave it credit for. Is it as good as 1, 2, 3, or 5? No, it’s just different with the hour format. Not apples to oranges, just different.
This could be a 5 star…I went back and forth with the rating. The small details in this episode keep it interesting.
This one is about a Parallel world. Steve Forrest who plays Major Robert Gaines is an astronaut that returns home from a troubled mission. He notices things wrong when he gets back…a different president, a gate around his yard that wasn’t there before, and small things that are wrong. His family also starts noticing little things…little things that only a loved one can see.
From IMDB: Steve Forrest played the protagonist, Major Robert Gaines, in this episode while his elder brother Dana Andrews played the protagonist, Paul Driscoll, in the preceding episode The Twilight Zone: No Time Like the Past
There is a moment after Maj. Gaines has spent the night with Mrs. Gaines where they attempt to embrace and she gives him a hard, questioning stare. According to producer Bert Granet, the intent of this interchange was to imply that sexual relations on the parallel world were slightly different from those of Maj. Gaines’ world, and that this had told Mrs. Gaines that he was no longer her husband. Unfortunately, in 1963 no direct mention of sexual behavior, even between spouses, was permissible, so that the scene is really too subtle to communicate this implication.
In the parallel universe, no one has ever heard of John F. Kennedy. The identity of the President of the United States in that universe is not revealed.
This show was written by Rod Serling and Richard Matheson
Rod Serling’s Opening Narration:
In the vernacular of space, this is T minus one hour. Sixty minutes before a human being named Major Robert Gaines is lifted off from the Mother Earth and rocketed into the sky, farther and longer than any man ahead of him. Call this one of the first faltering steps of man to sever the umbilical cord of gravity and stretch out a fingertip toward an unknown. Shortly, we’ll join this astronaut named Gaines and embark on an adventure, because the environs overhead—the stars, the sky, the infinite space—are all part of a vast question mark known as the Twilight Zone.
Summary
Astronaut Major Robert Gaines is the latest to orbit the Earth but something happens while there. Ground control loses all contact with him and although he returns safely, he apparently blacked out and has no recollection of what may have happened. Nor can he explain how the craft landed on land – completely undamaged – when it was meant to splash down in the ocean. When Gaines returns home he finds that little things are different: he’s now a full colonel and has been for some time; his house now has a picket fence; he no longer seems to take sugar in his coffee; and even his wife senses he is different after she kisses him. It is soon apparent that Gaines has returned to an Earth in an alternate universe
Rod Serling’s Closing Narration:
Major Robert Gaines, a latter-day voyager just returned from an adventure. Submitted to you without any recommendations as to belief or disbelief. You can accept or reject; you pay your money and you take your choice. But credulous or incredulous, don’t bother to ask anyone for proof that it could happen. The obligation is a reverse challenge: prove that it couldn’t. This happens to be the Twilight Zone.
CAST
Rod Serling … Narrator / Self – Host (uncredited) Steve Forrest … Major Robert Gaines Jacqueline Scott … Helen Gaines Frank Aletter … Colonel William Connacher Paul Comi … Psychiatrist Shari Lee Bernat … Maggie Gaines Morgan Jones … Captain William Sargent … The Project Manager Philip Abbott … General Stanley Eaton Fred Crane … News Anchorman (uncredited)
In late December I added Ads to my site. I have thought about just having them around long enough to make $100 (my subscription is $90 but it doesn’t pay until you reach $100)… I could then stop them and start them again next January.
Please let me know if they are obnoxious and I will tone them down. At the rate that they are going…I’ll have it by 4-5 months. $90 a year is not a big deal, but it’s the principle of it… it would be nice to let the site pay for itself.
I don’t want it to be a chore to read what I have…that defeats the whole purpose. Making a profit or any money has never been the motivating idea behind this site…or I would be homeless! I do it for the love of the music, movies, books, tv shows, and pop culture in general.
The reason I don’t do the free subscription of WordPress is that I like some of the features the Premium edition offers. I wanted to have more space to store pictures and other things.
Please tell me if they are in the way and I will stop some of them from running…and if they still get too much in the way…I’ll just stop them altogether. If you have time check it out and give me some feedback if you can.
I first heard this song by the ‘Beatles in Hamburg on the Star Club album. They took the song and injected it with steroids…George ripped through it. The quality is terrible but the energy is not.
“Red Hot” featured Jerry Lee Lewis on piano. The song was written by Billy “The Kid” Emerson. Emerson had already had a minor hit when Elvis Presley recorded “When It Rains It Really Pours“. “Red Hot” was showing a lot of promise as a big hit record, but Sam Phillips pulled Sun Records promotion for the single and switched it to “Great Balls Of Fire” by Jerry Lee Lewis.
Riley earned notoriety throughout the South with his wild live performances, and in the late’50s his shows were banned by various town councils and college administrators who worried that Riley’s raucous “devil’s music” would corrupt the souls of innocent teenagers. Riley’s backing band, The Little Green Men, were the main Sun studio band. They were Riley, Roland Janes, J.M. Van Eaton, Marvin Pepper, and Jimmy Wilson, later joined by Martin Willis.
These are the kind of singles that the Beatles liked to cover…not massive hits but good songs that not many bands were covering.
Red Hot
My gal is red hot Your gal ain’t doodly squat Yeah, my gal is red hot Your gal ain’t doodly squat Well, she ain’t got no money But man, she’s a-really got a lot
Well, I got a gal, six feet four Sleeps in the kitchen with her feet out the door, but
My gal is red hot Your gal ain’t doodly squat Yeah, my gal is red hot Your gal ain’t doodly squat Well, she ain’t got no money But man, she’s a-really got a lot
Well, she walks all night, talks all day She’s the kinda woman who’ll have her way, but
My gal is red hot Your gal ain’t doodly squat Yeah, my gal is red hot Your gal ain’t doodly squat Well, she ain’t got no money But man, she’s a-really got a lot
Well, she’s the kinda woman who louds around Spreadin’ my business all over town, but
My gal is red hot Your gal ain’t doodly squat Yeah, my gal is red hot Your gal ain’t doodly squat Well, she ain’t got no money But man, she’s a-really got a lot
Well, she’s a one man’s woman, that’s what I like But I wish she wasn’t gonna change her mind everynight, but
My gal is red hot Your gal ain’t doodly squat Yeah, my gal is red hot Your gal ain’t doodly squat Well, she ain’t got no money But man, she’s a-really got a lot
I love time travel episodes. I wanted so much to love this one. No Time Like The Past has it’s charms but the hour long format works against it. It’s 4 time travel stories in this one. It could have been split up into two 30 minute episodes with the first three time jumps and the second episode the final jump. I think it would have been better for the hour long format to flesh out the first three time jumps.
It was an interesting concept…to go back to the atom bomb dropping in Japan, the Lusitania sinking, and to try to kill Hitler. One of the flaws in this episode is he only gives himself a small amount of time to accomplish his tasks. In this case too much wasn’t a good thing. To sum it up…I wish they would have focused either on Hitler, Japan, and The Lusitania or the 1881 small town of Homeville, Indiana. The most interesting part of the episode is the 1881 Indiana story.
Dana Andrews who played Paul Driscoll was a star in the 1940s in movies with Henry Fonda, Tyrone Powers, and more.
From IMDB: Dana Andrews played the protagonist, Paul Driscoll, in this episode while his younger brother Steve Forrest played the protagonist, Major Robert Gaines, in the succeeding episode The Twilight Zone: The Parallel .
This episode takes place in 1963, in Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945, in Berlin, Germany in August 1939, aboard the RMS Lusitania off the Old Head of Kinsale, Ireland on May 7, 1915 and in Homeville, Indiana from July 1 to July 3, 1881.
This show was written by Rod Serling
Rod Serling’s Opening Narration:
Exit one Paul Driscoll, a creature of the twentieth century. He puts to a test a complicated theorem of space-time continuum, but he goes a step further, or tries to. Shortly, he will seek out three moments of the past in a desperate attempt to alter the present, one of the odd and fanciful functions in a shadowland known as the Twilight Zone.
Summary
Paul Driscoll does not much like the way the 20th century has developed thus far and decides to go back in time to change mankind’s future. He first travels to Hiroshima and tries to warn an English-speaking policeman of what is to come, but to no avail. He then travels to Nazi Germany and attempts to assassinate Adolf Hitler but is thwarted when his rifle misfires. He then finds himself aboard the Lusitania but again is unable to convince the ship’s captain to alter course before it is torpedoed. When he returns to the present, he agrees with his colleague Harvey that the past cannot be changed. He still does not like the present, so decides to go back to July 1881 to live his life in the small town of Homeville, Indiana. Unfortunately he learns yet again that past events cannot be changed
Rod Serling’s Closing Narration:
Incident on a July afternoon, 1881. A man named Driscoll who came and went and, in the process, learned a simple lesson, perhaps best said by a poet named Lathbury, who wrote, ‘Children of yesterday, heirs of tomorrow, what are you weaving? Labor and sorrow? Look to your looms again, faster and faster fly the great shuttles prepared by the master. Life’s in the loom, room for it. Room.’[1] Tonight’s tale of clocks and calendars in the Twilight Zone.
CAST
Rod Serling … Narrator / Self – Host (uncredited) Dana Andrews … Paul Driscoll Patricia Breslin … Abigail Sloan Malcolm Atterbury … Prof. Eliot Robert Cornthwaite … Hanford John Zaremba … Horn Player C. Lindsay Workman … Bartender (as Lindsay Workman) Marjorie Bennett … Mrs. Chamberlain Tudor Owen … Captain of Lusitania James Yagi … Japanese Police Captain Robert F. Simon … Harvey Adolf Hitler … Self (archive footage) Gene Coogan … Fire Spectator Restraining Driscoll (uncredited) Peter Humphreys … Steward on Lusitania (uncredited) Robert McCord … Man Hearing About Garfield (uncredited) Bobs Watson … Man at Dining Room Table (uncredited)
I love the visuals in this song. I’ve never had the pleasure of being there but it feels like I’m standing in the middle of Penny Lane in 1967.
This song was part of what I think was the best single ever released. Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields. Both of the songs are connected with Liverpool. Both John and Paul wrote about places where they grew up. Paul explained that Penny Lane was a suburban district where, until age four, he lived with his mother and father.
The Beatles did not include these two songs on Sgt Pepper. They recorded singles and albums separately for the most part. They ended up on the Magical Mystery Tour album in America.
Lennon and McCartney were competitive and for the most part it was a good competitiveness that resulted in timeless songs that will be still remembered 100 years from now.
They made promotional films for both songs. This must have been a shock to some people. They had not seen the Beatles since the year before…they had ditched the mop tops and gone weird…that must have been in some people’s minds. The music had a sophistication that earlier songs didn’t have.
The single only made #2 in the UK…it was locked out of the #1 position by no other than Elbert Humperdinck with Release Me. It did peak at #1 in the Billboard 100, #1 in Canada, and #1 in New Zealand in 1967.
In 1967, Capitol released Beatles music on a new but short-lived format called “Playtapes.” These tape cartridges did not have the capabilities to include entire albums, so a truncated four-song version of “Magical Mytery Tour” was released in early 1968 in this portable format, some rare copies having a picture from the “Help!” soundtrack album on the front of the tape. “Penny Lane” was one of the four songs on this release. These Playtapes are highly collectable today.
Paul McCartney:“When I came to write it, John came over and helped me with the third verse, as often was the case. We were writing childhood memories: recently faded memories from eight or ten years before, so it was a recent nostalgia, pleasant memories for both of us. All the places were still there, and because we remembered it so clearly we could have gone on.” John himself relates: “We really got into the groove of imagining Penny Lane, you know – the bank was there, and that was where the tram sheds were and people waiting and the inspector stood there, the fire engines were down there. It was just reliving childhood.” In John’s Playboy interview of 1980, he concurs about his input in writing the song: “I wrote some of the lyrics. I can’t remember which. It was all Paul’s melody.”
“There was a barber shop called Bioletti’s with head shots of the haircuts you can have in the window and I just took it all and arted it up a little bit to make it sound like he was having a picture exhibition in his window. It was all based on real things; there was a bank on the corner so I imagined the banker, it was not a real person, and his slightly dubious habits and the little children laughing at him, and the pouring rain. The fire station was a bit of poetic license; there’s a fire station about half a mile down the road, not actually in Penny Lane, but we needed a third verse so we took that and I was very pleased with the line ‘It’s a clean machine.’ I still like that as a phrase, you occasionally hit a lucky little phrase and it becomes more than a phrase. So the banker and the barber shop and the fire station were all real locations.”
Here are the two videos…Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane… See those glasses that John Lennon slips on in the Penny Lane Video? The square ones…I have some identical from that time period…they are really cool.
Penny Lane
In Penny Lane, there is a barber showing photographs Of every head he’s had the pleasure to know And all the people that come and go Stop and say, “Hello”
On the corner is a banker with a motorcar And little children laugh at him behind his back And the banker never wears a mac In the pouring rain, very strange
Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes There beneath the blue suburban skies I sit, and meanwhile back In Penny Lane there is a fireman with an hourglass And in his pocket is a portrait of the Queen He likes to keep his fire engine clean It’s a clean machine
Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes A four of fish and finger pies In summer, meanwhile back Behind the shelter in the middle of the roundabout The pretty nurse is selling poppies from a tray And though she feels as if she’s in a play She is anyway
In Penny Lane, the barber shaves another customer We see the banker sitting waiting for a trim And then the fireman rushes in From the pouring rain, very strange
Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes There beneath the blue suburban skies I sit, and meanwhile back Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes There beneath the blue suburban skies Penny Lane!
I remember this George Harrison song well in 1981. This song was tribute to John Lennon, who was shot and killed the year before. The song had a bouncy melody and it was originally wrote for Ringo. After Lennon was murdered George re-wrote the lyrics to show is feelings for John.
Ringo did end up playing on the track with Paul and Linda McCartney, and Denny Laine from McCartney’s band Wings. Long time Beatle producer George Martin produced this for Harrison. Geoff Emerick, one of The Beatles sound engineers, also had a hand in this tune.
This appeared on the album Somewhere In England. I bought the single and then the album. The album peaked at #11 in the Billboard Album Charts, #13 in the UK, and #14 in Canada. The song peaked at #2 in the Billboard Album Charts, #13 in the UK, and #3 in Canada in 1981.
Al Kooper:“George was in the kitchen, white as a sheet, real shook up. We all had breakfast. He took calls from Paul and Yoko, which actually seemed to help his spirit, and then we went into the studio and started the day’s work. Ray and I kept George’s wine glass full all day…”
All Those Years Ago
I’m shouting all about love While they treated you like a dog When you were the one who had made it so clear All those years ago
I’m talking all about how to give They don’t act with much honesty But you point the way to the truth when you say All you need is love
Living with good and bad I always looked up to you Now we’re left cold and sad By someone the devil’s best friend Someone who offended all
We’re living in a bad dream They’ve forgotten all about mankind And you were the one they backed up to the wall All those years ago You were the one who imagined it all All those years ago
All those years ago All those years ago
Deep in the darkest night I send out a prayer to you Now in the world of light Where the spirit free of lies And all else that we despised
They’ve forgotten all about God He’s the only reason we exist Yet you were the one that they said was so weird All those years ago You said it all though not many had ears All those years ago You had control of our smiles and our tears All those years ago
Barbara is the music project of Henry and John Tydeman, two charismatic brothers from Brighton and Hove, England. Bucking the current music trends of hip hop, dancepop, 80s revival, post punk and godawful bro-country, their sunny, uplifting sound is a charming and anachronistic blend of – in their own words – “a bit of 70s US AM radio, a dash of English music hall, the effortless catchiness of a Broadway musical, a sprinkling of sequined power pop, luscious Disney strings and glorious golden harmonies.” Listening to their songs, I’d say that’s a fitting description I cannot improve upon.
The guys released their wonderful debut single “BRB” this past January, then followed in May with “New Communications”, a lighthearted take on the pitfalls of social media. Both songs garnered support by BBC Introducing and Louder Than War, and this past summer, they had the pleasure of performing at…
I’ve always liked sell your soul to the devil stories. This one has Burgess Meredith and that means chances are it’s a great one. Three out of four Twilight Zones he is in are classics. Time Enough At Last, The Obsolete Man, and this one are remembered episodes of the Twilight Zone. His eyebrows were pointing slightly upward, a twisted cigar in his mouth, he certainly looks the part. He is a grinning, leering Devil, full of subtleties. His interpretation goes well beyond the lines. Meredith is also listed as one of the writers.
Robert Sterling plays Douglas Winter, a down on his luck newspaper owner who is about to get pushed out by a larger paper. Pat Crowley plays Jackie Benson who is Douglas’s much more acute girlfriend. The hour format doesn’t hurt this one at all…in fact it helps a bit. The fourth season is not full of classic episodes but I have always considered this one…one of the best.
Ralph Senensky: Actors like Burgess Meredith fascinated me with the preparation they brought to their roles. They didn’t just memorize their lines. As Beulah Bondi once said to me, “After the lines are learned, that’s when the work begins.” I’m sure Burgess took his cue for how to work at the linotype machine from one of Jackie’s lines: “If he doesn’t play Chopin’s Polonaise, I’m going to be disappointed.”
This show was written by Robert Sterling, Pat Crowley, and Burgess Meredith
Rod Serling’s Opening Narration:
Take away a man’s dream, fill him with whiskey and despair, send him to a lonely bridge, let him stand there all by himself looking down at the black water, and try to imagine the thoughts that are in his mind. You can’t, I can’t. But there’s someone who can—and that someone is seated next to Douglas Winter right now. The car is headed back toward town, but its real destination is the Twilight Zone.
Summary
Douglas Winter, the editor of The Courier, a failing newspaper, feels there is nothing to live for after a number of employees quit, including the Linotype operator. On a bridge while drunk, he looks down into the inviting water below. When he is going to commit suicide, he is approached by one “Mr. Smith”, who comments that it’s a short fall and probably wouldn’t do a very good job. He then asks Doug for a light, and, if he wasn’t quite ready, a ride into town. Amused and forgetting about suicide, Winter gives him a lift to a café, where Mr. Smith agrees to provide the editor with money to pay off debts and continue the operation of the newspaper. Mr. Smith also signs up to replace the linotype operator and be the sole reporter. With nothing to lose, Doug agrees to the proposition.
Rod Serling’s Closing Narration:
Exit the infernal machine, and with it his satanic majesty, Lucifer, prince of darkness—otherwise known as Mr. Smith. He’s gone, but not for good; that wouldn’t be like him—he’s gone for bad. And he might be back, with another ticket….to The Twilight Zone.
CAST
Rod Serling…Narrator / Self – Host (uncredited) Burgess Meredith…Mr. Smith Robert Sterling…Douglas Winter Pat Crowley…Jackie Benson Ray Teal…Mr. Franklin Charles P. Thompson…Andy Praskins Doris Kemper…Landlady Camille Franklin…Molly
PowerPop... An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture 