Atomic Rooster… Now that is a name. I’ve been in short term bands with different names such as… “The Flying Junebugs”, “The Cryin ‘Shame” and “Green Swingset” but Atomic Rooster is unique. Atomic Rooster was an English rock band, originally composed of former members of The Crazy World of Arthur Brown. Throughout their history keyboardist, Vincent Crane was the only constant member and wrote the majority of their material.
This is another song I noticed on the Life On Mars series in the mid-2000s.
Their history is defined by two periods: the early-mid-1970s and the early 1980s. Their genre in music is difficult to define since they went through radical changes in very short times during the life of the band. However, their best-known era represented a more hard rock/progressive rock sound, exemplified by their only hit singles, Tomorrow Night (UK No. 11) and The Devil’s Answer (UK No. 4), both in 1971.
The Devil’s Answer
People are looking but they don’t know what to do It’s the time of the season for the people like you Come back tomorrow, show the scars on your face It’s a clue to the answer we all chaseThree, five and seven lift the heaviest load reach the top of the heaven that’s fallen below Devil may care but you wish for the best can’t you see there’s an answer that lies there Come all you sinners and keep with the time can we see all the faces that have fallen behind Don’t make the reason it’s a secret for you
There’s a clue to the answer we all know There’s no clue to the answer we all know People are looking but they don’t know what to do It’s the time of the season for the people like you Come back tomorrow, show the scars on your faceIt’s a clue to the answer we all chase It’s a clue to the answer we all chase
This is a rocking song from 1971 made it to the top 10 at #10 in the Billboard 100, #5 in Canada, and #5 in the UK. This song got blacklisted and of course, gave it a boost. After singles such as “Mary Had A Little Lamb” this song gave Paul some “cool” teenager credibility about apparently getting high.
In an interview with the October 2010 edition of Mojo magazine, McCartney claimed to be surprised when the BBC blacklisted this song. Said the former Beatle: “Look at Bob Dylan, ‘everybody must get stoned.’ It was like, ‘Ooh, does he mean you get high? Or does he mean getting drunk? So there was that ambiguity and I assumed the same would apply to me.”
This song was banned by the BBC for what they described as “inappropriate sex and drugs references.” Fair enough – McCartney is singing about getting high, using his “sweet banana” and “doing it” to her!
McCartney talked about this song in a 2018 interview with GQ. “A lot of people were getting high, so to me it was just like a fantasy song, sort of saying, ‘Hey girl, come on let’s get high,'” he said. “It was just about the times. It’s very much a period piece, but it goes down well.”
McCartney dropped this from his setlists after 1976, but brought it back in 2013 and has played it recurrently ever since. As a grandfather, the song can be a bit embarrassing, so he tweaks it a bit, singing, “Let’s get hi… on life!”
Hi Hi Hi
Well, when I met you at the station You were standing with a bootleg in your hand. I took you back to my little place For a taste of a multicolored band. We’re gonna get hi hi hi, The night is young. She’ll be my funky little mama, Gonna rock it and we’ve only just begun.
We’re gonna get hi, hi, hi With the music on. Won’t say bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye Til the night is gone. I’m gonna do it to you, gonna do it, Sweet banana, you’ll never give up. We’re gettin’ hi, hi, hi, in the midday sun.
Well well, take off your face, Recover from the trip you’ve been on. I want to lie on the bed, Get you ready for my polygon. I’m gonna do it to you, gonna do it, Sweet banana, you’ve never been done. Yes, I go like a rabbit, gonna grab it, Gonna do it ’til the night is done.
We’re gonna get hi, hi, hi with the music on. Won’t say bye,bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye Til the night is gone. I’m gonna do it to you, gonna do it, Sweet banana, you’ll never give up. We’re gonna get hi, hi, hi, we’re gonna get hi hi hi, We’re gonna get hi, hi, hi, in the midday sun.
Last night my son and I went to see this film in Nashville at the Belcourt Theater at the screening. It opened up with Paul McCartney and Wings in very early seventies attire talking about how they met the Mcmouses. The one thing that surprised me…it was a smaller amount of animation that I anticipated. I thought it would be 60-40 animation but it was around 30-70 with Wings playing live on their 72 European tour and various film clips with the music. I’m not unhappy with the ratio because I wanted to hear Wings live more than seeing the animation.
They did use some soundstage shots mixed in with live shots also.
My biggest complaint was the voices of the mice were a little too animated…no pun intended but you could not understand what they were saying without straining. Wings were great though. This is the earliest video I’ve seen of Paul playing outside of the Beatles. The sound was great. The songs I can remember were Big Red Barn, Wild Life, Long Tall Sally, Seaside Woman, My Love, Hi Hi Hi, Mary Had a Little Lamb, C Moon, Blue Moon Over Kentucky, Maybe I’m Amazed, and there are a few more I’m forgetting.
The film is only 55 minutes long but a good representation of Wings in 1972. The band looked like they were having a lot of fun. I will get the film when it is released.
It’s a nice film that was made right before Live and Let Die and Band on the Run. The Bruce Mcmouse Show is not the best thing Paul has done…but a fun film all the same. It’s also a nice time capsule of the early seventies… Also, it was cool that at least 80 percent of the audience were college students…that gives me hope…and it was packed.
Now Paul…release the 1976 tour to the Theaters, please.
Good riff and rock song by the Kinks. It starts off with a chord that is reminiscent of the “A Hard Days Night” intro. I was in high school when it was released and it was great to hear a guitar driven song.
Ray Davies wrote this about the stressful working schedules the Kinks were going through. The song peaked at #41 in the Billboard 100 in 1983.
Do It Again
Standing in the middle of nowhere Wondering how to begin Lost between tomorrow and yesterday Between now and then
And now we’re back where we started Here we go round again Day after day I get up and I say I better do it again
Where are all the people going Round and round till we reach the end One day leading to another Get up go out do it again
Then it’s back where you started Here we go round again Back where you started Come on do it again
And you think today is going to be better Change the world and do it again Give it all up and start all over You say you will but you don’t know when
Then it’s back where you started Here we go round again Day after day I get up and I say Come on better do it again
The days go by and you wish you were a different guy Different friends and a new set of clothes You make alterations and [a fact in you knows] A new house a new car a new job a new nose But it’s superficial and it’s only skin deep Cause the voices in your head keep shouting in your sleep Get back, get back
Back where you started, here we go round again Back where you started, come on do it again
Back where you started, here we go round again Day after day I get up and I say, do it agaiiinnn Do it again Day after day I get up and I say, do it again
The song started out as a mistake, but one that Charles Wright liked. The record company didn’t want him to record it. “No one wanted to record it. I had to sneak a bass player, drummer, and engineer into the studio one Sunday and cut it in secret,” Wright recalls. “The president of Warner Bros. told me I made a mistake. So did every DJ that I played it for. But I had a feeling that it was a hit.”
Charles was right…it peaked at #12 in the Billboard 100 in 1970. It has become one of the most licensed songs of the last 40 years.
Express Yourself
Express Yourself! Express Yourself!
You don’t ever need help from nobody else. All you got to do now:
Express Yourself!
What ever you do, do it good. What ever you do, do it good. All right…
It’s not what you look like, when you’re doin´ what you’re doin´. It’s what you’re doin´ when you’re doin´ what you look like you’re doin´!
Express Yourself! Express Yourself!
They’re doin´it on the moon, yeah… In the jungle too. Everybody on the floor, now. Jumpin´ like a kangaroo. So let the horns do the thing they do, yo…
Some people have everything, and other people don’t. But everything don’t mean a thing if it ain´t the thing you want.
Express Yourself! Express Yourself!
O, do it! O, do it. Do it to it. Go on and do it. Yo, do it. Give.
I’ve read about this gathering for years. Writers, Editors, Artists, Humorists, Actors, Actresses and Reporters would gather at the Algonquin Hotel for what has been known as the 10-year lunch. They would hold court jesting with each other about a number of topics. It was not the place for the thin-skinned. Groucho Marx, the king of insults never felt comfortable there. He once said, “The price of admission is a serpent’s tongue and a half-concealed stiletto.”
Round Tabler Edna Ferber, who called them “The Poison Squad,” wrote, “They were actually merciless if they disapproved. I have never encountered a more hard-bitten crew. But if they liked what you had done, they did say so publicly and whole-heartedly.” Their standards were high, their vocabulary fluent, fresh, and very tough. Both casual and sharp-witted, they had incredible integrity about their work and endless ambition. Some of the members of the Round Table came together to work on each other projects. They essentially networked with each other. George Kaufman teamed up with Edna Ferber and Marc Connelly on some of his stage comedies, including Dulcy and The Royal Family. Harold Ross of The New Yorker hired both Dorothy Parker as a book reviewer and Robert Benchley as a drama critic.
By 1925, the Round Table was famous. What had started as a private gathering became public. The country-at-large was now attentive to their every word—people often coming to stare at them during lunch. Some members began to tire of the constant publicity. The time they spent entertaining and being entertained took its toll on several of the Algonquin members. In 1927, the execution of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, whose case had divided the country and the Round Table… seemed to cast a pall over the group’s antics.
Dorothy Parker believed strongly in the pair’s innocence, and upon their deaths, she remarked “I had heard someone say and so I said too, that ridicule is the most effective weapon. Well, now I know that there are things that never have been funny and never will be. And I know that ridicule may be a shield but it is not a weapon.”
As America entered the Depression, the bonds that had held the group together started to break. Many members moved to Hollywood for work or on to other interests. It didn’t officially end…it just faded. All in all, it lasted around 10 years.
The last gathering of the Algonquin Round Table was when Alexander Woollcott died in 1943. They all hadn’t met there in years…but the surviving members went straight there after the funeral for the last time.
Members and Part time-Members who would drop by
George S. Kaufman (1889–1961): Playwright, New York Times drama editor, producer, director, actor. Wrote forty-five plays (twenty-six hits), won two Pulitzer Prizes.
Alexander Woollcott (1887–1943): Drama critic for New York Times and New York World, CBS radio star as the Town Crier, model for the character of Sheridan Whiteside in Kaufman and Hart’s “The Man Who Came to Dinner”.
Beatrice B. Kaufman (1894–1945): Editor, writer, socialite. Married to George.
Harpo Marx (1888–1964): Actor, comedian, musician, card player.
Dorothy Parker (1893–1967): Vanity Fair drama critic, New Yorker critic. Celebrated poet, short-story writer, playwright. Wrote Hollywood screenplays. Champion for social justice.
Franklin P. Adams (1881–1960): Columnist at the New York Tribune, the New York World, and the New York Evening Post; wrote the “Always in Good Humor” and “The Conning Tower” columns. Always known as FPA.
Robert Benchley (1889–1945): Vanity Fair managing editor, Life drama editor, humorist and actor in short films.
Heywood Broun (1888–1939): Sportswriter at New York Tribune, columnist at New York World, author; helped found Newspaper Guild.
Marc Connelly (1890–1980): Newspaperman turned playwright; cowrote plays with George S. Kaufman. Won Pulitzer Prize for play The Green Pastures.
Edna Ferber (1887–1968): Novelist and playwright. Cowrote plays with George S. Kaufman, including Dinner at Eight. Won Pulitzer Prize for her novel So Big. Wrote Show Boat, Saratoga Trunk, Cimarron, and Giant.
Ruth Gordon (): American film, stage, and television actress, as well as a screenwriter and playwright. Later in life starred in Harold and Maude.
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Margalo Gillmore (1897–1986): Actress and “the baby of the Round Table.” Starred in early Eugene O’Neill plays.
Jane Grant (1892–1972): First female New York Times general assignment reporter; co-founded The New Yorker with husband Harold Ross.
Ruth Hale (1887–1934): Broadway press agent, helped pass Nineteenth Amendment for women’s rights, married Heywood Broun.
Margaret Leech Pulitzer (1894–1974): Magazine short story writer turned serious historian. Married Ralph Pulitzer; after his death, she earned two Pulitzer Prizes in history.
Alice Duer Miller (1874-1942): A writer from the U.S. whose poetry actively influenced political opinion. Her feminist verses made an impact on the suffrage issue.
Neysa McMein (1888–1949): Popular magazine cover illustrator, painter. Wrote about party games.
Herman J. Mankiewicz (1897–1953): Press agent, early New Yorker drama critic; cowrote plays with Kaufman, produced Marx Brothers movies. Won an Oscar for co-writing Citizen Kane.
Brock Pemberton (1885–1950): Broadway producer and director. Wrote short stories.
Harold Ross (1892–1951): Founded The New Yorker with his wife, Jane Grant.
Arthur H. Samuels (1888–1938): Editor of Harper’s Bazaar.
Robert E. Sherwood (1896–1955): Vanity Fair drama editor, Life editor, author, playwright who won four Pulitzer Prizes. Won Oscar for writing The Best Years of Our Lives.
Laurence Stallings (1895–1968): Ex-reporter, editorial writer for New York World. Collaborated with Maxwell Anderson on What Price Glory?
Donald Ogden Stewart (1894–1980): Author, playwright, screenwriter. Won Oscar for The Philadelphia Story.
Frank Sullivan (1892–1976): Journalist turned humorist. longtime contributor to The New Yorker.
Deems Taylor (1886–1966): Music critic turned populist composer. Wrote libretto for The King’s Henchmen with Edna St. Vincent Millay. Started national concert series. Narrator of Disney classic Fantasia.
John V. A. Weaver (1893–1938): Poet who wrote in street vernacular, literary editor of the Brooklyn Eagle
Peggy Wood (1892–1978): Actress in musical comedies, plays, early TV star.
The first time I heard this song was the Dave Clark Five’s version. It was written by Motown president Berry Gordy Jr, who wrote it for The Temptations, but they failed to arrive for the recording session. At the same time but in a different Motown studio, The Contours arrived to record “It Must Be Love,” but Gordy had other ideas – he asked them to cut “Do You Love Me” instead. The song became one of Motown’s first hits.
The song peaked at #3 in the Billboard 100 in 1962. This would be The Contours last top 40 hits although they would place 8 songs in the top 100.
From Songfacts
Joe Billingslea of The Contours told Mojo magazine February 2009 the story of this song: “We had just left the record hop and we turned at the studio. The doors were always open in those days. Berry was down there at the piano and he said ‘I want you to try this song I’m writing.’ He told us how he wanted the backgrounds to go and we sang it. ‘Try it again, I didn’t quite like it,’ he said. After about the third time he said, ‘That’s not right. I think I’ll give it to The Temptations instead.’ I told him not to. We did it again and he said, ‘That’s exactly how I want it. Come in tomorrow morning, we’re going to record it.’ So we did.
I didn’t like the song. It reminded me of ‘Twist And Shout.’ I said: ‘This song ain’t gonna do nothin’, man.’ That same week it was released and the following week it made the charts. I turned around and said: I love that song! Did I change my opinion? Of course! We realized later that The Temptations could never have sung that song because it wasn’t suited to them but Berry had motivated us to sing it the way he wanted it.”
This song peaked in popularity just as Motown launched their first “Motortown Revue” tour to showcase their acts. The Countours were stars of the show, igniting crowds with “Do You Love Me.” Lower on the bill were some other Motown acts that had yet to hit, including Marvin Gaye, Little Stevie Wonder, and The Supremes.
After being featured in the 1988 movie Dirty Dancing, this was re-released 26 years after it was originally recorded. This time, it charted at #11. The song was a good fit for Dirty Dancing, which despite featuring some modern, original songs, was set in 1963. This was a great song of that era for a dance scene.
The Dave Clark Five recorded this in 1964 as the British Invasion was underway. Their rendition hit #11 in the US. On March 8, 1964, The DC5 played it on the first of their 12 appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show.
In his autobiography To Be Loved, recalls a confrontation with Motown’s primary bass player, James Jamerson, over this song. Jamerson, who is lauded as a creator of the Motown sound, was playing a jazz beat during the session despite Berry’s instructions. “You’ve got to stay on the f–kin’ downbeat,” Berry told him, hoping he wouldn’t have to kick his star bassist out of the session. When they rolled for the next take, Jamerson did as instructed, playing the Pop groove Gordy requested… until Berry took his eyes off him. “In that split second, Jamerson hit four or five Jazz upbeats in rapid succession,” Gordy recalled. “I turned to let him have it, but before I could say anything he had jumped back on the downbeat so brilliantly I could only smile.”
In 1963, London group Brian Poole And The Tremeloes recorded a version that topped the charts in 16 countries including the UK.
This song featured in a 2016 Pepsi commercial starring Janelle Monáe. In the spot, which debuted during the Super Bowl, Monáe dances to the song before entering another room where she goes through a time warp and joins in the celebration to Madonna’s “Express Yourself.”
Do You Love Me
You broke my heart ’cause I couldn’t dance, You didn’t even want me around And now I’m back to let you know I can really shake ’em down
Do you love me? (I can really move) Do you love me? (I’m in the groove) Now do you love me? (Do you love me now that I can dance?) Watch me, now (Work, work) ah, work it out baby (Work, work) well, I’m gonna drive you crazy (Work, work) ah, just a little bit of soul, now? (Work) Now I can mash potatoes (I can mash potatoes) I can do the twist (I can do the twist) Tell me, baby, do you like it like this? Tell me (tell me) tell me
Do you love me? Do you love me, baby? Now do you love me? (Do you love me now that I can dance?) Watch me, now (Work, work) ah, work it out baby (Work, work) well, I’m gonna drive you crazy (Work, work) you are getting kind of cold, now (Work) (Work, work) with just a little bit of soul, now ? (Work, work) come on, come on now (Work, work) I’m gonna drive you crazy (Work) I can mash potatoes I can do the twist Well now, tell me, baby, do you like it like this? Tell me (tell me) tell me
Do you love me? Do you love me, baby? Do you love me? Do you love me? Now that I can dance (Work, work) ah, work it out baby (Work, work) well, I’m gonna drive you crazy (Work, work) oh you are getting kind of cold, now (Work) (Work, work) with just a little bit of soul, now (Work, work) now don’t you get kinda bold, now? (Work, work) oh, work it out, baby
Describing the Marx Brothers in their Paramount movies is like describing a hurricane and a car wreck combined. The brothers were in vaudeville from the early 1900s to 1924 where they finally made it to Broadway in a play called “She Say’s It Is”. Broadway audiences had never seen anything like them. They literally tore up the stage with being so energetic. The brothers’ names were Julius (Groucho), Adolph (Harpo), Leonard (Chick-o) and Herbert (Zeppo). They had another brother that was not in the act Milton (Gummo).
Groucho was always in a power position in the plays and movies. Harpo and Chico would be there to take him down a few notches. Zeppo would be the straight man. Harpo, of course, would play the harp in a musical part, Chico would play the piano and Groucho would sometimes play the guitar…but the comedy is what everyone came to see.
They started movies around 1928 and again no one had ever seen anything like them on screen. The five movies they made for Paramount were Coconuts, Animal Crackers, Monkey Business, Horse Feathers and Duck Soup. These movies were anarchist chaos. After 1933 they signed a deal with MGM and their movies were tamed down to have more of a storyline and some were good but never matched the wildness of the Paramount movies where they had no respect for authority and lived and talked by their own rules. Groucho would say things that we would love to say in real life but we could never get by with it…he would say them in real life…and get by with it.
They are hard to compare to anyone else. The Three Stooges were not the same comedy whatsoever. In the 1970s college students were drawn to the Marx Brothers and their popularity went up with college students standing in lines around the block to see Animal Crackers in a theater. Their movies are still relevant today and can be enjoyed by every generation…
Harpo is my favorite…who never said a word in any film. He was a master of prop comedy and he could have been a big star in silent comedy. He was also a really good harp player also. He wrote one of the best autobiographies (Harpo Speaks!) I’ve ever read. For fans it’s great and for the average person, it’s an interesting read. The book is what first got me into the Marx Brothers.
Bono once said before playing the song “This is a song Charles Manson stole from The Beatles, well we’re stealin’ it back.” Charles Manson did, in fact, hijack the song from the Beatles. The song is about an amusement park attraction (not a coded message to Charlie). A “Helter Skelter” is an amusement ride popularized mostly in the U.K. with a slide built in a spiral around a high tower. Paul McCartney read an interview with Pete Townshend saying that the Who just recorded the loudest, rawest and dirtiest song ever…it was “I Can See For Miles.” A great song… but not what Townshend described it as exactly…
Paul then started to write a song that fit that description and went above it. Helter Skelter was recorded with all four Beatles in studio two with their amps on 11. It’s a great brutal hard rock song. It was one of the rawest songs ever released by a well-known band at that time. If I hear someone call the Beatles only a pop band…I just point them to this song. Covers of this song range from Motley Crue who despite their image their version sounds light compared to this, Pat Benatar version is not up to this one…U2’s version tries but no version gets close to the Beatles version in rawness. Some credit this song as one of the inspirations of Heavy Metal…
This song fits great on the White Album. The album is the most diverse the Beatles ever made. On the same album, you have Helter Skelter, Rocky Racoon, Sexy Sadie, Honey Pie, Back In The USSR, Blackbird, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Revolution Nine and many more.
Helter Skelter
When I get to the bottom I go back to the top of the slide Where I stop and I turn and I go for a ride Till I get to the bottom and I see you again
Yeah, yeah, yeah, heh, heh, heh, heh But do you, don’t you want me to love you? I’m (Ahhh) coming down fast but I’m miles above you (Ahhh) Tell me, tell me, tell me, come on tell me the answer
Well, you may be a lover but you ain’t no dancer Now Helter skelter
Helter skelter Helter skelter Yeah! Woo!, hoo!
A Will you, won’t you want me to make you? (Ahhh) I’m coming down fast but don’t let me break you (Ahhh)
Tell me, tell me, tell me the answer You may be a lover but you ain’t no dancer
It’s a song by Charlie Rich who is more known as a country artist and his 1970s hits “Behind Closed Doors” and “The Most Beautiful Girl” off of his album Behind Closed Doors. This is not like Rich’s other hits but it’s a good song.
I first heard about this song when I read The Beatles were listening to this song when they met Elvis and Elvis had it on his jukebox when they all met. The song peaked at #21 in the Billboard 100 in 1966. The song became a hit, ending up in the top 30 on the pop charts.
Charlie played piano on Sun Records in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and then signed with Grove records…after that, he signed with Smash records and this was his first release on that label.
The song was written by Dallas Frazier who also wrote “Elvira”…the song that the Oak Ridge Boys made famous.
Mohair Sam
Well – who is the hippie that’s happenin’ all over our town? Tearin’ up chicks with the message that he lays down Who is the coolest guy, what is, what am? That’s fast-talkin’ – slow walkin’ – good-lookin’ Mohair Sam
Chicks are making reservations for his lovin’ so fine (so fine) Screamin’ and shoutin’ he’s got ’em all waitin’ in line Who is the coolest guy, what is, what am? That’s fast-talkin’ – slow walkin’ – good-lookin’ Mohair Sam
Who is the hippie that’s happenin’ all over our town? Tearin’ up chicks with the message that he lays down Who is the coolest guy, what is, what am? That’s fast-talkin’ – slow walkin’ – good-lookin’ Mohair Sam
This song is all about the riff…it is a memorable riff… The song has drive and suspense. Woman from Tokyo peaked at #60 in 1973. This is one of the group’s most popular songs, but they never liked it very much. They didn’t start playing it live until they re-formed in 1984 after their 1976 split.
Because of endless touring and fatigue, Ian Gillan gave a six-month notice and stated that he was leaving the band after fulfilling all of his commitments in 1973. The album Who “Do We Think We Are” was released in January of 1973. The release generated the hit single “Woman from Tokyo.” “Smoke on the Water” was also busy that year becoming Deep Purple’s biggest hit of all-time.
After lead singer Ian Gillian left Deep Purple in 1973 they had two other lead singers before reforming in 1984…and they were David Coverdale and Joe Lynn Turner.
Deep Purple started recording their Who Do We Think We Are in Rome in July 1972. At this point, the band had yet to tour Japan, but they had three shows scheduled there for August: two in Osaka followed by one at the Budokan arena in Tokyo. Drawing on Japanese imagery (“the rising sun,” “an Eastern dream”), they concocted a story of a lovely lady from that country who drives them wild.
Rome was sunny and relaxing, so the band spent a lot of time in the swimming pool in lieu of working. There was also a sound problem in the studio, and the only track they got out of those sessions was “Woman From Tokyo.” The rest of the album was done in Germany.
In 1973, this was issued as a single, achieving a modest chart position of #60 in America. It aged well and got a lot of airplay on AOR and Classic Rock radio stations, keeping it alive. The stretched out “Toe-Key-Oh” became a bit of an earworm and helped embed the song into many an auditory cortex.
On some compilations from the ’70s, this song is listed as “live,” which Roger Glover insists is a lie, since they never did the song live in that decade.
Woman from Tokyo
Fly into the rising sun Faces, smiling everyone Yeah, she is a whole new tradition I feel it in my heart
My woman from Tokyo She makes me see My woman from Tokyo She’s so good to me
Talk about her like a Queen Dancing in a Eastern Dream Yeah, she makes me feel like a river That carries me away
My woman from Tokyo She makes me see My woman from Tokyo She’s so good to me
But I’m at home and I just don’t belong
So far away from the garden we love She is what moves in the soul of a dove Soon I shall see just how black was my night When we’re alone in Her City of light
Rising from the neon gloom Shining like a crazy moon Yeah, she turns me on like a fire I get high
My woman from Tokyo She makes me see My woman from Tokyo She’s so good to me
If I would not have had a son growing up when he did I probably would have never watched this series. In 2007 my son was 7 and we started to watch this and I have to admit I got hooked. It is extremely well animated and an entertaining series. The stories are such that an adult can easily watch it. The scripts are intelligent and you get drama, comedy, and action. The show was critically praised and won many awards (listed at the bottom of the post from wiki).
I would recommend this to anyone of any age. It does contain violence and fighting. The show starts off light-hearted for the most part and then grows darker.
It starts and finishes the ongoing story in 3 seasons. The episodes are around 24 minutes long and very easy to watch. You see these characters grow while watching it. Netflix has announced that they are coming out with a live action version of it.
There was a terrible live action movie that was released…avoid at all costs. Some have regarded it as one of the worst movies ever made…
I looked for a short synopsis of the series…I found this and altered it a little on IMDB.
In a lost age the world is divided into four equal powers: Water Tribe, Earth Kingdom, Fire Nation, and Air Nomads. In each nation, there’s a group of gifted people known as Benders who have the ability to manipulate their native element using martial arts and elemental magic. For thousands of years, the nations lived together peacefully. But then disaster struck. The young ruler of the Fire Nation, Fire Lord Sozin, began a war of world conquest. The only one who could have prevented it was the Avatar. The Avatar is the human incarnation of the Spirit of Light, he alone can master bending all four elements. But, just when he was needed most, he disappeared.
Now, 100 years later, a young Waterbender named Katara and her older brother Sokka stumble upon the long lost Avatar, Aang (he was around 12), who was encased in an iceberg for 100 years. They must help Aang master all four elements before summer when Sozin’s grandson Fire Lord Ozai will use a comet to deal one last deadly strike against the other nations and claim a Fire Nation victory. But, all that is easier said than done with the Fire Lord’s determined and hot-tempered son, Prince Zuko, hot on their trail.
It took me a few listens to warm up to this song…after that, I’ve been hooked. Roger Daltrey on Happy Jack. “I remember when I first heard ‘Happy Jack’, I thought, ‘What the f–k do I do with this? It’s like a German oompah song!’ I had a picture in my head that this was the kind of song that Burl Ives would sing, so ‘Happy Jack’ was my imitation of Burl Ives!”
The song peaked at #24 in the Billboard 100 and #3 in the UK in 1967.
Pete Townshend based the “Happy Jack” character on the strange and not-too-intelligent guys who used to hang around English beaches and play with the kids. Townshend would play on the Isle Of Man beach as a kid.
This was featured on The Who’s second album, A Quick One. In the US, the album title was changed to “Happy Jack” due to record company fears that the original title was a reference to sex.
In 1966 The Who were slotted to film a television series in much the same vein as the Monkees series. For the pilot episode, the band filmed a clip to go along with this song. It featured the 4 of them as robbers attempting to rob a safe. They get distracted, however, by a cake sitting close by and wackiness ensues as The Who smear themselves from head to foot with frosting. Finally a cop busts in and foils their plan, chasing them out of the room. The show never aired, but the clip can now be found in the Kids Are Alright DVD. The clip is light years ahead of its time for what other bands of the ’60s were doing.
A live version can be found on the expanded Live at Leeds album.
At the tail end of the song, you can hear Townshend yelling the phrase “I saw yer!” to Who drummer Keith Moon. Apparently, Moon had been banished from the studio and was trying to sneak back in.
This song was used in an ad campaign for the Hummer H2 in 2004. The commercial featured a boy in a wooden car rolling straight down a hill to win a soap box derby instead of taking the winding road down like everyone else.
Happy Jack
Happy Jack wasn’t old, but he was a man He lived in the sand at the Isle of Man The kids would all sing, he would take the wrong key So they rode on his head on their furry donkey
The kids couldn’t hurt Jack They tried and tried and tried They dropped things on his back And lied and lied and lied and lied and lied
But they couldn’t stop Jack, or the waters lapping And they couldn’t prevent Jack from feeling happy
But they couldn’t stop Jack, or the waters lapping And they couldn’t prevent Jack from feeling happy
The kids couldn’t hurt Jack They tried and tried and tried They dropped things on his back And lied and lied and lied and lied and lied
But they couldn’t stop Jack, or the waters lapping And they couldn’t prevent Jack from feeling happy
Growing up in the seventies watching shows on Saturday morning was a wonderful experience and Sid and Marty Krofft could really be on the strange side….but a great strange.
It has been rumored that the brothers were inspired by hallucination drugs such as LSD and or pot. The brothers have always denied this claim. Shows with titles H.R Pufnstuf and Lidsville (Puff and a Lid) and the lyrics led to accusations.
H.R. Pufnstuf, who’s your friend when things get rough?
H.R. Pufnstuf, can’t do a little, ’cause you can’t do enough!
A quote from them…”We screwed with every kid’s mind,” says Marty Krofft of the loopy shows — such as H.R. Pufnstuf, Lidsville, and Land of the Lost — that he created with brother Sid in the early 1970s. “There’s an edge. Disney doesn’t have an edge.”…from Hollywoodreporter.
H.R. Pufnstuf – A boy with a talking flute got in a boat and then the skies turned gray and there in the sky was Witchiepoo… He ended up at a place with H.R. Pufnstuf (who has to be seen) his friends and talking trees…terrorized by Witchiepoo…. with a hint of psychedelic threw in…as was most of the shows they created. It’s awesome to know that kids watched this strange show… Give me this over Barney…
Lidsville – A boy falls down a large top hat at an amusement park and ends up in a land of Hats…there was also a genie named Weenie…who played Witchiepoo in HR Pufnstuf. The bad guy was Charles Nelson Reilly the magician and he would go around zapping people. The show is just plain bizarre…for me, it is the strangest show they did….and besides Land of the Lost my favorite.
Sigmund and the Sea Monsters – A couple of boys find a friendly sea monster hiding from his mean family of sea monsters. the boys hide Sigmund from everyone else. This is probably the most normal one of them all…It was a popular Saturday morning show.
The Bugaloos – Singing insects…Watch it…Most boys had a crush on the Butterfly Caroline Ellis.
The Banana Splits – An animal rock group with a catchy theme song…which all of the earlier shows had a catchy theme. This show was made by Hanna-Barbera but the costumes were made by the Krofft brothers.
There were other shows like Electra Woman and Dyna Girl, The Space Nuts, The Lost Saucer and Wonder Bug but they were not in the same league as the top group. In these shows, the Krofft brothers moved away from the puppets…which they were known for… and the wild themes.
Sid and Marty Krofft also had an inside theme park in Atlanta
In 1976, a developer asked the Kroffts to develop a very cool amusement park for the new Omni International complex in downtown Atlanta. The World of Sid and Marty Krofft was the world’s first indoor amusement park, but due to poor attendance, it was closed after just six months. The Omni International building that contained the amusement park was renamed the CNN Center when the site was converted to the present CNN headquarters.
The brothers sued McDonald’s and won for ripping off H.R. Pufnstuf and Living Island. I can see a resemblance…
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