V03-T16 Technical Difficulties

.....This last track for Volume 3 is an apt way to end this year:

Volume 3: A KINDER, GENTLER ZERO TOLERANCE, track 16

• 01:00 "TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES" (no author listed)
• performed by Don Pardo
• original source: 2LP TELEVISION'S GREATEST HITS TVT 1100 (US) 1985
• and my source: the same

.....He's known today for the years he spent as an announcer on "Saturday Night Live" but Pardo was a seasoned veteran when he started on that show. He was only rarely used to his full potential, as when host/musical guest Frank Zappa arranged for him to duet on the song "I'M THE SLIME". Brief spots like this were used at the end of each side of the TVT double album. Actually, this particular one only went by the title "TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES" on the interior label. On the exterior jacket, it went by the title "PLEASE STAND BY". Either way it served as a method of mitigating the necessary pause to flip the cassette to side four.

.....Hopefully next year I won't have to deal with the problems I had last spring, especially as I hope to be busier. More tomorrow.

V03-T15 Totally Wired

.....Winding down side 3, I opted to kick up the energy level a little.

Volume 3: A KINDER, GENTLER ZERO TOLERANCE, track 15

• 03:28 "TOTALLY WIRED" (lyrics: Mark E. Smith; music: Craig Scanlon, Marc Riley, Mark E. Smith, Stephen Hanley, Paul Hanley)
• performed by The Fall
• original source: A-side 7" Rough Trade RT056 (UK) 9/80
• and my source: CD THE FALL IN: PALACE OF SWORDS REVERSED Cog Sinister/Rough Trade ROUGH US 32CD (US)1987?

.....As a college DJ I was on the air when someone called in with a request for this. I played it and fell in love with it. At the time the first, fourth, eighth, ninth and tenth albums had been released in this country but little else. PALACE... was one of two US compilations apparently meant to compensate for that.

V03-T14 Why Does The Sun Shine?

.....These compilations were made with a greater degree of spontaneity than cassettes I put together for a particular artist or theme. I would usually jot down song titles and playing times on scrap paper 4-6 songs ahead of whatever I was dubbing at the moment so that I wouldn't be surprised by the tape running out. If you add up the playing times for any of these ten volumes you should get roughly 45 minutes for just that reason. Aside from that one concession to planning they were programmed on the fly mostly by instinct.

Volume 3: A KINDER, GENTLER ZERO TOLERANCE, track 14

• 02:54 "WHY DOES THE SUN SHINE?" (Hy Zarat, Lou Singer)
• performed by They Might Be Giants
• original source: CD5 Elektra 66272-2(US)1993
• and my source: the same

.....While recording the 2009 album CD/DVD HERE COMES SCIENCE Disney Sound DOOO456600(US)9/09 the band TMBG was informed that this song from their back catalog was factually incorrect, despite the fact that they covered it from a 1950's educational project. They had even performed it for about twenty years without anyone pointing out that scientific consensus about the composition of the sun has changed in the last half century. If it wasn't for the fact that HERE COMES SCIENCE was intended for children it would not have come under closer scrutiny than most of their releases, as it did. Not wanting to drop a popular song from their repertoire, they coupled it with a new original song, "WHY DOES THE SUN REALLY SHINE?", which was not only correct information but also an object lesson about the greatest strength of science: everything is subject to reexamination and truth is what can be demonstrated, not merely what we are told. The full story behind the remake is here, with links to the history of the original:

http://tmbw.net/wiki/Why_Does_The_Sun_Really_Shine%3F

.....What I wrote about it at the time was that "After listening to this tape a few times I've become painfully aware how this song sticks out like a sore thumb. I just couldn't help it. Aside from a few left over singles from the 1992 APOLLO 19 album, this EP was the band's total output last year: one original song and three covers including this, the title track." Well, that's overstating it. I have since found a two-song vinyl Christmas single from the very end of the year and have learned from their site linked above that a mini-album length cassette of demos for their JOHN HENRY album leaked out and was widely bootlegged until they made it available by podcast. There were a paucity of stray tracks as well, but all in all not much for a normally prolific band. I didn't know how many more of these compilations I would be making and I couldn't imagine not having TMBG in there somewhere. While it didn't fit as I'd expected it would ("TODDLER HIGHWAY" might have worked had I thought of it) I can take some comfort in the knowledge that I gave an implicit endorsement early on for a song that proved to have considerable durability.

V03-T13 My Mother Is A Space Cadet

.....While riffing on a theme of 'little things' I remembered that I had a viable selection by a bona fide child.

Volume 3: A KINDER, GENTLER ZERO TOLERANCE, track 13

• 02:37 "MY MOTHER IS A SPACE CADET" (words: Dweezil Zappa, Moon Zappa, Steve Vai; lyrics: Dweezil Zappa, Steve Vai)
• performed by Dweezil [Zappa]
• original source: A-side 7" Barking Pumpkin WS4 03366(US) 1982
• and my source: the same

.....Let me just quote from my original notes and chime in again later:

"This came with a picture sleeve that made it a must for me. It shows a pubescent Dweezil before his eyebrows met. He and his 12-year-old friends are all trying to look like brooding bad-asses and it comes across as a parody of album covers like MEET THE BEATLES and especially ENGLAND'S NEWEST HIT-MAKERS (the first US Rolling Stones LP). I guess if they wanted to distinguish themselves from those other hairless wonders over in Tiger Beat, then scowling at the camera is the way to do it. Of course, having the sound to back it up is that much easier when dad's hired help is Steve Vai.

"I am actually curious as to why Vai really did this. It's easy to assume that Frank told him to, but the Zappas don't strike me as those kind of people and his kids certainly wouldn't have developed the ambitions to launch as many projects as they have if they were in the habit of being spoiled and having things arranged for them (outside of having them released on the family label, I mean). He may have done it because he teaches guitar and Dweezil was a student; he may have done it out of a sense of mischief; he may have been bored. He may also have done it because projects that are spontaneous and not tailored for commercial consumption are rarely brought to completion in the California entertainment industry. That would be reason enough."

.....Well, since writing that I haven't managed to confirm any of my speculations about Vai's motives behind this, although I have since learned that despite his writing credit the guitar parts (except for the intro and a massive slide towards the end) may have indeed been handled by the then 12-year-old Dweezil. The intro and slide were likely by Eddie Van Halen, who, along with an engineer make up the pseudonymous Vards credited with producing. Although Vai's website doesn't mention the single, Dweezil's goes into some length about the guitar used, for all you gear-heads out there:

http://www.dweezilzappaworld.com/articles/17-seuss-flying-v

.....and site member Ambassador-at-large contributed the following:

http://www.dweezilzappaworld.com/search?q=greg+kurstin

.....What's been most odd about looking around for scraps of information on this single is the large number of sites, commercial and otherwise, which discuss it, even reproduce the sleeve photo art, but mention even less about it than I have above. I expect that from the mp3 piracy websites, but nearly empty pages on Wikipedia and even the single's very own Facebook page(?!) feel discouraging. They don't even mention that Greg Kurstin, who co-wrote the B-side, "CRUNCHY WATER", is half of The Bird And The Bee (I'm guessing he's the bee).

V03-T12b Animaniacs

.....Meet "our microscopic allies".

Volume 3: A KINDER, GENTLER ZERO TOLERANCE, track 12b

• 01:08 "ANIMANIACS" (music:Richard Stone, lyrics:Tom Ruegger)
• performed by Animaniacs
• original source: CD STEVEN SPIELBERG PRESENTS ANIMANIACS Kid Rhino R2 71570 (US) 1993
• and my source: the same

.....Any children's show that includes the line "there's bologna in our pants" in the opening theme song is a sure-fire hit. With me, anyway.

V03-T12a (excerpt Dead London)

.....Spoken word interstitials can be like peanuts sometimes...

Volume 3: A KINDER, GENTLER ZERO TOLERANCE, track 12a

• 00:17 (excerpt DEAD LONDON) (H.G. Wells, adapted by Jeff Wayne)
• performed by Richard Burton
• original source: 2LP THE WAR OF THE WORLDS Columbia PC2 35290 (US) 6/78
• and my source: 2CD THE WAR OF THE WORLDS Columbia C2K 35290 (US?) 1986?

.....According to the novel, the line I wanted to use was, "...slain, after all man's devices had failed, by the humblest things that God, in his wisdom, has put upon this earth.", or the nearest equivalent from the George Pal movie adaption. At the time I was putting this compilation together I was using a versatile analog receiver that could juggle input from multiple sources in multiple formats and I wanted to take advantage of the fact that that included using the audio portion of VHS recordings (this was pre-DVR), especially as I was developing a thread of film-related music. I was nearing the end of that side of the cassette and wanted to switch gears slightly one more time and needed a bridge/interstitial. I had recently recorded the George Pal adaption of "War Of The Worlds"(1953) but couldn't find the VHS tape, but remembered having the Jeff Wayne project on CD. Better known as a producer, Wayne took three years to construct a musical adaption of the 1898 novel using artists he had worked with, including Justin Hayward (of the Moody Blues), Phil Lynott (of Thin Lizzy) and others. The full story came to light in 2005 with the release of the 6CD/1DVD collector's edition, Columbia/Legacy CECD96000 (aka C7H 94427 1 2 or UPC#8 27969 44276 0). Had it existed at the time, I could have used the expanded box as a source for the paraphrased recording of the above passage. The three discs of outtakes includes all of the spoken material without music. As it happened, I wasn't able to isolate the phrase I wanted from the musical bedding and other dialogue. Seconds later, at the very end of a track called "DEAD LONDON", I found the excerpt I eventually used bookended with the second's pause I needed to fade in and out without jarring the listener. The exact phrase I used was, "Directly the invaders arrived and drank and fed, our microscopic allies attacked them. From that moment, they were doomed." It actually seemed like a more fitting link from a "Rocky Horror" spin-off (since Frank and company were alien invaders) to our next track.

V03-T11 Little Cat

.....I used to be frustrated by the fact that I couldn't find more information about the child star who recorded this number, although the last time I aggressively researched him was probably 1994 when I compiled this tape. Now, with the advent of some of the most powerful databases on the internet, I've learned that IMDB, Allmusic and Wikipedia are also completely clueless as to this boy's identity. The best I can guess is that he may have grown up to be the lead singer of the Dutch pop group Jonz. Or maybe not. I'm still frustrated, of course, but feeling far less inadequate about it.

Volume 3: A KINDER, GENTLER ZERO TOLERANCE, track 11

• 02:18 "LITTLE CAT (YOU'VE NEVER HAD IT SO GOOD)"(Nick Lowe)(additional arrangements by David Bedford)
• performed by Jonas
• original source: VA2LP ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS: THE [OMPS] Virgin VD2514 (UK) 4/86
• and my source: VACD ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS: THE [OMPS] Virgin CDV2386(UK) 1987?

.....Taken from Colin MacInnes' novel, "Absolute Beginners" was a period film documenting Britain's belated recognition of teenagers as a demographic and subculture. It may seem strange today, but a century ago the concept of the teenager was just being introduced. Prior to that it was presumed that children turned into adults with no intermediary stages. It's been mentioned elsewhere, and is repeated early in the film, that Americans invented the teenager. That's certainly true in the case of mass media fictional characters, where youths saddled with adult responsibilities (Little Orphan Annie, Tintin, et al) gave way to hormone-crazed and judgement-impaired balls of energy like Andy Hardy and Archie Andrews. The population bubble that followed the end of World War II would later turn teens from a curious sociological phenomenon into a serious purchasing power in any industrialized economy.

.....Composer Nick Lowe is no stranger to teen idol pop. About a decade earlier than this recording he was invited to join the newly launched Stiff label but was in a contract that prevented him from doing so. To avoid the penalties which would stem from breaking the contract, he tried to prompt the label that he was signed to into firing him. To this end he submitted songs like "BAY CITY ROLLERS, WE LOVE YOU", knowing that their star was on the wane in England. What he did not know was that they were just becoming huge in Japan, where the song became a hit. Of course, he eventually became a notable performer and producer at Stiff, albeit with a renewed respect for the power of pop. He's also apparently a student of the period. The movie takes place in 1958, and the song's subtitle is taken from a 1957 speech by conservative Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, often paraphrased as it is above, quoted here: "...most of our people have never had it so good." The speech sought to bolster his fellow conservatives with positive signs of post-war recovery, which was also a significant topic of the film.

.....Rereading my original liner notes, they seem mostly still relevant:

"Another soundtrack selection, this one a little more off the beaten path. Also, you may find the soundtrack to the movie Absolute Beginners in bargain bins (and it really would be a bargain) but this track would not be on it. The US album has the songs that are featured as production numbers in the movie. The UK version contains the US version plus a second, shorter LP with Gil Evans' instrumental score and the full unedited studio versions of songs heard only in snippets or in the background of the movie. This song, for instance, is heard playing on radios. The joke is that the main character (and the audience) know that the singer was a snotty, unkempt schoolboy just months before this song became a hit and in fact watched the boy's manager 'discover' him (at an audition) and dress him in flashy clothes as an acceptable counter to "that American Negro music". Even though the movie takes place in England (1958?) it perfectly describes the state of pop music in the US, circa 1959-1962: the real rockers were dying in plane crashes (Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, et al), serving in the army (Everly Brothers, Elvis Presley), in jail (Chuck Berry for tax evasion), blackballed due to scandal (Jerry Lee Lewis for marrying his teenage cousin) etc, etc. A teenaged music marketplace was created in the mid-fifties out of babies born after World War II. Rock music caught the record industry by surprise, since 'race music' and other folk forms were deemed commercially unviable and pigeonholed in a manner that would have kept them so except for the size of the demographic base demanding it. The response was (and has been ever since) to mass produce lightweight, uninspired substitutes for soul and imagination (and in this case, sex). Thus, Paul Anka, Neil Sedaka, Connie Francis, Pat Boone and others reassured parents everywhere that a clean-cut young man was in the White House setting a fine example and that rock and roll was just a bad dream. The 'little cat' was that music, the music that came between Alan Freed and the Beatles and which was the rule rather than the exception in England.

"What sold me on this song was the chorus (listen closely):

'Boom, baby; Boom, baby; Boom, baby, boom;

'Baby, boom; Baby, boom; Baby, boom...' "

.....Well, here in 2010 I don't have much to add to that except that the 25th anniversary of the movie is looming and I'm hoping that we see a decent 2-DVD with the extras not seen on the shamefully skimpy and improperly transfered 2003 DVD. (Seriously, if the selling point of a movie is music and visual spectacle, why bother releasing a home video version at all if you're not going to pay any attention to the quality of the sound or color?) In addition to a mountain of detailed period production designs that must exist (the Criterion edition of Brazil would be the standard to live up to) both DVD and Blu-ray formats could accommodate the digital format premieres of some of the music from double album and spun-off singles that didn't make it to even the extended UK CD. There were two Gil Evans instrumental takes on "ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS" and "NAPOLI" which I'm sure jazz completists would appreciate. More importantly there was Laurel Aitken's "LANDLORDS AND TENANTS" and Ekow Abban's "SANTA LUCIA" from scenes key to the plot. That doesn't even count material that didn't make it to vinyl, such as a wedding song played on steel drums. The anniversary is in April and I'm not getting my hopes up, since the 50th anniversary of the book seemed to slip by quietly unnoticed last year.

.....More trouble for London tomorrow.

V03-T10b Little Black Dress

.....Had I adhered to my original schedule for this blog, I would have been entering this post and the last long before the cast of "Glee" did their 'Rocky Horror' episode. Predictably, the contingent of the professionally indignant yammered to one another about the sexual subject matter. Just as predictably, they were completely silent about a prior episode in which the sole wheel-chair bound student sings a slowed-down version of "Dancing With Myself", the Generation X/Billy Idol song about masturbation. It doesn't take much to read between the lines of that song, but if you're stupid enough to believe that teenagers wouldn't have sexual feelings if they didn't hear songs about them, then you're stupid enough to assume that teenagers with a physical handicap don't have sexual feelings at all.

.....But we're here to talk about eine kleine herren with a different preoccu-...PA-tion.

Volume 3: A KINDER, GENTLER ZERO TOLERANCE, track 10b

• 02:27 "LITTLE BLACK DRESS" (Richard O'Brien, Richard Hartley)
• performed by: The Cast of "Shock Treatment"
• original source: LP SHOCK TREATMENT ODE/Warner Bros. LLA 3615 (US) 1981
• and my source: the same

.....The film adaption of the musical play "Rocky Horror" was a flop as a first run feature, but became a roaring success as a midnight movie starting the following spring and continuing for decades until home video killed the theaters in which it played. Once Hollywood (or more specifically, 20th Century Fox) discovered that there was a previously untapped market for repeated viewings of movies on the fringe (such as "Pink Flamingos" and "El Topo" before their own RHPS) they decided to create a cult film for that market and simply bypass what would be the normal first-run national release and go straight to the midnight circuit. The flawed logic behind that decision assumed that because they perceived these films to be losing money in their initial releases but lucrative in the second lives, that more profits were to be made by eliminating the first stage. The problem with that kind of thinking is that it ignores the fact that the second stage is only more profitable because the bulk (but not all)of the movies' production costs were covered in the first stage. Despite the difference in content and presumably audiences between cult films and blockbusters, the economics of distribution thirty years ago was the same for both. 'Profits' is just the name for what you make after the costs are covered. If that happens all at once, it's a blockbuster. If it happens over the long term, it's a cult film.

.....Seeking a sequel to "Rocky Horror", the studio approached Richard O'Brien and Richard Hartley, who set out to do just that. Logistical problems in reassembling the original cast and other delays prompted so many compromises that O'Brien began to realize that he would never get the sequel he wanted. Instead he opted for an original story and hoped to pitch it as the sequel that perhaps the studio wanted. Hence, "Shock Treatment"(1981), with some characters from RHPS played by different actors and some actors from RHPS playing different characters. In this particular number O'Brien and Patricia Quinn once again play incestuous siblings (Cosmo and Nation instead of Riff Raff and Magenta) but Janet Weiss Majors (she has since married Brad) is played by Jessica Harper, a veteran of "Phantom Of The Paradise". Also on hand is Australian Barry Humphries as Viennese game-show host Bert Schnick. He is better known as to Americans as Dame Edna Everage.

.....I have long suspected that "LITTLE BLACK DRESS" was a "Rocky Horror" outtake. It could fit neatly between the scene in which Frank uses the Medusa ray to turn his prisoners into statues and the Floor Show sequence where he appears in drag. It's the only part of the movie noticeably lacking transition, which the song could provide. According to the commentary of the 2006 DVD the song "BREAKING OUT" was indeed intended for some incarnation of "Rocky Horror", but "LITTLE BLACK DRESS" isn't mentioned there or in the two mini-documentaries included as bonus material.

.....More from the movies in the next post.

V03-T10a Belt You About The Mouth

.....Wow, is it Monday already?

.....When I left off in July I mentioned that the prevalent theme of rebellion so common in the first half of Volume 3 would be shifting to a theme of little things in the latter half. What better way to introduce little things than with an interstitial?

Volume 3: A KINDER, GENTLER ZERO TOLERANCE, track 10a

• 00:31 "CUT #4 BELT IN MOUTH" [no writer credited]
• performed by Richard O'Brien [as Riff-Raff]
• original source: promo-only one-sided 7" on 20th Century Fox Music #DS211(US) ?9/75
• and my source: CD SONGS FROM THE VAULTS Rhino R2 71011B(US)1990

.....The first time I heard this was when I found this rarities disc in the boxed set 4CD THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW 15TH ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION Rhino/ODE R2 71011(US) 1990. This, and a second compilation featuring foreign language and other performances from various international cast albums, were boxed with the previously available soundtrack and Roxy (L.A.) cast albums. The track above originally came from a promotional single sent to radio stations in advance of the September 24, 1975 theatrical release of the "Rocky Horror" film adaption, hence the approximate release date I estimated. A common enough format at the time, the single was a one-sided 7" vinyl record with eight cuts. On the boxed set it's given the self-explanatory title "ROCKY HORROR RADIO COMMERCIAL (BELT YOU ABOUT THE MOUTH)", but I went with the title as it appears on the record. Of the eight promotional clips only this and one other made it onto the CD. If you like, you can check out the details at the following link:

http://www.rockymusic.org/album/radio-spots.php

.....Tomorrow I'll detail the track into which this interstitial leads.

Halloween - The Bride of Frankenmix Side B

.....Here 'tis: a sixth program of holiday themed rock and pop. (If you eat it slowly, it'll last until Thanksgiving.) If you were referred here for the all-ages playlist, that's found on the posts for October 10th and 11th. Since then I've been posting playlists from other Halloween mix tapes I've thrown together. By the end of this post you'll have four and a half hours of suggestions.

....."THE BRIDE OF FRANKENMIX" Side B

04:36 STONEHENGE (Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, Rob Reiner) by Spinal Tap

-----from soundtrack LP THIS IS SPINAL TAP (1984)

06:00 FRANKENSTEIN (Sylvain Sylvain, David Johanson) by The New York Dolls

-----from LP THE NEW YORK DOLLS (1973)

05:47 CAREFUL WITH THAT AXE, EUGENE (Roger Waters, Richard Wright, Nick Mason, David Gilmour) by Pink Floyd

-----B-side (1968) and compilation LP RELICS (1971)

02:58 RACE WITH THE DEVIL (Gene Vincent, William Douchette) by Stray Cats

-----from LP ROCK THERAPY (1986)

06:13 SHOWROOM DUMMIES (Ralf Hutter) by Kraftwerk

-----from LP TRANS EUROPE EXPRESS (1977)

04:12 ASTRONOMY DOMINE (Syd Barrett) by Pink Floyd

-----from LP PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN (1967)

03:29 HUNGRY FREAKS, DADDY (Frank Zappa) by Frank Zappa

-----from 2LP FREAK OUT! (1965)

03:54 BEWITCHED (Andy Summers) by Andy Summers and Robert Fripp

-----from LP BEWITCHED (1985)

02:37 PLEASE, MISTER GRAVEDIGGER (David Bowie) by David Bowie

-----from LP DAVID BOWIE (1967)

06:08 BOUND FOR HELL (words: David J/Traditional; music: Love And Rockets) by Love And Rockets

-----from LP LOVE AND ROCKETS (1989)

.....I'm sure I've left out some good ones; The Band's cover of "LONG BLACK VEIL" comes to mind, for one. I'm not going to sweat it. I've to leave something for next year. Have fun on Halloween and for perdition's sake BRUSH YOUR TEETH!

Halloween - The Bride of Frankenmix

.....From five undocumented home compilations of Halloween themed music, I've gleaned at least 90 minutes of material not already mentioned on the two previously posted. To briefly recap: on the 10th and 11th I posted the playlists of each side of a cassette I compiled for my nephews in the 1998. Then on the 12th and 13th I posted the two sides of a tape I made for myself earlier. I had actually made other Halloween mix tapes, roughly every other year since the late 80's, but chose to run with those two because the 1998 tape was uniquely all-ages and the 1995 tape was 100% mutually exclusive material. The remaining five tapes each contained at least a few songs also on the first two. But there were enough good songs amongst them to fill at least another 90 minutes. And unless I'm mistaken, that's where you came in...

....."THE BRIDE OF FRANKENMIX" Side A

03:34 PUTTIN' ON THE RITZ (Irving Berlin) by Gene Wilder and Peter Boyle

-----from LP MEL BROOKS' GREATEST HITS (1978)

02:59 SPIRITS OF ANCIENT EGYPT (Paul McCartney) by Wings

-----from LP VENUS AND MARS (1975)

05:15 SWAMP (Lyrics:David Byrne; Music:Talking Heads) by Talking Heads

-----from LP SP EAK IN GI N TO NGU ES [sic](1983)

04:35 EYE OF THE ZOMBIE (John Fogerty) by John Fogerty

-----from LP EYE OF THE ZOMBIE (1986)

02:51 STRANGE BREW (Eric Clapton, Felix Pappalardi, Gail Collins) by Cream

-----A-side (1967) and LP DISRAELI GEARS (1967)

02:14 NIGHT OF FEAR (Roy Wood) by The Move

-----A-side (1966) and compilations

06:24 SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards) by The Rolling Stones

-----from LP BEGGAR'S BANQUET (1968)

01:27 I HOLD YOUR HAND IN MINE (Tom Lehrer) by Tom Lehrer

-----from LP SONGS BY TOM LEHRER (1953 or 1966)[entire album was recorded twice]

03:10 I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE (Roky Erikson) by R.E.M.

-----from Various Artists CD WHERE THE PYRAMID MEETS THE EYE (1990)

03:16 I AIN'T NUTHIN' BUT A GOREHOUND (Lux Interior, Ivy Rorschach) by The Cramps

-----from EP SMELL OF FEMALE (1983)

03:03 ASTRAL PLANE (Jonathan Richman) by The Modern Lovers

-----from LP THE MODERN LOVERS (1976)

02:49 EVIL [IS GOING ON] (Chester Burnett) by Howling Wolf

-----B-side (1954) and compilation LP MOANIN' IN THE MOONLIGHT (1965)

04:21 PSYCHO KILLER (David Byrne, Martina Weymouth, Christopher Frantz) by Talking Heads

-----from LP TALKING HEADS '77 (1977)

.....You'll probably noticed that some artists occur more than once during the same program here and Side B (tomorrow), although I avoided doing just that in the four programs that preceded it. Lack of variety was a problem in the earliest incarnations of this project, too. I'd like to think that the quality of the material and adherence to the theme compensate for that. (The songs left off include Mojo Nixon's "The Amazing Bigfoot Diet", because it was really about supermarket tabloids moreso than Bigfoot or the paranormal topics they write about.) Tomorrow I'll put Halloween as a post topic to rest (for this year) but I'll gladly field questions about different sources for any of these tracks in the comment fields.

Halloween 1995 Side B

.....After posting the sides of a Halloween-themed compilation tape on October 10th and 11th, I mentioned around that the songs listed were potentially background music for all-ages get-togethers. Yesterday I added the first side of an earlier tape I had made without that guideline, although there I marked the 'all-ages' tracks with an asterisk (*) if you'd like to customize your own program. For this side, however, I didn't notice anything too scandalous. Nice, scary atmosphere, though.

....."AN EVENING WITH HALLOWEEN JACK" Side B

05:15 SCARY MONSTERS (AND SUPER CREEPS) (David Bowie) by David Bowie

-----from LP SCARY MONSTERS (1980)

00:55 THE TWILIGHT ZONE (Marius Constant)[original theme from season 2 on]

-----from various compilations

04:56 DEAD SOULS (Joy Division) by Joy Division

-----B-side (1980) and compilations "Still" and "Substance"

03:04 I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF (Ivy Rorschach, Lux Interior) by The Cramps

-----from LP SONGS THE LORD TAUGHT US (1980)

04:54 JOAN CRAWFORD (Albert Bouchard, David Roter, Jack Rigg) by Blue Oyster Cult

-----from LP FIRE OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN (1981)

02:18 WHEN THE NIGHT WIND HOWLS (William Gilbert, Arthur Sullivan) by Thomas Lawlor (New Sadler Wells company)

-----from 2CD RUDDIGORE (1989)

04:06 PARIS 1919 (John Cale) by John Cale

-----from LP PARIS 1919 (1973)

06:26 HALLOWEEN (Al Jourgensen) by Ministry

-----from EP (EVERYDAY IS) HALLOWEEN (1984)

01:20 THE ADDAMS FAMILY (Vic Mizzy)[original television theme]

-----available on several compilations

03:19 OF LILLIES AND REMAINS (Bauhaus) by Bauhaus

-----from LP MASK (1981)

03:51 FLOPPY BOOT STOMP (Don Van Vliet) by Captain Beefheart

-----from LP SHINY BEAST (aka BAT CHAIN PULLER) (1979)

04:31 I PUT A SPELL ON YOU (Jay Hawkins) by Creedence Clearwater Revival

-----A-side (1968) and eponymous LP (1969)

01:56 CHAINSAW (Ramones) by The Ramones

-----from LP RAMONES (1976)

.....You've still got over two weeks to hunt these down and put together your own Frankenmix. Actually, if I have enough spare parts left over from the five cassettes I haven't used (they all have some redundancy to the two I've chosen to post), I might just be able to stitch together a Bride of Frankenmix. We'll see.

Halloween 1995

.....Oh, what the hell. If you've been referred to this blog for the all-ages Halloween music suggestions, those are on October 10th and 11th (the previous two posts). Looking over the cassettes I compiled for Halloween, I noticed that there was no overlap whatsoever between the previous 90-minute cassette posted here and one I made for myself three years earlier. Even though the earlier one was conceived with an adult listener in mind, there are a few more songs here that can be tacked on to the other compilations as bonus tracks if you're burning your own discs or loading an i-Pod or whatever. If you do that, however, I can't make you any promises about the flow from one song to another. But, still, they're all Halloween songs, right? For brevity's sake I'll mark them with an asterisk (*).

....."AN EVENING WITH HALLOWEEN JACK" Side A

01:00 FUTURE LEGEND (David Bowie)

06:04 DIAMOND DOGS (David Bowie) by David Bowie

------from LP DIAMOND DOGS (1974)

03:46 FRIGHT NIGHT (Joe Lamont) by J Geils Band

------from soundtrack LP FRIGHT NIGHT (1985)

03:13 CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LEATHER LAGOON (Ivy Rorschach, Lux Interior) by The Cramps

------from CD STAY SICK! (1990)

01:30 I MARRIED A MONSTER FROM OUTER SPACE (John Cooper Clarke, Martin Hannett, Steve Hopkins) by John Cooper Clarke

------from Various Artists EP SHORT CIRCUIT: LIVE AT THE ELECTRIC CIRCUS (1978)

03:30 PET SEMATARY[sic] (Dee Dee Ramone, Daniel Rey) by The Ramones (*)

------from LP BRAIN DRAIN (1989)

02:30 BORIS THE SPIDER (John Entwistle) by The Who (*)

------from LP A QUICK ONE (1966) [aka HAPPY JACK in the US]

09:40 BELA LUGOSI'S DEAD (Bauhaus) by Bauhaus (*)

------A-side (1979) [most compilations use a live version from 1982 that is almost identical in length and performance quality; by all means, don't worry about substituting it]

03:07 LUCIFER SAM (Syd Barrett) by Pink Floyd (*)

------from LP PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN (1967)

02:24 GARY GILMORE'S EYES (Tim "TV" Smith) by The Adverts

------A-side (1977) and compilations

03:14 MONSTER MASH (Bobby Pickett, Leonard Capizzi) by Bobby Pickett (*)

------A-side (1962) and countless compilations

05:10 ZOMBIE WOOF (Frank Zappa) by Frank Zappa

------from LP OVERNITE SENSATION (1973)

.....That should keep you busy hunting for 24 hours; then I'll be back with side B.

Halloween 1998 Side B

.....If you haven't already, please read the previous post in which I introduce the program below. I'm squeezing in a look at a cassette of pop music that set the mood for Halloween. Yesterday I listed the Side A program and today I'm listing Side B.

....."IF YOU'VE GOT GHOSTS, THEN YOU'VE GOT EVERYTHING!" Side B

01:21 SIMPSONS' TREEHOUSE OF HORROR V (MEDLEY)(Alf Clausen?)

------from CD SONGS IN THE KEY OF SPRINGFIELD (1999)

02:09 SCARECROW (Syd Barrett) by Pink Floyd

------from LP PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN (1967)

03:41 VAMPIRE GIRL (Jonathan Richman) by Jonathan Richman

------from CD YOU MUST ASK THE HEART (1995)

02:15 HUMAN FLY (Ivy Rorschach, Lux Interior) by The Cramps

------A-side (1978) and compilations incl. OFF THE BONE or BAD MUSIC FOR BAD PEOPLE

03:02 LADY SAMANTHA (Bernie Taupin, Elton John) by Elton John

------A-side (1969)plus 2CD RARE MASTERS (1992) and bonus tracks

04:00 THE DAY THE DEVIL (Laurie Anderson, Peter Gordon Lawrence) by Laurie Anderson

------from LP STRANGE ANGELS (1989)

03:58 IF YOU'VE GOT GHOSTS (Roky Erikson) by John Wesley Harding

------from Various Artists CD WHERE THE PYRAMIDS MEET THE EYE (1990)

02:53 JAZZ BUTCHER MEETS COUNT DRACULA (Pat Fish?/Max Eider?) by Jazz Butcher

------B-side (1983) and compilations

01:00 KOLCHAK THE NIGHT STALKER THEME (Gilbert Melle)[original television theme]

------found on various television theme compilations

02:53 TURN AROUND (TMBG) by They Might Be Giants

------from CD APOLLO 18 (1992)

02:40 WHISKEY ON A SUNDAY (Glyn Hughes) by The Irish Rovers

------from LP ALL HUNG UP (1968?)

02:27 BAD MOON RISING (John Fogerty) by Creedence Clearwater Revival

------from LP GREEN RIVER (1969)

02:00 WOLFMAN HOWL (John "Eddie" Edwards) by The Vibrators

------from LP GUILTY (1983)

03:15 HELLRAISER (Nicky Chinn, Mike Chapman) by The Sweet

------A-side (1973) and countless compilations

05:17 SEASON OF THE WITCH (Donovan Leitch) by Luna

------from soundtrack CD I SHOT ANDY WARHOL (1996)

03:03 I COME AND STAND AT EVERY DOOR (Nazim Hikmet) by The Byrds

------from LP 5D (FIFTH DIMENSION) (1966)

00:47 THE SIMPSONS' HALLOWEEN SPECIAL END CREDITS (Vic Mizzy/Alf Clausen)

------from CD SONGS IN THE KEY OF SPRINGFIELD (1999)

.....Despite being one of the easiest tracks to find, if you were pruning songs to fit them onto one disc and planning to play it for kids besides your own, "Hellraiser" might be one to drop on the basis of suggestiveness. It was sufficiently vague enough for the prudish BBC to let it get to number 2 in the charts. That was fine by me. Anyway, if anybody gets any mileage out of this, let me know in the comments of either post.

Halloween 1998

....With only three weeks to go until Halloween, I wanted to post something appropriate for the season before I go back to details of my old compilations. This blog normally forms the liner notes of catch-all mix tapes I made in the 1990's, but those tapes were really a way for me to step out of the constraints of single-artist and single-theme formats to which I ordinarily gravitated. One of the first themed tapes I ever put together was for Halloween back in the 1980's and it drew too often from the same artists (reflecting my much smaller stash of records and tapes back then) and the poor sound quality reflected my mostly-plastic department store all-in-one sound system. In the mid-90's, armed with an enormous library of recordings and a more versatile, though not state-of-the-art, component system, I set out to overhaul and expand the idea. After a few years, when my nephews were old enough to enjoy them, I made a consciously more kid-friendly version. If you want to scramble around to download this stuff (and good luck finding all of it-- most shouldn't be a problem, but some of it...) then you can put together two 45-minute CD's to replicate the 90-minute cassette. Actually, I'll throw in the approximate playing times if you want to pick and choose to make a 75-minute disc. Happy Hunting!

....."IF YOU'VE GOT GHOSTS, THEN YOU'VE GOT EVERYTHING!" Side A

01:00 SCOOBY-DOO, WHERE ARE YOU? (Ben Raleigh, David Mook) [original television theme]

-------available on several compilations, incl. CD TELEVISION'S GREATEST HITS VOL.3: 70'S&80'S

04:12 SURFIN' DEAD (Lux Interior, Ivy Rorschach) by The Cramps

-------from soundtrack LP RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD (1985) and CD bonus tracks

04:16 MY WIFE AND MY DEAD WIFE (Robyn Hitchcock) by Robyn Hitchcock

-------from LP FEGMANIA (1985) and compilations

03:59 MOON OVER BOURBON STREET (Sting; based on Anne Rice) by Sting

-------from LP DREAM OF THE BLUE TURTLES (1985)

02:37 I DON'T WANNA GO DOWN TO THE BASEMENT (Ramones) by The Ramones

-------from LP RAMONES (1976) and compilations

00:10 SUPERSTITIOUS [sampled movie dialogue]

-------from Monkees' soundtrack album LP HEAD (1968)

05:54 PAPA LEGBA (David Byrne) by Talking Heads

-------from LP TRUE STORIES (1986)

02:33 DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE (John Entwistle) by The Who

-------B-side of "Magic Bus" (1968), more commonly on compilations and as bonus tracks

03:27 POOR SKELETON STEPS OUT (Andy Partridge) by XTC

-------from 2LP ORANGES AND LEMONS (1989)

04:33 KILLER KLOWNS FROM OUTER SPACE (Leonard Graves Phillips) by The Dickies

-------from EP KILLER KLOWNS (1988)

04:09 VOODOO CHILE (SLIGHT RETURN) (Jimi Hendrix) by The Jimi Hendrix Experience

-------from 2LP ELECTRIC LADYLAND (1969) and compilations

02:43 THE THING THAT ONLY EATS HIPPIES (Dead Milkmen) by The Dead Milkmen

-------from LP EAT YOUR PAISLEY (1986)

04:22 MISS MACBETH (Elvis Costello) by Elvis Costello

-------from LP SPIKE (1989)

01:45 HALLOWEEN (Glenn Danzig) by Misfits

-------A-side (1981), but more commonly found on compilation LP LEGACY OF BRUTALITY

.....I'll post Side B tomorrow. Remember all times are approximate. Have fun!

Updates and maintenance

.....Since I've put in some time recently with end-of-the-season lawn care, the last of the heavy duty cutting and clipping before the raking begins, it has occured to me that with the kids back in school and new shows on television that any readers of this blog might be going through their bookmarks and trimming anything that seems abandoned. I've suffered delays here, largely due to work I've been doing on my more research intensive LGC:Doom Patrol blog, but I never intended to abandon these capsules of musical nostalgia, it's just that since it had previously been posting almost daily the delays seem much more dramatic in comparison to the other, where delays and gaps have been chronic.

.....The first step towards being a more responsible inter-neighbor has been to check each and every link on the right side of the page, which you'll find under the heading "Lather, Rinse, Repeat...". I'm happy to report that none of those websites or blogs have been taken down (although a few haven't been updated in a while, either, which made me feel a little less guilty). Only the link for original period instruments, which is actually just a page for the label L'Oiseau Lyre, did not allow me to 'back space' back to this blog. I'm assuming that this is because it's part of an enormous commercial interest (Universal Music) that doesn't want its web designs imbedded in their entirety in some online retailer's site trying to pretend that it's their own. (I've seen this happen to Amazon.) Still, everything works. And if I can get myself back on track I may be adding to them soon.

Technical difficulties, please stand by

.....And it was going so well. This blog was very nearly daily for a few months, and a labor of love I can assure you. Almost a month ago my hard drive blew and I've had trouble repairing/replacing it. At the moment I'm relying on the rationed access at our local library. If I can find transportation more frequently I may stop in for quick posts when possible. If that isn't an option then this brief note will at least let you know that I have not abandoned the project so early in its stages. I hope to post regularly (if not daily again) by the end of August.
.....Anybody stumbling across this blog recently can of course avail themselves of what backlog of entries I do have. If you specifically sought out the blog because you were looking for off-the-main-road listening suggestions then I could recommend the list of links on the right side of the screen. As I posted I would occassionally add to it, but for obvious reasons that is on hold for the moment as well. They should all still work though. If you find any problems with any of them, leave a comment with this entry and I will (eventually) make time to look into it. I use them occasionally myself, after all.

V03-T09 Elvis' House

.....Jello Biafra once wrote a lyric about parasitic Elvis-fetish merchandise being sold in Memphis, (if memory serves me): "His disciples flock to such a fitting shrine, sprawled across from his Graceless mansion; a shopping mall, filled with prayer rugs and Elvis dolls."

Volume 3: A KINDER, GENTLER ZERO TOLERANCE, track 9

• 05:40 "ELVIS' HOUSE" (Christopher Ewen,Anthony Kaczynski, John R. Rolski, Michael Smith, Perry Tell)
• performed by Figures On A Beach
• original source: LP STANDING ON CEREMONY Sire 9 25596-1 (US) 1987
• and my source: the same

.....If Figures On A Beach are remembered for anything now, it's for being a big chunk of Christopher Ewen's resume before joining/forming Future Bible Heroes. They only released two albums, this being the first, but several singles and EP's over about ten years. The second eponymous album was released in 1989 on vinyl and again the following year on CD. This first album didn't ship on CD until 2008 (after being made downloadable in 2006). That is a shame. Not only does it have the only one of their songs made into a MTV video ("NO STARS", according to their sparse website) but it has this brilliant piece of encroaching paranoia and detachment. In the ten years following Elvis' death (in 1977) there were numerous songs about him, such as Dead Kennedy's "A GROWING BOY NEEDS HIS LUNCH" (quoted above), Frank Zappa's "ELVIS HAS JUST LEFT THE BUILDING" and Mojo Nixon's "ELVIS IS EVERYWHERE". Worth looking out for is the Residents' chilling and heart-wrenching album THE KING AND EYE, in which an Elvis sound-alike tells a demented fairy tale to two children that is clearly based on Elvis' own life, interspersed with songs from his catalog (mostly Lieber and Stoller compositions) that take on radically different meanings in the context of the story without changing a word of the lyrics.

.....With all that Presleyana in the air at the time, it was unavoidable that his home, which he called 'Graceland' would come in for scrutiny. It was the world's only lasting physical manifestation of his personality. There's the Paul Simon song and album and a priceless scene in Spinal Tap which was recalled (intentionally or unintentionally?) in the U2 film "Rattle And Hum". "ELVIS' HOUSE" suggests that while a prison with bars of gold may still be a prison, it doesn't preclude the possibility of it being something worse. If anything, it resembles the Roxy Music song "IN EVERY DREAM HOME A HEARTACHE", in which we lose our soul in increments as we cede control over our lives to our material possessions, and become their possessions.

.....The second half of Volume three starts Monday and we turn our attention from the 'rebel' theme we've been following and instead focus on some of the little things in life.

V03-T08 Skeet Surfing

.....The reason for including this track? Honestly, I can't imagine a reason not to.

Volume 3: A KINDER, GENTLER ZERO TOLERANCE, track 8

• 02:58 "SKEET SURFING" (Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Chuck Berry)
• performed by Val Kilmer [with Flo & Eddie]
• original source: EP TOP SECRET! Passport PB 3603 (US) 1984
• and my source: the same

.....Actually, I don't believe Wilson, Love or Berry wrote those lyrics. They were probably written by the Zucker brothers, who wrote the script. Obviously the music is an amalgamation of multiple Beach Boys songs such as "SURFIN' USA", "SHUT DOWN" and "CATCH A WAVE", among others. And the Chuck Berry credit? That's from the Beach Boys' own albums. They borrowed so heavily from Berry while writing their early material that a few songs give him a co-writing credit despite him not having any direct involvement.

.....Oh, and that is actor Val Kilmer singing his own part-- a much younger Val Kilmer, long before playing Batman. In fact, I think this is before playing anything else, his first screen credit. I don't know if he got a lucky break or if he put everything he had into that movie, but it turned out fantastic. That may be hard to believe in a post-"Scream" world where genre parody movies are a dime a dozen and scrape the bottom of the humor barrel. There was a time when genre parody was only approached by people with something to say and the means to say it: "Sleeper", "High Anxiety", "Little Big Man", "Spinal Tap", etc. In "Top Secret" the target is vanity vehicles for rock musicians crossed with wartime espionage films. The result is a gleeful flood of anachronisms, like watching a dozen Hollywood-made period costume epics at once. Medieval knights with chrome armor? Hercules with a wristwatch? "Top Secret" will see you those and raise you a 50's style Elvis character using 60's style surf music to fight 40's style Nazi's who are running a 70's style East Germany.

.....Aiding and abetting on the soundtrack are Flo & Eddie (Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan), former members of the Turtles who went on to perform with Frank Zappa and T. Rex after a record executive told them they were getting fat and therefore couldn't work as musicians anymore. Somebody of their caliber would have been necessary to evoke the vocal harmonies of a Beach Boys record, since the Wilsons and company worked liked dogs rehearsing their voices. Whereas their British Invasion counterparts worshipped Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley, Brian used the Four Freshman as his professional yardstick. Volman and Kaylan may have been forced to give up any hopes of being teen idols, but like every good parodist from Spike Jones to Weird Al, their technical abilities were every bit the equal of their targets.

.....Oh, and we're not done with Elvis just yet. Not by a long shot.

V03-T07 Punk Rock Girl

.....Well, you tell me: how many college radio hits do you know that name-check Minnie Pearl?

Volume 3: A KINDER, GENTLER ZERO TOLERANCE, track 7

• 02:39 "PUNK ROCK GIRL" (Dead Milkmen)
• performed by Dead Milkmen
• original source: CD BEELZEBUBBA Enigma D2-73351 (US)1988
• and my source: the same

.....Before we go any further I'd like to point out that the lyric that identifies a Beach Boys' song as "California Dreaming" is not the mistake so many people tend to think it is. Of course the song was written and performed originally by The Mamas and The Papas, but in the mid-1970's the Beach Boys recorded an album of covers called 15 BIG ONES that acted as a stop gap measure to deal with Brian Wilson's songwriting slowing down to a trickle. Apparently it worked for them because they spent the next decade padding out albums with rock standards. In 1986, right before Wilson left for an overdue solo career, they released "California Dreaming" as an A-side on Capitol 5630. That would have made it likely to have turned up on a jukebox in a California Pizza Company restaurant. (And it is 'Company', not 'Kitchen', the chain better known outside of California.) It would be just as likely that after spending so much time frittering away any relevance they may have had that nobody outside of California was aware that they had released that single, hence the assumption that the Dead Milkmen had screwed up.

.....I chose this song for a few reasons, primarily for the scene in the shopping mall music store. At the time this album came out I had stopped doing seasonal work at a chain music store in a suburban shopping mall. Despite getting along with my coworkers the experience was everything you'd expect-- soul-crushing, depressing, frustrating and sufficiently traumatic that I have not tuned to a top 40 radio station in over 25 years. Before working there I had the misfortune of trying to shop there. When Iggy Pop had his greatest commercial success, the album BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, I went in to see what in his back catalog was available. When I asked the clerk where his albums were, he clearly was trying to avoid admitting that he didn't recognize the name. "So that's in Comedy, right?" I told him that I was certain it should be in rock and offered a few album titles, hoping that might jog his memory. "Uhhh... let me check in Jazz." I just walked out.

.....A year or two later I was working there for Christmas and needed money for college. Most seasonal help is just cut loose but that year there was a part-time opening. Part of being a regular, year-round employee was taking a 'product recognition' type test. It was fairly basic stuff; if a customer asks for this artist or that style of music, what section is it shelved in? I got a nearly perfect score, but I didn't have any illusions that there would be a reward for that. It seemed more likely, given my experience of the parent company, that the test existed so that local managers could tell which of the clods they hired was shelving cassettes without looking at the sticker codes. What really shocked me was when my manager told me that, while my score confirmed to him that I was a good resource in the store, the parent company tended to count higher music knowledge scores as a negative when it comes to promotions for office positions. Their reasoning was that if someone knows too much about any one topic, even if it was their own merchandise, then they were not dedicating their full attention to The Company and its policies. They were convinced that nobody could know too much about more than one topic, since apparently they could never manage it themselves. There was nothing I saw while working for that company, nor read about it since leaving, that contradicted what he told me that day. In fact, a few things confirmed it.

....."We asked for Mojo Nixon. They said, 'He don't work here.' We said, 'If you don't got Mojo Nixon then your store could use some fixin'!'"

.....Next up, bats, turtles and cows.

V03-T06 Mike Beck In Science Class

.....Here I get to combine my love of comic books with recordings again.

Volume 3: A KINDER, GENTLER ZERO TOLERANCE, track 6

• 0:49 "MIKE BECK IN SCIENCE CLASS" (Lynda Barry) [excerpt from "I REMEMBER MIKE"]
• performed by Lynda Barry
• original source: VACD FIRST WORDS Gang of Seven 74144-22000-2 (US)May,1992
• and my source: VACD RADIO EDITS Gang of Seven 74144-1992-1 (US) Late 1992

.....This disc was the first release on the Gang of Seven label, devoted to spoken word recordings. After Will Ackerman sold the Windham Hill label to BMG, he made plans to launch a new label that wouldn't be saddled with the narrow-focused reputation from which Windham Hill briefly prospered. However, one stipulation of his lucrative sale was that he not participate in a competitive business for at least three years. Interpreting that as meaning a new-age label, or even more broadly any music label, he began the label as a spoken word venture. It would have been interesting to see if he could build a different aesthetic brand identity from WH by using the selective issues of spoken performers and then transfer that identity to a stable of musicians (after the three years had lapsed) and retain the same audience. We'll never know because the label lasted about a year and a half.

.....FIRST WORDS was a label sampler introducing a prospective roster of 14 artists, including some known quantities in spoken performance: Spalding Gray, Tom Bodett, Nora Dunn, Wallace Shawn and my choice for the mix tape, Lynda Barry. She was represented there by a 5+ minute track called "I REMEMBER MIKE", but I was considering isolating a snippet as an interstitial when I compared my choices to pre-edited excerpts on the radio promo RADIO EDITS, circulated sometime between the label's sixth release in September and the seventh in January 1993. I decided that the edit "MIKE BECK IN SCIENCE CLASS" stood up as a self-contained, if brief, track in its own right. The full track was eventually used on Barry's own full-length disc THE LYNDA BARRY EXPERIENCE, released June 1993. There should also be more of her work accessible through npr.org (check the links to the right).

.....Tomorrow we flip the gender dynamic of this track to bring you a guy intrigued by an outsider girl.

V03-T05 People Like Us

.....The silver anniversary for this item is bearing down like a steam-roller with no mention of a reissue, remastered or otherwise. At the time I put Volume 3 together (1994) I thought it was strange that this wasn't on CD. A charting band who would no longer make new material; a guest vocalist with a hit TV show at the time; an album never released on CD in eight years and a wealth of potential bonus tracks to sweeten the package, maybe even justify a front-tier list price. It's now been three times that long-- twenty-four years-- and the whole shebang is still long out of print.

Volume 3: A KINDER, GENTLER ZERO TOLERANCE, track 5

• 04:23 "PEOPLE LIKE US" (David Byrne)
• performed by Talking Heads w/ John Goodman
• original source: B-side, 7" Sire 9 28629-7 (US) 1986
• and my source: the same

.....Talking Heads released REMAIN IN LIGHT, one of the most- if not the most- ambitious albums of their career, in 1980 and toured to support it through 1981 followed by a sabbatical from the group to release solo projects that year. They reconvened to release SP EAK IN GI N TO NGU ES in 1983 and film the subsequent tour (which became STOP MAKING SENSE). The three years' difference between one tour and the next shouldn't have meant much, but apparently it did. The Heads have always had a reputation as a cerebral band, at least by rock standards. Yet, even for multi-instrumentalist college graduates the activities of recording and touring in a rock band lend themselves to artificially protracted adolescence and arrested development. That's why the hiatus between their first four studio albums (1977-1980) and last four (1983-1988) is worth mentioning. Following their solo projects, they seemed to have considered their own adulthood. And, being academics, rather than run screaming or go into denial, they picked it apart and looked at it under glasses. Themes of domesticity and family relationships permeate the lyrics and the music is less arch and angular and more pliant and sinuous, about continuation and flow and sustaining rather than distinction and precision. And of course the band members would have been fluent enough in art history to make the connections between their own thirty-something nesting inclinations and the Dutch genre painting movement of the 1600's and its potential for liberating the artist through the mundane.

.....Following the tour film came a pair of projects that drew on this new appreciation for the homestead. The first collection of songs became the album LITTLE CREATURES (1985), self-contained songs that occasionally related to each other through the aforementioned themes. The second project required its songs to contribute to a central narrative which became the skeleton of a higher concept, multi-media campaign that took advantage of their label's parent company, Warner Brothers, to carry out. Under the umbrella title TRUE STORIES it consisted of: (1) an album of songs recorded by the band; (2) concept videos for select songs; (3) a feature film for theatrical release that incorporates both the concept videos and performances of the album's songs by cast members instead of the band; (4) a companion book to the movie; (5) a soundtrack album mostly containing instrumental scoring; and (6) three vinyl singles (each in 7" and 12" formats-- so, six singles total) spread out from the summer of 1986 to the spring of 1987 to keep the movie and album on people's minds. There were probably other bells and whistles tied to Warner's cable and publisher empire as well, such as the David Byrne cover of TIME Magazine for October 27, 1986. According to publisher Richard B. Thomas, it was only the second self-portrait ever allowed in the magazine's history (the first was a Robert Rauschenberg collage in 1976). Byrne himself gets six pages by Jay Cocks (incorporating a one page review by Richard Corliss of the movie, directed by Byrne). Related to that are an additional two pages on avant-pop theater coming out of New York at the time, written by Michael Walsh and name-dropping Laurie Anderson (also on Warner's) and Robert Wilson.

.....Each of the three singles tied to the TRUE STORIES project featured A-sides from the band's album and B-sides selected from the cast's performances. The first was the track used here: John Goodman singing "PEOPLE LIKE US". Yes, that John Goodman, the guy who went on to play Roseanne's husband on the long-running TV show. Professional large person. Grossly underestimated actor John Goodman. "Raising Arizona", "Barton Fink", "The Big Lebowski",... um, "King Ralph"...well, you're reading this on a computer, aren't you? Just go to IMDB and knock yourself out. ... You back yet? SEE? I told you. Underestimated.

.....Trying to get any of the non-band tracks is problematic. The soundtrack album is notoriously unavailable, all the more criminal because in addition to the presence of Talking Heads members and Tubes' drummer Prairie Prince, there's a performance by Kronos Quartet and a composition by Meredith Monk. In 1999 the 12" remixes of "HEY NOW" and "RADIOHEAD" appeared on the CD 12X12 ORIGINAL REMIXES. In 2005 there was a cube-shaped box issued containing DualDisc remasters of the eight studio albums. The remaster of TRUE STORIES contained the standard movie version of "RADIOHEAD" as well as "PAPA LEGBA". Early in 2006, as the DualDisc editions were being released individually, iTunes made available the unimaginatively titled BONUS RARITIES AND OUTTAKES, which included this Goodman vocal-- still with no physical disc. The movie itself has been available on DVD for awhile, but I've only seen it offered in the chopped version shown on cable. Not only is it reformatted for television instead of widescreen, but the funeral scene at the end is removed completely. Here's hoping that restorations can be made available, preferably in a single package and preferably before everyone who would care is dead.

V03-T04 They Don't Know

.....I first knew this song from a Tracey Ullman video, made before she had an American television series. It was when the 'M' in 'MTV' stood for 'Music' instead of 'Misanthropy'. Finding this original version on a compilation by accident was a sweet surprise.

Volume 3: A KINDER, GENTLER ZERO TOLERANCE, track 4

• 03:01 "THEY DON'T KNOW" (Kirsty MacColl)
• performed by Kirsty MacColl
• original source: A-side, 7"Stiff BUY47 (UK) June, 1979
• and my source: VA4CD THE STIFF RECORDS BOX SET Demon/Rhino R2 71062 (US?) August, 1992

.....This is MacColl's debut single, not counting an EP she appeared on as a member of Drug Addix the previous year. None of the songs on that were credited to her and I'm guessing she's just fine with that. This, on the other hand, is pop music gold. My original notes from 1994 haven't really changed, so I'll just quote them below, followed by the current availability of this recording.

.....[from 1994:]Most Americans who know this song know it from the Tracey Ullman version recorded just a few years later [in 1983] (and, I believe, also for Stiff [it was]). That was before Ullman had her American television show on Fox (in fact, before there was a Fox). The video for the remake recast the meaning of the song: in it, Ullman plays a teenager with an enormous crush on Paul McCartney. Obviously nothing ever comes of it, but she grows up to be a bored housewife in a loveless marriage who still daydreams that McCartney will sweep her off her feet. (He does, sort of, when the real McCartney appears briefly at the end.)

.....The original MacColl version is more in the spirit of the mid-1960's British female 'mod' singers (Sandie Shaw, Cilla Black, Petula Clark, Lulu, etc.) who were in turn inspired by Motown and Phil Spector-produced girl groups. It sounds like one of many songs about a girl in a bad relationship, but sung from the girl's perspective so that it seems as though the rest of the world has gone crazy and turned against her. The lyrics to "THEY DON'T KNOW" are sufficiently vague and general that the song could just as easily be about any of the following:

• a) a paranoid schizophrenic speaking to one of their other personalities
• b) a gay rights anthem
• c) a Romeo-and-Juliet/West Side Story couple caught in an ethnic conflict
• d) an addict singing to their drug
• e) an acolyte singing to a cult leader
• f) a prostitute seducing a client
• g) an agent signing a band (see f)

.....[back to 2010:] There was no contemporary album to this single, so it doesn't appear on any reissue even as a bonus track. The year after the Stiff Box came out there was an unimaginative package of MacColl's Stiff material called THE ESSENTIAL COLLECTION (1993), but the year after I put together this mix MacColl supervised a replacement, GALORE-THE BEST OF KIRSTY MACCOLL (1995). Both contain "THEY DON'T KNOW".

.....On Monday, we take a break from the A-sides.