This blends with last night’s post. That was rehearsal for a big stadium show, this is the show. You decide.
Category Archives: TV
The Birth of Rock ‘n’ Roll!
Here’s a fun one. Enter your birthday into this site and they’ll tell you what song was No. 1 the day you were born.
I doubt your song can be much cooler (or classic) than mine.
They’ll also tell you what song was No. 1 the night you were conceived, a real rock ‘n’ roll moment for sure. (I’ve posted about this song twice before, with various versions but not the giant hit that was Tennessee Ernie Ford’s.)
Karaoke Lesley Gore
With video from the TAMI show, and Lesley’s vocals, so you don’t really have to sing. But listen knowing that You Don’t Own Me was written by two guys, a great song about being a teen.
Night Music: Lesley Gore, “You Don’t Own Me”
Lesley owns it. An inspiring cut.
Night Music: Jerry Lee and Tom, Rockin’
This clip seems to cover it, baby. So much so this is the second time I posted it.
TV: “Mr. Pickles”
Indulge me a little bit here, as this entry has virtually nothing to do with music.
However, like my mate Peter, this site, though primarily focused on music–specifically rock’n’roll–is also about art and culture.
Hence this entry, which involves my favorite TV show at present, Mr. Pickles, which appears on the Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim.
In contextualizing Mr. Pickles, it is important to note the brilliant concept Adult Swim has for a lot of their shows, not all of which are cartoons, but all of which represent some of the truly original and creative work anywhere.
A lot of the network’s (Adult Swim operates from 10 P.M. to 5 A.M. EST, daily, after which some very creative younger humans programming takes back over) brilliance comes from packaging. Shows generally run about 11 minutes, so, a Mr. Pickles that begins at say 9:30 P.M. will run for that time span, without commercials, and then be followed by three-to-four minutes of breaks, followed by another 15-minute program running under the same format.
Mr. Pickles, specifically, is about the Goodman family, their community (“Old Town”) and their “lovable” dog, Mr. Pickles. Mr. Pickles is beyond loyal to his owner, Tommy (who legs are inexplicably in braces) and the Goodman family, but Mr. Pickles also has a satanic streak, where he has some magic dominion over other animals, and can control them accordingly.
Mr. Pickles also has a serious sense of justice to go with that evil, if you will, streak. The thing is no one knows about Mr. Pickles’ dark side save the Goodman’s grandpa, who is always maintaining the dog is indeed evil, but is always disproved by the episode’s end, leaving the elder man with a wild tale that makes everyone know he is crazy.
I tend to describe the show as Leave it to Beaver, meets Scooby Doo, meets Dexter. The storylines get complex, but by the end of the 11 minutes, all the crazy loose ends are indeed tied up. But, in addition to the wild plots, there are all kinds of great things the creators have tossed in.
For example, Mr. Goodman is always reading the paper and the news of the story is often reflected in the headlines of his daily news, or within the sherrif’s office, the same can be said about the wanted posters.
Similarly, there is a lot happening in the background, with a lot of very off-the-wall stuff–particularly sex, as Mr. Pickles does indeed like to hump and grope almost anything, especially Mrs. Goodman–going on all over the place.
Mind you, this is a cartoon, but don’t let your kids watch, at least not without checking it out first, because this show is hysterical and as creative as it gets, but it could also be disturbing.
There are 10 episodes available (my favorite is The Lair) but what I linked to below is the Pilot as it gives a pretty good overview of the whole melange of craziness. But, if you go to the Adult Swim website, you can stream all of them (yay, they have been renewed for a second season!).
Quack Quack: You Knew This Couldn’t Be Far Behind
OK, who’s gonna post The Stooges?
1) Unfortunately/fortunately, this is that “greatest concert ever” footage we’ve seen before.
2) Bet Clapton can’t shake his ass like that.
3) How ridiculous is it that MC5 aren’t in the Hall of Fame? Unless you wanna dig back to John Lee Hooker and Chuck Berry, everything I think is great about rock starts here – Slade, early KISS, punk, Hellas, Supershit. Everything.
4) And, hey, there’s that daffy chick again at the abrupt end. Deja vu all over again.
LINK: More Tubeworks, rock on TV before cable
In that John Lee Hooker story from Dangerous Minds, there was a link to another story about Tubeworks, from a site/magazine called Perfect Sound Forever.
The Perfect Sound Forever story is a first-person piece about growing up outside of St. Louis and being able to tap into the Tubeworks show, which seems to have broadcast over the phone lines (and through a converter box) on a regularly irregular basis. Read the story for the impressive list of performers and note that John Sinclair was a regular in studio guest. This was rock TV before cable.
Also note this excellent clip from the show.
Night Music: Blue Cheer, “Summertime Blues”
I’ve been listening to the Pink Fairies pretty constantly lately. They raise this really interesting question: Can I find a new favorite band from the early 70s when it’s now the mid teens? And will I be as enthusiastic when I put those Beatles and Hendrix sounds in the context of the timeline.
Blue Cheer pushes the line back a few years. Summertime Blues was a big hit, and is generally considered the birth of the Heavy Metal genre. But the interview with Dick Clark in this funny clip is notable for its directness. Plus, the words Heavy and Kashmir in the same interview, even before there was a Led Zeppelin. Far out.
Night Music: David Bowie, “Young Americans”
Do you remember President Nixon. Or the bills you have to pay?
We finally watched Twenty Feet from Stardom, the documentary about backup singers that was a must-see hit a couple of years ago. It’s pretty delightful, and also sad, as the women who learned to sing in church eventually see their bigger dreams of solo success fizzle.
The movie finally settles on Darlene Love’s compelling story for its big emotional finish, and that’s fine, but it also downplays the success story of Luther Van Dross, who can be seen in this video from New Years—as 1974 turns into 1975—backing up David Bowie on Dick Clark’s Rockin’ New Years Eve. Vandross is the chubby fellow on the left.
Vandross successfully escaped the gravity of the background singer role and had a successful solo career as a singer and producer, unlike the stories featured in the movie. That’s a sign that the movie is more a charming story than truth telling, but it’s worth seeing just to spend time with Love, the Blossoms, Merry Clayton, Claudia Lennear, Lisa Fischer, Tata Vega and many others. Their stories are really interesting, and inevitably tell a richer story than the one the movie chooses to focus on.
This clip is for Luther Vandross and yesterday, the day after David Bowie’s birthday. It is cool, a synonym for awesome.