Fortunately for you there is NO video evidence on the Utoobage to redeem these musical wonders, so we can only guess what they sounded like, and it’s a safe assumption that the t-shirt sales were as successful as their autographed debut album.
Now about their groupies… nope. Not even gonna go there.
Jack Harrison, the last survivor who participated in The Great Escape of WWII passed away on 4 June 2010. There’s an interesting interactive illustration of one of the tunnels here. [h/t to Wheels.]
Eubie Blake was awesome. He was 95 in 1978 when this interview was recorded.
During the break there’s an advertisement for the troublesome RadioShack TRS-80 computer system, using magenetic tape cassettes for data storage. Only cost $599! That’s about $2,000 in today’s dollars. Later on, after users complained about problems with the cassette drives, Tandy eventually offered an awesome 5MB hard drive accessory, about the same size as a PC today, for $1,500 – a whopping $4,900 today.
Okay, 1978 was probably the peak of the (gag) disco phase, and the birth of R&B pop love anthems. There is absolutely nothing that ranked in the top 20 that I’d post here, except for maybe for the Stone’s “Miss You.” Worst song they ever did IMO.
On the other hand, this song made No. 41, and Randy Newman gets kudos for writing the most misunderstood song of the year:
Have a great weekend, folks, and meet me back here tomorrow.
There’s a happy patient. One squeeze and she’s happy; two squeezes and she’s dancing on the table; three squeezes and she’s prepared to serve in congress.
I love this. Swamp rock with the most bizarre low budget video I’ve run across (found here) and it’s not even Cajun.
The video for The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band‘s new song Clap Your Hands was shot in one day in a barn in Indiana. All of the dancers, artists, freaks, weirdos, cowboys, kids, donkeys, bunko steerers, chickens, and regular folks, who are all Hoosiers, all volunteered their time and talent because they believed in the song and the band. The video was directed/produced by the acclaimed music video producer Kevin Custer (Lil Wayne, Soldja Boy, Flogging Molly) who remarked the day of the shoot, it would have cost a fortune to get all of these props back in NYC. To which The Rev. Peyton replied, These arent props they are just crap you find in a barn!
Ben E. King‘s great song as performed by a variety of performers. [Tip o’ the Tarboosh to Leeuna for posting it.]
Just like Elizabeth Montgomery in “Bewitched,” “I Dream Of Jeannie” gave a lot of teenage boys fodder for late night fireside hypothetical discussions.
The always odd Laurie Anderson can’t pronounce the Espaniel worth a Me Air Duh, but she’s entertaining in her own way.
I was gonna segue into Suzanne Vega, but I forgot how depressing her songs were. So then I looked for Suzy Bogguss, and remembered that I’d already covered her on an earlier Saturday Matinee Post.
So I’m thinking of Suzanne songs and decided to go with Michael Nesmith’s “Joanne” because it rhymes. But there are no decent vids on the Utoobage that do justice for the ex-Monkee’s greatest hit, except for this:
Meanwhile, here’s Joanne’s greatest hit. Have a great weekend folks.
American regional dialects are curious, and when I hear one I haven’t heard in a while I try to identify where the speaker grew up. If you listen closely, you can hear the ancestral accents and phrasing as well: English to the north, Scottish and Irish to the south. As for me, I have no accent, but Mrs. Strutts says I do… I sound a lot like central Ohio mixed with some faint Texan stuff. (Here’s a simple online test if you’re curious what accent mix you have.)
W.C. Clark backed by The Fabulous Thunderbirds, and featuring Angela Strehli is an awesome mix of Texas blues. Never heard of W.C. Clark? Try this:
Yep, that’s Stevie Ray Vaughan with W.C. Clark. Next question?