Retro & Vintage – Page 71

I’ll See You on the Dark Side of the Hot LInks

“Look, I got this. Just gimme a coupla minutes.” –Cristobal Columbo circa 1492

The Great American Solar Eclipse is tomorrow. Plug in your location here to find out what time you need to start banging your pots and pans to drive the dragon away. If anyone tells you it’s safe to look at with the nekkid eye, he/she is a fool.
Don’t do it.

Apparently The Ancients blamed dogs for the temporary darkness of a solar eclipse.

Every time I hear it, it seems she’s singing about her cat. On the other hand, it’s a good Solar Eclipse party song.

The Mystery of the U.S. Navy’s Ghost Blimp is still unsolved after 75 years.

84 year-old folk artist Denny Lunn tells some stories [via].

The last Blockbuster store is still open for business.

An honorary statue in New Orleans, depicting a famous military figure on a horse, was defaced with the words “Tear It Down” recently. The honored warrior was captured, tortured and killed by fire decades before Europeans even knew about this continent, and centuries prior to the founding of the United States of America. TRUE.

Walter E. Williams on Rewriting American History.

[Top image from here.]

Saturday Matinee – African Raccoons, Toni Tee and Liquid Wisdom & The Specials

Raccoons stirrin’ up sh*t.

Toni Tee & Liquid Wisdom on a bus. They play a cool variety of music (reggae, rock, funk, soul, hiphop, punkadelic) but it’s tough to find a vid with decent a/v on the Utoobage. [h/t Bunkessa – yeah she scored two hits this week; this one and the one above.]

Can’t fight corruption with con tricks;
They use the law to commit crime.
And I dread, dread to think what the future will bring,
When we’re living in gangster time.

The Specials performed their 1979 hit “Gangsters” (with Lily Allen) at the Glastonbury Festival 2007. (The music was lifted from Prince Buster‘s 1964 ska hit “Al Capone.” Have a listen.)

Have a great weekend, folks, and let’s see what happens tomorrow.

San Diego Ski Club Chalet

[Found here. Story here.]

Canary in a coal mine.

THAT was one dangerous job.

[Found here.]

Saturday Matinee – Summertime Blues (1958 to Whatever).

From the UToobage description:

“Though Eddie Cochran was only twenty-one when he died, he left a lasting mark as a rock and roll pioneer. Cochran zeroed in on teenage angst and desire with such classics as ‘C’mon Everybody,’ ‘Something Else,’ ‘Twenty Flight Rock‘ and ‘Summertime Blues.’ A flashy stage dresser with a tough-sounding voice, Cochran epitomized the sound and the stance of the Fifties rebel rocker.”

Lotta covers of that kickass song.

1962 The Beach Boys. A 14 and a 16 year old contributed to this recording.

1962 Johnny Chester

Ten years later, Blue Cheer broke ground in 1968 with a heavy metal version of Eddie Cochran’s “Summertime Blues,” released ten years earlier. [This guy was on the SanFran scene in 1968.]

I heard that version when I was in 6th grade, and tried to decide if I liked it or not. Took me several years before I understood what they were doing, and I decided that I liked the original better. Hell, the name of the band was a brand of LSD named after a laundry detergent.

1975 The Who – According to Wiki they’d been playing Summertime Blues since 1967 so this version is out of chronological order.

1970 T. Rex

1975 Olivia Newton-John
1978 The Rolling Stones

1982 Joan Jett. Hear The Ramones influence?

1987 Alvin & The Chipmunks
1992 Little River Band
2004 Rush
2009 The Black Keys

Cheech Marin, The Prophets, Levon Helm, Guitar Wolf, The Flying Lizards, Bobby Vee, The Crickets, Buck Owens, James Taylor, The Ventures, Dick Dale, Robert Gordon with Link Wray, Skid Row, Johnny Hallyday, Brian Setzer, MC5, Alex Chilton, and Marty Wilde have also covered the song.

Y’all can find the the other killer ccvers on your own. Have a great weekend and we’ll see you back here tomorrow.

Spuds

“My friends call me either ‘Jennie’, OR ‘Ida.'”

[Found in here.]

Black Ops Never Blink.

Bet it’s hot in there, especially under the lights of the camera.

[Found here.]

Saturday Matinee – Earl Barton & Lisa Gaye, The Wolfgangs & The Reverend Horton Heat.

If you lived in that time period, you’d have done the exact same thing. Not me. Dig, man, I wouldn’t have been caught dead dancing plaid.

I don’t know anything about The Wolfgangs except that they rock and may or may not use illegal substances.

Very few bands can cover a classic Johnny Cash song like Folsom Prison Blues, but the Reverend Horton Heat did just that, and even cranked it up a notch.

Rock on, my friends. More stuff coming down the pipe.

1975 Geeks n’ Coors

Possibly the original Geek Squad, Rice University, 1975, but I’m more interested in that LP vinyl album on display because it was apparently important to them. I think it says “Symphony No. 1” in the title and maybe Andre Previn.

Holy crap. The hints were all over the place. Those dudes were music nerds, not computer geeks, and kudos to the guy on the left with the washing machine hose bugle.

Finally, I can sleep.

[Top image found here.]

Soviet Volga 1962 GAZ-22 Low Rider Prototype Mod

Here’s an un-modified 1962 Volga GAZ-22. I don’t think it had a cast-iron carburetor, but who knows?

From Wiki:

“Only those shipped abroad for export were sold to private customers. All domestic station wagons/estates, with rare exceptions, were never available for private ownership. The Soviet rationale was that allowing such a car to citizens would also make it too available and popular with dealers in the grey market economy [which] was allowed but limited by the state.”

[Found here.]