No Photoshopoopage here. This is cutting edge, wave of the future stuff. I already posted it here, and there’s no reason that you folks should be left out of the loop. Check it out:
No clear-cutting, only culling of old timbers, without the logging roads. Ingenious, but slow and expensive.
Levi Stubbs & the Four Tops, on the American TV show Hullabaloo, singing “Just Walk Away.”
From the Wikipoodle:
“Levi Stubbs was an American baritone singer, best known as the lead vocalist of the famed Motown R&B group The Four Tops.”
From Billboard’s Top Pop Singles:
“R&B vocal group from Detroit formed in 1953 as the Four Aims. Consisted of Levi Stubbs (lead singer), Renaldo ‘Obie’ Benson, Lawrence Payton, and Abdul ‘Duke’ Fakir. First recorded for Chess in 1956, then Red Top and Columbia, before signing with Motown in 1963. Stubbs was the voice of Audrey II (the voracious vegetation) in the 1986 movie ‘The Little Shop of Horrors.'”
Besides being a cousin to Jackie Wilson (!) Stubbs was also the voice of Audrey II in “Little Shop of Horrors.” I never made that connection until today.
Aretha Franklin’s tribute to Levi Stubbs, after his stroke and during his fight with cancer. Hard to watch.
RIP, Mr. Stubbs.
Rock n Roll at it’s peak. Check it out, yo!
But there’s more to his story. Besides being a household word for rock n roll and gettin’ hot babes, the late Ted Cassidy played TWO parts in “The Addams Family” TV Series. Lurch was one of them… the other was “Thing.”
From the Wikipedialoids:
“Lurch (Ted Cassidy) is the household butler. Morticia and Gomez summon him by means of a bell pull in the form of a hangman’s noose, which rings the massive bell located in the mansion’s bell tower; the resulting gong shakes the entire house when the bell’s noose is pulled. When Lurch appears (usually immediately or within seconds thereafter), he responds with an extremely deep-voiced, “You rang?”
“According to IMDb, Lurch was intended to be a non-speaking part, as the Charles Addams cartoon character was silent; however, Cassidy improvised the line during his audition, and it was so well-received that it became a feature of the character. When questions are posed to him, Lurch’s primary response is a deep throaty rumbling and, at times, tremendously annoyed sound, which the family nonetheless interpret as spoken words. Superhumanly strong (he cleans the family car by simply lifting it and shaking it out like a rug), Lurch often plays the harpsichord (the music is actually played by The Addams Family composer Vic Mizzy).
“Lurch is very high-minded about visitors; when a plainclothes policeman (played by George Neise) visited the family, Lurch patted him down and regarded him suspiciously when he found his gun. Neise showed Lurch his badge, whereupon Lurch returned the gun.
“Lurch occasionally regards his employers’ activities with some dubiousness, but only as any servant might regard the idle rich, not because he does not share their macabre tastes.”
As far as the Addams Family goes, Lurch was my 2nd favorite. Carolyn Jones (Morticia Addams), well, um, you know. Cassidy also appeared in several episodes of:
Star Trek;
I Dream of Jeannie;
Wild Wild West;
and The Six-Million Dollar Man (as Bigfoot).
Y’all can forget his cameo on Batman, too… or not.
Cassidy ALSO appeared in the movie “Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid” in this Classic Scene.
As a completely unrelated aside, anyone curious about what the Sex Pistols’ Johnny Rotten is up to these days? Seems he’s turned Shatner on us. Promise.
BONUS! For all of our loyal readers and supporters of Tacky Raccoons, please welcome our SPECIAL MYSTERY GUEST!
Jim Woodring‘s work is a few steps beyond Advanced Tublication; his “Frank” series combines 1930’s cartooning with fever-inspired nightmares. You gotta check out “The Book of Jim.” Woodring’s an excellent (if not mildly disturbed) illustrator.
The only way (in Bunk’s amateur opinion) that he could pull this off is with a stacked 2-way stripper deck, some false shuffles, false cuts, a few flourishes, and great slight-of-hand. Ricky Jay is probably The Best card manipulator in the business. [Found via Edenborough.]
Although he and John Prine wrote the The Perfect Country Western Song, the late Steve Goodman’s greatest hit was “City of New Orleans.”
Whoop! Just found Vassar Clements and Dickie Betts on one video! Here ya go, folks. C’mon back tomorrow for more fun!
Proof that the news media is biased. Forget the pier! I wanna know more about the bear!
[From SPLHCS.]
“Stupid dopey trash-rap a-comin’, comin’ up. Whoa.
Guy in a bear suit, with rappin’ comin’ up. Whoa.
Patient wit da video, be patient comin’ up. Whoa.
Babe Magnet, bear suit, all be comin’ up. Whoa.”
[Lyrics from “In’ Up-Whoa” by MC Daddy BS, Strutts Music 2008.]
Actually SoulJah Bear is kinda funny to me, especially with the video editor’s comments. Kinda almost cool, just like The Howlies. Here’s SoulJah Bear’s obvious inspiration:
Bunky remembers Dancing Bear in black and white. Bunky really liked Captain Kangaroo. Bunky really didn’t like Scary Dancing Bear.
“Pachuca Sunrise,” Minus the Bear.
Daughter Bunkessa heard this song as “I Come From a Land of Hunger.” It’s got a bear in it, too.
EBO WALKER
Now Ebo Walker was born in Kentucky,
and raised by his daddy on a hillside farm,
He took up fiddle playing just for fun,
that’s the last work that Ebo Walker done.
Well Ebo Walker, he left Kentucky
’cause Ebo’s daddy said durn your hide,
You won’t plant corn, and you won’t make hay,
you sit on the porch and play that thing all day.
Well Ebo Walker, he walked and he fiddled and he walked and he fiddled and he fiddled till he died,
But I’ve heard tell when the winds is down and the moon shines bright, and the leaves are brown,
You can hear old Ebo fiddlin’ all around.
The Dillards (as the Darling Boys) on the Andy Griffith Show, around 1960 sumpm.
The Dillards in Denmark, 1999.
[Related Post here.]
Pure Oddness. Now for something completely different.
FZ on the Mike Douglas Show, 1976, playing “Black Napkins” with the studio band. Amazing benign culture clash. [This is part one of a two part interview… kinda slow to load, and we may have linked to this one before. So what.]
Zappa’s “Black Napkins” live on MTV’s Halloween BFD, 1981.
No slinkys? Use Post-It Notes! [via here.]
Daniel Tammet is amazing.
Clarke and Dawe. Full story can be found here.
Here’s Bob and Ray. Google them for more classic straight faced funnies.
The Bobs’ A capellaness is only mildly annoying and somewhat entertaining.
The Rays, with “Silhouettes on the Shade.”
The Silhouettes’ “Get A [lipsinch] Job.”
The Late Great Ray Charles: “Shake A Tail Feather!” from the movie “The Blues Brothers.” (Watch for Steve Cropper & Duck Dunn, with Matt “Guitar” Murphy.)
[Related posts: Cropper & Dunn be here and here. More Blues Brothers here.]
“Amos Moses” was my favorite Jerry Reed song. My younger sister had the 45rpm record, and I didn’t. (But I knew all the words, and she didn’t.)
Chet Atkins is a treasure, and Jerry Reed was a classic. There’s more of J.R.’s Pickin’ n’ Grinnin’ at RockHoppers. (Dan, you beat me to it!) God bless Jerry.
Here’s Chet Atkins with Suzy Bogguss.
And here’s Suzy Boggus with Chet Atkins.
Bill Melendez. You’ve seen his stuff. You’ve heard his stuff. Seems kinda appropriate that there is no video, and I relive part of my childhood whenever I hear this song.
? and the Mysterians’ “96 Tears” was a classic. Rudy “?” Martinez (vocals), Bobby Balderrama (guitar), Frank Rodriquez (organ), Frank Lugo (bass) and Eddie Serrato (drums) were from Saginaw Michigan, according to BillBoard’s Top Pop Singles (which categorizes them as a punk band — go figger).
I learned “Question Mark’s” real name years ago from a black girl who played bass left-handed without re-stringing. She said her mom went to school with him.
I’m embarrassed to even include this clip of “The Riddler” from the obnoxious Batman TV series. Okay, no I’m not. Deal with it. Frank Gorshin was the best as the Riddler, but even I didn’t make it through this clip. Lemme know how it comes out.
Frank Gorshin plays chicken in the 1956 movie “Hot Rod Girl.”
Okay, let’s drop this hot rod question mark stuff right now. Gonna have a SHINDIG!
Oh, man, this is a load o’ gold raised from the pits of hits, so hold on to your stax o’ wax and move to the groove of SHINDIG! Good God! Too hot to handle and too cold to hold, so cash in this golden goodie for a Woodie, ’cause here’s a sample o’ soul times infinity! If you don’t know who’s playin’, then I’m not sayin’! ROLL IT!
Deep down, humans are basically herd animals; subconsciously we like to be part of a group. We all want to belong and to be accepted (no matter how bizarre the requirements for joining that group) as part of the herd.
This clip from Alan Funt’s Candid Camera shows this absurd detrimental human trait in action:
[Found at the always excellent Neatorama; Utoobage link here.]
Some of y’all prolly never heard of the Rutles, and for good reason. The Beatles blatantly stole their style and wind throughout the 60’s and into and out of the 70’s. All the girls in Bunk’s elementary school screamed whenever a picture of Stig was posted on the school restroom door. Honest. [Utoobage link here.]
This is another great band you may have missed if you blinked. Here’s Spinal Tap’s classic from 1967: (Listen to the) Flower People. My sister had this 45 rpm (only one she had) and played it non-stop. Gawd I hated these guys.
I remember the day I bought this album. It was a spring day, I had laundry to do and didn’t have any quarters, so I cashed in a bunch of albums and bought this, putting off the laundry for another week.
Although I had mixed feelings about the 1960’s Simon and Garfunkel thing, this was just Simon, and chicks digged him. Anyone who can toss lyrics like “I can call you Betty” and “roly-poly little bat-face-girl” into the same pop song and get away with it amazed me. It also has one of the greatest looped 3-second bass riffs I’ve ever heard.
It wasn’t until I saw this video that I realized just how tall Paul Simon really is. [Utoobage linkoid here.]
Tacky Raccoons 
