Wow, the world's greatest songwriter covers the world's greatest rock n roll song. Who would have thunk it? This was filmed probably around 1986 or 1987 when Dylan toured with Tom Petty and The Grateful Dead. You can see Tom Petty in the video and I assume the band is The Heartbreakers. I am wondering if this is a sound check as opposed to a live performance. It's pretty off the cuff.
Dylan seems to be having fun and I think he is playing lead guitar. It is interesting to note, that when The Kingsmen released Louie, Louie back in 1963, Dylan was still writing and recording ultra serious socially conscious folk music. To quote the man himself, "I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now."
In 1962, Bobby Pickett was an aspiring actor in Los Angeles who also sang with a local rock n roll band called the Corsairs. One night while goofing around on stage, Pickett sang a couple of songs imitating Boris Karloff. The audience loved it and soon after Pickett and band member, Len Capizzi wrote ba song called, the Monster Mash, which would hit #1 Halloween weekend 1962 and become a horror music standard.
The Monster Mash was recorded and released by Garpax records, a southern California label owned by the legendary, Gary S. Paxton. Paxton had earlier produced a big hit with another legendary novelty record called, Alley Oop.
Add caption
In addition to the single, Garpax released a whole album of horror rock tunes sung by Pickett called, The Original Monster Mash. Among the various studio musicians who allegedly can be heard on the record are Leon Russell and Mel Taylor, The Ventures longtime drummer.
The single not only hit #1 on the U.S Billboard Chart in 1962 but charted again in 1970 and hit #10 in 1973. Although it was banned in Britan when it was first released in '62, for being "too morbid", it went to #3 in '73 and, amazingly, charted again in 2008. To date, Monster Mash has sold over 4 million copies.
Bobby "Boris" Pickett went on to release more horror related singles to little notice. He appeared in small roles in several tv shows and movies and wrote and produced two musicals, The Bridge Is Out, You'll Have To Spend The Night and Frankenstein Unbound. The former was made into the 1994 film, Monster Mash: The Movie.
Pickett made appearances throughout the years, sometimes performing the song live. He remembers singing the song once at an event back in the seventies backed by a then unknown rock band named, Van Halen.
He passed away in 2007 but his song lives on every Octiber. Take a listen and have some fun, it's Halloween, for crying out loud.
Just in time for Halloween, it's the swingingest podcast around. Thirty minutes of scary surf, garage rock and instro by The Bomboras, The Ghastly Ones, Los Straitjackets, Laika & The Cosmonauts, Bobby "Boris" Pickett and more...Listen to the show HERE
If you are looking to watch a groovy (ie stupid) Halloween movie, The Ghost And Mr. Chicken will definitely fill the bill. The movie stars Don Knotts and only runs about an hour and ten minutes. I streamed it the other night on Amazon and it is a great way to waste an hour of your life. To help you enjoy your cinematic experience here are,
Eight Fun Facts About "The Ghost & Mr. Chicken
--This movie was the first Don Knotts made after he signed a lucrative contract with Universal Pictures after five seasons on The Andy Griffith Show.
--Don Knotts stated that he signed the movie deal only after Andy Griffith said he was discontinuing the series following the 1964-1965 season. Soon after signing the contract, Griffith changed his mind and The Andy Griffith Show ran for four more seasons. --The movie's plot was based on an Andy Griffith episode called, "The Haunted House". --The haunted Simmons' Mansion where Luther spends the night was located on the Universal Pictures lot. It is also served as The Munster's House, Jimmy Stewart's home in the movie "Harvey" and was featured in the TV series, "Desperate Housewives". --Vic Mizzy composed the music for the movie. He also wrote the theme songs for The Adams Family and Green Acres. He would go on to write the music for five additional Don Knotts movies.
--One of the most enjoyable aspects of the film is the abundance of sixties tv stars who appear on screen. In addition to Don Knotts, three other actors from The Andy Griffith Show make an appearance including, Hal Smith (Otis Campbell), Hope Summers (Clara Edwards) and Burt Mustin (who played Judd Fletcher on the first few seasons of the show). In fact the movies director, Alan Rafkin, directed 27 episodes of The Andy Griffith Show while the screenwriting team of Everette Greenbaum and Jim Fritzell wrote 29 "Andy" episodes along with The Ghost And Mr. Chicken" script. --Other sixties television stars who make an appearance include, Dick Sargent (the second Darren in Bewitched), Sandra Gould (The second Gladys Kravitz on Bewitched), Ellen Corby (Grandma Walton) and Charles Lane and James Millhollin. (Two actors whose names you won't recognize but they appeared in dozens of sitcoms back in the day) --Screenwriter Everette Greenbaum was the voice that yelled, "That a boy, Luther", throughout the movie. --Enjoy the movie, folks...
Just in time for summer here is my first incredible mix tape. Featuring garage rock, surf, instro, bubblegum, 70's pop and more. It is the perfect mix for any summer beach party, BBQ or cookout. BYOB and crank it up!
PLAYLIST
CALIFORNIA SUN (THE RIVIERAS)
Incredible Sixties frat rock.
BEACH PARTY (THE PLEASURES)
Mid-sixties beach/soul music by obscure east coast band...Listen to the instro break in the middle. Sounds like Springsteen 's E.Street band circa 1978.
LONG GREEN. (UNTAMED YOUTH)
This is Deke Dickerson's first band. Garage rock at its finest...This tune was originally a hit back in the mid-sixties for The Kingsmen.
BUBBLE GUM MUSIC. ( ROCK N ROLL TRADING etc...)
The full name of this "band" was, "The Rock N Roll Trading Card Company Of Philadelphia 1941". It was not actually a real rock n roll band but a creation of bubble gum music kings, Kasenetz & Katz who released records by dozens of studio bands like "The 1910 Fruitgum Company", "The Ohio Express", "Crazy Elephant" etc...This is their "anthem" to all that is bubble gum....
BUBBLE GUM SUMMER. (THE SURFIN' LUNGS)
Great pop tune from the Surfin' Lungs, a great lost pop band from the eighties...If you listen to the lyrics, I think they may have ripped off some ideas from the song above.
VIBRATIONS. (THE ROYAL JOKERS)
Great mid-sixties surf instrumental from no hit wonders.
SEASONS IN THE SUN. (TERRY JACKS)
Back when I was eight years old, I bought a K-Tel record called, "Dynamite". It contained such 70s classics as, "The Night Chicago Died" by Paperlace, "Love Theme" by The Love Unlimited Orchestra, a rockin' version of "The Lord's Prayer" by Sister Janet Mead and this weird happy sounding sad song by Terry Jacks. I played it for hours on end on my plastic red, white and blue record player. The song still holds up.
HOT SUMMER NIGHT (MEATLOAF)
Any singer named after one of my favorite meals is just alright with me.
WALK DON'T RUN. (THE VENTURES)
Possibly the greatest rock n roll instrumental ever recorded from the greatest rock n roll instrumental band, ever.
FOR PETE'S SAKE. (THE MONKEES)
This is the song that closed out the Monkees TV show each week. I never liked the show, even as a kid but I thought it was stupid, but I love the music.
DON'T WORRY, BABY (THE BEACH BOYS)
Possibly Brian Wilson's best production. One of the best intros in the history of pop music.
VACATION. (THE GO-GOS)
You could get beat up for listening to The Go-God back when I was in high school. I think it's safe to now, though. Besides, Belinda Carlisle was hot.
ROCK N ROLL HIGH SCHOOL. (THE RAMONES)
Theme song from the best rock n roll movie ever made. "Do your parents know you're Ramones?"
ROUTE 66. (THE ROLLING STONES)
Uhh...get your kicks...
BORIS THE SPIDER. (THE WHO)
The Who at their weirdest.
Here is my latest recording, "My Flying Saucer & Me". It tells the story of an alien who falls in love with an earth girl and goes to great lengths to win her hand. I wrote and recorded the song in traditional one man band fashion singing and accompanying myself on acoustic guitar, harmonica and foot tambourine.
Everything was recorded live in my kitchen without any overdubs, multi-tracking or editing. However, I did go in later and edit in a couple of screaming sound effects. This song is available exclusively on the Iaintgotno Record Label. You can listen to the song HERE. As always, this song was recorded in beautiful lo-fidelity.
I had a chance to perform at Taffy's in Eaton, Ohio last night. Taffy's is a coffeehouse, craft beer and live music venue. They host over 250 shows a year and performers have included such big shots as John Hammond and Buddy Guy.
Eaton, Ohio is located a few miles east of Indiana just off of I-70 in Preble County. A good spot for a band to pick up an extra show when traveling between Chicago and Cleveland.
--They dress as mummies when they play live and drive around in a hearse. I don't know what they dress like off stage but I like to think they dress like mummies all the time.
--They call their music "Budget Rock" because they play used, outdated and often broken equipment. They recorded their first singles on a cassette four track. They recorded everything live and mixed as they recorded. In other words, one of the band members ran the board as they played.
-They recorded their early tunes on their own, "Pre-B.S" record label.
--Their music was influenced by sixties garage bands like The Wailers and The Sonics.
--For years they refused to release any of their albums on CD. They have since relented.
--The Mummies broke up around 1994 but re-group a few times a year to play festivals.
--They have a website now but hate social media, so no Facebook, Twitter etc...
On this episode of the podcast I will be playing all vinyl from my really scratchy record collection. As always recorded in beautiful lo-fidelity. Pops, scratches and skips included! Featuring music by The Edgar Winter Group, The Sir Douglas, Quintet, Papa John Creach, The Lovin' Spoonful, Booker T. & The Mgs and one of the weirdest records to hit the Billboard charts. LISTEN
PLAYLIST
Beautiful Delilah. The Kinks
Hip-Hug-Her. Booker T. & The Mgs
Ambrose Part 5. Linda Laurie
Make Up Your Mind. Lovin' Spoonful
Hippy, Hippy Shake. The Swinging Blue Jeans
Topsy (Part 2) Cozy Cole
She's About A Mover. Sir Douglas Quintet
I Got News For You. Edgar Winter Group
Batman Theme. The Ventures
Time Out For Sex. Papa John Creach
I first ran across "The Cave" by Gary "Spider" Webb a few years ago on a digital compilation called, "Beats From Badsville". The album consisted of a bunch of rare and strange 45s from The Cramp's (Lux Interior and Poison Ivy's) record collection.
Having always had a penchant for cheesy low budget records from the early sixties, I instantly fell in love with this recording.
The record came out on Bamboo Records back in 1961. Bamboo was one of the dozens of small independent record labels that popped up around Los Angeles as rock n roll was taking off. Unlike most of the major labels at the time, the Indy labels seemed to put out just about anything they could in hopes of making the charts or, at the very least, making the record company a couple of quick bucks.
I am not sure what exactly Bamboo's motive was by releasing this record but I am sure happy they did. Basically, "The Cave" is a combination of a Disney storybook record gone bad and The Sufaris' "Wipeout".
Gary "Spider" Webb (far left) with The
Hollywood Argyles.
The 45 acts out the story of two teenagers stuck inside of a cave. How they got in there no one knows, but they sure are having trouble getting out. To make matters worse, they have been separated and can't find each other in the dark. And there's bats.
While the kids call for each other and scream, the musical accompaniment rocks in fine sixties fashion with a cool guitar lick and crazed drumming. The crazed drummer just happens to be, our hero, Gary "Spider" Webb.
Who exactly was Gary Webb? To tell the truth, I haven't been able to find much information.. From what I can find, he was a touring member of The Hollywood Argyles of "Alley Oop" fame. Althoug he toured to support the song, he apparently was not on the recording.
In addition to "The Cave", he also released a single called, "Drum City" on Donna Records a couple of years later. A very cool surfesque instrumental, it is a much more mainstream recording than his first release.
"Drum City" (1963) Donna Records
And that is pretty much all I know about the mysterious Gary "Spider" Webb. I ran across some comments about him on YouTube from a guy who claims to be his nephew. I tried to make contact but never received a reply.
Did Mr. Webb release more recordings? Did he do any session drumming on any records?. Who came up with the crazy idea for "The Cave"?
One of the stranger things I ran across recently was a recording called, "Science Friction Parts 1&2" by The Sci-Fis. It was released in 1964 on Era Records and is pretty much your standard early sixties instrumental. Except, about half way through part 1 of the recording, the guitarist and the drummer briefly go into a note for note ripoff of the riff that was played on "The Cave". Could the Sci-Fis drummer be you know who?
If you know Gary "Spider" Webb, please tell him how much I like his record. If you have any information on any of his recordings or anything else he was involved in, let me know. You can drop me a line at, rnrcasey@gmail.com
In the meantime, take a listen to, "The Cave". If you like the sound of a couple of distressed spelunkers backed by So-Cals answer to Gene Krupa, you're gonna dig this record.
Mike Connors, who played the tv detective Mannix, died yesterday at the age of 91. If you are of a certain age, you will remember that Mannix was a hit tv show for a number of years in the late sixties and early seventies. Mannix was a hip young detective who smoked a lot, chased people in his car a lot and was prone to physical violence, In other words, it was like any other cop/detective show of the era.
Here is a clip from an episode in which Mannix enters a hippie club and experiences the generation gap first hand. And, of course, things quickly turn dangerous. It's a pretty funny clip. Incidentally, Buffalo Springfield is the band on stage at the club.
Can a band of cartoon characters change the world? Probably not. But that didn't keep The Archies from trying. "Sunshine", The Archies' fourth album, is one weird record. The Archies finally join the Age Of Aquarius with some pretty strange results. While most of the album contains your typical upbeat Archies' tunes about romance, dancing and mindless fun, it also touches on such serious subjects as, overpopulation, pollution and world peace. One song even name drops Woodstock and Jimmy Page!
Jeff Barry produced and co-wrote all of the songs on the record. Some of his co-writers include Andy Kim, Bobby Bloom (of "Montego Bay" fame) and lead singer Ron Dante. Perhaps Barry had gotten tired of writing such bubble gum babble as "Sugar, Sugar" and "Jingle Jangle" and wanted to write more "serious" compositions. Maybe he was trying to reach every nine year old Archie fan's inner hippie. Or maybe it was all done as a gag. Who can say for sure but this definitely ain't the same "band" that sang "Shang-Bang-A-Lang"
The album cover is the first indication that we won't be spending the next 35 minutes at the malt shop. The cover depicts a group of people frolicking (dancing...maybe?) at the beach under a glaring super nova like sun. We only see the people in silhouette but they seem to be lacking any...uhh...bathing suits. Now we can't say this for sure and there is nothing gratuitous about the picture, but compare it to the cover of their first album and, well...we've come a long way, baby.
Also, if you look closely, don't the two individuals in the foreground look kind of like aliens? Aliens? Goodnight! Why are naked dancing aliens on the cover of an Archies' album? What the hell is going on here?!?
The first two songs on side one ("Sunshine", "Who's Gonna Love Me?") are your typical early seventies teeny-bopper tunes. But the third song, "Mr. Factory", is where the fun begins. A Floyd Cramer like piano and a bluesy guitar open the track as Ron "Archie" Dante sings about disappearing birds, dirty rivers and pollution spewing automobiles. Although The Archies may have been budding eco-revolutionaries, they were respectable enough kids to address their adversaries as, "Mr. Factory" and "Mr. Motorcar. Sample lyric:
"The air is dark and dirty/When it should be fresh and purty."
The next two songs, "Love And Rock N Roll" and "Over And Over", follow the standard Archies' song formula; upbeat music with lyrics about love repeated, well...over and over.
The only distinguishing feature about either of these songs is the opening guitar lick on "Over And Over" , it is a note for note ripoff of The Music Explosion's, "Little Bit Of Soul". "Little Bit Of Soul" was produced by Kasenetz & Katz, Jeff Barry's bubblegum music rivals. So, it may have been done as a friendly tribute or perhaps a giant "Screw You!" to them.
Side one ends with the catchiest song on the album, "Waldo P. Emerson Jones". A great slice of sunny seventies guitar pop, the band sings about an annoying pathological liar who claims, " He took his chopper up to Woodstock and he worked his way backstage." The supposed helicopter flying Mr. Jones also boasts, "He knows The Beatles, S&G and Jimmy Page."
Now I would say just about every eleven year old in the world knew who The Beatles were back in 1970. Some may have been familiar with Simon & Garfunkel and Woodstock but how many cartoon watching elementary school students were hip to Jimmy Page? If they were, they probably weren't listening to The Archies' new record.
Jimmy Page: The sixth Archie?
Side two kicks off with, "A Summer Prayer For Peace." Traditionally, back in the vinyl era, the producer placed the songs with the most hit potential as the lead off tracks on each side of a record. Apparently, Jeff Barry must have thought that this song about overpopulation had the potential be the "Sugar, Sugar" of 1970.
A slow folky number, Ron Dante and friends implore the 3 billion people of the world to live in peace "forever together" while two stentorian narrators recite population numbers from around the world (France...50 million...Japan....101 million...Australia...12 million etc.) over sad sounding music. You gotta wonder how this song went over at your average suburban slumber party. It's not exactly a fun song to play Twister to.
I guess Jeff Barry knew what he was doing as the song was a big hit overseas. It actually went number 1 in Sweden and South Africa. It did not chart in the U.S. The prayer must have fallen on deaf ears, however, since the world population is at 7.5 billion and growing.
Side two continues with more teeny-bopper fare, "Dance", "Comes The Sun" and the catchy, "Suddenly Susan". Then it's time for one more hippie-let's-all-be-brothers anthem, "One Big Family". Sample lyric:
I have a brother in Birmingham
I have a brother in Amsterdam
I have a brother in Kokomo
I have a brother everywhere I go.
This is followed by the rousing fist pumping chorus:
We're one big family
And our daddy's in the sky
We're one big family
Don't make your brother cry.
This could be a plea for world peace or a scene from the family station wagon on a road trip to Disneyland. It's difficult to say.
The album closes with, "It's The Summertime". We are back in bubblegum territory here with a song about, well...summertime. In fact, it's difficult to forget the name of the tune because the word , "summertime", is repeated nineteen times. Yes, I counted. (And yes, that is sad.)
The Archies' "Sunshine" is a fun/weird artifact from another time. A time when even a band of cartoon characters thought they could change the world. It's worth a listen.
Here is my latest podcast, Drums A Go Go. The drummers take center stage as we feature great rock n roll drum tunes by The Strangeloves, The Ventures, Sandy Nelson, The Hollyword Persuaders, The Surfaris and more...
Playlist:
"Let There Be Drums" Sandy Nelson
"I Want Candy" Strangeloves
"K-39" The Challengers
"My Generation" The Who
"Bongo Rock" Davie Allan
"Hogan 's Heroes Theme" ???
"The Cave (Part 1)" Gary "Spider" Webb
"Take Five" Dave Brubeck Quartet
"Drums A Go Go" Hollywood Persuaders
"Happy Together" The Turtles
"Hawaii Five-O" The Ventures
I will be performing at The Worthington Farmers Market this Saturday morning from 9-noon. (Yes, prime-time!)
The market is located inside "The Shops At Worthington" at High St. & West Wilson Bridge Road.
In addition to music, there will be a bunch of people there selling food that came out of the ground or off of the branch of a tree. (I was unaware they still made food this way!?!) You won't be able to miss me as I will be the only person holding a guitar and eating a Twinkie. Stop by if you can.
