Saturday, June 27, 2009

Grits/Zorch Show #3 (and a repost!)

I watched a few episodes of the late 1960s Dragnet TV series the other day. They're still quite entertaining, if sometimes a bit hokey. The silliest one (to me, anyway) seems to be the first episode of the 1967 series...The LSD Story. Michael Burns (formerly Barnaby West on Wagon Train) plays Benjie Carver, aka Blueboy, who has a sweet tooth...he just can't leave those sugar cubes alone! Of course, the episode ends with Blueboy taking a final trip to oblivion.

Benjie Carver's original facial painting reminded me of a particularly heavy-handed late episode of Star Trek... Let That Be Your Last Battlefield. Frank Gorshin is pretty good here (he was nominated for an Emmy), but I've never been very fond of this episode.

This gem was first telecast 10 January 1969...two years (almost to the date) after the 12 January 1967 Dragnet.
Hmmmm...two similar paint jobs...same week (but different years), same network (NBC). Coincidence?

You can watch the Star Trek episode here
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0708435/ (as Bela Lugosi once said...BeVare!) and the Dragnet one here: http://www.hulu.com/watch/501/dragnet-the-lsd-story .

There are other blue boys out there...the Gainsborough painting (of course), The Blue Man Group (older Blue Boys, I suppose), Smurfs, and the duet that performed this wonderful side:

400242-B Easy Winner The Blue Boys OKeh 45314
http://www.box.net/shared/6221b8j76m
Memphis, 15 February 1928: Nap Hayes, guitar; Matthew Prater, mandolin.

I've always been intrigued by this side...it's called Easy Winner, but it's actually a version of The Entertainer. Both titles were from Scott Joplin's famous Red Back Book collection of rags. I wonder if these guys learned The Entertainer some time in the 1910s, but somehow cross-titled it with The Easy Winners (the actual title of the other rag).

Some collectors may notice that this record was issued in OKeh's 45000 country series...two more of their sides were there as well, and two more were issued in OKeh's 8000 race series.
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Last Sunday, as promised, Grits and I broadcast our little tributes to Fathers' Day. He did the first hour, and I did the second. Here's my half of the program:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=1FM012SN

1. Dad's Getting Fuzzy Red Whitehead & Dutch Coleman
2. Runenae Papa Zutty (Singleton) And His Band
3. My Dad's Dinner Pail Ada Jones
4. Slide, Daddy, Slide Allen Brothers (Austin & Lee)
5. Elevator Papa, Switchboard Mama Butterbeans & Susie
6. Chiselin' Daddy Sweet Violet Boys
7. Papa Loves Mambo (gag!) Perry Como & Zorch
8. Daddy I'm Coming Back To You Leadbelly (doing a Jimmie Rodgers song!)
9. I've Written A Letter To Daddy Debbie Burton (Baby Jane Hudson again!)
10. Can We Keep Him Daddy Red Sovine
11. Segue
12. Song For My Father Horace Silver
13. You Need Us Gilligan's Island Women
14. Come Back, Sweet Papa Louis Armstrong Hot Five
15. I'm A Ding Dong Daddy Light Crust Doughboys
16. Papa's 'Bout To Get Mad Pink Anderson & Simmie Dooley
17. Dad From Trinidad Paul Kosty
18. Wobble It A Little Daddy Lillian Glinn
19. Field Mouse Stomp Minnie Wallace
20. Papa Wants A Cookie Leroy Carr & Scrapper Blackwell
21. Fado de Bacalau Troupe Gounod
22. Everybody Works But Father Bob Roberts
23. Big Daddy Blues Jimmie Revard Oklahoma Playboys
24. You Run And Tell Your Daddy Charley Jordan
25. Old Dad Frank Jenkins' Pilot Mountaineers
26. We Shall All Be Reunited Alfred Karnes
27. Signoff

This is actually a slightly altered version of the show...we had a couple of phone calls while the music played. Both of these calls were amusing (at the time, anyway), but they were rather personal. I figured that my readers would rather listen to the music (more or less) uninterrupted, so I substituted the original recordings. There were a couple of other titles that had technical imperfections (at least on my copy of the show...I recorded it as it was aired, but my connection sometimes hiccups). These were repaired as well. I redid the spoken intros if the tracks in the broadcast had them. Otherwise, the show is just as it was aired.

There were a couple of non-daddy ditties thrown into the mix...for leavening. Or something.

Grits posted both his half of the show and the unedited, raw version of mine in his blog...
http://gritsradio.blogspot.com/2009/06/fathers-day-2009.html
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I occasionally check through the comments left on some of my older posts...I sometimes find spammers (advertising footwear or a porn website), but usually it's something positive left by readers.

Cait, a recent subscriber, reminded me that we just went through another broadcasting change...the switch to Damitall Digital TV. She'd like me to repost the AM Frequency Re-Allocation Spots record...it'll be my pleasure!

Here 'tis!

And here's the original posting

http://zorchv38.blogspot.com/2008/03/change-those-push-buttons-next-week.html

...and thanks to all!

Oh...there haven't been any more guesses on my mystery quiz since mdcelio got the first three. And one of those three was a bit obscure. Some of the others should be fairly easy to identify.

All are welcome to participate...hope to hear from you...
...and you...
and YOU!

7 comments:

Cait said...

Thank you so much for the repost--those were very fun! And much cheaper than a DTV converter box. :)

ZorchMan said...

Those spots ARE fun, aren't they?

Glad you liked....

Unknown said...

Just discovered your blog. What a wonderful mix of scholarship, the collector's thrill of the hunt, and collections of great music. Thanks!

ZorchMan said...

My pleasure, Jonathan!

rockin'n'rollin' said...

Please, can you post a lot of tunes by Troupe Gounod and similar of old Fado? If possible can you post "Fado de Bacalau" without talking on?

ZorchMan said...

Hey Rockin'...

Psst....download my quiz...you'll find the Fado de Bacalau there (without the voiceover, also without any identification).

I have three other sides by them which I hope to post someday.

I've just been so busy lately.....

Unknown said...

I can't figure out how to send the pic of my Grandpa Neil Laby (with Arty Hall) to you. Please e-mail me at CarrieLaby@yahoo.com or find me on Facebook, the pic is already up on Facebook.