Speaker 1: Hudson River Radio dot Com.
Speaker 2: I got back Againner run the maga, got yeah, call
it gome back? G that with the egg, John Top,
How does sasa?
Speaker 3: Jonathan Leaesberry juice?
Speaker 4: Hey, this is Tom chapin Hellole, just preaching in Rock
and Roll History Show. You're listening right now. Hey, everybody,
welcome back to the Rock and Roll History Show on
Hudson River Radio. I'm Brian Horowitz tonight. Through circumstances that
we're out of my control. I've been awake for about
thirty ish hours at this point, give or take, if
my manth is correct. So I'm gonna do my best
to string together words into cohesive thoughts and sentences. But
I'm gonna get a lot of help from the Crambones tonight,
and I'm looking forward to what they have to share.
But as always, before we hop oh you know what
I should say, we're talking about time as a coincidence,
so all my hours have added up to something worthwhile.
We're talking about songs about time. So here we go.
Let's hop in and introduce the Cranbones who are joining
us tonight from the Rictor Observatory. His new latter came
with instructions. It's a step by step guide. Neil Richtor
is here.
Speaker 3: I think I need to chime out.
Speaker 4: We're all gonna need one. It's gonna be tongue twister
evening tonight. I can tell from paranormally yours she is
going to tell us the secret to playing a musical instrument. Well,
stay tuned. Gil Nuklem is here from the silver screen.
She saw a blonde walk into a bar.
Speaker 1: It's about time, right, but this blonde.
Speaker 4: Was so upset and she goes and she tells the
bartender she can't figure out why she only has two
sisters and her brother has three Mercedes. Can't suit us.
Speaker 1: Okay, you just hit on my other favorite show. Oh
my gosh, mixed the blonde ones with it.
Speaker 4: All right, good to know, bar, I am good. You're
just dying to get me in trouble with as many
demographics as she can, right, yes, all right, we'll see
where it goes. Hey, everybody, and our official teacher. He
doesn't know why pirates are called pirates, they just are.
John Kelly's here.
Speaker 5: Brian, Hey, everybody, good to be here, Well done, sir.
Speaker 4: And last but not Lead's the host of Shaving Cream.
She realized, if you let people shenan once, they'll shenan again.
Barbaraville is here.
Speaker 6: All our cram bones are guilty.
Speaker 4: Of that, repeatedly, repeated, repeatedly.
Speaker 6: And it's time to start the show.
Speaker 4: It is, and it's time for me to step aside
and let you guys take over. And I'm going to
do my best to stay awake and hear what everybody
has to say. So this week, Mercedes, you are going
to lead us off.
Speaker 7: I am, and I'm super excited about this. The song
I am going to talk about today is from a
concept album, if you'll remember what that's about. We did
a show a while back titled Quadrophenia by the band
of Who. It was their sixth studio album and released
as a double album. It was the Who's third rock opera.
And I wanted to do this song for our show
on concept albums, but Nel swooped in and took another.
Speaker 3: Who thwoughted out, We thw it out in my black eyes,
starting to cure up.
Speaker 1: No hard feelings, of course.
Speaker 3: No.
Speaker 7: Quadraphnia is the only Who album written entirely by Pete Townsend.
Townsend had the idea of having the main character Jimmy
have a four way split personality, or is described by
Townsend schizophrenia times two. He wrote four themes reflecting the
four members of the Who. These were A Bellboy about
Keith Richard, I'm sorry Keith Richard was not.
Speaker 6: In the Who.
Speaker 4: Here come the emails?
Speaker 1: Keith Moon, I'm so glad I caught myself? Is it
me about? John? And Twistle? Helpless?
Speaker 7: Answer about Roger Daltrey ed love Rain or me is
Pete Townsend. They initially wanted to record quadriphonically, but they
really didn't know how to do that. Their engineer, ron
Nevison said, I don't know what to do. You listened
to the early Beatles songs when they first came into
stereo and they didn't know what to do with them.
Speaker 4: Yeah, very articulated. It's true. Well, if you listen to
early they treated it like two tracks, so you'd hear
like instruments on one side and the vocals on another,
or like split it. They did not, you know, like
the concept of that stereo field kind of thing hadn't
taken effect, just so they just split it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah, what are you gonna do?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 7: Roger Daltrey said, his main regret on the album was
the recording of it. They had recorded it with echo
on the voice, which can never be removed now, he explained,
it just makes the vocal sound thin. It was the
biggest recording mistake we ever made. The echo diminishes the character.
As far as I'm concerned, it always pissed me off
from day one. I just effing hated the sound of it.
He did that to my voice and I will never forgive.
Speaker 1: Ron for it.
Speaker 7: Oh So, during an infamous performance on Top of the
Pops of the song five point fifteen, which is the
song I picked, Tanton demolished his guitar and The Who
went on to earn a life band from the BBC
premise after Tanton gave them two fingers. And I'm assuming
that was not the devil keyre.
Speaker 4: Sign.
Speaker 1: Yes, the rage was most likely genuine.
Speaker 7: The BBC, enforcing union rules, made the group record a
new track for their I'm sorry I must be tired too?
Speaker 8: Was I up?
Speaker 1: Thirty six hours too?
Speaker 7: The BBC made the group record a new track for
their lip SYNCD performance instead of using the chalk from
the LP. When The Who toured for Quadraphedia in nineteen
seventy three, Roger Daltrey would often explain the concept between
songs so listeners could follow along. Townsend wasn't happy about this.
He thought the explanations weren't necessary and slowed the show down.
And I have to agree with him. That would have
really annoyed me. Yes, they're telling a story, but it's
the music that the people came for.
Speaker 1: I think.
Speaker 7: They needed various sound effects, like the train whistle, for example,
but all the effects were only available in mono, not stereo,
so they took a mobile mobile Mobile.
Speaker 4: Rolling Go with rolling.
Speaker 7: Recording unit to various locations. They went to Waterloo Station
to get the sound effects from the train platform, but
the whistle was more difficult because the train engineers were
only allowed to use them at certain times. The story
goes that Pete Townsend had his driver bribed the engineer
so he could blow the whistle. The sound effects became
a problem when they played live Quadrophenia shows. In nineteen
seventy three. Pete Townsend had an on stage meltdown at
the Odeon Theater in Newcastle when the tapes didn't come
at the proper time. I witnesses recall him punching the
road manager in charge of the tapes and going on
a rampage against the equipment. I am unclear whether the
problem was that the tapes didn't show up on time
or whether they didn't start at the right time.
Speaker 3: Gotcha actually saw them the following year, you knew, Yeah,
in seventy four. This was in New York. No, And
I read about this later. I wasn't aware of it
at the time. They did a like a three or
four night's stand in New York at Bryan's favorite venue.
Speaker 9: The Mass I was there.
Speaker 1: I was there, and you were there too.
Speaker 3: I was there me too. I thought I recognized we've been.
Speaker 1: To a few concerts together. Not together.
Speaker 3: Anyway, I read that. I guess Townsend. They decided he
wanted to do the show's sober. He wasn't going to
drink or anything else. And so they did the first show,
and they had the tapes were supposed to come in
at whatever certain times, and they were supposed to follow it.
Keith Moone had headphones so he could, you know, hear what,
you know, and it was just not working. It was
kind of a disaster apparently. And I think the same
effect he you know, well, I think he smashed the
guitar anyway, just out of general principles. But you know,
they and I didn't see. I know, it wasn't the
first night. I don't remember which night it was. But
after they said forget it, you know, you got drunk
and got stonn or whatever, and they just went with
it and just play. You know, they said, forget it,
We're just going to play.
Speaker 7: You know, I thought you meant forget the sound effects.
You meant, well, I don't get them drunk.
Speaker 3: Oh no, he was. He said forget it. I'm getting
I'm getting smashed. And again I didn't notice that, you know,
backing tracks one way or another, you know, because you know,
so they might have just said forget it, We're just
going to play and screw it. But and again I
wasn't aware. I was, you know, I was just happy
to see them and I thought they were fantastic. Yeah,
and that was, you know, that was the album they
were supporting on the tour. Of course, they played a
whole bunch of other things, but it was their tenth
anniversary tour. That's in yeah, seventy four, from sixty four
to seventy four, you think now, tenth anniversary that's a
that's nothing and they're pretty much still going. So yeah, anyway, Yeah,
but I think it was the tapes that you're talking
about were supposed to play behind them. I mean that
you can do that now digitally and there's a.
Speaker 4: You know, yeah, we talked about that last week. It's
all about programs and everybody can hear it in their
ears and yeah, and those systems crashed sometimes too, but nothing.
Speaker 3: Part then there were they were totally you know, primitive,
and I don't the fact that they even tried to
do it is you know, you got to give them
credit for that, because it's almost impossible.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's where innovation comes from. You get you try
and make.
Speaker 8: It work.
Speaker 9: Well.
Speaker 7: I I I I was questioning it because I read
it a couple of different places, and the way it
was it was presented was sort of felt like maybe
the tapes did not arrive on time.
Speaker 3: That eliminated that would really, you know, start or stop
the problem right in the beginning.
Speaker 7: Why why would you'd be punching the road manager in
charge of the tapes if it was the tapes not
playing on the baby was the closest play fair title manager,
I guess I don't know that's fair. The original Saron,
let's hear five fifteen from Quadrophenia by the.
Speaker 10: Who washocka.
Speaker 11: Shocks the seats of subductives, saying.
Speaker 10: Pretty girls, damn ray magically born on a quiet.
Speaker 8: Street corner, free.
Speaker 10: Frustration to their minds and use holes.
Speaker 12: Why small water and the generation o Dallas in a.
Speaker 13: Way in semal.
Speaker 14: Load inside oside, nowhere's home inside side?
Speaker 12: Where up.
Speaker 15: The rain on the road out change out of change, radom.
Speaker 12: Forest saved.
Speaker 16: Line that wally sorry day mountain he man drags in.
Speaker 14: A glittering bowl, craily uprageously in my tight.
Speaker 10: Heel shoes slightly.
Speaker 16: Undone no one they're showing sadly ecstatic that they hear.
Speaker 17: Robes So.
Speaker 14: Leave me alone inside outside nowhere.
Speaker 10: Is home inside outside?
Speaker 14: Where have I been of my brain on the line,
I'm sad? Change my brain on the change on the chain?
Speaker 17: Wow, b whoa my brain all the change here? Whoa
a mad ichang on the change?
Speaker 16: Why should I care?
Speaker 13: Why?
Speaker 17: Shoot?
Speaker 1: That's how never gets old.
Speaker 7: Nope, No, I think it's absolutely amazing, And I'd like
to talk a little bit about the lyrics.
Speaker 1: And first of all, as I said, I think they're incredible.
Speaker 7: The storyline of Quadriphedia is that Jimmy is fed up
with his life, his dead end jobs, and his parents.
He's a young working class mod and we can get
to that later, whose girlfriend left him for his best friend.
He likes drugs, beach fights and romance, and he remembers
a good time in his life when he went to
see the Who in Brighton with other mods. So he
gets on a train, the five point fifteen and sets
off to recreate that high and that was in air quotes.
By the way, according to Pete Townton, his Jimmy's train
journey down to Brighton Sandwich between two city gents is
notable for the rather absurd number of purple hearts he
consumes in order to while away the time. He goes
through an entirely pleasant series of ups and downs as
he thinks about the gaudier side of life as a
teenager that we see in the news papers like News
of the World.
Speaker 1: Five point fifteen was written.
Speaker 7: In Oxford Street and Carnemie Street while I was killing
time between appointments.
Speaker 1: I must try that again.
Speaker 7: Seemed to work, so purple hearts that Jimmy is taking
NonStop on the train is a combination of amphetamines and
barbituates dikes. So when Townson is talking about the ups
and downs, he feels that is exactly what he's feeling,
although the use of literary oxymorons accentuates the two sidedness
of his thinking, like magically bored. The seats are seductive, celibate,
sitting quiet, stormwater, gravely outrageous, tightly undone, sadly astatic. But
he does keep going back to the refrain inside outside,
leave me alone inside outside, nowhere is home? Inside outside?
Speaker 9: Where have I been?
Speaker 1: Out of my brain?
Speaker 15: On the five.
Speaker 7: Fifteen talking about that, he feels that he hasn't belonged anywhere.
The line from the line the ushers are sniffing out
to coloning?
Speaker 1: Is anybody know what that is? Neil? You can't say,
You can't say.
Speaker 4: Again, what is your girl sniff to coloning?
Speaker 7: The ushers are sniffing o to coloning?
Speaker 4: Are they no idea? Are they those little tester people
that jump out of it in the department store?
Speaker 9: Somehow I doubt it.
Speaker 7: It refers to the Beatles concert at Blackpool in nineteen
sixty three, in which the teenage girls literally wet themselves,
so the whole theater smelled like urine, and the ushers
had to spree the seeds with O to cologne the smuid.
Speaker 3: Two.
Speaker 7: So Mods and Rockers were too. I don't know, Neil,
do you want to talk about this?
Speaker 3: I'm trying to. I'm not sure if I'm a mod
or a Rocker.
Speaker 1: I'm sure it's actually does a quition morocker.
Speaker 3: I'm a ma.
Speaker 1: That's what Ringa said.
Speaker 6: Yep, all the Beatles fans get the reference.
Speaker 8: Yeah.
Speaker 7: So the Mods of the Rockers were two British adolescent
subcultures who clashed in the early to mid nineteen sixties.
During this period, riots between mods and rockers broke out
in the seaside resort towns in southern England, causing moral
outrage among the British public. The Rockers were bikers who
wore black leather jackets and other motorcycle related attire, and
the mods rode scooters and dressed in suits and neat clothing.
Speaker 1: And apparently the.
Speaker 7: Rockers were older, like a slightly older, not a whole
generation holder.
Speaker 3: But were they the ones they called teddy boys?
Speaker 1: Teddy boys were.
Speaker 4: Were the mods?
Speaker 1: The mods were the teddy boys or the Rockers were
the teddy.
Speaker 3: Boys, the rockers. Rockers were the teddy boys, yea. In
the seventies we called them greasers.
Speaker 1: Yeah right, maybe the.
Speaker 3: Jackets with the collars turned up like Brando in the
Wild One.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 7: So they would make fun of each other and then
they would fight, and the Rockers would laugh at the
mods because they were on vespas and stuff, and they
would say that they look like girls'.
Speaker 1: Hair blow dryers or hair curlers or something like that.
Speaker 7: So anyway, in the end of the story, at the
edge of Quandrifedia, which is left sort of ambiguous, he
destroys his scooter and we leave him on a rock
in the ocean, contemplating his life. Many people feel that
he takes his life, but I don't think so for
what it's worth, and I've read other people that don't
think so either.
Speaker 8: So there.
Speaker 4: The definitive opinion.
Speaker 7: That's right, because I say so, Neil, you got any
input on that. How do you think it ended?
Speaker 1: I don't remember im.
Speaker 3: Yeah, No, it could either be. You know, it's like
Shortener's cat, you know, is it alive or is it dead?
Did he kill himself that he's I don't know. Yeah,
it's up to the it's up to the and it's
all about teenage angst, and that's what rock and roll
is really all about.
Speaker 1: So so that's all we needed to know.
Speaker 7: We didn't what we didn't need to hear him out
about him growing up and getting therapy and marrying a
nice young girl or.
Speaker 1: Guy or whatever.
Speaker 4: That's the sequel.
Speaker 1: That's not rock. That's not that's not rock and roll.
Speaker 3: Senior citizen.
Speaker 4: So so shak Athenia, what yeah, what.
Speaker 1: That's all I got?
Speaker 4: All right, Well that was great, thank you, thank you
very much. Excellent leadoff and Neil, you are up next.
Speaker 3: Okay, Well, you know they say that the nighttime is
the right time and midnight to six, Well that's my
time man, and midnight to six man by the Pretty
Things is my song today now. The Pretty Things they
were an English rock band that were formed in September
of nineteen sixty three. I think they were probably I
don't know, maybe they were mods, maybe they were rockers.
Speaker 9: They should take the quiz only their hairdresser nose for sure.
Speaker 3: But they got their name from a nineteen fifty five
Bo Diddley song called pretty Thing Now. During their initial
run which was sixty three to seventy one. I believe
they released five studio albums, including the first rock opera,
SF Sorrow in nineteen sixty eight. Sorry who fans It
pre dated the Top by just a couple of months,
but it was out first. But I think we'll all
agree that Tommy and previously Quadraffini it did a little
bit better than that. But they released that. They had
four EPs, fifteen UK singles, including two top twenty UK hits. Okay.
The band was formed by vocalist Phil May and he
was the only consistent member throughout their entire career, and
guitarist Dick Taylor, who came and went, you know a
couple of times, but he was there more than not. Otherwise,
the band's personnel changed you know many times, like the
revolving door effect. But before all that, in nineteen sixty two,
before The Pretty Things, Dick Taylor was recruited by Brian Jones,
along with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards to form a
new band called Anyone.
Speaker 6: On the Mockers You or Anyone.
Speaker 3: The Rolling Stones.
Speaker 1: Oh killing me here.
Speaker 3: But now because there were too many guitar players in
the band, then Dick Taylor was asked to switch to bass,
which he did because he had Brian and you had
Keith on guitars, so he switched to bass. But he
would quit the band, quit the Stones about five months
later to go to art school, something he said later
was like winning the lottery and then losing the winning ticket.
But who knew at that point what the future was
gonna hold. But it was then that Phil May approached
Dick Taylor and asked him to join his new band,
Pretty Things, and Taylor was once again playing guitar along
with May singing and playing harmonica. Now, the Pretty Things
never really had a hit here in the US. They
never really you know, made it over here, but they
did have success in their native UK as well as
in Australia, New Zealand, Germany and the Netherlands. Now, their
appearance and behavior were rather provocative, to say the least.
Phil May claimed to have the longest hair at least
for a man in the UK, and their sound was
like a grittier version of the Rolling Stones, so a
little bit of you know, crossover there. The song We're
going to here midnight to six Man was written by
May and Taylor and recorded at an all night session
produced by the legendary Glenn Johns, who by the way,
worked with The Stones as well, along as also the Beatles,
Led Zeppelin and The Who, and the track also featured
session piano player Nicky Hopkins, who also worked extensively with
the Rolling Stones, So there's a lot of parallels going
on here. Obviously The Stones the Lime Light in the
long run now lyrically, the song relates to the band's
time spent in London's nightclubs during the late night hours,
as you would think midnight to six, hence the title
during the swinging mod nineteen sixties, mid nineteen sixties. And
they say that they probably wouldn't even recognize each other
if they actually met during the daytime. All they did
hang out at night. If you get the pitch, it
so and now let's stay out all night with pretty
things midnight to six.
Speaker 15: Mon let me see.
Speaker 10: The people don't know.
Speaker 17: In the day.
Speaker 10: Say look that's my that's short time.
Speaker 14: Midnight and minute said minute six, Then minute said minute.
Speaker 10: Sis, I'll see.
Speaker 17: Through the day. I'll wake her up for me.
Speaker 13: But still down.
Speaker 17: They would get out of the pool to to amaca
to them see.
Speaker 12: You get taking some sound ready?
Speaker 10: Was so God, tell us some more, tell us a
long see, take it some sound.
Speaker 12: Then it will go.
Speaker 10: Tell me some mom, tell it some mom.
Speaker 12: SI.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I don't know if they're mods or rockers, but
that song, in my book, really does rock. Yeah, I
think it kicks proverbial. But now. When the single was
released in the UK in late nineteen sixty five, the
band and their management but you know, they had a
major hit on their hands. But Midnight to six Man
was generally considered to be a chart failure in the UK,
where it did reach number twenty six on the NME chart,
but only hit number forty six on the record retailer charts. However,
Midnight to six Man was a success on pirate radio station,
something we talked about a couple episodes back here on
the Rock and Roll History Show, particularly Radio London, were
it peaked at number twelve on their FAB forty chart. Now,
the single did receive mostly positive reviews in the press.
Most critics liked the lyrics, but they didn't like it
because they said it had a lack of melody and
in retrospect, though Midnight to six Man has been recognized
as one of the Pretty Thing's best songs, now after
The Pretty Things, haven't you.
Speaker 1: Even slept either?
Speaker 4: All of us? Oh man, it's okay.
Speaker 3: Well. After their initial run from sixty three to seventy one,
the band reformed later in seventy one and continued through
nineteen seventy six, and then reformed again in nineteen seventy nine,
and while they stayed together then until pil May passed
away in twenty twenty, pretty much ending the band for good.
But as of last year, Dick Taylor is still playing
lead guitar with a band at the ripe old age
of eighty two years old. Wow Wow, the clashes. Joe
Strummer referenced Midnight to six Man in his nineteen seventy
eight song White Man in Hammersmith Palais with a nod
to Phil May, and in two thousand and one, Midnight
to six Man was included on the Nuggets two Original
Artifacts from the British Empire and Beyond nineteen sixty four
to nineteen sixty nine box set, which is the perfect
companion to the Nuggets Volume one box set that features
American garage bands from that same era. And yes, finally
I did get to see The Pretty Things perform live,
and that was at Little Stephen's Underground Garage Festival in
two thousand and four in New York City on Randall's Island.
Speaker 9: Nice, nice, excellent, nice.
Speaker 3: But there's my time.
Speaker 4: That's a good one.
Speaker 5: Well you you always have the coolest stories, a good time.
Speaker 3: It was a good time for a topic of enough
time time.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I have to admit I wasn't familiar. This is
a new one to me, so it's good I learned
something tonight.
Speaker 3: They they in their other material too, that has They
do have a very stoneesy type sound.
Speaker 4: Yeah. The music side is is, you know, a little rough,
which is cool, and then the vocals are smoother.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I don't think it was you know, one
trying to copy it, just it was just the.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, very cool. All right, thank you, Neil. We're
going to take a real quick break and be back
with more right after this. Hudson River Radio, Your dog
likes us.
Speaker 1: This concludes the first part of this cassette.
Speaker 4: Please turn the cassette over and begin again on side.
Speaker 6: To this is Hudson River Radio dot Com.
Speaker 4: Ay, and welcome back to the Rock and Roll History Show.
And John you got time?
Speaker 5: Yes, I do have some time here, folks. I don't know,
uh if I can, Uh, it's hard to follow people
like Mercedes and and Neil. It's they are masters of music,
the two of them, and uh, you know they they
they not only know a lot about the topic, but
they they've lived it in their lives. And so I
appreciate that my song tonight was ain't wasting note more,
I'm sure you all have heard of that. If you've les,
you've been living unless you lived under a rock in
the nineteen seventies a song by the American rock band
The Alman Brothers. It was the lead single from their
third studio album called Eat a Peach, which was released
in April nineteen seventy two, released on Capricorn Records, The
song itself, largely concerned written by Greg Alman, largely concerns
the death of his brother, Dwayne Almon or Howard. Dwayne
Alman was killed in a motorcycle crash in October of
nineteen seventy one, specifically October twenty ninth, and that's the
reason why I point that out. He was killed in
October twenty ninth, nineteen seventy one. The song itself was recorded,
or actually the album itself was recorded in Miami, Florida,
in December nineteen seventy one and released in April nineteen
seventy two. So it's the album and the song itself
deals a lot with this particular incident, which makes me
wonder what would that album have been had he not
had they not lost, you know, one of the Almond
brothers themselves, he was basically, he was killed midway through
the production. At the time of his death, they had
started the recording of the album. He was killed in
a motorcycle crash, and then they continued to record afterwards.
The song itself and the album itself concerns soldiers, a
lot of themes to it, time of course being one
of them, our time on this earth, this sudden, untimeliness
of his brother, of the Almond, of Dwayne Almond's passing.
It also concerns issues like the Vietnam War, people soldiers
returning home, and things of that nature. So the song
itself has a lot and the album has a lot
of tragedy built into it, and I think in a
kind of a sad way, it kind of enhances the album.
And it enhanced is the music of the Almand brothers themselves,
who I mean, I don't want to get into a
lot of history here, but they you know, they had
a lot of tragic history as a band, given all
the substance abuse and you know, hospitalizations and whatnot of
a lot of people, you know, a lot of the
band members. So Brian, without further ado, let us out
before I ask you to play the song. While the
song is playing, I want you to think a little
bit about an interesting little anecdote about the Almond Brothers. Uh,
the album before the before Ida Peach was at Fillmore East,
And anybody who was alive in the nineteen seventies knows
what film what the Fillmore East was. And Neil, you're
shaking your.
Speaker 3: Head, no clue, of course I'm kidding. Of course, yes,
I saw the Alma Brothers at Philmore East, not when
they recorded that, but you know, not that particular album,
but I did see them there right before the.
Speaker 5: Well I uh, well, the song is playing, I want
you all to think about what is the Fillmore East
today and what did it become? So let's think about that,
and Brian, let's play the song.
Speaker 15: Last Sun and Morning the Sunshine.
Speaker 8: Seeing the same with the help of.
Speaker 18: Two friends, I'm.
Speaker 12: Still have two strongs. They have way the black.
Speaker 10: Soundles fall the game.
Speaker 18: Fast thing, stop ball this selling ware ah you crying.
Speaker 12: They're around, healthy, long days.
Speaker 19: Looking like as die.
Speaker 14: Just step yourself outside, look mbout stars about.
Speaker 18: All downtown demons to find somebody's nerves.
Speaker 15: I mean when it waste the town a.
Speaker 17: Shambles for rain.
Speaker 15: Much faster today.
Speaker 14: You only know gipsy to tell you where's.
Speaker 13: The chain of the father stairs and.
Speaker 12: See it back.
Speaker 4: But look at side yourself.
Speaker 18: If you don't see what you want, maybe sometimes then
you don't leave.
Speaker 12: A man of won just away.
Speaker 18: Sa man we after many years ago, and all the
wall reads down up even.
Speaker 15: Us along.
Speaker 8: N she'll if he's a.
Speaker 20: Wavy chair sell you mean for them say turn again
to care staff Wen waste some time over the alb balad.
Speaker 10: Running out the subwagon.
Speaker 4: Don't forget the poll.
Speaker 5: A couple of interesting points about the band itself. That
particular song was on There Eat a Peach album, which was,
as we stated earlier, released in April nineteen seventy two.
The album before that, Actually We'll Eat a Peach, was
an interesting album because it was a mix of live
and studio recordings, so that kind of had a uni
vibe to it, I think, which I thought was I
found interesting previous album before that at Fillmore East, however,
which was released in nineteen seventy one. Talk to you know.
There's a little interesting tidbit about the Fillmore East And
for those of you who didn't google during the song
the what is the Fillmore East today in New York City,
specifically Manhattan today? It is an apple bank on the
main floor and with apartments above it. So kind of
a sad said end to a classic classic venue. I
wish I could have seen something there, but I was
a little young at the time. So I hope you
all enjoyed. Are my little selection from the Allman Brothers.
Ain't wasting no time, No, Ain't wasting time no more.
Speaker 4: You could go to the bank, start singing, see what happens.
Speaker 9: I would do that, you all know, know you would.
Speaker 5: I wouldn't be surprised if it's been if it hasn't
been tried.
Speaker 3: I think I think there is like a plaque or
something or so.
Speaker 1: That's good.
Speaker 5: There is there is a Yeah, there is some sort
of a plaque there that commemorates what was there at
the time. I do think it's a sign. Pardon the
pun here, but it's a sign of the times that
the such a classic venue has become a bank. And
uh you know which which this sign of the times,
I guess. But the the Almand Brothers are an interesting band,
as I said, because there have been so much tragedy
and it has so much impact on their music. You know,
I wonder what kind of music they would write, you know,
had Dwayne Almond not been killed in that crash.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they did change that. The whole vibe of the
band changed, in my opinion. After that that the sound
and vibe, I guess Dicky Betts took over the guitar
parts and they it went more towards like a country sound,
you know, more what southern rock would then become, or
what was called southern rock would become. What they were
doing live. It was there was like jazz improvisation. It
was like it was it was you couldn't really categorize it.
Speaker 5: And then one thing I'll say, Neil about when interested
and thinking about the recording of the song was Greg
Alman in an interview, actually recalled Bets practicing the slide
part of the song on the airplane down to Miami.
So I'm just trying to just picture these guys flying
down to Miami to record, and he's just sitting there
at a seat on the plane, just you know.
Speaker 3: I hope it was the first class and not coach
because guy next to him would be so pissed. Somebody's
eye out trying to take a sip.
Speaker 4: Of his martini. And yeah, so it was what was
it eight nine years ago? They were doing the Greg
Olman the biography film and filming on the train tracks
for that authorization, and a train came because people mistakenly
think that they can hear a train coming, and you
cannot hear believe it or not, You cannot hear a
train coming until it's on top of you. And some
of the crew got killed.
Speaker 5: Oh oh my gosh, I'm telling you they are cursed.
Speaker 4: Yeah, there was a there was a whole thing with
that because you know, they were not allowed to be
on the tracks. They didn't get permission. They were trying
to do a guerrilla style, get the equipment on, have
somebody listening, and that didn't go very well.
Speaker 5: Neil, how was the what was the film?
Speaker 8: Alice like?
Speaker 3: Well, it was really an old like theater just you know,
a regularly, like almost like a vaudeville theater. You know,
it was I forget when exactly it was built, but
it was. It was not built for concerts originally, you know,
it was stage productions and stuff. They had three you know,
the orchestra like a mezzanine in the middle, and then
the balcony went up. Most of the time I spent
in the balcony because you know, I couldn't afford the
five dollars seats or five fifty. Once in a while
I did, but I was in the three fifty seats
up in the top as a fifteen and sixteen year old.
And actually I think the first time I went there
was fourteen, which is kind of I still can't believe that,
you know, but what were my parents thinking? But yeah, no,
it was old. It was a beautiful you know, had
ornate stuff. You know, there's still the Capital in Portchester
is still like that. If you've been to the Capitol
in Portchester. Yeah, New York very similar, very similar to that.
That would or even the Beacon Theater, which is still
in existence in Manhattan somewhere seventy ninth Street, Okay, but yeah,
and the Academy of music slash Palladium used to look
like that. But much like the Filmore turning into a bank,
the Palladium turned into a PC Richards appliance store or
something like that. Apartments for NYU students. Yeah, on fourteenth Street. Strategic,
you know, but you know, you know the memories and
you know of what was recorded. You know at all
those places, you know still lives, so it's still there.
But the Filmore was like magic. There was it was
you know, having been to all those different places, there
was nothing like the vibe in that place. Even for
a barely teenage kid like myself, you could feel it.
It was like something about it. It was like like
a safe It was safe haven for all the people
that wanted to, you know, just dig the music and
do their thing, and a time where it wasn't always
cool to walk around looking like, you know, like a hit, okay,
So it was it was like a very communal vibe.
It was very you know, people were together and uh
and I think it I think it inspired the musicians too,
that they felt that too. And I think they were
treated with respect by the staff, by you know, Bill Graham,
who could be hot or cold, he could be the
nicest guy in the world. And he could, you know,
throw you down a flight of stairs the next minute,
you know, if you if you ticked him off, but
because he was a no nonsense guy, he was you know,
but but he kept it together. And I say both
on this on the East Coast and the West so.
Speaker 4: Excellent. Thank you John, excellent, and Gail, we are up
to you.
Speaker 21: Okay, Well, Gail's song, I was I was going to say,
it's a short little song and it's kind of a
hard The other songs are a hard.
Speaker 9: Act for this to follow. It was kind of a
low hanging fruit in the category. But it's so much
fun and you can't possibly not smile when you hear
the first few notes of this song. It's called the TimewARP,
and it's featured in the nineteen seventy three rock musical
The Rocky Horror Show and it's nineteen seventy five film adaptation,
The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and the twenty sixteen TV
production The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Let's do the TimewARP Again? Boys.
Speaker 4: That a long title.
Speaker 9: The song title, as many of us know, comes from
a dance performed during the chorus of the song now
this also reminds me of a friend's daughter's wedding reception
fifteen years ago. This sock Ober and it was at
an old mansion in Salem, Massachusetts that for all the
world looked like the interior of Colin Wood. And to
have this song played at the wedding reception for people
to dance to was just sensory overload. It was amazing.
The dance itself became one of the major audience participation
activities during screenings of the film and live performances of
the original nineteen seventy three stage production, The Rocky Horror Show.
The song itself is both an example of a parody
of the dance song genre, which with much of its
lyrics consisting of instructions on how to do the dance.
Let's hear the song, and then I will give you
some detail, ells about the people in it, the person
who wrote it, and a little bit chart and coot.
Speaker 22: It's a stounding time is fleeting, madness takes its tall.
Speaker 4: But listen closely, not for very much longer.
Speaker 22: I've got to keep control, doc.
Speaker 17: It's just a jump to the left.
Speaker 23: It's a dreamy, my fantasy freely so you can't see no,
not at all in another dim because boy are sticking
to show well secluded.
Speaker 9: I see you all with a bit of mind.
Speaker 1: You're into the times.
Speaker 22: Clear and nothing can never be say.
Speaker 9: It's startle since said.
Speaker 10: Shure like you're under the day shut.
Speaker 17: That's well.
Speaker 15: I was walking down the street.
Speaker 18: Didn't have anything thinking big in the way.
Speaker 15: He shouldn't bear. We did back sur fross. He had
a big gas right demos as step jump never.
Speaker 10: It's just a jump to the nest. Put your hands
on your hips.
Speaker 9: I love that song classic.
Speaker 8: It is awesome.
Speaker 9: It rocks. It's so energetic. It's how can how can
you be in a bad mood when you hear that song? Okay, So,
by the way, the song is in the key of
a major. If anybody cares.
Speaker 6: Why should I care?
Speaker 9: It was the fifth song in the original stage show,
and the order was changed for the film and it
became the fourth song in the film.
Speaker 4: It was.
Speaker 9: Written by Richard O'Brien and he played Richard O'Brian played
riff Raff in the film. And he's still alive. He's
like eighty two or something like that.
Speaker 6: And I've seen other films that he's done and he's
brilliant and everyone.
Speaker 9: Yeah, I've heard. I did not know that one of
the things he was in Elvirus Haunted Hills in two
thousand and one. I did not know he was in
that film. But uh, just incredible writing. He wrote the
entire musical and ugh, just absolutely incredible. Most of them
were in the original stage show and that went into
the film as well. And let's see, let's talk about
the participants, the performers in this a little bit. Richard
O'Brien was born Richard Timothy Smith in twenty fifth of
March nineteen forty two. He's a British New Zealand actor, writer,
musician and television prevent presenter. Born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, he
emigrated with his family to Taronga, New Zealand at the
age of ten. He launched his acting career using his
mother's maiden name O'Brien, as there was already an actor
named Richard Smith, it sounds like a pretty common name.
He wrote the stage show which turned into developed into
the film the screenplay, as I mentioned, appeared on screen
as riff Raff, and of course the film became an
international success and has received a large cult following, of
which I am one because it's just awesome. Other works
he did. He also provides the voice of Lawrence Fletcher
in the Disney Channel animated series Phineas and Ferb, as
well as two Phineas and Ferb films. Some of his
other acting credits include Flash Gordon of nineteen eighty, Robin
of Sherwood nineteen eighty five, Spice World nineteen ninety seven,
Ever After nineteen ninety eight, Dungeons and Dragons two thousand,
and the aforementioned el Virus Haunted Hills. Now Patricia Quinn
who also sang on this she's known for her role
as Magenta. She was born the twenty eighth of May
nineteen teen forty four and she is a Northern Irish
actress and singer. She's best known for her role as Magenta,
and in the film's opening title sequence, the movements of
her disembodied lips are synchronized with the lyrics of the
title song, which is science fiction double feature. I never
realized until I did the research for this that the
singing voice in that song is Richard O'Brien, who who
wrote and appeared in it. Now Patricia Quinn also appeared
in such works as the Hammer House of Horror episode
Witching Time as Lucinda Jessop in nineteen eighty one. I
did not realize. She was also in Monty Python's The
Meaning of Life in nineteen eighty three and the nineteen
eighty seven Doctor Who Serial Rag and Fire Barbara. Have
you ever heard of that?
Speaker 1: I don't.
Speaker 9: Yeah, well, I'm not familiar with it. Now she's the
resident Doctor Who may even here are.
Speaker 6: Yes yes?
Speaker 3: So.
Speaker 9: Her latest film credit is Rob Zombies The Lords of
Salem from twenty twelve. Now next we go to Little Nell,
whose given name is Laura Elizabeth Campbell. She was born
May twenty fourth, nineteen fifty three, and her stage name
is Little Nell. She's an Australian actress, singer and former
club owner. She used to own a couple of clubs
and restaurants in New York City. Oddly she came in.
She came to America at some point, and her role
in Rocky Horror was Columbia. She decided to use the
name Little Nell as a stage name when she arrived
in actually in Britain in the nineteen seventies with her family.
She sold clothes at Kensington Market. Her stall was next
to Freddie Mercury's Oh My gosh, can you even imagine?
Speaker 6: I wish I could have seen that?
Speaker 9: Oh Lord Wow. She also worked as a busker and
a soda jerk in a cafe, where her tap dancing
is often noted as the reason why she was cast
in Columbia in the original production of The Rocky Horror
Show following an impromptu audition. She also starred as Nurse
Anselong in the Rocky Horn nineteen eighty one sequel called
Shock Treatment, and after the Rocky Horror Picture Show, she
signed a recording contract with A and M Records. Not
too shabby, huh. Charles Gray who was born Donald Marshall
Gray twenty ninth of August nineteen twenty eight and unfortunately
he passed in the year two thousand. She was born
in Bournemouth, Hampshire. He was an English actor and voice artist,
appearing in around one hundred and forty films and TV series.
He was actually in a couple of James Bond films.
He was best known as the archvillain Ernest stavro Blofeld
in the James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever and he
was also Dico Henderson in a previous Bond film You
Only Live Twice. He was Sherlock Holmes's brother Mike Croft
Holmes in the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and the Criminologist
in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, as well as Judge
Oliver Wright in its nineteen eighty one sequel Shock Treatment.
Gray attended Bournemouth School alongside Benny Hill, whose school had
been evacuated to the same buildings during the Second World War.
He unfortunately died of cancer at a London hospital on
the seventh of March two thousand, at the age of
seventy one. Now, just as an aside, this film is
what made me fall deeply, irrevocably in love with Jim Curry,
and three of us among this group have a little
anecdote where each of us met Tim Curry in a
photo op. I'm trying to remember how many years ago
was this.
Speaker 6: I think it was twenty seventeen. Wow, Yeah, I think
Mercedes went to that convention because we heard he'd be
appearing there.
Speaker 9: Yes, yes, yes, I remember being there early, early, early
in the morning and reading it was it was freezing out.
There was a scary guy walking around dressed as a
clown like.
Speaker 1: He was dressed as it.
Speaker 9: Yeah, yes, being terrifying and tom but it was, oh gosh,
just meeting Tim Curry so worth.
Speaker 6: It was worth standing out there in the cold for
three hours, Oh my.
Speaker 9: God, dear gentleman. And of course the you know, the
first thing I do when I meet anybody's hold out
my hand to shake their hand. Well, he took my
hand and he didn't let go, so I can say
to the world I held hands with Tim Curry.
Speaker 6: Yes, and when I saw that, I cried. And then
yet and honestly, when I sat down from my photo
op and the photographer said to me, could you please
move your chair a little closer to Tim Curry.
Speaker 9: I was like, okay, And Mercedes, didn't he admire approach
that you were wearing? If I remember, it was a necklace.
Speaker 7: It was made out of like a red mirrred material
and it was like blood dripping down. Oh okay, yeah,
he said it reminded of an artist that he loved,
which I immediately forgot the name of the artist because
I was like, oh.
Speaker 8: Yeah.
Speaker 6: When he asked me what my name was, I almost
didn't know what to say.
Speaker 8: I know, I.
Speaker 9: Apologized to him. I said, I apologize for having cold hands.
It's really cold outside. And of course he said, ah,
but cold hands, warm heart. Now from anybody else that
would have sounded trite, But God, Tim Curry could say
anything to me and I would just be like, oh,
that's so nice, you know.
Speaker 6: Oh he could have recited the elements to me and
I'd be on cloud now.
Speaker 9: Oh yes, absolutely so.
Speaker 1: Okay, so he's got a fan club here, Yes, absolutely.
Speaker 6: So, I really feel so.
Speaker 9: The original Australian cast recording from nineteen seventy seven peaked
at number eighty five in the Australia Kent Music Report.
Speaker 4: One week.
Speaker 9: It's it was a weekly chart in nineteen seventy seven.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show the movie version recording peaked
at number three in Australia Kent Music Report. It peaked
at number twelve in Canada the RPM Top Singles. In Europe,
it peaked at sixty on the euro Digital Songs Billboard. France,
it peaked at twenty UK Singles Chart, it peaked at thirteen,
and in the US Billboard Hot one hundred, it peaked
at twenty nine. And I love the song. I Love
the movie just.
Speaker 1: Loved Tim Curry.
Speaker 9: Yes, and that's why I chose it.
Speaker 4: I am not surprised at your selection at all. Totally fitting,
but a really good one, So thank you, Gail.
Speaker 9: How can any guy look attractive in heels, women's lingerie
and makeup? I don't know how, but he pulled it off.
Speaker 4: Johns what he does on the weekends.
Speaker 3: I've tried. I've tried, but I can't do the heels.
Speaker 9: I got news for you. I can't do the heels
at my age, either of yep.
Speaker 4: And the makeup's more of a smear. That story for
another night.
Speaker 3: Oh.
Speaker 9: I love makeup. It's like coloring for grown up.
Speaker 4: Okay, I'm going to skirt around that and we're gonna
take another break. We have two more to go, so
stick around.
Speaker 8: We'll be right back.
Speaker 4: Letsondriverradio dot com Hudson Riverradio dot com. Your mom likes us,
and welcome back to the Rock and Roll History Show, Barbara.
We are up to you, all right?
Speaker 6: Okay, Well, my song choice for today's theme is time
Won't let Me Buy the Outsiders. The band was formed
in nineteen fifty eight by founding member and guitarist Slash
saxophonist Tom King at the tender age of fifteen. He
named the band the Starfires and started out as an
R and B combo. King was joined by Mort Madsten
on bass, Al Austin on lead guitar, who was later
replaced by Bill Bruno, Jim Fox on drums, who was
replaced by Ronnie Harkei when Fox left for college. Also
joining them was Sonny Jerachi on lead vocals. The band
had been active in the Cleveland music scene and was
contracted with Pama Records, owned by King's uncle. They recorded
time Won't Let Me in September nineteen sixty five. However,
once Capitol Records heard their recording, they signed the band,
who then underwent a name change from The Starfires to
The Outsiders. Rumor has it they chose the name The
Outsiders because he was kind of on the outs with
his family, because he wasn't on his uncle's label and more.
Capitol Records released the song as a single in January
nineteen sixty six. So let's enjoy it now and we'll
follow with some further discussion afterwards.
Speaker 15: Can adwain thee even though you.
Speaker 4: Can way?
Speaker 17: Do you know?
Speaker 8: Did you.
Speaker 12: Shime off.
Speaker 6: With them?
Speaker 8: Can't here?
Speaker 12: You see I've waited too long?
Speaker 4: To who Love You?
Speaker 21: To who Hold You in My House?
Speaker 10: Say, won't let me?
Speaker 15: John? Let me.
Speaker 8: John?
Speaker 15: I can't wait an.
Speaker 10: Eden here, won maybe too?
Speaker 6: Can you win?
Speaker 9: Never to know?
Speaker 17: You be me?
Speaker 8: To time?
Speaker 15: Won't you go? Let me?
Speaker 17: Now?
Speaker 12: Talking take.
Speaker 11: Time?
Speaker 6: Won't Let Me went on to reach number five on
the Board Hot one hundred in April nineteen sixty six,
and was ranked as the forty second biggest American.
Speaker 1: Hit of that year.
Speaker 6: The song came out during the height of the British invasion,
and lead singer Sonny Geraci has referred to the sound
as mercy beat meets motown. The song was covered in
nineteen ninety four by The Smoothereens and featured as the
ending soundtrack of the film Time Cop Time Cop Right
with our theme tonight perfect never saw it? You don't
watch cop shows at all?
Speaker 4: No, no, not your thing?
Speaker 17: No?
Speaker 6: Okay, fair enough? All right, That's all I got. I
read like a half a dozen articles and this is
basically the main information that I was able to find
on it one. Yeah, they basically had you know this
this one album and that was it.
Speaker 4: Sometimes that's till you need the first time.
Speaker 8: That's it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you don't have to worry about.
Speaker 7: Chasing it against Sometimes they spend a lifetime trying to
follow it up and can never get it right.
Speaker 4: Right cool, All right, thank you, Barbara. I got one
more for you. I think you're all gonna know the song.
Maybe you don't know the backstory, but we're talking about
a band that was originally called the Mungo Jerry Blues Band.
It was formed by Ray Dorset in nineteen seventy. Raymond
Dorsett was born in England in nineteen forty six. He
plays guitar sings. He wrote most of the songs for
the band. Growing up, he dropped out of school and
became an apprentice hairdresser, and then he studied and passed
the exams for a City in Guilds qualification to work
with radio control equipment and mechanical components. A City in
Guilds is a trade school training program through colleges in
England like around here, it'd be like our Bose's program
or like a community college kind of thing. He wound
up working for Radio Control Specialists, which manufactured equipment for
films and for moving models, and then he would later
work for a lab for Timex, the watch company Timex,
and like many he was always doing music on the side,
and he was growing sideburns that would make Elvis Presley
insanely jealous. They're the uberist of sideburns, like super mutton chops.
If you haven't seen them, you just have to google
Ray Dorset and there's just no It's like starting with
Chewbacca and then shaving parts off.
Speaker 3: That's more.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't know. I don't know how else to
describe it. I think Mercedes is actively googling, so I
almost want to see the reaction. Yeah I remember him.
Yeah yeah, So man, if sidebirds come back like that,
we're going to run out of shampoo.
Speaker 3: He has more hair on his sideburns than most men
have on the top of their heads.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, I don't know. I wonder if he bumped
into doorways with that. So in nineteen sixty eight, he
and two friends formed a band called Good Earth, which
got them a record contract. Then his friends moved on
to other projects and he brought in a washboard player
and the band shifted to an acoustic skiffle style. Basically
a jug band. Skiffle is like a folk style based
on American music. That the British kind of adopted and
made their own, but not your typical knee jerk reaction.
Well you're gonna quit, okay, I'm going to bring in
a washboard. That's not generally the backup instrument that.
Speaker 12: You think of.
Speaker 3: And this was what nineteen seventy.
Speaker 4: This was before nineteen seventy, like sixty eight, sixty nine,
right before this skiffle.
Speaker 3: Thing it was in like that was pre Beatles, Like
the Beatles were a skiffle band. H how far back
you know, it wasn't exactly you know on everybody's you
know mind or right.
Speaker 4: It was a little bit retro, a couple of years behind.
But it worked so because we're talking about it today,
so you got to give him credit. By nineteen seventy,
like Neil pointed out, that band had just become Mungo Jerry.
They shortened the title. Over the years, members have come
and gone. We could spend an hour talking about that.
But Ray Dorset has always been the one out front.
So where did the name Mungo Jerry come from? Well
it starts with the poet T. S. Eliot, who won
the Nobel Prize in Literature in nineteen forty eight before that,
in nineteen thirty nine, he published a collection of poems
about cats called Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats. One
poem was titled Mungo Jerry one word and Rumpel Teaser
one word. And of course this book would also come
back to Bitis in the Ass as the inspiration for
the musical cats Cats oh Man, Yes so, Ray and
the band had enough success to be booked at the
Hollywood Music Festival in Staffordshire in May of nineteen seventy,
which was a huge deal because other performers included jose Feliciano,
who I don't think we've talked about, best known now
for Felice Navidad, the Christmas song, but a big wig.
He was a powerhouse guitarist and.
Speaker 9: Still is also covered like My Fire.
Speaker 4: He's done a bunch of covers and he puts his
own style on him and I think he does a
good job. And he's still out there. He's still playing Wow.
But also on the bill Ginger Baker's Air Force, Black Sabbath,
The Grateful Day and traffic. Can you imagine all of that?
And then a skiffle jug band comes out. Ozzie goes
off and the watchboard comes on. So their first single,
which is the one we're going to listen tonight, is
called in This Summertime. It was released on May twenty second,
nineteen seventy, the first night of the Hollywood Music Festival.
It was May twenty third, nineteen seventy, and they were
so well received that they were asked to perform again
the second night, May twenty fourth, nineteen seventy.
Speaker 9: I remember when that song came out, I remember it
very well.
Speaker 3: Yep.
Speaker 4: Their style was just so different and unusual compared to
what else was going on, especially when Grateful Dead's on
the stage right before you. The crowd loved it, they
absolutely loved it, so they timed it perfectly.
Speaker 9: I love this song.
Speaker 4: Yeah, me too too, this song.
Speaker 18: Yes.
Speaker 4: Within a week in the Summertime had shot to number one,
and Ray actually had to ask his boss at time X,
where he was still working, for a day off so
Mungo Jerry could go do the TV show Top of
the Pops, which was huge.
Speaker 6: So that keeps with our theme too, TIMEX time X.
Speaker 9: Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 4: Yep. The song was the first to be released as
a maxi single, meaning that there was the A side
song and then two different songs on the B side,
and then MAXI singles would later grow into like remixes
of the songs or extra tracks on there, rather than
just your forty five with one song on each side.
A MAXI single looks like a forty five, but it's
played at thirty three and the third so you can
fit more on it. And this song in the Summertime
is still the biggest selling single of all time by
any British band, over thirty million copies.
Speaker 9: Oh my, any British and.
Speaker 4: If I remember correctly, Britain's had like two big bands
maybe three. That is wild right, and this has I'm
being obnoxious and nobody's calling yeah, but yes, this is
still the biggest selling British single, which just blows my mind.
Speaker 8: It is. Yeah.
Speaker 4: Race said it took him ten minutes to write, because
of course it did. I've spent a lifetime coming up
with nothing, and this guy sits down for ten minutes
with his used secondhand stratocaster guitar comes up with this.
It was recorded at Pie Records. The producer was Barry Murray.
The song was originally less than two minutes long, about
a minute forty seven and Barry wanted it to be
longer because remember at the time that three minutes, three
minutes thirty seconds, that was the golden place where you
wanted to be to get your song on the record.
It was long enough to you know, be a full song,
but not so long, you know, so they could keep moving,
you know, keep moving along. Nothing would take up too
much time. So in order to make it longer, Barry
simply played the exact same song twice in a row
and just mixed it up a little bit different to
make it sound a little bit different than the first
time around. They wanted to put the sound of a
motorcycle in between the two halves as kind of the
sound of summer going after your motorcycle ride, but nobody
there had a motorcycle. One of the engineers had a
Triumph sports car, so they drove that past the studio
a few times and recorded that, which is how they
got the engine sound that you're gonna hear in the middle.
So they play the song you hear the Triumph sports
car and they just start the same recording over again
and play it a second time and faded out at
about three minutes and thirty seconds. Genius it totally is
totally is. Ray Dorset does the vocals. He overdubbed all
the guitar parts, and he does the percussion. Paul King
plays the banjo and the jug. I gotta get a jug.
Speaker 3: Was it full or empty at the time?
Speaker 4: I say it started as one and ended as the other.
Colin Earl is on the piano, and Mike Cole plays
the upright bass. So let's listen to in the summertime
and we'll talk a little bit more afterwards.
Speaker 19: In the summer time, when the weather is high, you
can shoot, strive up pain and tell us the sky
when the weather is right. You young, with you young
man on your mind, everything to hie, go ahead and
see what you can find.
Speaker 10: If but that is rich, take a reveo me, but
that is what just do about your fis.
Speaker 19: Be alone with the la your turn nor return of
twenty five. When the some go start, you can make
it make it good in the LIPI when ikay phoebe.
When when I tell you when I mean we love e,
everybody probably do e his babes mendom weather.
Speaker 8: Is fine, mean no fishing or goes hailing. Let's see
we're always high. I think that's what living here. Let's
have lots of baby.
Speaker 15: Along with us.
Speaker 10: Did he did daddy that?
Speaker 8: Yeah? What have that be?
Speaker 17: No do.
Speaker 8: Daddy?
Speaker 12: Did that die?
Speaker 8: All right? All right?
Speaker 10: When the winner's here?
Speaker 8: Yeah, it stout in time, bring about the way in
fact did sing the summer time?
Speaker 19: Man, we'll single game. We ain't go driving on me
being down And she's written now has been.
Speaker 8: Your friends, Then we're all going into.
Speaker 19: Down in the summertime. When the weather is hot, you
can switch right down then.
Speaker 10: To the sky.
Speaker 19: When the weather's right, you're going your government on your
mind ever drink gab time, go ahead and see what
you can buy. If but that is richt take a
grabbing room me. If that is what, can't do what
your fish.
Speaker 8: Speed alone the le do a turn and return. It's
really by when the sun goes down, and you can
make it make it good, and they by.
Speaker 19: When I get and when I tell you when I
mean we love every by you tell me us.
Speaker 8: And when the weather is by me fishing caldl and
is the same. We're always high.
Speaker 15: Us.
Speaker 4: I would say that's in close running with time warp
as far as improving your mood, absolutely, yeah, yeah, that's
very happy, Happy, So Ray Dorset is now seventy nine.
He has recovered from open heart surgery. He's been managing
IBS for many years, which he blames on the rock
and roll lifestyle she also experienced for many years. He
has dropped the sideburns because they were too much work.
And I can totally believe that. And the one thing
he does admit is that he dyes his hair. He
says it's still his hair, but he dies it to
keep it dark. And he's still writing and performing mostly
in the UK. And I would go see him in
a heartbeat, Yeah, totally. It sounds like it would be
so much fun. So there you go summertime, in the summertime,
and uh, that's it.
Speaker 1: I think I just want him to play that song
over and over.
Speaker 3: He played it twice four times, you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I just want to sit and listen to that
all night in concert.
Speaker 4: That would be fun.
Speaker 3: So take take a solo with the Yeah, break down
the music statu.
Speaker 1: Little riff here, a little riff there.
Speaker 3: Crowd goes crazy.
Speaker 4: You do a time warp medley in there a little bit,
and then come back to in the summertime. Then you
got the whole crowd covered outstand. I think it's time
to go outside and pull the plug and go enjoy
yourselves for a little while.
Speaker 22: What do you think?
Speaker 3: All right?
Speaker 4: Final comments from the Peanut Gallery.
Speaker 9: Good choices, everybody, good time.
Speaker 4: I think so it was a lot that was great.
Speaker 3: Definitely we had a real good time time.
Speaker 4: Excellent choice is and excellent work by the Crambones as always,
So thank you all and thank you all for joining
us here on the Rock and Roll History Show. I'm
so tired. I'm cutting the outro and I'm going to
say we will see you next week. Be careful, be safe,
and peace out. Everybody.
Speaker 15: Bye, come a rock cop bottomed crum.
Speaker 9: Okay, bye bye.
Speaker 4: Hudson River Radio dot com a subsidiary of Glacier Entertainment LLC,
potentially successful multi hundred dollars corporation,