THROWBACK THURSDAY: The Sexsational World of Scopitones

Long before cable television, back in the early to mid '60s, dozens of pop and rock stars were filming hundreds of music clips for what amounted to a proto-MTV.

It was centered around a contraption, manufactured in France, called the Scopitone 450, which basically was a jukebox hooked up to a 26-inch TV set that played 16mm film clips.

The technology had been around since at least the 1940s when "Soundies" -- black and white clips played on coin-operated machines -- were briefly the next big thing in show biz.

The Scopitone machine was a huge improvement over the old Soundies model, For one thing, a customer could chose among a wide array of film clips. The clips were in color.

And best of all, as the art form evolved, most the Scopitone clips were filled with scantily-clad go-go girls whose shimmying put Sister Kate to shame! 

As this article in Broadly, a feminist section of Vice says:

... the message in these videos is clear: T&A! The in-your-face sexiness of the images is a stark contrast to the rather unsexy, often downright lame songs. To see more explicit non-static imagery, one would have had to go to the trouble of attending a peep show or tracking down a stag film. The Scopitones' absurdly enthusiastic buxom women were chosen to attract the male gaze on a small screen across a smoky bar, with the promise of a peek at more skin...in the next video.

But let's start with one of the milder ones. Debbie Reynolds' production company was responsible for many of the Scopitones. But the bump and grinding is kept to a minimum here -- though wholesome Debbie sure could work her pretty pink petticoats in this Golden Throat take on "If I Had a Hammer."


But wait, it gets wilder. Check out the bikinis and beehives in this " Pussycat a Go-Go medley by Stacy Adams & The Rockabilly Boys (no, they ain't rockabilly)



Jody Miller was best know for "Queen of the House," and answer song to Roger Miller's "King og the Road." Here she sings a George Jones song. But I don't think Possum done it this way ...



Joi Lansing, one of the queens of the Scopitones, sings one of my favorite songs from a Matt Helm movie.



And here's one in which i actually like the music. It's a song I first heard by The Searchers done by a group called George & Teddy & The Condors. And oh, yeah, there are go-go girls ...

Something was always cooking at Scopitone

(Hat tip to my friend Deborah and our mutual friend Tim for sending me down the Scopitone path.)

WACKY WEDNESDAY: Emanating from the Secaucus Lounge ...

'60s nostalgia has been an annoying cultural phenomenon for way too many years. In fact I'm pretty sure it's been plaguing the national imagination since sometime in the early 1970s.

But back in the late '60s, some major (and minor) rock and pop musicians were busy perpetrating a nostalgia for music from even earlier eras.

Think of songs like "Winchester Cathedral" by one-hit wonders The New Vaudeville band, or "When I'm 64" and "Honey Pie" by The Beatles.

Think of a big chunk of the repertoire of The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band.

Like this song:



The Rolling Stones did their part in 1967 on the last track of Between the Buttons. Most folks think the lyrics of "Something Happened to Me Yesterday" are about an LSD trip, though the additional of of the woozy sax and trombone (played by Brian Jones) give the tune a whimsical British Music Hall feel.

By the last 30 seconds of the song, the whole thing has morphed into a faux dance band radio broadcast with Mick Jagger serving as the smarmy announcer,: "So from all of us to all of you, not forgetting the boys in the band and our producer Reg Thorpe, we'd like to say God bless. So if you're out tonight, don't forget, if you're on your bike, wear white ..."

Jagger has been quoted saying, "The ending is something I remember hearing on the BBC as the bombs dropped." Take a listen:



Speaking of late '60s songs framed as live radio broadcast, a singer named Guy Marks had a minor hit in 1968 with this little treasure called "Loving You Has Made Me Bananas" that sounded like a Bizarro World version of a depression-era big band dance program. An announcer (Marks himself?) starts it off:

From the Hotel Sheets in downtown Plunketville, the Publican Broadcasting Company presents the Music of Pete DeAngelis and his Loyal Plunketvillevanians. Here in the beautiful gold, yella, copper, steel, iron ballroom of the Hotel Sheets in downtown Plunketville, overlooking the uptown section of downtown Pottstown! 

Then it gets downright silly.



I'm not sure whether this song came before or after a similar recording by San Francisco psychedelic heros Moby Grape. Their album WOW, released in April 1968 had a strange song called "Just Like Gene Aurty, a Foxtrot." This was a Skip Spence composition that featured a guest musician named Arthur Godfrey (!)  I'll let Graham Reid of the Elsewhere blog tell the story:

So just before "Just Like Gene Autry: A Foxtrot" on the 33 rpm album, a voice came on and invited listeners to get up and change the speed of their player to 78 (most players at the time had speeds of 33, 45 and 78, some -- like the one in my house -- even had 16rpm).

And what you got was an orchestra lead by Wow producer Lou Waxman and introduced by famous CBS radio and television announcer Arthur Godfrey who also played banjo and ukulele on it.

"Skippy bumped into Arthur at Columbia [Records]," said band member Jerry Miller later. "The two of them were like Mutt and Jeff, cruising around arm-in-arm. The funny thing was that Arthur Godfrey thought that Gene Autry was the kind of music we did all the time."

Godfrey kicked off the proceedings:

And now, emanating from the Secaucus Lounge of the fabulous Fandango Hotel in Weehawken, New Jersey, we proudly present the celestial melodies of Lou Waxman and his Orchestra, who ask the age old musical question...

And, with Spence crooning like Guy Lombardo on Thorazine, here's what emanated:



So in conclusion, I'll let Frank Zappa have the final word:

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, February 28, 2016
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell
Webcasting!
101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell(at)ksfr.org

Here's the playlist

OPENING THEME: Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres

Little Girl by The Syndicate of Sound

A plus by Figures of Light

Apartment Wrestling Rock 'n' Roll by Lightning Beat-Man

Have a Say by The Hussy

Love/Hate (Eat Me Alive) by The Ruiners

She by Audio Kings of the Third World

Weedeye by Churchwood

Henry the Bull Del Toro by Left Wing Fascists

Just Let Me Know by Any Dirty Party

 

Cheap Thrills by Ruben & The Jets

Stare Into the Night by Cheetah Chrome

Where the Flavor Is by Mudhoney

Avaler La Couleure by Thee Verduns

Lemonade Man by The Electric Mess

Tears in Vain by Jonathan Gold & His Silver Apples

Rat Time by King Mud

Am I Blue? by The Voluptuous Horror Of Karen Black

I Looked at You by Marshmallow Overcoat

 

John the Revelator by Tom Waits

Flesh Eating Cocaine Blues by Daddy Long Legs

Chicken Yodeling Man by O Lendario Chucrobillyman

Fruit Fly by The Hickoids

Daddy Rolling Stone by Phil Alvin

That's What You Get For Thinkin' by Supersuckers

Tar Demon by The Moths

The War on Wisdom by The Melvins

Ernestine by Koko Taylor

 

Wasted by Pere Ubu

A Girl Named Sandoz by Eric Burdon & The Animals

The Hand Don't Fit the Glove by Miriam

Adult Acid by Thee Oh Sees

Gypsy Son by Javier Escovedo

My Time Has Come by The Twilight Singers

Volare by Alex Chilton

CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

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Welcome to the latest hillbilly episode of the Big Enchilada podcast, Hillbilly Hot Sauce. These hillbilly sounds are so hot they'll scorch your innards and make you squeal like a feral hog.

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Here's the playlist:

(Background Music: Bosco Stomp by The Cajun Playboys)
Big Man by DM Bob & Speedy Jake
Looking at the Moon and Wishing on a Star by Charline Arthur
Heaven is the Other Way by Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys
Oo-Ba-La Baby by Jean Chapel
Fast Fuse Blues by Paul Burch
Diddy Wah Boogie by Al Dexter

(Background Music: Hal Billy Boogie by Dick Dyson & His Blue Bonnet Boys)
My Gal by the Jim Kweskin Jug Band
Sister Kate by Oh Lazarus
Something For Nothing by The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band
Hangman Boogie by Cowboy Copas
Tiger by the Tail by The Waco Brothers
One Day After Payday by Buck Griffin

(Background Music: Ted's Stomp by Howard Armstrong)
South by The Maddox Brothers & Rose
When He Comes by Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs
Colorado Boogie by Rocky Rauch & His Western Serenaders
Get Me Out of Jail by Danny Barnes
Red's Tight Like That by The Tune Wranglers
Wolverton Mountain by Southern Culture on the Skids
(Background Music: I Wish I could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate by The Hoosier Hot Shots)

Play it here:

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, Febuary 26, 2016
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell 101.1 FM
Email me during the show! terrel(at)ksfr.org

Here's my playlist :

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens

Receiver by The Waco Brothers

Polk Salad Annie by Jason & The Scorchers

Bottle of Wine by Angry Johnny & The Killbillies

Let's Get Drunk by The Beaumonts

Gonna Love My Baby Now by T. Tex Edwards & The Swingin' Kornflake Killers

Whiskey Trip by Gary Stewart

Your Cousin's on Cops by The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band

Dotted White Line by The Blues Against Youth

Lady Cop by Cousin Jody

 

Black Jack David by Loretta Lynn

Ain't a Goin' by James Hand

Too Late for Tequila by DM Bob & Country Jem

Tall Tall Trees by Roger Miller

I'm So Lonesome Without You by Hazeldine

Diddey Wah Boogie by Al Dexter

Ziggy Stardust by The Gourds

Poor White Trash by Rudy Preston

I Ain't Never by Webb Pierce

 

Worm by Reverse Cowgirls

Crow Jane by Oh Lazarus

All the Way Back Home by Dinosaur Truckers

Oh Susana by The Perch Creek Family Jugband

Back Street Affair by Brennen Leigh & Jesse Dayton

When the Helicopter Comes by The Handsome Family

Mermaids by Bobby Bare

Ain't Hurtin' Nobody by John Prine

 

Say It's Not You by George Jones & Keith Richards

Let the Jukebox Keep on Playing by Carl Perkins

Lost Highway by Willie Nelson, Ray Price & Merle Haggard

Runnin' from the Ghost of Your Past by Stevie Tombstone

Whiskey Girl by Gillian Welch

Ain't That Water Lucky by Paul Burch

Over the Next Hill (We'll Be Home) by Johnny Cash with Anita Carter

CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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