Tassel Twirler Tuesday!

Blo_Jangs!

Please Stand By

Chief Adler informs me that the Ichiban webstream will be down for routine maintenance today at Noon.
Homework

Sir Doug Serves Up The Bacon Fat

Sir Douglas Quintet  -  Bacon Fat

Welcome back to Doug Sahm Month.  Yesterday we served up the SDQ's version of The Rains Came, so tonight we'll check out the other side of this astonishingly superb 45.  Despite what the label here says, Bacon Fat was written by the larger than life R&B kingpin Andre Williams.  I have no idea how the name Syd Nathan (president of King records in Cincinnati) was listed as the author.  In any event, the Sir Douglas Quintet really nails this one.  It's one of my all time favorite 45s.

Crack The Whip (Don't Follow This Advice!)

The following post comes to us from reader Bruce Lagerquist, a tenacious researcher who emails me with some regularity regarding odd facts about some of the obscure records and singers whose music I've posted here.  Don't try to give him the slip, he'll find you.  / Greg

Allan Copeland and his Hot Rodders  -  Crack The Whip

Whatever you do, don't follow the advice found on this 45.  I did and I now wish I hadn't.  I bought a whip, and just like Allan told me to I used it.  I had problems with the girlfriend - CRACK....SLAM, she's gone.  The dog wouldn't stop barking - CRACK...CHOMP, part of my leg is gone.  When my Mom wouldn't stop talking, CRACK...WHAM, I have a purse imprint on my face and I'm no longer in the will.  Luckily, I have no children or who knows what might've happened.  So much for the whip, it's bad advice so don't follow it.  Who the hell came up with the advice anyway?  With my life in ruins and vengeance in my heart, I turned to the net and started to search.  Here's what I found.

Arwin Records - The name comes from combining the names of two publishing firms, Artist Records and Daywin Music.  The outfit was owned by Doris Day and her husband and (mis)manager Marty Melcher.  If Arwin rings a bell, it's probably because it was the original home of those squeaky clean surf kids Jan and Dean, still known as Jan and Arnie at that point.

The Frank Comstock Orchestra - Frank was not only the composer of the Rocky & Bullwinkle theme, making him a god amongst men, but was also responsible for composing and arranging music for Adam-12, Dragnet, Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, Ensign O'Toole, McHale's Navy, F-Troop, Pete Kelly's Blues, The D.A.'s Man, Temple Houston, and The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour.  I'm currently working on deciding the best place in my house to build a Frank Comstock shrine.  On top of everything else, Comstock worked as an arranger for the Les Brown Orchestra, arranged, orchestrated or conducted music for many Warner Brothers' films, including The Jazz Singer, Some Like It Hot and Hello Dolly.  He even scored four Mr. Magoo theatrical animated shorts, and when Disney came calling he signed on to arrange music for their theme parks.  My theory?  He never slept; no one can do that much in a regular lifetime.

Allan Copeland - Copeland, who generally used only one "L" in his first name, got his start as a choir boy in the Robert Mitchell Boys Choir before moving on to acting.  He appeared in such classics as Angels With Dirty Faces, Going My Way, The Hunchback Of Notre Dame, and Yankee Doodle Dandy.  In the early 50s, he joing the singing group the Modernairs and eventually formed his own group, the Allan Copeland Singers.  Like Frank Comstock he must have never slept because he also wrote charts for Sarah Vaughn, Ella Fitzgerald, Steve Lawrence & Eydie Gorme and was the choral director for Bing Crosby's Christmas TV shows.  Here's a clip of Allan on the Bob Crosby Show.  He sort of makes Pat Boone look light a tough guy, doesn't he?

The Hot Rodders - they must have been fake hot rodders.  Or more likely some crack group of studio pros just as photogenic and perky as Allan himself.  And I bet their hot rods were Cadillacs.

Frank Lloyd - was a veryfrequent co-writer of Allan's; they have over 600 songs registered with ASCAP.  And like like all the others on this record he was a talented arranger.  Lloyd wrote much of the music for Doris Day's 1967 feature film The Ballad Of Josie.

I'm betting this record was a joke, a poke at Rock and Roll, the newest craze of the moment, by a bunch of guys who didn't really care too much for it or about it.  It's something they probably worked up at the end of a session for a laugh and to give Frank's group a chance to cut loose (and that's exactly what they do in one glorious instrumental break).

UPDATE - last weekend I had the chance to talk with Crack The Whip writer and singer Allan Copeland during his appearance on a radio show.  Well, sort of.  Let's just say it didn't go exactly as planned. Copeland appeared, along with Peter Marshall of Hollywood Squares' fame, on DJ Peggy King's big band radio show on WYYR.  I was instructed to call in at a specific time to request the song.  It would be quite a surprise for Allan and I'd get a chance to ask his some questions about the record, or so Peggy predicted.  Unfortunately, my questions went unasked and unanswered.  At the first utterance of "Crack The Whip" Allan reacted as though a bastard child from a one-night stand had shown up at the door and proclaimed "I'm here Dad!"  He immediately slammed the door shut in his song's face and proclaimed "I'm not going to talk about it!"  Even with the cajoling of the host (and also fellow guest Peter Marshall), he refused to speak of it and clearly wanted to move on as quickly as possible.  He claimed he'd spent all of his life and most of his money trying to bury Crack The Whip.  Looks like his efforts were in vain as it's now resurfaced.  Evidently the grave he dug wasn't deep enough or maybe it's just too good of a song to be buried.  Have a listen, you decide.

The Rains Came (Doug Sahm Month)

Sir Douglas Quintet  -  The Rains Came

The Rains Came, written by the fabled Texas music man Huey P. Meaux, was originally recorded in 1962 as a tender ballad by Big Sambo And The House Wreckers and released as the flipside of their storming R&B stomper At The Party.  Hear them both (in the same clip) over on YouTube.

The Sir Douglas Quintet got hold of it three years later and turned it into a unbelievably catchy organ-led rocker.  As with the Big Sambo version, Meaux was handling the production duties.

Doug Sahm

July is Doug Sahm Month on Ichiban!!  Big thanks to Michael McMahon for the video!

Funky Crimes - Monkey Hustle

The Soul Continentals - Goobah (African Twist)

Get Down!

Figured it was time to share my flood damged copy of Get Down by Harvey Scales and the Seven Sounds. Awwwright!

Drug Mania @ Fool's Paradise Twin

 

THIS WEEKEND !!

GET DOWN !
with

THE PLEASURE LOVERS !!

 ENTER THEIR WANTON WORLD

of
PSYCHEDELIC ECSTASY !!! 

FIRST...
 
Taste a moment of madness...listen to the sound of purple ! 

PSYCH-OUT

(1968, dir. Richard Rush)

  


THEN... 

Bizarre...Weird...Wild...They're the 

HALLUCINATION GENERATION 

(1966, dir. Edward Mann)

FULL SERVICE SNACK BAR
featuring: 

Tasty corndogs!  Refreshing beverages! Savory BBQ!
...and - for this engagement only - SMITH BROS. COUGH DROPS !!

*No Outside Food Or Drink*

PROGRAM BEGINS AT DUSK
ONLY THOSE OVER 17 ADMITTED • LEGIBLE PROOF OF AGE REQUIRED 

THE FOOL'S PARADISE TWIN ACCEPTS

JAMES BROWN BLACK & BROWN STAMPS

Note from the editor:  Hallucination Generation movie trailer

 

The Rules Of The Game - According to AIP

 

 

As stated above, the American International Pictures credo. Of course, the same goes double for the Fool's Paradise Twin Drive-In. 

 

(Excerpted from The I Was A Teenage Juvenile Delinquent Rock'n'Roll Horror Beach Party Movie Book – A Complete Guide To The Teen Exploitation Film: 1954-1969, Alan Betrock, St. Martin's Press, 1986)

Tassel Twirler Tuesday!

Everybody_Fish!

Honky Tonk Mondays

Join us tonight at the Rock Shop in Brooklyn for a live taping of the Gowanus All-Stars!  Free.  8 PM.
WFMU T-shirt to the best rebel yell in attendance!!  Stay tuned for air date.