Early Colour Film

If you never knew colour film existed this long ago, there's a reason.

The earliest movie film stock was made of cellulose nitrate. There were not many other materials that were feasible for film making. However cellulose nitrate had a couple horrifying drawbacks.
 
First, it was extremely volatile. If not stored under carefully controlled conditions, the film would deteriorate rapidly

Fact: 90% of all film before the late '40s is lost forever due to deterioration of their nitrate film .

If the film lamp was too hot, the entire reel would instantly burst into flames or even explode. And the fire/heat would ignite other film reels in the projection booth. This caused several theater fires.

So the early theater industry came up with a horrifying solution. Should the film catch fire (as sometimes did), some theaters had an automatic shut down mechanisms that would not only close the projector portholes, but also in some cases actually locked the projection booth door, incinerating the projectionist alive or suffocating him (it was usually men who were projectionists. Female projectionists were very rare) using them as a sacrifice to save the theater. Until safety film became standard in the 1950s, it was truly a dangerous job and only for the highly skilled.  

I volunteered as a projectionist at an old theater (and luckily, this was modern safety film I worked with) and I remember seeing the old portholes and the shut down doors above them. It truly is creepy. And those booths were HOT!

"She Drives Funny Cars"

"Lightning Tree" The Settlers (1971)

I don't know what attracts me so much to this song, but somehow I love it. I remember hearing it many years ago online on the now-defunct Saga FM 105.7 in Birmingham, England. There's a certain, distinctly British beauty about it that's hard to put in words. It's a song that really should/could have been a hit here in the States.

"Lightning Tree" (York Records, later reissued on Decca Records UK.) was originally released in 1971 and only charted in the UK and a few other countries. It was the biggest hit for a '60s UK pop band called The Settlers.

The song is most famous there for being the theme song to the Yorkshire TV/ITV series Follyfoot, which was about a rest home for horses, It had challenging things to say about the treatment of horses in British society that was far ahead of it's time. The show had a two year run on British TV and ran there as repeats until well into the late '80s.

Here's the UK TV opener for Follyfoot:

The Settlers never had another hit single. Which was odd. I always thought they kind of sounded like The Seekers and I guess I'm wasn't alone when I looked them up on Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Settlers_(band)

"The Settlers have generally been referred to as a folk group. However, like the Seekers, the successful Australian group with which they shared marked similarities, some of their material gravitated towards mainstream pop, which, taking its cue from American singer-songwriters Bob Dylan and Joan Baez and such groups as Peter, Paul and Mary and The Byrds, readily absorbed folk influences in various ways in the mid 1960s......"

A Rock N' Roll Food Fight

Some bands/artists with food or food related names:

Smashing Pumpkins
The Lovin' Spoonful
Cranberries
The Honey Cone
Meatloaf
Lemonheads
Blind Melon
Bread
Cibo Matto
The Cookies
The Platters
Artichoke
Hootie & The Blowfish
Olive
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Blind Lemon Jefferson
Cake
Dead Milkmen
Belly
The Raspberries
The Applejacks
The Honeycombs
Humble Pie
April Wine
Black Grape
Amy Winehouse
Taco
Pigmeat Markham
Fine Young Cannibals
Ambrosia
Matthew Sweet
Salt & Pepa
Pearl Jam
The Fat Boys
Soup Dragons
Gin Blossoms
My Cat Puddinhead
Spice Girls
Sugaland
100 Proof Aged In Soul
Cream
Vanilla Ice
Dave & Sugar
Sugarloaf
Neutral Milk Hotel
Ice-T
The Moldy Peaches
Green Jello (Jelly)
Brandy
Fiona Apple
Phish
Fattburger
Grapes Of Wrath
Chet Baker
T-Bone Walker
1910 Fruitgum Co.
Hot Tuna
School Of Fish
Wings
Sausage
Anita Baker
Uncle Kracker
Hall & Oates
Dishwalla
Buckcherry
Bowling For Soup
Korn
Vanilla Fudge
The Black Eyed Peas
Jon Butcher Axis
Breakfast Club
Country Joe & The Fish
Captain Beefheart
G. Love & Special Sauce
Wild Cherry
The Spoons
Richard Cheese
Feeder
Mudhoney
Meat Puppets
Fishbone
The Flaming Lips
Pop Will Eat Itself
A Taste Of Honey
Cherry Poppin' Daddies
Reel Big Fish
The Lemon Pipers
Fatback
Fischerspooner
Veruca Salt
Peaches
Moby Grape
Jello Biafra
Squirrel Nut Zippers
Peaches & Herb
The Electric Prunes
Sugar Ray
The Jam
Custard
Sugar Hill Gang
Mushroomhead
Everclear
Marc Almond
Mighty Lemon Drops
Neneh Cherry
Strawberry Switchblade
Sweet
The Brand New Heavies
Toni Basil
Tangerine Dream
Big Pig
Sugar
Heavy D
Strawberry Alarm Clock
Spacehog
Ultimate Spinach
Kid Creole & The Coconuts
Prefab Sprout
Vitamin C
Vitamin Z
Joy Of Cooking
Juice Newton
Limp Bizkit
Hot Chocolate
The Sugarcubes
DJ Quik
Apples In Stereo
Rachel Sweet
Bananarama
Eagle Eye Cherry
Jimmie's Chicken Shack
Chuck Berry
String Cheese Incident
Leadbelly
Hot Butter

Exposed: A Cheap Peek At Today's Provocative New Rock (CBS, 1981)

Back in 1981, CBS Records released a 2 LP compilation of what was then some pretty cutting edge music called "Exposed: A Cheap Peek At Today's Provocative New Rock". It featured a few hits from Loverboy, Judas Priest and Adam & The Ants, but mostly selected album cuts from newer artists back then to the CBS house labels (Columbia, Epic and Portrait) as well as labels which CBS distributed (Nemporor, Stiff and Cleveland International.)

It sold on the counter of your favourite record store for a super cheap list price ($2.98, at a time when many rock acts were making double concept albums with more filler than you can shake a meatloaf recipe at for $15.98.)

It was what they called a "loss-leader", meaning if you liked what you heard on this sampler, you COULD be inclined to buy the full length albums from the artists you liked. But this 2 LP set was a nice way to come home from a fun day at the record shop with a little something extra in the bag to round out an evening of stereo fun.

Another act prominently featured on the set was Ellen Foley. Her name may not instantly ring any particular bells. But if you've ever wondered who that chick was who sang with Meatloaf on his hit "Paradise By The Dashboard Light"....

"STOP RIGHT THERE!".....That was Ellen Foley. But that's NOT Ellen Foley you see in the video. That's Karla DeVito lip-synching Ellen Foley's vocals......

You may also know Ellen Foley as Billie Young from the '80s TV sitcom Night Court. But in the early '80s, she took a stab at a solo music career, recording two albums. One of them, The Spirit Of St. Louis was recorded with The Clash as her backing band. She was going out with Mick Jones at the time, a relationship that didn't work out - he wrote "Should I Stay Or Should I Go" about her.

There are other lost power pop/new wave gems here (The Sorrows, Garland Jefferys), some early country/rock crossovers (Rosanne Cash, Steve Forbert) and others completely lost to time and memory.

It was also popular enough to spawn a sequel album later that year....

Dining Out

Before They Were Stars: Lemmy

Here is a lost rock n' roll gem from Lemmy Kilmister and his early band The Rockin' Vickers from 1966 (LONG before he became the leather lunged lead singer of Motorhead.) 

"Emma Peel" The Allies (1982)

Back in 1982, there was a Seattle rock group called The Allies. They weren't a grunge band by any means, as you can see here, but they were a kickass power pop band that seemed to have a lot of potential.

This song, "Emma Peel" (about the heroine spy in the British TV series The Avengers) became a REALLY popular song locally in the Seattle area, gaining lots of airplay on influential Seattle rock radio station KJET, who's airplay helped get them national exposure.) The video even made it on MTV in it's early years. It's still a catchy tune after all these years



('60s superbabe Diana Rigg as Emma Peel in The Avengers)

Lost '90s Pop Classic: "That's What Love Can Do" Boy Krazy (1991)

Boy Krazy were a girl group, like Bananarama that were also proteges of Stock, Aitken & Waterman, a British pop music production team with a name that sounded more like a law firm.

They produced other hits for Kylie Minogue, Rick Astley, Cathy Dennis, George Michael, Dead Or Alive, Sonia, Samantha Fox and countless others. This song was originally recorded and released in the UK in 1991. A few months before grunge blew up......

What made this record stand out was the time it was finally released in America: 1993. Virtually every other song on the Top 40 chart in 1993 was grunge, alternative rock, hip-hop and R&B.

This song however was a sheer unadulterated and unapologetic throwback to the '80s Brit-pop that Stock, Aitken & Waterman made famous from 1986-1990.

It actually sounded exactly like a song you would have heard on Top 40 radio in 1987. And had the planets aligned then, Boy Krazy would have had at least a platinum album to show for it.

However, it might have been too much too late. While it was a refreshing, ear-candy break from the usually depressing stuff on the American radio in 1993 (4 Non Blondes anyone?), and did score a respectable #18 on the US charts, it didn't last. Boy Krazy did release a follow up single that stiffed at #59, and disbanded a year later......

Halloween Hits: "Tubular Bells" Mike Oldfield (1973)

Who knew Mike Oldfield, a guy who's very name is linked to this Halloween hit is also the same guy behind this catchy Lost Pop Classic (from 1983):

Halloween Hits: "Werewolves Of London" Warren Zevon (1978)

Halloween Hits: "Fire" The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown (1968)

When I was a little kid, this song's opening used to scare the crap out of me.

Long before Insane Clown Posse, before Marilyn Manson, before King Diamond, before Twisted Sister, before Motley Crue.

Before Kiss, before David Bowie and even before Alice Cooper, there was Arthur Brown in 1968. He originated the kabuki makeup look in rock n' roll - LONG before everyone else.

Shaggy 2 Dope and Violent J....Meet your GRANDDADDY!

With the scary makeup and declaration at the beginning of this song, as corny as this song is, it still got banned off many radio stations in the Bible Belt.

Arthur Brown also has the distinction of being the first rock artist to explore fear as a main topic of his albums, also LONG before all the other kabuki-coated imitators that followed him.....

Halloween Hits: "The Beauty Of Poisin" Specimen (1983)

Specimen were an early UK goth rock band. I remember this song from it's airplay on influential early Seattle alternative rock station KJET. But in order to get a copy, I had to special order it. It was only available then as a UK import. (Boy have we come a LONG way!)

Halloween Hits: "Boris The Spider" The Who (1967)

From their 1967 album A Quick One, this song influenced countless death metal bands with Juhn Entwhisle's growl of the song's title in the chorus.

A Quick One was released in the US as Happy Jack.