Drink Hole Saturday Night Concerts - John Prine Live pt. 2

Welcome back to "Ye Olde Drink Hole Amphiteatre"!

We continue our live Americana music primer with part 2 of John Prine's classic 1988 live album titles simply "Live". Like I said last night, I have plenty of rarely heard unreleased gems to present here, this album though is part of what introduced me to a world of extraordinary song-writing and unparalleled story-telling that so many of my heroes have huned to a fine point.

Don't forget to tip you're waitress.

"Mexican Home" one of my all time favorite and seldom-mentioned Prine songs. He says in the liner notes that the inspiration for this song was a house he had with a big porch on it and he realized how important this porch was. It's where you greeted people you like, say goodbye to people and where you spend quality time by yourself with those people. I say it's also where you spend time alone thinking of those people you love. You've heard me do this one too. You ought to hear me sometime when you're drunk...I've made bikers cry...



"The Speed of the Sound of Lonliness" - who keeps time when your lonesome?...



"The Accident (Things Could Be Worse)" - yes things could. This is me from my trip down Route 66 on a detour to John Prine's hometown of Maywood, Illinois to the corner he made famous in this song...


I wish I'da been there when the wreck happened...



"Sam Stone" ahhhh the real tragic story. This may be the first song I ever heard by Prine. I didn't know who he was and heard it on some TV show. I didn't even know the whole song, but I walked around singing about "the hole in Daddy's arm where all the money goes" for months...



"Souvenirs" - joined here by his old friend Steve Goodman. "Broken hearts and dirty windows, make life difficult to see". They sure do John...



"Aw Heck" some early work by this minor poet...



"Donald & Lydia" a real-world love story...



"That's the Way That the World Goes 'Round" and a great story in the middle about folks misinterpreting lyrics. When you see John in concert, it's a pre-requisite to sing the words the way this lady heard 'em first...



"Hello in There" is a song that Prine should NOT have been smart enough to be able to write at the turn of his 20's. But he did. And that's why I love his stuff sooooo much...



I hope you heard some old favorites, but mostly I hope it was all new to you and you are now a Prime Prine Devotee.

Remember as I said yesterday, I just hope to give folks a listen here, the songs are not available for download. John Prine is a working artist and deserves you monetary vote. Visit his website to glom on to all things Prine, you'll be glad you did!

Talk to you soon!

Saturday Serials - Captain Marvel and the "Monster Society of Evil" - part 3

Here it is kiddies! Chapter 3 of the exciting thrill-a-minute serialized adventure story, "Captain Marvel and the Monster Society of Evil"!

Get your favorite bowl of cereal and enjoy this serial!! From "Captain Marvel Adventures" #24 wayyyyyyy back in 1943 via the magic of time-traveling blog magic!

Some of these scans are a little rough, they apparently come from micro-fische. But ya gotta admit, THEY'RE STILL COOL!

Talk to you soon!

Drink Hole Friday Night Concerts - John Prine Live pt. 1

I like music.

I like LIVE music.

One of the reasons I like the music that I like is that it CAN be played LIVE. No funky studio tricks and sounds...usually just 3 chords and the truth is all it takes to crank my chain.

I've recently found a bejanger-load of some of my favorites in natural live settings, telling their stories and singing their songs, and I thought I'd share some via my blog. More to come on my recent hard-to-get appropriations in weeks to come, for now a primer.

The primer involves you sitting back and listening with me to some of the finest musical story-tellers of our day.

Here in "The Drink Hole Amphitheatre" tonight we feature the first half of Jon Prine's 1988 "Live" album. This is currently available for purchase from Prine's own "Oh Boy" label, on iTunes, through Amazon and the rest. If you like what you hear, I encourage you to BUY, BUY, BUY this album. Downloads are not available here or through me, I'm just here to share the sounds and stories.

Like Susanna Clark once said about this music. There's no big billion dollar record machine pushing this stuff and you won't hear it permeating every mall you go to. This music gets sold (and always has) with one simple "you gotta hear this" at a time.

This album is a classic, and like they say over at Prine-fandom..."Whatever you're in to, get in to Prine."

Oh, and don't think this will stop my periodic caterwauling on my guitar here. It'll probably just encourage me!

Enjoy!

"Come Back to Us Barbara Lewis Hare Krishna Beauregard" I wish she'd come home too.



"Six O'Clock News" Prine wrote this because of an idea he had to write a song so sad it was pretty.



"The Oldest Baby in The World" You heard me sing this here in honor of "Rusty". The story he tells is one of his most memorable and a perfect example of what he does. Pay attention...there MAY be a quiz someday. But I doubt it.



"Angel from Montgomery" with the great Bonnie Raitt. You're heard me recently butcher this one too.



"Grandpa Was A Carpenter" a late night remembrance of his grandfather. He just had to rearrange the lines so they would rhyme.



"Blue Umbrella" one of my early favorites of Prine. So simple and so melodic.



"Fish and Whistle" what you get from watching too many "Andy Griffith Show" reruns. As if there were really too many of those!



"Sabu Visits the Twin Cities Alone" again, the story he tells here says it all.



"Living in the Future" another you've heard me hammer out...maybe it makes more sense when Prine sings it...maybe not.



"Illegal Smile" - yup I did this one too. Here you hear what a great sing-along it really is!



Back with part 2 tomorrow night. You'll be humming these next week, I promise you.

Talk to you soon!

Audio Friday Morning - Vic & Sade and The Blue Beetle

Yes, it's time to smile again...

I decided to not call this weekly feature "Audiophile Friday" because I note that folks doing searches for "Audiophile" are coming in...and that's a whole different thing altogether. My Oldtime Radio celebrations are just plain "stuff to listen to and have fun".

As I mentioned last week, I have been a rabid fan of the "Vic & Sade" radio show for some time now. I think I first discovered it on usenet newsgroups and found it to be a wonderful unknown surprise and have been grabbing as many shows as I could ever since. I've downloaded them from newsgroups, bought OTR CD's of shows and so on...but I recently found a very dedicated web site to the show which I find invaluable.

Vic and Sade dot net.

When I first came across this gem, there was diddly on the interwebs about this wonderful product of the mind of Paul Rhymer. Zip. Bupkis!

The great folks behind this website and it's sister sites however have amassed just about EVERYTHING there is to know about this show...

Including downloads of what looks like, every existing episode.

You see, that's the sad part about this classic show. It aired from 1932 to 1944, Monday-Friday (and originally on Saturday as well). There were an estimated 3500 episodes of pure gold that spewed from Rhymers typewriter and from the actors. If there was ever the definition of the phrase "Treasure Trove" THAT was IT!

But the brain trust at Proctor & Gamble (the shows sponsor) at one time decided they needed some extra space around the house, and all those 3500 transcription discs of Vic & Sade were just collecting dust. So they were burned.

I'll give you a minute to digest that.

They needed more room to house executives so they could produce draw out spreadsheets and more efficiently bottle/can/package more Ivory Soap and cans of Crisco so these discs of pure creativity had to be burned.

Did I mention they burned them???

I thought so.

A great number of Rhymers scripts are housed away in Wisconsin somewhere and that lessens the sting, but they interpretations of this small group of actors is mostly lost.

Except for about 260 episodes. And they seem to all be housed at the website mentioned above.

That means only about 3240 of the shows are lost.

You see...they were BURNED!

sigh!

Enough sad talk about the glories denied us by short sighted guys in suits, lets enjoy some "Vic & Sade".

In part of this blogs endeavors to take some bandwidth away from all things Lohan/Hilton/TMZ, I'd like to stream every dang existing "Vic & Sade" here. Not to overly analyze the goings on in the Gook house or pick apart Rhymers art and wit, but because I was going to do this anyway and the blog is about what's in my head now isn't it?

Please listen along with me...even if you're not sure of the humor from the git go, trust me, it'll sneak up behind you and smack you on the behind before you know it.

This show is a lesson in the sublime. It is about the minutea of everyday life and the comedy that comes when we make it the grandiose in our own lives.

Enjoy!

As I said, the show premiered in 1932, but it seems the earliest recordings available are from 1937. Some of the audio is rough (the third show featured today is an example) but well worth forging through. Remember, the original discs were burned, and all of these shows only exist to us because of home recordings or station checks from the day...and in the age before digital...age was not their friend.

Our first show comes from May 28, 1937 and features a different side of Vic. An intelligent-beyond-his-station man who usually finds the humor in any situation and states it in a uniquely over-dramatic-verbose way, there is one thing for which he holds in high regard and above ridicule. The man LOVES pomp and circumstance. Formal rituals are his creed. From the ceremonies and practices of his lodge to his passion for parades of any kind. Here we see his concern for how the town will ever get their "Decoration Day" Parade off the ground if he's not there to supervise.



A true study in personalities, and told in a deliciously dry and hilarious way.

This next show for today comes from June 4, 1937. This time Sade is the poor put upon. She's been invited on a road trip from their sleep little unnamed town to Dwight, Ill. (I shall tell you a horror story about Dwight one day when I regale you all with the tale of my trip down Route 66)
Sade is so lost in her world of being a housewife and mother, simple geography is like Latin to her.



Sheer genius the was Rhymer was able to write the character of my Mother, 30 years before I ever met her.

This next episode is the hardest to listen to because of noise, but is well worth the effort. Another examples of Sades disinterest with the doings of the outside world. Her world has everything she loves and holds important in it...who could be bothers with Congress and the Supreme Court and so on?



Miss ya Mom. I still have your memory and Sade to mirror you.

For those who want more OTR excitement, for those who are still letting "Vic & Sade" grow on you and for those who just have 29 minutes to kill...here's an episode of "The Blue Beetle" radio show!

No, not the young upstart Jaime Reyes, nor the now nostalgic Ted Kord, but the original blue Beetle, Dan Garret!

Fitting that he should have been given his own radio show spin-off from his comic book adventures in "Mystery-Men Comics" since the name was basically a rip off of radio's own "The Green Hornet" and his radio show is pretty hard hitting. Take a listen to this origin story and first radio adventure ever as Dan Garret goes after a "dope" ring.

High adventure fun stuff from the 1940's!

Happy listening!!

Talk to you soon.

Turf Log - Stan Lee Is As Big A Shmuck As Me! There I Said It!

Well...I got my issues all straightened out with Joe Simon...

...but I'm still frustrated with Stan "The Man" Lee!

They say you always hate in other people, those things you dislike in yourself.

Sigh!

Talk to you soon!

Joe Simon In Alive and Well - And I Need A Fact Checker!

Joe Simon, legendary comic book scribe and artist, was born on October 11, 1913. Alongside his longtime partner Jack Kirby, Simon created such legendary characters as Captain America, The Guardian, The Fighting American, The Shield, The Young Allies, The Newsboy Legion and The Boy Commandos, updated the likes of The Sandman and The Manhunter, worked in other genres including crime, horror and humor and even invented the very notion of romance comics. They were the first creative team in comic books to be credited on the front cover AND they had an amazing run, putting out some of the most dynamic and creative comics done for two decades!


AND he's alive and well!

I made a remark in yesterdays blog that Joe Simon and Jack Kirby had traipsed off this mortal coil. NOT so, and I apologize for misleading anyone.

To find more in-depth coverage of Joe Simon's career, check here.

To visit the official website for Joe covering what projects are happening and to purchase a couple of books about his career, click here.

I will spend the day NOT dwelling on the smarminess of Stan Lee...but rather rejoicing and revelling in the great work of Joe Simon.

Join me, won't you?

From Captain America #1 in 1940...

"The Newsboy Legion" featuring "The Guardian" from Star-Spangled Comics #10...

From Detective Comics #64, "The Boy Commandoes"...

And with the popularity of "The Boy Commandos" appearing in both Detective Comics AND World's Finest Comics, they spun off into their very own title. From Boy Commandos #1 here's a cool story that even features cameos by "The Newsboy Legion" and "Sandman"...

Loads of reading enjoyment for you. Have fun seeking out and finding more work from the great team of Simon and Kirby!

Happy early birthday in October Joe...here's to 97 more years!!!!

Talk to you soon!