Podcasts about American International Pictures

Este es un extracto del programa 4x07 Edgar Alla Poe (Biografía, Adaptaciones y La caída de la Casa Usher). Debido a su duración os ofrecemos la posibilidad de escuchar cada uno de sus tres bloques por separado y en este, encontrarás el segundo donde repasamos las adaptaciones que llevaron a cabo tanto Roger Corman en su ciclo para la American International Pictures con Vincent Price, y las de Chicho Ibáñez Serrador principalmente para Historias para no dormir. Para escuchar el programa principal: https://go.ivoox.com/rf/134293771 Y el resto de los bloques: - 1 de 3, Biografía: https://go.ivoox.com/rf/134293846 - 3 de 3, La caída de la casa Usher: https://go.ivoox.com/rf/134388977

Count Yorga, Vampire (1970) AIP Production #7015 Jeff and Cheryl devise better ways to dispatch a modern-day bloodsucker in Count Yorga, Vampire. Written and directed by Bob Kelljan Produced by Michael Macready for Erica Productions, Inc. Starring: Robert Quarry as Count Yorga Roger Perry as Dr. Jim Hayes Michael Murphy as Paul Michael Macready as Mike Thompson Donna Anders as Donna Judith Lang as Erica Landers Edward Walsh as Brudah Julie Conners as Cleo Paul Hansen as Peter Sybil Scotford as Judy Marsha Jordan as Donna's mother and George Macready as the Narrator Produced for Erica Productions and released by American International Pictures. Stream Count Yorga, Vampire on Pluto or the Roku Channel or rent on Prime Video or Fandango at Home. Visit our website - https://aippod.com/ and follow the American International Podcast on Letterboxd, Instagram and Threads @aip_pod and on Facebook at facebook.com/AmericanInternationalPodcast  View the Count Yorga, Vampire trailer here. Our open and close includes clips from the following films/trailers: How to Make a Monster (1958), The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962), I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957), High School Hellcats (1958), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), The Wild Angels (1966), It Conquered the World (1956), The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971), and Female Jungle (1955)

The Wild Party (1975) AIP Production #7501 Jeff and Cheryl decide whether to accept their invitations to The Wild Party. Directed by James Ivory Screenplay by Walter Marks Based in part on “The Wild Party”, the 1928 narrative poem by Joseph Moncure March Produced by Ismail Merchant for American International Pictures Starring: James Coco as Jolly Grimm Raquel Welch as Queenie Perry King as Dale Sword David Dukes as James Morrison Tiffany Bolling as Kate Marya Small as Bertha Royal Dano as Tex Annette Ferra as Nadine Jones Eddie Lawrence as Kreutzer Bobo Lewis as Wilma Don De Natale as Jackie Dena Dietrich as Mrs. Murchison Regis Cordi as AJ Murchison Jennifer Lee Pryor as Madeline True Baruch Lumet as the Tailor Fred Franklyn as Sam the Mogul J.S. Johnson as Morris the Mogul Tom Reese as Eddy, the Stuntman Geraldine Baron as Grace Jones Michael Grant Hall as Oscar D'Armano Skipper as Phillip D'Armano Ralph Manza as Fruit Dealer Martin Kove as the Editor Paul Barresi as the Bartender Produced and released by American International Pictures. Rent The Wild Party on Fandango at Home.Visit our website - https://aippod.com/ and follow the American International Podcast on Letterboxd, Instagram and Threads @aip_pod and on Facebook at facebook.com/AmericanInternationalPodcast View The Wild Party trailer here. Our open and close includes clips from the following films/trailers: How to Make a Monster (1958), The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962), I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957), High School Hellcats (1958), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), The Wild Angels (1966), It Conquered the World (1956), The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971), and Female Jungle (1955)

This week we have a look at the 1961 horror film The Pit and the Pendulum.  This is Episode #441! The Pit and the Pendulum is a 1961 horror film directed by Roger Corman, starring Vincent Price, Barbara Steele, John Kerr, and Luana Anders. The screenplay by Richard Matheson was loosely inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's 1842 short story of the same name. Set in sixteenth-century Spain, the story is about a young Englishman who visits a foreboding castle to investigate his sister's mysterious death. After a series of horrific revelations, apparently ghostly appearances and violent deaths, the young man becomes strapped to the titular torture device by his lunatic brother-in-law during the film's climactic sequence.The film was the second title in the popular series of Poe adaptations released by American International Pictures, the first having been Corman's House of Usher released the previous year. Like House, the film features widescreen cinematography by Floyd Crosby, sets designed by art director Daniel Haller, and a film score composed by Les Baxter. A critical and box-office hit, Pit's success convinced AIP and Corman to continue adapting Poe stories for another six films, five of them starring Price. The series ended in 1964 with the release of The Tomb of Ligeia.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/castle-of-horror-podcast--4268760/support.

I have been wanting to do an episode on American International Pictures' beach party series… The post Eros + Massacre Episode 6: Beach Party Bonanza with Keith Allison appeared first on Cinepunx.

Boston Globe movie critic ODIE HENDERSON joins us to talk about his new book, BLACK CAESARS AND FOXY CLEOPATRAS: A HISTORY OF BLAXPLOITATION. For this, Odie has programmed two equally stony but very different examples of the film movement that further funkified the 1970s. First, Shakespearean actor William Marshall brings dignity and pathos to the title character of the horror classic, BLACULA from American International Pictures in 1972. (Where would this podcast be without AIP???) We debate how to pronounce the name of BLACULA costar Thalmus Rasulala and Odie explains why Count Dracula is a redneck. Blaxploitation musical interludes, cool Los Angeles locations, and just how scary this classical horror movie really is are also discussed at length. Then Odie chooses the strangest and trippiest Blaxploitation movie of all time for our B-feature with DARKTOWN STRUTTERS (1975), and yes, Bob concedes that it's even weirder than HUMAN TORNADO!!! Which means is pretty f--in weird, stoners. You will want to be high AF for this sci-fi, funk, disco, biker-babe slapstick comedy all mixed together with subversive social satire. It melted all of our minds so bad that we don't even know what movies are going to be in our next episode! The ancestors were definitely telling the filmmakers how much spice to put into this one, and it was a lot. We went long for this episode so it violates our unwritten rule that no episode of OMFYS should be longer than a b-movie, but Odie has a lot to say and all of it was terrific and deep. What do you cut out? NOTHING! In our extended opening segment, Odie explains his personal connection to Blaxploitation and recalls trips to the grind houses of New York's 42nd Street (the Deuce) during his childhood. We also got a great fan letter from Larry Clow and Cory and Odie give him awesome ideas of things to do during his upcoming trip to Los Angeles. Thank you writing to us Larry! Hosts: Bob Calhoun, Cory Sklar Greg Franklin and Philena Franklin are on assignment Guest: Odie Henderson Get your SIGNED copy of his book, "Black Caesars and Foxy Cleopatras" at Matt Zoller Seitz's bookstore. It's ON SALE!!! https://mzs.press/SIGNED-Black-Caesars-and-Foxy-Cleopatras-Hardcover-NEW-p618328058 OMFYS theme by Chaki the Funk Wizard used with permission "Groove Tube" by Audio Hertz courtesy of YouTube Audio Library Trailer audio courtesy of Archive dot org BREAKING: Ngaio Bealum and Ajax Green will be joining us for our next episode. Movies TBD. Web: www.oldmoviesforyoungstoners.com Instagram/Facebook (Meta): oldmoviesforyoungstoners Bluesky: @oldmoviesystoners.bsky.social Twitter (X): @OM4YStoners Contact: oldmoviesforyoungstoners AT gmail DOT com

Patreon Spirder-Dan is never one for the obvious pick, and this time he's gone for the 1972 comedy sci-fi cult-classic The Thing With Two Heads. Checkout some of Dan's fantastic content on https://www.spiderdanandthesecretbores.com. Directed by Lee Frost, the film was produced by American International Pictures, known for its exploitation films. The story follows a racist, dying doctor, played by Ray Milland, who transplants his head onto the body of a Black death row inmate, portrayed by former NFL star Rosey Grier. The premise combined elements of social commentary with campy horror, aiming to attract audiences with its bizarre and provocative concept. The film's low budget necessitated creative solutions for the special effects, particularly the depiction of the two-headed character, which was achieved using practical effects, makeup, and clever camera angles to create the illusion of a shared body. Filming took place primarily in Los Angeles, utilizing local locations and sound stages to manage costs effectively. The production schedule was tight, and the cast and crew had to work quickly to complete the project within budget constraints. Despite these challenges, the actors embraced the film's outrageous premise, with Milland and Grier delivering performances that balanced the film's campy tone with moments of genuine humor and tension. If you enjoy the show we have a Patreon, so become a supporter. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.patreon.com/thevhsstrikesback⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Plot Summary: Dr. Maxwell Kirshner is a racist surgeon who, facing terminal illness, transplants his head onto the body of a black death row inmate, Jack Moss. The unlikely duo must navigate their new shared existence, with Kirshner trying to maintain control and Moss seeking freedom. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠thevhsstrikesback@gmail.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/vhsstrikesback⁠ --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thevhsstrikesback/support

This week we have a look at the horror film The Undead.  This is Episode #437!The Undead is a 1957 horror film directed by Roger Corman and starring Pamela Duncan, Allison Hayes, Richard Garland and Val Dufour. It also features Corman regulars Richard Devon, Dick Miller, Mel Welles and Bruno VeSota. The authors' original working title was The Trance of Diana Love. The film follows the story of a prostitute, Diana Love (Duncan), who is put into a hypnotic trance by psychic Quintus (Dufour), thus causing her to regress to a previous life. Hayes later starred in Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (1958). The film was released on February 14, 1957 by American International Pictures as a double feature with Voodoo Woman.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/castle-of-horror-podcast--4268760/support.

This week we have a look at the horror film The Haunted Palace.  This is Episode #436!The Haunted Palace is a 1963 horror film released by American International Pictures, starring Vincent Price, Lon Chaney Jr. and Debra Paget (in her final film), in a story about a village held in the grip of a dead necromancer. The film was directed by Roger Corman and is one of his series of eight films largely based on the works of American author Edgar Allan Poe.Although marketed as "Edgar Allan Poe's The Haunted Palace", the film actually derives its plot from The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, a novella by H. P. Lovecraft. The film's title is derived from a 6-stanza poem by Poe, published in 1839 (which was later incorporated into Poe's horror short story "The Fall of the House of Usher"), and the film uses eight lines from the poem within the framing of the story.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/castle-of-horror-podcast--4268760/support.

Kidnapped (1971)AIP Production #7138 Jeff and Cheryl draw their swords for an adventure in the Scottish Highlands in Kidnapped. Directed by Delbert MannScreenplay by Jack Pulman Based on "Kidnapped" and "Catriona" (aka David Balfour) by Robert Louis Stevenson Produced by Frederick Brogger for Omnibus Productions Starring: Michael Caine as Alan Breck Lawrence Douglas as David Balfour Vivien Heilbron as Catriona Stewart Trevor Howard as Lord Advocate Grant Jack Hawkins as Captain Hoseason Donald Pleasence as Ebenezer Balfour Gordon Jackson as Charles Stewart Freddie Jones as Cluny MacPherson Jack Watson as James Stewart Peter Jeffrey as Mr. Riach Roger Booth as the Duke of Cumberland Geoffrey Whitehead as Lieutenant Duncansby Andrew McCulloch as Andrew (Charles Stewart's clerk) Claire Nielson as Barbara Grant John Hughes as Simon Campbell Terry Richards as Mungo Campbell An Omnibus Production distributed by American International Pictures. You can rent Kidnapped on Prime Video. Visit our website - https://aippod.com/ and follow the American International Podcast on Letterboxd, Instagram and Threads @aip_pod and on Facebook at facebook.com/AmericanInternationalPodcast. Our open and close includes clips from the following films/trailers: How to Make a Monster (1958), The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962), I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957), High School Hellcats (1958), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), The Wild Angels (1966), It Conquered the World (1956), The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971), and Female Jungle (1955).

At the Earth's Core (1976) AIP Production #7605 Jeff and Cheryl are mesmerized by dinosaur-bird creatures with psychic powers and an appetite for human flesh in At the Earth's Core.  Directed by Kevin Connor  Screenplay by Milton Subotsky  Based on ‘At the Earth's Core' by Edgar Rice Burroughs  Produced by John Dark, Max Rosenberg, and Milton Subotsky for Amicus Productions  Starring:  Doug McClure as David Innes  Peter Cushing as Dr. Abner Perry  Caroline Munro as Princess Dia Cy Grant as Ra  Godfrey James as Ghak the Elder slave   Sean Lynch as Hoojah the Sly One  Keith Barron as Dowsett  Helen Gill as Maisie  Anthony Verner as Gadsby  Robert Gillespie as Photographer  Michael Crane as Jubal the Ugly One  Bobby Parr as Sagoth Chief  Andee Cromarty as Girl Slave  An Amicus Productions film distributed by American International Pictures. You can stream At the Earth's Core on Tubi or the Roku channel or rent on Prime Video, Vudu, or Apple TV+.  Visit our website - https://aippod.com/ and follow the American International Podcast on Letterboxd, Instagram and Threads @aip_pod and on Facebook at facebook.com/AmericanInternationalPodcast.  View the At the Earth's Core trailer here. Our open and close includes clips from the following films/trailers: How to Make a Monster (1958), The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962), I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957), High School Hellcats (1958), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), The Wild Angels (1966), It Conquered the World (1956), The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971), and Female Jungle (1955).

Reptilicus (1961) AIP Production #6013 Jeff and Cheryl dodge clumsy dragon puppets and green slime while watching Reptilicus. Directed by Sidney W. Pink Written by Ib Melchior and Sidney W. Pink Starring: Carl Ottosen as General Mark Grayson Ann Smyrner as Lise Martens Mimi Heinrich as Karen Martens Asbjørn Andersen as Professor Otto Martens Marla Behrens as Connie Miller Bent Mejding as Svend Viltorft Povl Wøldike as Dr. Peter Dalby Dirch Passer as Peterson Ole Wisborg as Captain Brandt Mogens Brandt as Police Chief Hassing Kjeld Petersen as Police Officer Olsen Alfred Wilken as Commander Vanggaard Poul Thomsen as Captain Naval Claus Toksvig as himself Birthe Wilke as herself Alex Suhr as Alex Bent Vejlby as Brandt's Driver Børge Møller Grimstrup as Farmer Dirk Melchior as Farmer Eaten by Reptilicus A Saga Studios/AIP Production distributed by American International Pictures. Stream Reptilicus onHoopla or Roku TV, or rent on Vudu. Visit our website - https://aippod.com/ and follow the American International Podcast on Letterboxd, Instagram and Threads @aip_pod and on Facebook at facebook.com/AmericanInternationalPodcast. View the Reptilicus trailer here. Our open and close includes clips from the following films/trailers: How to Make a Monster (1958), The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962), I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957), High School Hellcats (1958), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), The Wild Angels (1966), It Conquered the World (1956), The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971), and Female Jungle (1955).

Hell Squad (1958) AIP Production #310 Jeff and Cheryl enlist in a difficult trek across a familiar desert as part of the Hell Squad.  Written, Directed and Produced by Burt Topper for Rhonda Productions. Starring: Wally Campo as Private Russo Brandon Carroll as Lt. Max Schlechter Fred Gavlin as Sergeant Clemens Gregg Stewart as Private Nelson Leon Schrier as Private Roth Cecil Addis as Private Lippy Jack B. Sowards as German soldier in American uniform Don Chambers as US HQ Captain Larry Shuttleworth as Sergeant Collins Ben Bigelow as HQ Radioman Calvin and Gordon Edwards as Rescue Radioman Private Manson A Rhonda Production distributed by American International Pictures. Stream Hell Squad on Freevie TV, Roku TV, or Tubi. Visit our website - https://aippod.com/ and follow the American International Podcast on Letterboxd, Instagram and Threads @aip_pod and on Facebook at facebook.com/AmericanInternationalPodcast. Our open and close includes clips from the following films/trailers: How to Make a Monster (1958), The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962), I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957), High School Hellcats (1958), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), The Wild Angels (1966), It Conquered the World (1956), The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971), and Female Jungle (1955).

Friday Foster (1975)AIP Production #7519 Jeff and Cheryl enjoy cats, dogs, horses, men, and Friday Foster - not necessarily in that order.Directed by Arthur Marks Screenplay by Orville Hampton Story by Arthur Marks Based on the 1970-1974 comic strip “Friday Foster” by Jim Lawrence and Jorge Longarón and Dick Giordano Produced by Arthur Marks Starring:Pam Grier as Friday Foster Yaphet Kotto as Colt Hawkins Godfrey Cambridge as Ford MalotteThalmus Rasulala as Blake Tarr Eartha Kitt as Madame Rena Jim Backus as Enos Griffith Scatman Crothers as Reverend Noble Franklin Ted Lange as Fancy Dexter Tierre Turner as Cleve Paul Benjamin as Senator David Lee Hart Jason Bernard as Charles Foley Edmund Cambridge as Lieutenant Jake Wayne Julius Harris as "Monk" Riley Rosalind Miles as Cloris Boston Carl Weathers as Yarbro John Anthony Bailey as Cop #1 and Mel Carter as Gate Guard A General Films production distributed by American International Pictures. Stream Friday Foster on Freebie TV, Pluto TV, or Tubi, or rent from Prime Video, Vudu, or Apple TV+.View the Friday Foster trailer here.Follow the American International Podcast on Letterboxd, Instagram and Threads @aip_pod and on Facebook at facebook.com/AmericanInternationalPodcast. View the Friday Foster trailer at https://youtu.be/J4Cza-3Yx1kOur open and close includes clips from the following films/trailers: How to Make a Monster (1958), The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962), I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957), High School Hellcats (1958), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), The Wild Angels (1966), It Conquered the World (1956), The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971), and Female Jungle (1955).

Samson and the Slave Queen (1963) AIP Production #6329 Jeff and Cheryl put masks on over their masks and prepare for a game of “who's got the scroll” in Samson and the Slave Queen. Directed by Umberto Lenzi Screenplay by Umberto Lenzi and Guido Malatesta Produced by Fortunato Misiano for Romana Film as Zorro Contro Maciste and distributed by American International Pictures  Starring:  Alan Steel as Samson Pierre Brice as Ramon/El Toro Moira Orfei as Malva Maria Grazia Spina as Isabella Andrea Aureli as Rabek Massimo Serato as Garcia de Higuera Andrea Scotti as Pedro Aldo Bufi Landi as Deikor Ignazio Balsamo as Joaquim Attilio Dottesio as General Saveria Loris Gizzi as Don Alvarez Rosy De Leo as Carmencita Nello Pazzafini as Rabek's Henchman Nazzareno Zamperla as Sadoch A Romana Films production distributed by American International Pictures. Stream Samson and the Slave Queen - if you can find it on VHS, DVD or online. Follow the American International Podcast on Letterboxd, Instagram and Threads @aip_pod and on Facebook at facebook.com/AmericanInternationalPodcast. View the Samson and the Slave Queen trailer here.Our open and close includes clips from the following films/trailers: How to Make a Monster (1958), The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962), I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957), High School Hellcats (1958), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), The Wild Angels (1966), It Conquered the World (1956), The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971), and Female Jungle (1955).

Operation Bikini (1963)AIP Production #6315 Jeff and Cheryl suit up for an underwater adventure in Operation Bikini.Directed by Anthony CarrasWritten by John TomerlinProduced by Lou Rusoff and James H. Nicholson with Samuel Z. Arkoff Starring:Tab Hunter as Lieutenant Morgan Hayes Frankie Avalon as Seaman Joseph Malzone Scott Brady as Captain Emmett Carey Jim Backus as First Mate Ed Fennelly Gary Crosby as Seaman Floyd Givens Michael Dante as Lieutenant William Fourtney Jody McCrea as Seaman William Sherman Eva Six as Reiko Aki Aleong as Seaman Ronald Davayo David Landfield as Lieutenant Cale Richard Bakalyan as Seaman Hiller Joe Finnegan as Seaman Morris Vernon Scott as Seaman Fowler Raymond Guth as Seaman Rich Tony Scott as Chief Petty Officer Perez Steve Mitchell as Seaman Nolan Mickey McDermott as Seaman Fairly Wayne Winton as Seaman Patterson Duane Ament as Seaman Kingsley Jody Daniels as Seaman Jones Marc Cavell as Paul Raynum K. Tsukamoto as Kawai Lan Nam Tuttle as Mika Alicia Li as Native Girl #3 Nancy Dusina as Roxanne, Dream Girl Back Home and Judy Lewis as Dream Siren Produced by Alta Vista Productions and American International Pictures. Stream Operation Bikini on YouTube.Follow the American International Podcast on Letterboxd, Instagram and Threads @aip_pod and on Facebook at facebook.com/AmericanInternationalPodcast. Our open and close includes clips from the following films/trailers: How to Make a Monster (1958), The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962), I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957), High School Hellcats (1958), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), The Wild Angels (1966), It Conquered the World (1956), The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971), and Female Jungle (1955) 

Carry On Doctor (1967/1972) AIP Production #7221/7228 Jeff and Cheryl sit in the waiting room watching the medical staff and wacky patients of Carry On Doctor. Directed by Gerald Thomas Written by Talbot Rothwell Produced by Peter Rogers for The Rank Organisation Starring: Frankie Howerd as Francis Kitchener BiggerKenneth Williams as Doctor Kenneth TinkleSid James as Charlie RoperCharles Hawtrey as Mr BarronJim Dale as Doctor Jim KilmoreHattie Jacques as Lavinia, the MatronPeter Butterworth as Mr SmithBernard Bresslaw as Ken BiddleBarbara Windsor as Nurse Sandra MayJoan Sims as Chloe GibsonAnita Harris as Nurse ClarkeJune Jago as Sister HoggettDerek Francis as Sir Edmund BurkeDandy Nichols as Mrs. RoperPeter Jones as ChaplainDeryck Guyler as Surgeon HardcastleGwendolyn Watts as Mrs Mildred BarronDilys Laye as Mavis WinklePeter Gilmore as HenryHarry Locke as Sam Produced by The Rank Organisation and distributed by American International Pictures. Rent Carry On Doctor on Prime Video.Follow the American International Podcast on Letterboxd, Instagram and Threads @aip_pod and on Facebook at facebook.com/AmericanInternationalPodcast. Our open and close includes clips from the following films/trailers: How to Make a Monster (1958), The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962), I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957), High School Hellcats (1958), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), The Wild Angels (1966), It Conquered the World (1956), The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971), and Female Jungle (1955)

Savage Sisters (1974)Jeff and Cheryl plan a revolution for the low, low price of $1,000,000 in Savage Sisters.Directed by Eddie Romero Written by H. Franco Moon and Harry Corner Produced by John Ashley, Eddie Romero and David Cohen for Cinema Projects International, Hemisphere Pictures, and AIP Starring:Gloria Hendry as Lynn JacksonCheri Caffaro as Jo TurnerRosanna Oritz as Mei LingJohn Ashley as W. P. BillingsleySid Haig as MalavasiEddie Garcia as Captain MoralesVic Díaz as "One-Eye"Rita Gomez as MatronOrtega Leopoldo Salcedo as General BalthazarDindo Fernando as ErnestoAngelo Ventura as PunjabRomeo Rivera as RaulAlfonso Carvajal as RuizRobert Rivera as RoccoSubas Herrero as VictorMax Rojo as Hawkand Johnny Long as Jackal Produced by Cinema Projects International and Hemisphere Pictures, and distributed by American International Pictures. Stream Savage Sisters on Tubi.Follow the American International Podcast on Letterboxd, Instagram and Threads @aip_pod and on Facebook at facebook.com/AmericanInternationalPodcast.View the Savage Sisters trailer here. Our open and close includes clips from the following films/trailers: How to Make a Monster (1958), The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962), I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957), High School Hellcats (1958), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), The Wild Angels (1966), It Conquered the World (1956), The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971), and Female Jungle (1955).

The Astounding She-Monster (1957)AIP Production #220 Jeff and Cheryl do their best not to anger the murderous emissary of peace from another planet in The Astounding She-Monster. Directed by Ronnie Ashcroft Screenplay by Frank Hall Story by Frank Hall and Ronnie Ashcroft Produced by Ronnie Ashcroft Starring: Robert Clarke as Dick Cutler Kenne Duncan as Nat Burdell Marilyn Harvey as Margaret Chaffee Jeanne Tatum as Esther Malone Shirley Kilpatrick as The She-Monster Ewing Brown as Brad Conley Al Avalon as Radio Newscaster (uncredited)Scott Douglas as Narrator (uncredited)and Egan the Collie as himself Produced by Hollywood International Pictures and distributed by American International Pictures. Stream The Astounding She-Monster on Freevee or Tubi, or rent it on Prime Video.Follow the American International Podcast on Letterboxd, Instagram and Threads @aip_pod and on Facebook at facebook.com/AmericanInternationalPodcast.View the Astounding She-Monster trailer here.Our open and close includes clips from the following films/trailers: How to Make a Monster (1958), The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962), I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957), High School Hellcats (1958), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), The Wild Angels (1966), It Conquered the World (1956), The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971), and Female Jungle (1955)

House of 1000 Dolls (1967) AIP Production #6712 Jeff and Cheryl search every brothel in Tangier for the House of 1000 Dolls. Directed by Jeremy Summers Written by Harry Alan Towers (as "Peter Welbeck") Produced by Louis M. ‘Deke' Heyward and Harry Alan Towers Starring: Vincent Price as Felix Manderville Martha Hyer as Rebecca George Nader as Stephen Armstrong Ann Smyrner as Marie Armstrong Wolfgang Kieling as Inspector Emil Sancho Gracia as Fernando Maria Rohm as Diane Luis Rivera as Paul José Jaspe as Ahmed Juan Olaguivel as Salim Herbert Fux as Abdu Yelena Samarina as Madame Viera Diane Bond as Carmen from Rio Andrea Lascelles as Doll and Ursula Janis as another Doll Produced by Constantin Film and American International Pictures. Stream House of 1000 Dolls on YouTube. Follow the American International Podcast on Letterboxd, Instagram and Threads @aip_pod and on Facebook at facebook.com/AmericanInternationalPodcast. View the House of 1000 Dolls trailer here. Our open and close includes clips from the following films/trailers: How to Make a Monster (1958), The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962), I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957), High School Hellcats (1958), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), The Wild Angels (1966), It Conquered the World (1956), The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971), and Female Jungle (1955)

Macon County Line (1974)AIP Production #7409 Jeff and Cheryl get out their atlases and try to figure out where on Earth is this movie's Macon County Line. Directed by Richard Compton Written by Max Baer Jr. and Richard ComptonProduced by Max Baer Jr. and Roger Camras Starring: Alan Vint as Chris DixonJesse Vint as Wayne DixonCheryl Waters as Jenny ScottMax Baer Jr. as Deputy Reed MorganGeoffrey Lewis as HampJoan Blackman as Carol MorganLeif Garrett as Luke MorganJames Gammon as Elisha GibbonsTimothy Scott as Lon HawkinsSam Gilman as Deputy BillDoodles Weaver as AugieEmile Meyer as GurneyProduced by Max Baer Productions, Inc. and distributed by American International Pictures. Stream Macon County Line on Peacock, Pluto, Freevee, Plex, Tubi or Prime Video.Follow the American International Podcast on Letterboxd, Instagram and Threads @aip_pod and on Facebook at facebook.com/AmericanInternationalPodcast.View the Macon County Line trailer here.Our open and close includes clips from the following films/trailers: How to Make a Monster (1958), The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962), I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957), High School Hellcats (1958), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), The Wild Angels (1966), It Conquered the World (1956), The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971), and Female Jungle (1955)

Goliath and the Dragon (1960)AIP Production #6007 Jeff and Cheryl dust off their Greek mythology books to figure out the difference between centaurs and satyrs for Goliath and the Dragon.Directed by Vittorio CottafaviScreenplay by Marcello Baldi, Duccio Tessari, Mario Ferrari, Nicolo Ferrari ,Fabio Carpi, Ennio De Concini, and Franco RossettiStory by Marcello Baldi and Nicolo FerrariProduced by Gianni Fuchs and Achille PiazziProduction companies: Achille PiazziProduzioni Cinematografica Produzione Gianni Guchs and Comptoir Francais du Film Production (CFFP) Starring: Mark Forest – Emilius/GoliathBroderick Crawford – King Eurystheus Sandro Moretti – IllusGaby André – IsmenePhillip Hersent – AntoneosLeonora Ruffo – DejaniraGiancarlo Sbragia – TindaroWandisa Guida – AlcinoeFederica Ranchi – TheaCarla Calò – La Sibilla, the Wind GoddessUgo Sasso – TimoclesClaudio Undari – CentaurGrazia Collodi - Iride, Thea's SlaveSalvatore Furnari – Little Peasant Produced by AIP and Achille Piazzi Produzioni Cinematografica and distributed by American International Pictures. Stream Goliath and the Dragon on Tubi or Prime Video.Follow the American International Podcast on Letterboxd, Instagram and Threads @aip_pod and on Facebook at facebook.com/AmericanInternationalPodcast.View the Goliath and the Dragon trailer here.Our open and close includes clips from the following films/trailers: How to Make a Monster (1958), The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962), I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957), High School Hellcats (1958), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), The Wild Angels (1966), It Conquered the World (1956), The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971), and Female Jungle (1955)

For those who haven't heard the announcement I just posted , songs from this point on will sometimes be split among multiple episodes, so this is the second part of a multi-episode look at the Byrds in 1966-69 and the birth of country rock. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a half-hour bonus episode, on "With a Little Help From My Friends" by Joe Cocker. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ Resources No Mixcloud at this time as there are too many Byrds songs in the first chunk, but I will try to put together a multi-part Mixcloud when all the episodes for this song are up. My main source for the Byrds is Timeless Flight Revisited by Johnny Rogan, I also used Chris Hillman's autobiography, the 331/3 books on The Notorious Byrd Brothers and The Gilded Palace of Sin, I used Barney Hoskyns' Hotel California and John Einarson's Desperadoes as general background on Californian country-rock, Calling Me Hone, Gram Parsons and the Roots of Country Rock by Bob Kealing for information on Parsons, and Requiem For The Timeless Vol 2 by Johnny Rogan for information about the post-Byrds careers of many members. Information on Gary Usher comes from The California Sound by Stephen McParland. And this three-CD set is a reasonable way of getting most of the Byrds' important recordings. The International Submarine Band's only album can be bought from Bandcamp. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript Before we begin, a brief warning – this episode contains brief mentions of suicide, alcoholism, abortion, and heroin addiction, and a brief excerpt of chanting of a Nazi slogan. If you find those subjects upsetting, you may want to read the transcript rather than listen. As we heard in the last part, in October 1967 Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman fired David Crosby from the Byrds. It was only many years later, in a conversation with the group's ex-manager Jim Dickson, that Crosby realised that they didn't actually have a legal right to fire him -- the Byrds had no partnership agreement, and according to Dickson given that the original group had been Crosby, McGuinn, and Gene Clark, it would have been possible for Crosby and McGuinn to fire Hillman, but not for McGuinn and Hillman to fire Crosby. But Crosby was unaware of this at the time, and accepted a pay-off, with which he bought a boat and sailed to Florida, where saw a Canadian singer-songwriter performing live: [Excerpt: Joni Mitchell, "Both Sides Now (live Ann Arbor, MI, 27/10/67)"] We'll find out what happened when David Crosby brought Joni Mitchell back to California in a future story... With Crosby gone, the group had a major problem. They were known for two things -- their jangly twelve-string guitar and their soaring harmonies. They still had the twelve-string, even in their new slimmed-down trio format, but they only had two of their four vocalists -- and while McGuinn had sung lead on most of their hits, the sound of the Byrds' harmony had been defined by Crosby on the high harmonies and Gene Clark's baritone. There was an obvious solution available, of course, and they took it. Gene Clark had quit the Byrds in large part because of his conflicts with David Crosby, and had remained friendly with the others. Clark's solo album had featured Chris Hillman and Michael Clarke, and had been produced by Gary Usher who was now producing the Byrds' records, and it had been a flop and he was at a loose end. After recording the Gene Clark with the Gosdin Brothers album, Clark had started work with Curt Boettcher, a singer-songwriter-producer who had produced hits for Tommy Roe and the Association, and who was currently working with Gary Usher. Boettcher produced two tracks for Clark, but they went unreleased: [Excerpt: Gene Clark, "Only Colombe"] That had been intended as the start of sessions for an album, but Clark had been dropped by Columbia rather than getting to record a second album. He had put together a touring band with guitarist Clarence White, bass player John York, and session drummer "Fast" Eddie Hoh, but hadn't played many gigs, and while he'd been demoing songs for a possible second solo album he didn't have a record deal to use them on. Chisa Records, a label co-owned by Larry Spector, Peter Fonda, and Hugh Masekela, had put out some promo copies of one track, "Yesterday, Am I Right", but hadn't released it properly: [Excerpt: Gene Clark, "Yesterday, Am I Right"] Clark, like the Byrds, had left Dickson and Tickner's management organisation and signed with Larry Spector, and Spector was wanting to make the most of his artists -- and things were very different for the Byrds now. Clark had had three main problems with being in the Byrds -- ego clashes with David Crosby, the stresses of being a pop star with a screaming teenage fanbase, and his fear of flying. Clark had really wanted to have the same kind of role in the Byrds that Brian Wilson had with the Beach Boys -- appear on the records, write songs, do TV appearances, maybe play local club gigs, but not go on tour playing to screaming fans. But now David Crosby was out of the group and there were no screaming fans any more -- the Byrds weren't having the kind of pop hits they'd had a few years earlier and were now playing to the hippie audience. Clark promised that with everything else being different, he could cope with the idea of flying -- if necessary he'd just take tranquilisers or get so drunk he passed out. So Gene Clark rejoined the Byrds. According to some sources he sang on their next single, "Goin' Back," though I don't hear his voice in the mix: [Excerpt: The Byrds, "Goin' Back"] According to McGuinn, Clark was also an uncredited co-writer on one song on the album they were recording, "Get to You". But before sessions had gone very far, the group went on tour. They appeared on the Smothers Brothers TV show, miming their new single and "Mr. Spaceman", and Clark seemed in good spirits, but on the tour of the Midwest that followed, according to their road manager of the time, Clark was terrified, singing flat and playing badly, and his guitar and vocal mic were left out of the mix. And then it came time to get on a plane, and Clark's old fears came back, and he refused to fly from Minneapolis to New York with the rest of the group, instead getting a train back to LA. And that was the end of Clark's second stint in the Byrds. For the moment, the Byrds decided they were going to continue as a trio on stage and a duo in the studio -- though Michael Clarke did make an occasional return to the sessions as they progressed. But of course, McGuinn and Hillman couldn't record an album entirely by themselves. They did have several tracks in a semi-completed state still featuring Crosby, but they needed people to fill his vocal and instrumental roles on the remaining tracks. For the vocals, Usher brought in his friend and collaborator Curt Boettcher, with whom he was also working at the time in a band called Sagittarius: [Excerpt: Sagittarius, "Another Time"] Boettcher was a skilled harmony vocalist -- according to Usher, he was one of the few vocal arrangers that Brian Wilson looked up to, and Jerry Yester had said of the Modern Folk Quartet that “the only vocals that competed with us back then was Curt Boettcher's group” -- and he was more than capable of filling Crosby's vocal gap, but there was never any real camaraderie between him and the Byrds. He particularly disliked McGuinn, who he said "was just such a poker face. He never let you know where you stood. There was never any lightness," and he said of the sessions as a whole "I was really thrilled to be working with The Byrds, and, at the same time, I was glad when it was all over. There was just no fun, and they were such weird guys to work with. They really freaked me out!" Someone else who Usher brought in, who seems to have made a better impression, was Red Rhodes: [Excerpt: Red Rhodes, "Red's Ride"] Rhodes was a pedal steel player, and one of the few people to make a career on the instrument outside pure country music, which is the genre with which the instrument is usually identified. Rhodes was a country player, but he was the country pedal steel player of choice for musicians from the pop and folk-rock worlds. He worked with Usher and Boettcher on albums by Sagittarius and the Millennium, and played on records by Cass Elliot, Carole King, the Beach Boys, and the Carpenters, among many others -- though he would be best known for his longstanding association with Michael Nesmith of the Monkees, playing on most of Nesmith's recordings from 1968 through 1992. Someone else who was associated with the Monkees was Moog player Paul Beaver, who we talked about in the episode on "Hey Jude", and who had recently played on the Monkees' Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones, Ltd album: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "Star Collector"] And the fourth person brought in to help the group out was someone who was already familiar to them. Clarence White was, like Red Rhodes, from the country world -- he'd started out in a bluegrass group called the Kentucky Colonels: [Excerpt: The Kentucky Colonels, "Clinch Mountain Backstep"] But White had gone electric and formed one of the first country-rock bands, a group named Nashville West, as well as becoming a popular session player. He had already played on a couple of tracks on Younger Than Yesterday, as well as playing with Hillman and Michael Clarke on Gene Clark's album with the Gosdin Brothers and being part of Clark's touring band with John York and "Fast" Eddie Hoh. The album that the group put together with these session players was a triumph of sequencing and production. Usher had recently been keen on the idea of crossfading tracks into each other, as the Beatles had on Sgt Pepper, and had done the same on the two Chad and Jeremy albums he produced. By clever crossfading and mixing, Usher managed to create something that had the feel of being a continuous piece, despite being the product of several very different creative minds, with Usher's pop sensibility and arrangement ideas being the glue that held everything together. McGuinn was interested in sonic experimentation. He, more than any of the others, seems to have been the one who was most pushing for them to use the Moog, and he continued his interest in science fiction, with a song, "Space Odyssey", inspired by the Arthur C. Clarke short story "The Sentinel", which was also the inspiration for the then-forthcoming film 2001: A Space Odyssey: [Excerpt: The Byrds, "Space Odyssey"] Then there was Chris Hillman, who was coming up with country material like "Old John Robertson": [Excerpt: The Byrds, "Old John Robertson"] And finally there was David Crosby. Even though he'd been fired from the group, both McGuinn and Hillman didn't see any problem with using the songs he had already contributed. Three of the album's eleven songs are compositions that are primarily by Crosby, though they're all co-credited to either Hillman or both Hillman and McGuinn. Two of those songs are largely unchanged from Crosby's original vision, just finished off by the rest of the group after his departure, but one song is rather different: [Excerpt: The Byrds, "Draft Morning"] "Draft Morning" was a song that was important to Crosby, and was about his -- and the group's -- feelings about the draft and the ongoing Vietnam War. It was a song that had meant a lot to him, and he'd been part of the recording for the backing track. But when it came to doing the final vocals, McGuinn and Hillman had a problem -- they couldn't remember all the words to the song, and obviously there was no way they were going to get Crosby to give them the original lyrics. So they rewrote it, coming up with new lyrics where they couldn't remember the originals: [Excerpt: The Byrds, "Draft Morning"] But there was one other contribution to the track that was very distinctively the work of Usher. Gary Usher had a predilection at this point for putting musique concrete sections in otherwise straightforward pop songs. He'd done it with "Fakin' It" by Simon and Garfunkel, on which he did uncredited production work, and did it so often that it became something of a signature of records on Columbia in 1967 and 68, even being copied by his friend Jim Guercio on "Susan" by the Buckinghams. Usher had done this, in particular, on the first two singles by Sagittarius, his project with Curt Boettcher. In particular, the second Sagittarius single, "Hotel Indiscreet", had had a very jarring section (and a warning here, this contains some brief chanting of a Nazi slogan): [Excerpt: Sagittarius, "Hotel Indiscreet"] That was the work of a comedy group that Usher had discovered and signed to Columbia. The Firesign Theatre were so named because, like Usher, they were all interested in astrology, and they were all "fire signs".  Usher was working on their first album, Waiting For The Electrician or Someone Like Him, at the same time as he was working on the Byrds album: [Excerpt: The Firesign Theatre, "W.C. Fields Forever"] And he decided to bring in the Firesigns to contribute to "Draft Morning": [Excerpt: The Byrds, "Draft Morning"] Crosby was, understandably, apoplectic when he heard the released version of "Draft Morning". As far as Hillman and McGuinn were concerned, it was always a Byrds song, and just because Crosby had left the band didn't mean they couldn't use material he'd written for the Byrds. Crosby took a different view, saying later "It was one of the sleaziest things they ever did. I had an entire song finished. They just casually rewrote it and decided to take half the credit. How's that? Without even asking me. I had a finished song, entirely mine. I left. They did the song anyway. They rewrote it and put it in their names. And mine was better. They just took it because they didn't have enough songs." What didn't help was that the publicity around the album, titled The Notorious Byrd Brothers minimised Crosby's contributions. Crosby is on five of the eleven tracks -- as he said later, "I'm all over that album, they just didn't give me credit. I played, I sang, I wrote, I even played bass on one track, and they tried to make out that I wasn't even on it, that they could be that good without me." But the album, like earlier Byrds albums, didn't have credits saying who played what, and the cover only featured McGuinn, Hillman, and Michael Clarke in the photo -- along with a horse, which Crosby took as another insult, as representing him. Though as McGuinn said, "If we had intended to do that, we would have turned the horse around". Even though Michael Clarke was featured on the cover, and even owned the horse that took Crosby's place, by the time the album came out he too had been fired. Unlike Crosby, he went quietly and didn't even ask for any money. According to McGuinn, he was increasingly uninterested in being in the band -- suffering from depression, and missing the teenage girls who had been the group's fans a year or two earlier. He gladly stopped being a Byrd, and went off to work in a hotel instead. In his place came Hillman's cousin, Kevin Kelley, fresh out of a band called the Rising Sons: [Excerpt: The Rising Sons, "Take a Giant Step"] We've mentioned the Rising Sons briefly in some previous episodes, but they were one of the earliest LA folk-rock bands, and had been tipped to go on to greater things -- and indeed, many of them did, though not as part of the Rising Sons. Jesse Lee Kincaid, the least well-known of the band, only went on to release a couple of singles and never had much success, but his songs were picked up by other acts -- his "Baby You Come Rollin' 'Cross My Mind" was a minor hit for the Peppermint Trolley Company: [Excerpt: The Peppermint Trolley Company, "Baby You Come Rollin' 'Cross My Mind"] And Harry Nilsson recorded Kincaid's "She Sang Hymns Out of Tune": [Excerpt: Harry Nilsson, "She Sang Hymns Out of Tune"] But Kincaid was the least successful of the band members, and most of the other members are going to come up in future episodes of the podcast -- bass player Gary Marker played for a while with Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band, lead singer Taj Mahal is one of the most respected blues singers of the last sixty years, original drummer Ed Cassidy went on to form the progressive rock band Spirit, and lead guitarist Ry Cooder went on to become one of the most important guitarists in rock music. Kelley had been the last to join the Rising Sons, replacing Cassidy but he was in the band by the time they released their one single, a version of Rev. Gary Davis' "Candy Man" produced by Terry Melcher, with Kincaid on lead vocals: [Excerpt: The Rising Sons, "Candy Man"] That hadn't been a success, and the group's attempt at a follow-up, the Goffin and King song "Take a Giant Step", which we heard earlier, was blocked from release by Columbia as being too druggy -- though there were no complaints when the Monkees released their version as the B-side to "Last Train to Clarksville". The Rising Sons, despite being hugely popular as a live act, fell apart without ever releasing a second single. According to Marker, Mahal realised that he would be better off as a solo artist, but also Columbia didn't know how to market a white group with a Black lead vocalist (leading to Kincaid singing lead on their one released single, and producer Terry Melcher trying to get Mahal to sing more like a white singer on "Take a Giant Step"), and some in the band thought that Terry Melcher was deliberately trying to sink their career because they refused to sign to his publishing company. After the band split up, Marker and Kelley had formed a band called Fusion, which Byrds biographer Johnny Rogan describes as being a jazz-fusion band, presumably because of their name. Listening to the one album the group recorded, it is in fact more blues-rock, very like the music Marker made with the Rising Sons and Captain Beefheart. But Kelley's not on that album, because before it was recorded he was approached by his cousin Chris Hillman and asked to join the Byrds. At the time, Fusion were doing so badly that Kelley had to work a day job in a clothes shop, so he was eager to join a band with a string of hits who were just about to conclude a lucrative renegotiation of their record contract -- a renegotiation which may have played a part in McGuinn and Hillman firing Crosby and Clarke, as they were now the only members on the new contracts. The choice of Kelley made a lot of sense. He was mostly just chosen because he was someone they knew and they needed a drummer in a hurry -- they needed someone new to promote The Notorious Byrd Brothers and didn't have time to go through a laborious process of audtioning, and so just choosing Hillman's cousin made sense, but Kelley also had a very strong, high voice, and so he could fill in the harmony parts that Crosby had sung, stopping the new power-trio version of the band from being *too* thin-sounding in comparison to the five-man band they'd been not that much earlier. The Notorious Byrd Brothers was not a commercial success -- it didn't even make the top forty in the US, though it did in the UK -- to the presumed chagrin of Columbia, who'd just paid a substantial amount of money for this band who were getting less successful by the day. But it was, though, a gigantic critical success, and is generally regarded as the group's creative pinnacle. Robert Christgau, for example, talked about how LA rather than San Francisco was where the truly interesting music was coming from, and gave guarded praise to Captain Beefheart, Van Dyke Parks, and the Fifth Dimension (the vocal group, not the Byrds album) but talked about three albums as being truly great -- the Beach Boys' Wild Honey, Love's Forever Changes, and The Notorious Byrd Brothers. (He also, incidentally, talked about how the two songs that Crosby's new discovery Joni Mitchell had contributed to a Judy Collins album were much better than most folk music, and how he could hardly wait for her first album to come out). And that, more or less, was the critical consensus about The Notorious Byrd Brothers -- that it was, in Christgau's words "simply the best album the Byrds have ever recorded" and that "Gone are the weak--usually folky--tracks that have always flawed their work." McGuinn, though, thought that the album wasn't yet what he wanted. He had become particularly excited by the potentials of the Moog synthesiser -- an instrument that Gary Usher also loved -- during the recording of the album, and had spent a lot of time experimenting with it, coming up with tracks like the then-unreleased "Moog Raga": [Excerpt: The Byrds, "Moog Raga"] And McGuinn had a concept for the next Byrds album -- a concept he was very excited about. It was going to be nothing less than a grand sweeping history of American popular music. It was going to be a double album -- the new contract said that they should deliver two albums a year to Columbia, so a double album made sense -- and it would start with Appalachian folk music, go through country, jazz, and R&B, through the folk-rock music the Byrds had previously been known for, and into Moog experimentation. But to do this, the Byrds needed a keyboard player. Not only would a keyboard player help them fill out their thin onstage sound, if they got a jazz keyboardist, then they could cover the jazz material in McGuinn's concept album idea as well. So they went out and looked for a jazz piano player, and happily Larry Spector was managing one. Or at least, Larry Spector was managing someone who *said* he was a jazz pianist. But Gram Parsons said he was a lot of things... [Excerpt: Gram Parsons, "Brass Buttons (1965 version)"] Gram Parsons was someone who had come from a background of unimaginable privilege. His maternal grandfather was the owner of a Florida citrus fruit and real-estate empire so big that his mansion was right in the centre of what was then Florida's biggest theme park -- built on land he owned. As a teenager, Parsons had had a whole wing of his parents' house to himself, and had had servants to look after his every need, and as an adult he had a trust fund that paid him a hundred thousand dollars a year -- which in 1968 dollars would be equivalent to a little under nine hundred thousand in today's money. Two events in his childhood had profoundly shaped the life of young Gram. The first was in February 1956, when he went to see a new singer who he'd heard on the radio, and who according to the local newspaper had just recorded a new song called "Heartburn Motel".  Parsons had tried to persuade his friends that this new singer was about to become a big star -- one of his friends had said "I'll wait til he becomes famous!" As it turned out, the day Parsons and the couple of friends he did manage to persuade to go with him saw Elvis Presley was also the day that "Heartbreak Hotel" entered the Billboard charts at number sixty-eight. But even at this point, Elvis was an obvious star and the headliner of the show. Young Gram was enthralled -- but in retrospect he was more impressed by the other acts he saw on the bill. That was an all-star line-up of country musicians, including Mother Maybelle and the Carter Sisters, and especially the Louvin Brothers, arguably the greatest country music vocal duo of all time: [Excerpt: The Louvin Brothers, "The Christian Life"] Young Gram remained mostly a fan of rockabilly music rather than country, and would remain so for another decade or so, but a seed had been planted. The other event, much more tragic, was the death of his father. Both Parsons' parents were functioning alcoholics, and both by all accounts were unfaithful to each other, and their marriage was starting to break down. Gram's father was also, by many accounts, dealing with what we would now call post-traumatic stress disorder from his time serving in the second world war. On December the twenty-third 1958, Gram's father died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Everyone involved seems sure it was suicide, but it was officially recorded as natural causes because of the family's wealth and prominence in the local community. Gram's Christmas present from his parents that year was a reel-to-reel tape recorder, and according to some stories I've read his father had left a last message on a tape in the recorder, but by the time the authorities got to hear it, it had been erased apart from the phrase "I love you, Gram." After that Gram's mother's drinking got even worse, but in most ways his life still seemed charmed, and the descriptions of him as a teenager are about what you'd expect from someone who was troubled, with a predisposition to addiction, but who was also unbelievably wealthy, good-looking, charming, and talented. And the talent was definitely there. One thing everyone is agreed on is that from a very young age Gram Parsons took his music seriously and was determined to make a career as a musician. Keith Richards later said of him "Of the musicians I know personally (although Otis Redding, who I didn't know, fits this too), the two who had an attitude towards music that was the same as mine were Gram Parsons and John Lennon. And that was: whatever bag the business wants to put you in is immaterial; that's just a selling point, a tool that makes it easier. You're going to get chowed into this pocket or that pocket because it makes it easier for them to make charts up and figure out who's selling. But Gram and John were really pure musicians. All they liked was music, and then they got thrown into the game." That's not the impression many other people have of Parsons, who is almost uniformly described as an incessant self-promoter, and who from his teens onwards would regularly plant fake stories about himself in the local press, usually some variant of him having been signed to RCA records. Most people seem to think that image was more important to him than anything. In his teens, he started playing in a series of garage bands around Florida and Georgia, the two states in which he was brought up. One of his early bands was largely created by poaching the rhythm section who were then playing with Kent Lavoie, who later became famous as Lobo and had hits like "Me and You and a Dog Named Boo". Lavoie apparently held a grudge -- decades later he would still say that Parsons couldn't sing or play or write. Another musician on the scene with whom Parsons associated was Bobby Braddock, who would later go on to co-write songs like "D-I-V-O-R-C-E" for Tammy Wynette, and the song "He Stopped Loving Her Today", often considered the greatest country song ever written, for George Jones: [Excerpt: George Jones, "He Stopped Loving Her Today"] Jones would soon become one of Parsons' musical idols, but at this time he was still more interested in being Elvis or Little Richard. We're lucky enough to have a 1962 live recording of one of his garage bands, the Legends -- the band that featured the bass player and drummer he'd poached from Lobo. They made an appearance on a local TV show and a friend with a tape recorder recorded it off the TV and decades later posted it online. Of the four songs in that performance, two are R&B covers -- Little Richard's "Rip It Up" and Ray Charles' "What'd I Say?", and a third is the old Western Swing classic "Guitar Boogie Shuffle". But the interesting thing about the version of "Rip it Up" is that it's sung in an Everly Brothers style harmony, and the fourth song is a recording of the Everlys' "Let It Be Me". The Everlys were, of course, hugely influenced by the Louvin Brothers, who had so impressed young Gram six years earlier, and in this performance you can hear for the first time the hints of the style that Parsons would make his own a few years later: [Excerpt: Gram Parsons and the Legends, "Let it Be Me"] Incidentally, the other guitarist in the Legends, Jim Stafford, also went on to a successful musical career, having a top five hit in the seventies with "Spiders & Snakes": [Excerpt: Jim Stafford, "Spiders & Snakes"] Soon after that TV performance though, like many musicians of his generation, Parsons decided to give up on rock and roll, and instead to join a folk group. The group he joined, The Shilos, were a trio who were particularly influenced by the Journeymen, John Phillips' folk group before he formed the Mamas and the Papas, which we talked about in the episode on "San Francisco". At various times the group expanded with the addition of some female singers, trying to capture something of the sound of the New Chrisy Minstrels. In 1964, with the band members still in school, the Shilos decided to make a trip to Greenwich Village and see if they could make the big time as folk-music stars. They met up with John Phillips, and Parsons stayed with John and Michelle Phillips in their home in New York -- this was around the time the two of them were writing "California Dreamin'". Phillips got the Shilos an audition with Albert Grossman, who seemed eager to sign them until he realised they were still schoolchildren just on a break. The group were, though, impressive enough that he was interested, and we have some recordings of them from a year later which show that they were surprisingly good for a bunch of teenagers: [Excerpt: The Shilos, "The Bells of Rhymney"] Other than Phillips, the other major connection that Parsons made in New York was the folk singer Fred Neil, who we've talked about occasionally before. Neil was one of the great songwriters of the Greenwich Village scene, and many of his songs became successful for others -- his "Dolphins" was recorded by Tim Buckley, most famously his "Everybody's Talkin'" was a hit for Harry Nilsson, and he wrote "Another Side of This Life" which became something of a standard -- it was recorded by the Animals and the Lovin' Spoonful, and Jefferson Airplane, as well as recording the song, included it in their regular setlists, including at Monterey: [Excerpt: Jefferson Airplane, "The Other Side of This Life (live at Monterey)"] According to at least one biographer, though, Neil had another, more pernicious, influence on Parsons -- he may well have been the one who introduced Parsons to heroin, though several of Parsons' friends from the time said he wasn't yet using hard drugs. By spring 1965, Parsons was starting to rethink his commitment to folk music, particularly after "Mr. Tambourine Man" became a hit. He talked with the other members about their need to embrace the changes in music that Dylan and the Byrds were bringing about, but at the same time he was still interested enough in acoustic music that when he was given the job of arranging the music for his high school graduation, the group he booked were the Dillards. That graduation day was another day that would change Parsons' life -- as it was the day his mother died, of alcohol-induced liver failure. Parsons was meant to go on to Harvard, but first he went back to Greenwich Village for the summer, where he hung out with Fred Neil and Dave Van Ronk (and started using heroin regularly). He went to see the Beatles at Shea Stadium, and he was neighbours with Stephen Stills and Richie Furay -- the three of them talked about forming a band together before Stills moved West. And on a brief trip back home to Florida between Greenwich Village and Harvard, Parsons spoke with his old friend Jim Stafford, who made a suggestion to him -- instead of trying to do folk music, which was clearly falling out of fashion, why not try to do *country* music but with long hair like the Beatles? He could be a country Beatle. It would be an interesting gimmick. Parsons was only at Harvard for one semester before flunking out, but it was there that he was fully reintroduced to country music, and in particular to three artists who would influence him more than any others. He'd already been vaguely aware of Buck Owens, whose "Act Naturally" had recently been covered by the Beatles: [Excerpt: Buck Owens, "Act Naturally"] But it was at Harvard that he gained a deeper appreciation of Owens. Owens was the biggest star of what had become known as the Bakersfield Sound, a style of country music that emphasised a stripped-down electric band lineup with Telecaster guitars, a heavy drumbeat, and a clean sound. It came from the same honky-tonk and Western Swing roots as the rockabilly music that Parsons had grown up on, and it appealed to him instinctively.  In particular, Parsons was fascinated by the fact that Owens' latest album had a cover version of a Drifters song on it -- and then he got even more interested when Ray Charles put out his third album of country songs and included a version of Owens' "Together Again": [Excerpt: Ray Charles, "Together Again"] This suggested to Parsons that country music and the R&B he'd been playing previously might not quite be so far apart as he'd thought. At Harvard, Parsons was also introduced to the work of another Bakersfield musician, who like Owens was produced by Ken Nelson, who also produced the Louvin Brothers' records, and who we heard about in previous episodes as he produced Gene Vincent and Wanda Jackson. Merle Haggard had only had one big hit at the time, "(My Friends Are Gonna Be) Strangers": [Excerpt: Merle Haggard, "(My Friends are Gonna Be) Strangers"] But he was about to start a huge run of country hits that would see every single he released for the next twelve years make the country top ten, most of them making number one. Haggard would be one of the biggest stars in country music, but he was also to be arguably the country musician with the biggest influence on rock music since Johnny Cash, and his songs would soon start to be covered by everyone from the Grateful Dead to the Everly Brothers to the Beach Boys. And the third artist that Parsons was introduced to was someone who, in most popular narratives of country music, is set up in opposition to Haggard and Owens, because they were representatives of the Bakersfield Sound while he was the epitome of the Nashville Sound to which the Bakersfield Sound is placed in opposition, George Jones. But of course anyone with ears will notice huge similarities in the vocal styles of Jones, Haggard, and Owens: [Excerpt: George Jones, "The Race is On"] Owens, Haggard, and Jones are all somewhat outside the scope of this series, but are seriously important musicians in country music. I would urge anyone who's interested in them to check out Tyler Mahan Coe's podcast Cocaine and Rhinestones, season one of which has episodes on Haggard and Owens, as well as on the Louvin Brothers who I also mentioned earlier, and season two of which is entirely devoted to Jones. When he dropped out of Harvard after one semester, Parsons was still mostly under the thrall of the Greenwich Village folkies -- there's a recording of him made over Christmas 1965 that includes his version of "Another Side of This Life": [Excerpt: Gram Parsons, "Another Side of This Life"] But he was encouraged to go further in the country direction by John Nuese (and I hope that's the correct pronunciation – I haven't been able to find any recordings mentioning his name), who had introduced him to this music and who also played guitar. Parsons, Neuse, bass player Ian Dunlop and drummer Mickey Gauvin formed a band that was originally called Gram Parsons and the Like. They soon changed their name though, inspired by an Our Gang short in which the gang became a band: [Excerpt: Our Gang, "Mike Fright"] Shortening the name slightly, they became the International Submarine Band. Parsons rented them a house in New York, and they got a contract with Goldstar Records, and released a couple of singles. The first of them, "The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming" was a cover of the theme to a comedy film that came out around that time, and is not especially interesting: [Excerpt: The International Submarine Band, "The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming"] The second single is more interesting. "Sum Up Broke" is a song by Parsons and Neuse, and shows a lot of influence from the Byrds: [Excerpt: The international Submarine Band, "Sum Up Broke"] While in New York with the International Submarine Band, Parsons made another friend in the music business. Barry Tashian was the lead singer of a band called the Remains, who had put out a couple of singles: [Excerpt: The Remains, "Why Do I Cry?"] The Remains are now best known for having been on the bill on the Beatles' last ever tour, including playing as support on their last ever show at Candlestick Park, but they split up before their first album came out. After spending most of 1966 in New York, Parsons decided that he needed to move the International Submarine Band out to LA. There were two reasons for this. The first was his friend Brandon DeWilde, an actor who had been a child star in the fifties -- it's him at the end of Shane -- who was thinking of pursuing a musical career. DeWilde was still making TV appearances, but he was also a singer -- John Nuese said that DeWilde sang harmony with Parsons better than anyone except Emmylou Harris -- and he had recorded some demos with the International Submarine Band backing him, like this version of Buck Owens' "Together Again": [Excerpt: Brandon DeWilde, "Together Again"] DeWilde had told Parsons he could get the group some work in films. DeWilde made good on that promise to an extent -- he got the group a cameo in The Trip, a film we've talked about in several other episodes, which was being directed by Roger Corman, the director who worked a lot with David Crosby's father, and was coming out from American International Pictures, the company that put out the beach party films -- but while the group were filmed performing one of their own songs, in the final film their music was overdubbed by the Electric Flag. The Trip starred Peter Fonda, another member of the circle of people around David Crosby, and another son of privilege, who at this point was better known for being Henry Fonda's son than for his own film appearances. Like DeWilde, Fonda wanted to become a pop star, and he had been impressed by Parsons, and asked if he could record Parsons' song "November Nights". Parsons agreed, and the result was released on Chisa Records, the label we talked about earlier that had put out promos of Gene Clark, in a performance produced by Hugh Masekela: [Excerpt: Peter Fonda, "November Nights"] The other reason the group moved West though was that Parsons had fallen in love with David Crosby's girlfriend, Nancy Ross, who soon became pregnant with his daughter -- much to Parsons' disappointment, she refused to have an abortion. Parsons bought the International Submarine Band a house in LA to rehearse in, and moved in separately with Nancy. The group started playing all the hottest clubs around LA, supporting bands like Love and the Peanut Butter Conspiracy, but they weren't sounding great, partly because Parsons was more interested in hanging round with celebrities than rehearsing -- the rest of the band had to work for a living, and so took their live performances more seriously than he did, while he was spending time catching up with his old folk friends like John Phillips and Fred Neil, as well as getting deeper into drugs and, like seemingly every musician in 1967, Scientology, though he only dabbled in the latter. The group were also, though, starting to split along musical lines. Dunlop and Gauvin wanted to play R&B and garage rock, while Parsons and Nuese wanted to play country music. And there was a third issue -- which record label should they go with? There were two labels interested in them, neither of them particularly appealing. The offer that Dunlop in particular wanted to go with was from, of all people, Jay Ward Records: [Excerpt: A Salute to Moosylvania] Jay Ward was the producer and writer of Rocky & Bullwinkle, Peabody & Sherman, Dudley Do-Right and other cartoons, and had set up a record company, which as far as I've been able to tell had only released one record, and that five years earlier (we just heard a snippet of it). But in the mid-sixties several cartoon companies were getting into the record business -- we'll hear more about that when we get to song 186 -- and Ward's company apparently wanted to sign the International Submarine Band, and were basically offering to throw money at them. Parsons, on the other hand, wanted to go with Lee Hazlewood International. This was a new label set up by someone we've only talked about in passing, but who was very influential on the LA music scene, Lee Hazlewood. Hazlewood had got his start producing country hits like Sanford Clark's "The Fool": [Excerpt: Sanford Clark, "The Fool"] He'd then moved on to collaborating with Lester Sill, producing a series of hits for Duane Eddy, whose unique guitar sound Hazlewood helped come up with: [Excerpt: Duane Eddy, "Rebel Rouser"] After splitting off from Sill, who had gone off to work with Phil Spector, who had been learning some production techniques from Hazlewood, Hazlewood had gone to work for Reprise records, where he had a career in a rather odd niche, producing hit records for the children of Rat Pack stars. He'd produced Dino, Desi, and Billy, who consisted of future Beach Boys sideman Billy Hinsche plus Desi Arnaz Jr and Dean Martin Jr: [Excerpt: Dino, Desi, and Billy, "I'm a Fool"] He'd also produced Dean Martin's daughter Deana: [Excerpt: Deana Martin, "Baby I See You"] and rather more successfully he'd written and produced a series of hits for Nancy Sinatra, starting with "These Boots are Made for Walkin'": [Excerpt: Nancy Sinatra, "These Boots are Made for Walkin'"] Hazlewood had also moved into singing himself. He'd released a few tracks on his own, but his career as a performer hadn't really kicked into gear until he'd started writing duets for Nancy Sinatra. She apparently fell in love with his demos and insisted on having him sing them with her in the studio, and so the two made a series of collaborations like the magnificently bizarre "Some Velvet Morning": [Excerpt: Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra, "Some Velvet Morning"] Hazlewood is now considered something of a cult artist, thanks largely to a string of magnificent orchestral country-pop solo albums he recorded, but at this point he was one of the hottest people in the music industry. He wasn't offering to produce the International Submarine Band himself -- that was going to be his partner, Suzi Jane Hokom -- but Parsons thought it was better to sign for less money to a label that was run by someone with a decade-long string of massive hit records than for more money to a label that had put out one record about a cartoon moose. So the group split up. Dunlop and Gauvin went off to form another band, with Barry Tashian -- and legend has it that one of the first times Gram Parsons visited the Byrds in the studio, he mentioned the name of that band, The Flying Burrito Brothers, and that was the inspiration for the Byrds titling their album The Notorious Byrd Brothers. Parsons and Nuese, on the other hand, formed a new lineup of The International Submarine Band, with bass player Chris Ethridge, drummer John Corneal, who Parsons had first played with in The Legends, and guitarist Bob Buchanan, a former member of the New Christy Minstrels who Parsons had been performing with as a duo after they'd met through Fred Neil. The International Submarine Band recorded an album, Safe At Home, which is now often called the first country-rock album -- though as we've said so often, there's no first anything. That album was a mixture of cover versions of songs by people like Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard: [Excerpt: The International Submarine Band, "I Must Be Somebody Else You've Known"] And Parsons originals, like "Do You Know How It Feels To Be Lonesome?", which he cowrote with Barry Goldberg of the Electric Flag: [Excerpt: The International Submarine Band, "Do You Know How It Feels To Be Lonesome?"] But the recording didn't go smoothly. In particular, Corneal realised he'd been hoodwinked. Parsons had told him, when persuading him to move West, that he'd be able to sing on the record and that some of his songs would be used. But while the record was credited to The International Submarine Band, everyone involved agrees that it was actually a Gram Parsons solo album by any other name -- he was in charge, he wouldn't let other members' songs on the record, and he didn't let Corneal sing as he'd promised. And then, before the album could be released, he was off. The Byrds wanted a jazz keyboard player, and Parsons could fake being one long enough to get the gig. The Byrds had got rid of one rich kid with a giant ego who wanted to take control of everything and thought his undeniable talent excused his attempts at dominating the group, and replaced him with another one -- who also happened to be signed to another record label. We'll see how well that worked out for them in two weeks' time.  

Breaker! Breaker! (1977)AIP Production #7704 Jeff and Cheryl put the hammer down and avoid the smokies to put eyes on AIP's only Chuck Norris movie, Breaker! Breaker! Directed by Don HuletteWritten by Terry ChambersProduced by Sam Schulman, Bernard Tabakin, Don Hulette and John Burrows; Paragon Films/Worldwide Productions Starring: Chuck Norris as John David "J.D." DawesGeorge Murdock as Judge Joshua TrimmingsTerry O'Connor as Arlene TrimmingsDon Gentry as Sergeant StrodeJohn DiFusco as ArneyRon Cedillos as Deputy BolesMichael Augenstein as Billy DawesDan Vandegrift as WilfredDouglas Stevenson as DrakePaul Kawecki as WadeLarry Feder as GeorgeJack Nance as BurtonDavid Bezar as Tony TrimmingsMiranda Garrrison as BarmaidAmelia Laurenson as LuanaDeborah Shore as PearlThe Great John L. as Kaminskiand David Stephen Essex as Elroy Produced by Paragon Films/Worldwide Productions for American International Pictures.Stream this movie on Tubi and Amazon Prime.Follow the American International Podcast on Letterboxd, Instagram and Threads @aip_pod and on Facebook at facebook.com/AmericanInternationalPodcast.View the Breaker! Breaker! trailer here.Our open and close includes clips from the following films/trailers: How to Make a Monster (1958), The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962), I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957), High School Hellcats (1958), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), The Wild Angels (1966), It Conquered the World (1956), The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971), and Female Jungle (1955)

Riot on Sunset Strip (1967) AIP Production #6704 Jeff and Cheryl defy curfew and stay up past 10pm to experience Riot on Sunset Strip.Directed by Arthur DreifussWritten by Orville H. HamptonProduced by Sam Katzman for Four Leaf Productions Starring:Aldo Ray as Walt Lorimer Mimsy Farmer as Andrea Dollier Michael Evans as Frank Tweedy Laurie Mock as Liz-Ann Barbrey Tim Rooney as Grady Toss Bill Baldwin as Stokes Anna Mizrahi as Helen TweedyHortense Petra as Margie Schuyler Hayden as Herbie Gene Kirkwood as Flip Pat Renella as Perry Forrest Lewis as Aynsley Ross George E. Carey as Arnow John Hart as Pritchard Dick Winslow as Curtis and "The Longhairs" from Sunset Strip with music by The Standells, The Chocolate Watchband, and The Enemies Produced by Four Leaf Productions for American International Pictures. Stream this movie on Amazon Prime or MGM+.Follow the American International Podcast on Letterboxd, Instagram and Threads @aip_pod and on Facebook at facebook.com/AmericanInternationalPodcast.View the Riot on Sunset Strip trailer here.Our open and close includes clips from the following films/trailers: How to Make a Monster (1958), The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962), I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957), High School Hellcats (1958), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), The Wild Angels (1966), It Conquered the World (1956), The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971), and Female Jungle (1955)

For those who haven't heard the announcement I just posted , songs from this point on will sometimes be split among multiple episodes, so this is the first part of a multi-episode look at the Byrds in 1966-69 and the birth of country rock. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a half-hour bonus episode on "My World Fell Down" by Sagittarius. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ Resources No Mixcloud at this time as there are too many Byrds songs in this chunk, but I will try to put together a multi-part Mixcloud when all the episodes for this song are up. My main source for the Byrds is Timeless Flight Revisited by Johnny Rogan, I also used Chris Hillman's autobiography, the 331/3 books on The Notorious Byrd Brothers and The Gilded Palace of Sin, For future parts of this multi-episode story I used Barney Hoskyns' Hotel California and John Einarson's Desperadoes as general background on Californian country-rock, Calling Me Hone, Gram Parsons and the Roots of Country Rock by Bob Kealing for information on Parsons, and Requiem For The Timeless Vol 2 by Johnny Rogan for information about the post-Byrds careers of many members. Information on Gary Usher comes from The California Sound by Stephen McParland. And this three-CD set is a reasonable way of getting most of the Byrds' important recordings. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript When we left the Byrds at the end of the episode on "Eight Miles High", they had just released that single, which combined folk-rock with their new influences from John Coltrane and Ravi Shankar, and which was a group composition but mostly written by the group's lead singer, Gene Clark. And also, as we mentioned right at the end of the episode, Clark had left the group. There had been many, many factors leading to Clark's departure. Clark was writing *far* more material than the other band members, of whom only Roger McGuinn had been a writer when the group started, and as a result was making far more money than them, especially with songs like "She Don't Care About Time", which had been the B-side to their number one single "Turn! Turn! Turn!" [Excerpt: The Byrds, "She Don't Care About Time"] Clark's extra income was making the rest of the group jealous, and they also didn't think his songs were particularly good, though many of his songs on the early Byrds albums are now considered classics. Jim Dickson, the group's co-manager, said "Gene would write fifteen to twenty songs a week and you had to find a good one whenever it came along because there were lots of them that you couldn't make head or tail of.  They didn't mean anything. We all knew that. Gene would write a good one at a rate of just about one per girlfriend." Chris Hillman meanwhile later said more simply "Gene didn't really add that much." That is, frankly, hard to square with the facts. There are ten original songs on the group's first two albums, plus one original non-album B-side. Of those eleven songs, Clark wrote seven on his own and co-wrote two with McGuinn. But as the other band members were starting to realise that they had the possibility of extra royalties -- and at least to some extent were starting to get artistic ambitions as far as writing goes -- they were starting to disparage Clark's work as a result, calling it immature. Clark had, of course, been the principal writer for "Eight Miles High", the group's most experimental record to date: [Excerpt: The Byrds, "Eight Miles High"] But there he'd shared co-writing credit with David Crosby and Roger McGuinn, in part because that was the only way he could be sure they would agree to release it as a single. There were also internal rivalries within the band unrelated to songwriting -- as we've touched on, Crosby had already essentially bullied Clark off the guitar and into just playing tambourine (and McGuinn would be dismissive even of Clark's tambourine abilities). Crosby's inability to get on with any other member of any band he was in would later become legendary, but at this point Clark was the major victim of his bullying. According to Dickson "David understood when Gene left that ninety-five percent of why Gene left could be brought back to him." The other five percent, though, came from Clark's fear of flying. Clark had apparently witnessed a plane crash in his youth and been traumatised by it, and he had a general terror of flying and planes -- something McGuinn would mock him for a little, as McGuinn was an aviation buff. Eventually, Clark had a near-breakdown boarding a plane from California to New York for a promotional appearance with Murray the K, and ended up getting off the plane. McGuinn and Michael Clarke almost did the same, but in the end they decided to stay on, and the other four Byrds did the press conference without Gene. When asked where Gene was, they said he'd "broken a wing". He was also increasingly having mental health and substance abuse problems, which were exacerbated by his fear, and in the end he decided he just couldn't be a Byrd any more. Oddly, of all the band members, it was David Crosby who was most concerned about Clark's departure, and who did the most to try to persuade him to stay, but he still didn't do much, and the group decided to carry on as a four-piece and not even make a proper announcement of Clark's departure -- they just started putting out photos with four people instead of five. The main change as far as the group were concerned was that Hillman was now covering Clark's old vocal parts, and so Crosby moved to Clark's old centre mic while Hillman moved from his position at the back of the stage with Michael Clarke to take over Crosby's mic. The group now had three singer-instrumentalists in front, two of whom, Crosby and McGuinn, now thought of themselves as songwriters. So despite the loss of their singer/songwriter/frontman, they moved on to their new single, the guaranteed hit follow-up to "Eight Miles High": [Excerpt: The Byrds, "5D (Fifth Dimension)"] "5D" was written by McGuinn, inspired by a book of cartoons called 1-2-3-4 More More More More by Don Landis, which I haven't been able to track down a copy of, but which seems to have been an attempt to explain the mathematical concept of higher dimensions in cartoon form. McGuinn was inspired by this and by Einstein's theory of relativity -- or at least by his understanding of relativity, which does not seem to have been the most informed take on the topic. McGuinn has said in the past that the single should really have come with a copy of Landis' booklet, so people could understand it. Sadly, without the benefit of the booklet we only have the lyrics plus McGuinn's interviews to go on to try to figure out what he means. As far as I'm able to understand, McGuinn believed -- completely erroneously -- that Einstein had proved that along with the four dimensions of spacetime there is also a fifth dimension which McGuinn refers to as a "mesh", and that "the reason for the speed of light being what it is is because of that mesh." McGuinn then went on to identify this mesh with his own conception of God, influenced by his belief in Subud, and with a Bergsonian idea of a life force. He would talk about how most people are stuck in a materialist scientific paradigm which only admits to  the existence of three dimensions, and how there are people out there advocating for a five-dimensional view of the world. To go along with this mystic view of the universe, McGuinn wanted some music inspired by the greatest composer of sacred music, and he asked Van Dyke Parks, who was brought in to add keyboards on the session, to play something influenced by Bach -- and Parks obliged, having been thinking along the same lines himself: [Excerpt: The Byrds, "5D (Fifth Dimension)"] Unfortunately for the group, McGuinn's lyrical intention wasn't clear enough and the song was assumed to be about drugs, and was banned by many radio stations. That plus the track's basically uncommercial nature meant that it reached no higher than number forty-four in the charts. Jim Dickson, the group's co-manager, pointed to a simpler factor in the record's failure, saying that if the organ outro to the track had instead been the intro, to set a mood for the track rather than starting with a cold vocal open, it would have had more success. The single was followed by an album, called Fifth Dimension, which was not particularly successful. Of the album's eleven songs, two were traditional folk songs, one was an instrumental -- a jam called "Captain Soul" which was a version of Lee Dorsey's "Get Out My Life Woman" credited to the four remaining Byrds, though Gene Clark is very audible on it playing harmonica -- and one more was a jam whose only lyrics were "gonna ride a Lear jet, baby", repeated over and over. There was also "Eight Miles High" and the group's inept and slightly-too-late take on "Hey Joe". It also included a third single, a country track titled "Mr. Spaceman": [Excerpt: The Byrds, "Mr. Spaceman"] McGuinn and, particularly, Hillman, had some country music background, and both were starting to think about incorporating country sounds into the group's style, as after Clark's departure from the group they were moving away from the style that had characterised their first two albums. But the interest in "Mr. Spaceman" was less about the musical style than about the lyrics. McGuinn had written the song in the hopes of contacting extraterrestrial life -- sending them a message in his lyrics so that any aliens listening to Earth radio would come and visit, though he was later disappointed to realise that the inverse-square law means that the signals would be too faint to make out after a relatively short distance: [Excerpt: The Byrds, "Mr. Spaceman"] "Mr. Spaceman" did better on the charts than its predecessor, scraping the lower reaches of the top forty, but it hardly set the world alight, and neither did the album -- a typical review was the one by Jon Landau, which said in part "This album then cannot be considered up to the standards set by the Byrds' first two and basically demonstrates that they should be thinking in terms of replacing Gene Clark, instead of just carrying on without him." Fifth Dimension would be the only album that Allen Stanton would produce for the Byrds, and his replacement had actually just produced an album that was a Byrds record by any other name: [Excerpt: Gene Clark, "So You Say You've Lost Your Baby"] We've looked at Gary Usher before, but not for some time, and not in much detail. Usher was one of several people who were involved in the scene loosely centred on the Beach Boys and Jan and Dean, though he never had much time for Jan Berry and he had got his own start in the music business slightly before the Beach Boys. As a songwriter, his first big successes had come with his collaborations with Brian Wilson -- he had co-written "409" for the Beach Boys, and had also collaborated with Wilson on some of his earliest more introspective songs, like "The Lonely Sea" and "In My Room", for which Usher had written the lyrics: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "In My Room"] Usher had built a career as a producer and writer for hire, often in collaboration with Roger Christian, who also wrote with Brian Wilson and Jan Berry. Usher, usually with Christian, and very occasionally Wilson wrote the songs for several of American International Pictures' Beach Party films: [Excerpt: Donna Loren, "Muscle Bustle"] And Usher and Christian had also had bit parts in some of the films, like Bikini Beach, and Usher had produced records for Annette Funicello, the star of the films, often with the Honeys (a group consisting of Brian Wilson's future wife Marilyn plus her sister and cousin) on backing vocals. He had also produced records for the Surfaris, as well as a whole host of studio-only groups like the Four Speeds, the Super Stocks, and Mr. Gasser and the Weirdoes, most of whom were Usher and the same small group of vocalist friends along with various selections of Wrecking Crew musicians making quick themed albums. One of these studio groups, the Hondells, went on to be a real group of sorts, after Usher and the Beach Boys worked together on a film, The Girls on the Beach. Usher liked a song that Wilson and Mike Love had written for the Beach Boys to perform in the film, "Little Honda", and after discovering that the Beach Boys weren't going to release their version as a single, he put together a group to record a soundalike version: [Excerpt: The Hondells, "Little Honda"] "Little Honda" made the top ten, and Usher produced two albums for the Hondells, who had one other minor hit with a cover version of the Lovin' Spoonful's "Younger Girl". Oddly, Usher's friend Terry Melcher, who would shortly produce the Byrds' first few hits, had also latched on to "Little Honda", and produced his own version of the track, sung by Pat Boone of all people, with future Beach Boy Bruce Johnston on backing vocals: [Excerpt: Pat Boone, "Little Honda"] But when Usher had got his version out first, Boone's was relegated to a B-side. When the Byrds had hit, and folk-rock had started to take over from surf rock, Usher had gone with the flow and produced records like the Surfaris' album It Ain't Me Babe, with Usher and his usual gang of backing vocalists augmenting the Surfaris as they covered hits by Dylan, the Turtles, the Beach Boys and the Byrds: [Excerpt: The Surfaris, "All I Really Want to Do"] Usher was also responsible for the Surfaris being the first group to release a version of "Hey Joe" on a major label, as we heard in the episode on that song: [Excerpt: The Surfaris, "Hey Joe"] After moving between Capitol, Mercury, and Decca Records, Usher had left Decca after a round of corporate restructuring and been recommended for a job at Columbia by his friend Melcher, who at that point was producing Paul Revere and the Raiders and the Rip Chords and had just finished his time as the Byrds' producer. Usher's first work at Columbia was actually to prepare new stereo mixes of some Byrds tracks that had up to that point only been issued in mono, but his first interaction with the Byrds themselves came via Gene Clark: [Excerpt: Gene Clark, "So You Say You've Lost Your Baby"] On leaving the Byrds, Clark had briefly tried to make a success of himself as a songwriter-for-hire in much the same mould as Usher, attempting to write and produce a single for two Byrds fans using the group name The Cookie Fairies, while spending much of his time romancing Michelle Phillips, as we talked about in the episode on "San Francisco". When the Cookie Fairies single didn't get picked up by a label, Clark had put together a group with Bill Rinehart from the Leaves, Chip Douglas of the Modern Folk Quartet, and Joel Larson of the Grass Roots. Just called Gene Clark & The Group, they'd played around the clubs in LA and cut about half an album's worth of demos produced by Jim Dickson and Ed Tickner, the Byrds' management team, before Clark had fired first Douglas and then the rest of the group. Clark's association with Douglas did go on to benefit him though -- Douglas went on, as we've seen in other episodes, to produce hits for the Turtles and the Monkees, and he later remembered an old song by Clark and McGuinn that the Byrds had demoed but never released, "You Showed Me", and produced a top ten hit version of it for the Turtles: [Excerpt: The Turtles, "You Showed Me"] Clark had instead started working with two country singers, Vern and Rex Gosdin, who had previously been with Chris Hillman in the country band The Hillmen. When that band had split up, the Gosdin Brothers had started to perform together as a duo, and in 1967 they would have a major country hit with "Hangin' On": [Excerpt: The Gosdin Brothers, "Hangin' On"] At this point though, they were just Gene Clark's backing vocalists, on an album that had been started with producer Larry Marks, who left Columbia half way through the sessions, at which point Usher took over. The album, titled Gene Clark with the Gosdin Brothers, featured a mix of musicians from different backgrounds. There were Larson and Rinehart from Gene Clark and the Group, there were country musicians -- a guitarist named Clarence White and the banjo player Doug Dillard. Hillman and Michael Clarke, the Byrds' rhythm section, played on much of the album as a way of keeping a united front, Glen Campbell, Jerry Cole, Leon Russell and Jim Gordon of the Wrecking Crew contributed, and Van Dyke Parks played most of the keyboards. The lead-off single for Gene Clark with the Gosdin Brothers, "Echoes", is one of the tracks produced by Marks, but in truth the real producer of that track is Leon Russell, who wrote the orchestral arrangement that turned Clark's rough demo into a baroque pop masterpiece: [Excerpt: Gene Clark, "Echoes"] Despite Clark having quit the band, relations between him and the rest were still good enough that in September 1966 he temporarily rejoined the band after Crosby lost his voice, though he was gone again as soon as Crosby was well. But that didn't stop the next Byrds album, which Usher went on to produce straight after finishing work on Clark's record, coming out almost simultaneously with Clark's and, according to Clark, killing its commercial potential. Upon starting to work with the group, Usher quickly came to the conclusion that Chris Hillman was in many ways the most important member of the band. According to Usher "There was also quite a divisive element within the band at that stage which often prevented them working well together. Sometimes everything would go smoothly, but other times it was a hard road. McGuinn and Hillman were often more together on musical ideas. This left Crosby to fend for himself, which I might add he did very well." Usher also said "I quickly came to understand that Hillman was a good stabilising force within the Byrds (when he wanted to be). It was around the time that I began working with them that Chris also became more involved in the songwriting. I think part of that was the fact that he realised how much more money was involved if you actually wrote the songs yourself. And he was a good songwriter." The first single to be released from the new sessions was one that was largely Hillman's work. Hillman and Crosby had been invited by the great South African jazz trumpeter Hugh Masekela to play on some demos for another South African jazzer, singer Letta Mbulu. Details are sparse, but one presumes this was for what became her 1967 album Letta Mbulu Sings, produced by David Axelrod: [Excerpt: Letta Mbulu, "Zola (MRA)"] According to Hillman, that session was an epiphany for him, and he went home and started writing his own songs for the first time. He took one of the riffs he came up with to McGuinn, who came up with a bridge inspired by a song by yet another South African musician, Miriam Makeba, who at the time was married to Masekela, and the two wrote a lyric inspired by what they saw as the cynical manipulation of the music industry in creating manufactured bands like the Monkees -- though they have both been very eager to say that they were criticising the industry, not the Monkees themselves, with whom they were friendly. As Hillman says in his autobiography, "Some people interpreted it as a jab at The Monkees. In reality, we had immense respect for all of them as singers and musicians. We weren't skewering the members of the Monkees, but we were taking a shot at the cynical nature of the entertainment business that will try to manufacture a group like The Monkees as a marketing strategy. For us, it was all about the music, and we were commenting on the pitfalls of the industry rather than on any of our fellow musicians." [Excerpt: The Byrds, "So You Want to be a Rock 'n' Roll Star?"] The track continued the experimentation with sound effects that they had started with the Lear jet song on the previous album. That had featured recordings of a Lear jet, and "So You Want to be a Rock 'n' Roll Star?" featured recordings of audience screams. Those screams were, according to most sources, recorded by Derek Taylor at a Byrds gig in Bournemouth in 1965, but given reports of the tepid response the group got on that tour, that doesn't seem to make sense. Other sources say they're recordings of a *Beatles* audience in Bournemouth in *1963*, the shows that had been shown in the first US broadcast of Beatles footage, and the author of a book on links between the Beatles and Bournemouth says on his blog "In the course of researching Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Beatles & Bournemouth I spoke to two people who saw The Byrds at the Gaumont that August and neither recalled any screaming at all, let alone the wall of noise that can be heard on So You Want To Be A Rock 'n' Roll Star." So it seems likely that screaming isn't for the Byrds, but of course Taylor had also worked for the Beatles. According to Usher "The crowd sound effects were from a live concert that Derek Taylor had taped with a little tape recorder in London. It was some outrageous crowd, something like 20,000 to 30,000 people. He brought the tape in, ran it off onto a big tape, re- EQ'd it, echoed it, cleaned it up and looped it." So my guess is that the audience screams in the Byrds song about the Monkees are for the Beatles, but we'll probably never know for sure: [Excerpt: The Byrds, "So You Want to be a Rock 'n' Roll Star?"] The track also featured an appearance by Hugh Masekela, the jazz trumpeter whose invitation to take part in a session had inspired the song: [Excerpt: The Byrds, "So You Want to be a Rock 'n' Roll Star?"] While Hillman was starting to lean more towards folk and country music -- he had always been the member of the band least interested in rock music -- and McGuinn was most interested in exploring electronic sounds, Crosby was still pushing the band more in the direction of the jazz experimentation they'd tried on "Eight Miles High", and one of the tracks they started working on soon after "So You Want to be a Rock 'n' Roll Star?" was inspired by another jazz trumpet great. Miles Davis had been partly responsible for getting the Byrds signed to Columbia, as we talked about in the episode on "Mr. Tambourine Man", and so the group wanted to pay him tribute, and they started working on a version of his classic instrumental "Milestones": [Excerpt: Miles Davis, "Milestones"] Sadly, while the group worked on their version for several days -- spurred on primarily by Crosby -- they eventually chose to drop the track, and it has never seen release or even been bootlegged, though there is a tiny clip of it that was used in a contemporaneous documentary, with a commentator talking over it: [Excerpt: The Byrds, "Milestones (TV)"] It was apparently Crosby who decided to stop work on the track, just as working on it was also apparently his idea. Indeed, while the biggest change on the album that would become Younger Than Yesterday was that for the first time Chris Hillman was writing songs and taking lead vocals, Crosby was also writing more than before. Hillman wrote four of the songs on the album, plus his co-write with McGuinn on "So You Want to be a Rock 'n' Roll Star?", but Crosby also supplied two new solo compositions, plus a cowrite with McGuinn, and Crosby and McGuinn's "Why?", the B-side to "Eight Miles High", was also dug up and rerecorded for the album. Indeed, Gary Usher would later say "The album was probably 60% Crosby. McGuinn was not that involved, nor was Chris; at least as far as performing was concerned." McGuinn's only composition on the album other than the co-writes with Crosby and Hillman was another song about contacting aliens, "CTA-102", a song about a quasar which at the time some people were speculating might have been evidence of alien life. That song sounds to my ears like it's had some influence from Joe Meek's similar records, though I've never seen McGuinn mention Meek as an influence: [Excerpt: The Byrds, "CTA-102"] Crosby's growing dominance in the studio was starting to rankle with the other members. In particular two tracks were the cause of conflict. One was Crosby's song "Mind Gardens", an example of his increasing experimentation, a freeform song that ignores conventional song structure, and which he insisted on including on the album despite the rest of the group's objections: [Excerpt: The Byrds, "Mind Gardens"] The other was the track that directly followed "Mind Gardens" on the album. "My Back Pages" was a song from Dylan's album Another Side of Bob Dylan, a song many have seen as Dylan announcing his break with the folk-song and protest movements he'd been associated with up to that point, and his intention to move on in a new direction: [Excerpt: Bob Dylan, "My Back Pages"] Jim Dickson, the Byrds' co-manager, was no longer on speaking terms with the band and wasn't involved in their day-to-day recording as he had been, but he'd encountered McGuinn on the street and rolled down his car window and suggested that the group do the song. Crosby was aghast. They'd already recorded several songs from Another Side of Bob Dylan, and Fifth Dimension had been their first album not to include any Dylan covers. Doing a jangly cover of a Dylan song with a McGuinn lead vocal was something they'd moved on from, and he didn't want to go back to 1964 at the end of 1966. He was overruled, and the group recorded their version, a track that signified something very different for the Byrds than the original had for Dylan: [Excerpt: The Byrds, "My Back Pages"] It was released as the second single from the album, and made number thirty. It was the last Byrds single to make the top forty. While he was working with the Byrds, Usher continued his work in the pop field, though as chart pop moved on so did Usher, who was now making records in a psychedelic sunshine pop style with acts like the Peanut Butter Conspiracy: [Excerpt: The Peanut Butter Conspiracy, "It's a Happening Thing"] and he produced Chad and Jeremy's massive concept album Of Cabbages and Kings, which included a five-song "Progress Suite" illustrating history from the start of creation until the end of the world: [Excerpt: Chad and Jeremy, "Editorial"] But one of the oddest projects he was involved in was indirectly inspired by Roger McGuinn. According to Usher "McGuinn and I had a lot in common. Roger would always say that he was "out of his head," which he thought was good, because he felt you had to go out of your head before you could really find your head! That sums up McGuinn perfectly! He was also one of the first people to introduce me to metaphysics, and from that point on I started reading everything I could get my hands on. His viewpoints on metaphysics were interesting, and, at the time, useful. He was also into Marshall McLuhan; very much into the effects of electronics and the electronic transformation. He was into certain metaphysical concepts before I was, but I was able to turn him onto some abstract concepts as well" These metaphysical discussions led to Usher producing an album titled The Astrology Album, with discussions of the meaning of different star signs over musical backing: [Excerpt: Gary Usher, "Leo"] And with interviews with various of the artists he was working with talking about astrology. He apparently interviewed Art Garfunkel -- Usher was doing some uncredited production work on Simon and Garfunkel's Bookends album at the time -- but Garfunkel declined permission for the interview to be used. But he did get both Chad and Jeremy to talk, along with John Merrill of the Peanut Butter Conspiracy -- and David Crosby: [Excerpt: Gary Usher, "Leo"] One of the tracks from that album, "Libra", became the B-side of a single by a group of studio musicians Usher put together, with Glen Campbell on lead vocals and featuring Bruce Johnston of the Beach Boys prominently on backing vocals. "My World Fell Down" was credited to Sagittarius, again a sign of Usher's current interest in astrology, and featured some experimental sound effects that are very similar to the things that McGuinn had been doing on recent Byrds albums: [Excerpt: Sagittarius, "My World Fell Down"] While Usher was continuing with his studio experimentation, the Byrds were back playing live -- and they were not going down well at all. They did a UK tour where they refused to play most of their old hits and went down as poorly as on their previous tour, and they were no longer the kings of LA. In large part this was down to David Crosby, whose ego was by this point known to *everybody*, and who was becoming hugely unpopular on the LA scene even as he was starting to dominate the band. Crosby was now the de facto lead vocalist on stage, with McGuinn being relegated to one or two songs per set, and he was the one who would insist that they not play their older hit singles live. He was dominating the stage, leading to sarcastic comments from the normally placid Hillman like "Ladies and gentlemen, the David Crosby show!", and he was known to do things like start playing a song then stop part way through a verse to spend five minutes tuning up before restarting. After a residency at the Whisky A-Go-Go where the group were blown off the stage by their support act, the Doors, their publicist Derek Taylor quit, and he was soon followed by the group's co-managers Jim Dickson and Eddie Tickner, who were replaced by Crosby's friend Larry Spector, who had no experience in rock management but did represent Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper, two young film stars Crosby was hanging round with. The group were particularly annoyed by Crosby when they played the Monterey Pop Festival. Crosby took most lead vocals in that set, and the group didn't go down well, though instrumentally the worst performer was Michael Clarke, who unlike the rest of the band had never become particularly proficient on his instrument: [Excerpt: The Byrds, "So You Want to be a Rock 'n' Roll Star (live at Monterey)"] But Crosby also insisted on making announcements from the stage advocating LSD use and describing conspiracy theories about the Kennedy assassination: [Excerpt: David Crosby on the Warren Commission, from the end of "Hey Joe" Monterey] But even though Crosby was trying to be the Byrds' leader on stage, he was also starting to think that they maybe didn't deserve to have him as their leader. He'd recently been spending a lot of time hanging out with Stephen Stills of the Buffalo Springfield, and McGuinn talks about one occasion where Crosby and Stills were jamming together, Stills played a blues lick and said to McGuinn "Can you play that?" and when McGuinn, who was not a blues musician, said he couldn't, Stills looked at him with contempt. McGuinn was sure that Stills was trying to poach Crosby, and Crosby apparently wanted to be poached. The group had rehearsed intensely for Monterey, aware that they'd been performing poorly and not wanting to show themselves up in front of the new San Francisco bands, but Crosby had told them during rehearsals that they weren't good enough to play with him. McGuinn's suspicions about Stills wanting to poach Crosby seemed to be confirmed during Monterey when Crosby joined Buffalo Springfield on stage, filling in for Neil Young during the period when Young had temporarily quit the group, and performing a song he'd helped Stills write about Grace Slick: [Excerpt: Buffalo Springfield, "Rock 'n' Roll Woman (live at Monterey)"] Crosby was getting tired not only of the Byrds but of the LA scene in general. He saw the new San Francisco bands as being infinitely cooler than the Hollywood plastic scene that was LA -- even though Crosby was possibly the single most Hollywood person on that scene, being the son of an Oscar-winning cinematographer and someone who hung out with film stars. At Monterey, the group had debuted their next single, the first one with an A-side written by Crosby, "Lady Friend": [Excerpt: The Byrds, "Lady Friend"] Crosby had thought of that as a masterpiece, but when it was released as a single, it flopped badly, and the rest of the group weren't even keen on the track being included on the next album. To add insult to injury as far as Crosby was concerned, at the same time as the single was released, a new album came out -- the Byrds' Greatest Hits, full of all those singles he was refusing to play live, and it made the top ten, becoming far and away the group's most successful album. But despite all this, the biggest conflict between band members when they came to start sessions for their next album wasn't over Crosby, but over Michael Clarke. Clarke had never been a particularly good drummer, and while that had been OK at the start of the Byrds' career, when none of them had been very proficient on their instruments, he was barely any better at a time when both McGuinn and Hillman were being regarded as unique stylists, while Crosby was writing metrically and harmonically interesting material. Many Byrds fans appreciate Clarke's drumming nonetheless, saying he was an inventive and distinctive player in much the same way as the similarly unskilled Micky Dolenz, but on any measure of technical ability he was far behind his bandmates. Clarke didn't like the new material and wasn't capable of playing it the way his bandmates wanted. He was popular with the rest of the band as a person, but simply wasn't playing well, and it led to a massive row in the first session: [Excerpt: The Byrds, "Universal Mind Decoder (alternate backing track)"] At one point they joke that they'll bring in Hal Blaine instead -- a reference to the recording of "Mr. Tambourine Man", when Clarke and Hillman had been replaced by Blaine and Larry Knechtel -- and Clarke says "Do it. I don't mind, I really don't." And so that ended up happening. Clarke was still a member of the band -- and he would end up playing on half the album's tracks -- but for the next few sessions the group brought in session drummers Hal Blaine and Jim Gordon to play the parts they actually wanted. But that wasn't going to stop the bigger problem in the group, and that problem was David Crosby's relationship with the rest of the band. Crosby was still at this point thinking of himself as having a future in the group, even as he was increasingly convinced that the group themselves were bad, and embarrassed by their live sound. He even, in a show of unity, decided to ask McGuinn and Hillman to collaborate on a couple of songs with him so they would share the royalties equally. But there were two flash-points in the studio. The first was Crosby's song "Triad", a song about what we would now call polyamory, partly inspired by Robert Heinlein's counterculture science fiction novel Stranger in a Strange Land. The song was meant to portray a progressive, utopian, view of free love, but has dated very badly -- the idea that the *only* reason a woman might be unhappy with her partner sleeping with another woman is because of her mother's disapproval possibly reveals more about the mindset of hippie idealists than was intended. The group recorded Crosby's song, but refused to allow it to be released, and Crosby instead gave it to his friends Jefferson Airplane, whose version, by having Grace Slick sing it, at least reverses the dynamics of the relationship: [Excerpt: Jefferson Airplane, "Triad"] The other was a song that Gary Usher had brought to the group and suggested they record, a Goffin and King song released the previous year by Dusty Springfield: [Excerpt: Dusty Springfield, "Goin' Back"] Crosby was incandescent. The group wanted to do this Brill Building pap?! Hell, Gary Usher had originally thought that *Chad and Jeremy* should do it, before deciding to get the Byrds to do it instead. Did they really want to be doing Chad and Jeremy cast-offs when they could be doing his brilliant science-fiction inspired songs about alternative relationship structures? *Really*? They did, and after a first session, where Crosby reluctantly joined in, when they came to recut the track Crosby flat-out refused to take part, leading to a furious row with McGuinn. Since they were already replacing Michael Clarke with session drummers, that meant the only Byrds on "Goin' Back", the group's next single, were McGuinn and Hillman: [Excerpt: The Byrds, "Goin' Back"] That came out in late October 1967, and shortly before it came out, McGuinn and Hillman had driven to Crosby's home. They told him they'd had enough. He was out of the band. They were buying him out of his contract. Despite everything, Crosby was astonished. They were a *group*. They fought, but only the way brothers fight. But McGuinn and Hillman were adamant. Crosby ended up begging them, saying "We could make great music together." Their response was just "And we can make great music without you." We'll find out whether they could or not in two weeks' time.

I Was a Teenage Frankenstein (1957) Jeff and Cheryl put together the pieces of a broken heart (along with some other parts) for I Was a Teenage Frankenstein. Directed by Herbert L. Strock Written by Aben Kandel and Herman Cohen (as Kenneth Langtry) Produced by Herman Cohen - Santa Rosa Productions Executive producers Samuel Z. Arkoff and James H. Nicholson Starring:Whit Bissell as Professor FrankensteinPhyllis Coates as MargaretRobert Burton as Dr. Karlton Gary Conway as the teenage Frankenstein monster/Bob George Lynn as Sergeant Burns John Cliff as Sergeant McAfee Marshall Bradford as Dr. Randolph Joy Stoner as Arlene Claudia Bryar as Arlene's mother Angela Blake as beautiful girl and Russ Whiteman as Dr. Elwood Produced by Santa Rosa Productions for American International Pictures. Find this movie streaming on Plex and YouTube while it lasts.Our side-by-side comparison of the differences between the US and British edits of I Was a Teenage Frankenstein can be viewed here.Follow the American International Podcast on Letterboxd, Instagram and Threads @aip_pod and on Facebook at facebook.com/AmericanInternationalPodcast.View the I Was a Teenage Frankenstein trailer here.Our open and close includes clips from the following films/trailers: How to Make a Monster (1958), The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962), I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957), High School Hellcats (1958), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), The Wild Angels (1966), It Conquered the World (1956), The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971), and Female Jungle (1955)

The Devil Within Her (1975) AIP Production #7517/7602 Jeff and Cheryl learn how to sedate and exorcise naughty children in The Devil Within Her.Directed by Peter SasdyWritten by Stanley PriceProduced by Nato de Angeles for the Rank Organisation Starring:Joan Collins as Lucy Carlesi Ralph Bates as Gino Carlesi Eileen Atkins as Sister Albana Donald Pleasence as Dr. Finch Hilary Mason as Mrs. Hyde Caroline Munro as Mandy Gregory John Steiner as Tommy Morris George Claydon as Hercules Janet Key as Jill Fletcher Derek Benfield as Police Inspector Stanley Lebor as Police Sergeant Judy Buxton as Sheila Andrew Secombe as delivery boy Floella Benjamin as delivery room nurse Liz Fraser as Mandy (voice only) Produced by the Rank Organisation for American International Pictures. Find this movie available to rent on Prime Video.Follow the American International Podcast on Letterboxd, Instagram and Threads @aip_pod and on Facebook at facebook.com/AmericanInternationalPodcast.View The Devil Within Her TV trailer here. Our open and close includes clips from the following films/trailers: How to Make a Monster (1958), The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962), I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957), High School Hellcats (1958), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), The Wild Angels (1966), It Conquered the World (1956), The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971), and Female Jungle (1955)

Shake, Rattle & Rock (1956)Jeff and Cheryl await the verdict on movies featuring Fats Domino in Shake, Rattle & Rock!Directed by Edward L. CahnWritten by Lou RusoffProduced by Sunset Productions by Alex Gordon and James H. Nicholson Starring:Mike "Touch" Connors as Garry NelsonLisa Gaye as June FitzdingleSterling Holloway as Albert "Axe" McAllisterDouglass Dumbrille as Eustace Fentwick IIIRaymond Hatton as Horace FitzdingleMargaret Dumont as Georgianna FitzdinglePercy Helton as Hiram, the funeral directorPaul Dubov as Bugsy SmithEddie Kafafian as NickCharles Evans as Bill BentleyClarence Kolb as Judge McCombsFats Domino as himselfTommy Charles as himselfJimmy Pickford as EddieLeon Tyler as Aloysius PentigrouchPat Gregory as PatRosie and Carlos as teen dance contest winnersAnnitta Ray as Annita, singing teenGiovanna Fiorino as HelenFrank Jenks as Frank, TV program managerJoe Devlin as squad car officerPierre Watkin as Mr. Armstrong, the editorNancy Kilgas as NancyChoker Campbell as himselfand Big Joe Turner as himselfProduced by Sunset Productions for American International Pictures. Find this movie on Plex, Pluto or Tubi or rent it on Prime Video. Follow the American International Podcast on Letterboxd, Instagram and Threads @aip_pod and on Facebook at facebook.com/AmericanInternationalPodcast. Our open and close includes clips from the following films/trailers: How to Make a Monster (1958), The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962), I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957), High School Hellcats (1958), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), The Wild Angels (1966), It Conquered the World (1956), The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971), and Female Jungle (1955)

Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? (1972) AIP Production #7137 Jeff and Cheryl follow the path of breadcrumbs to solve the mystery of Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?Directed by Curtis HarringtonWritten by Robert Blees and James SangsterWith additional dialogue by Gavin LambertBased on the story by David D. OsbornExecutive Produced by Louis M. HeywardProduced by James H. Nicholson and Samuel Z. Arkoff Starring:Shelley Winters as Mrs. Rosie "Auntie Roo" ForrestMark Lester as Christopher CoombsChloe Franks as Katy CoombsRalph Richardson as Mr. Benton, fake psychicLionel Jeffries as Police Inspector WilloughbyHugh Griffith as Mr. Harrison, the "Pigman"Rosalie Crutchley as Miss HenleyPat Heywood as Dr. MasonJudy Cornwell as Clarine, Aunt Roo's servantMichael Gothard as Albie, Aunt Roo's butlerJacqueline Cowper as Angela, girl at orphanageRichard Beaumont as Peter, boy at orphanageCharlotte Sayce as Katharine Forrest, Auntie Roo's daughterMarianne Stone as Miss Wilcox Produced by American International Pictures and the Hemdale Film Corporation. Find this movie available to stream on Pluto.Follow the American International Podcast on Letterboxd, Instagram and Threads @aip_pod and on Facebook at facebook.com/AmericanInternationalPodcast.View the Whoever Slew Auntie Roo trailer here.Our open and close includes clips from the following films/trailers: How to Make a Monster (1958), The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962), I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957), High School Hellcats (1958), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), The Wild Angels (1966), It Conquered the World (1956), The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971), and Female Jungle (1955)

Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine (1965) AIP Production #6578 Jeff and Cheryl fall through a trap door into a mad scientist's sexy lair in Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine.Directed by Norman TaurogScreenplay by Elwood Ullman and Robert KaufmanStory by James Hartford (James Nicholson)Produced by James H. Nicholson and Samuel Z. Arkoff Starring:Vincent Price as Dr. GoldfootFrankie Avalon as Craig GambleDwayne Hickman as Todd ArmstrongSusan Hart as DianeJack Mullaney as IgorFred Clark as D. J. PevneyAlberta Nelson as Reject No. 12Milton Frome as Motorcycle copHal Riddle as NewsvendorJoe Ploski as Cook Produced by American International Pictures. Find this movie available to rent on Apple TV+, Prime Video or Vudu.Follow the American International Podcast on Letterboxd and Instagram @aip_pod and on Facebook at facebook.com/AmericanInternationalPodcast.View the Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine trailer here.Our open and close includes clips from the following films/trailers: How to Make a Monster (1958), The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962), I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957), High School Hellcats (1958), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), The Wild Angels (1966), It Conquered the World (1956), The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971), and Female Jungle (1955)

S2E8 - The Lost Barbie Episode w/ Muscle Beach Party (1964) & Back to the Beach (1987) In our #Noivember Rain episode, we promised that you'd have a Barbie under your tree for Christmas and here she is! Now that the SAG AFTRA strike is finally over, we can finally post THE LOST BARBIE EPISODE without getting Philena in trouble as Warner Bros' BARBIE was definitely a struck work back when. We did not trim this episode down so you can hear how much the OMFYS crew underestimated the power of pink in our mostly laughable predictions of BARBIE's box office. We also talk about Mattel's history of industrial espionage and the potential for a prestige BRATZ movie. For this episode's movies, we go back to the wildly successful beach party movies of the 60s that inspired Barbie's movie to Malibu with MUSCLE BEACH PARTY (1964). In this second beach movie from American International Pictures, Frankie Avalon and Anette Funicello find their precious strip of sand is overrun by oiled-up body builders who are harshing their vibes! Can they deal??? Bringing the jokes that mostly don't land are Don Rickles, Morey Amsterdam and Buddy Hackett with musical performances by Dick Dale (a regular in the beach party series) and STEVIE WONDER!!! After that Frankie and Annette go BACK TO THE BEACH in 1987, and those jokes do land this time around in this smart and loving satire of the kooky 60s source material. Like BARBIE, Back to the Beach is directed by a woman, Lyndall Hobbs, but it did not get enough love in the late 80s despite two thumbs way up from Siskel AND Ebert. Also starring Connie Stevens and future felon Lori Laughlin along with cameos by a cavalcade of 50s and 60s sitcom stars including Alan Hale Jr. & Bob Denver (The Skipper & Gilligan), Jerry Mathers (the Beaver), Tony Dow (Wally), Barbara Billingsley (Wally and the Beav's mom), and Don Adams (Get Smart) + a PEE WEE HERMAN (rip) showing up to rock SURFIN' BIRD! If all that wasn't enough, we've got DICK DALE and STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN rockin' WIPE OUT and Cory's pals FISHBONE performing Jamaica Ska and dancing through the sand with Annette. This is just a wonderful 80s relic by way of the 60s that everyone should check out. This was one of our most fun episodes, and we really wish we could've gotten it to you when it was still more timely, but we're all about timeless here at OMFYS. BARBIE is definitely that, so we hope the LOST BARBIE EPISODE is too. Wishing everyone a Happy Holidays, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Christmas with enough CBD in your seasonal strains to help you deal with your most difficult aunts and uncles at the family gatherings. And here's hoping for a stony AF New Year. Co-hosts: Philena Franklin, Cory Sklar, Greg Franklin and Bob Calhoun Theme song & Christmas Funk: Chaki the Funk Wizard Barbie commercial audio courtesy of Archive.org Check out our new website: www.oldmoviesforyoungstoners.com Thanks Rosie! Instagram/Facebook (Meta): oldmoviesforyoungstoners Bluesky: @oldmoviesystoners.bsky.social Twitter (X): OM4YStoners Contact: oldmoviesforyoungstoners AT gmail DOT com

Sorority Girl (1957)Jeff and Cheryl pledge the most brutal Greek house in college history in Sorority Girl.Directed by Roger CormanWritten by Leo Lieberman and Ed WatersStory from the play End as a Man by Calder WillinghamProduced by Roger Corman/Sunset Productions Starring:Susan Cabot as Sabra TannerDick Miller as MortBarboura O'Neill as Rita JoyceJune Kenney as TinaFay Baker as Mrs. TannerBarbara Crane as Ellie MarshallJoan Lora as TerryJay Sayer as JugheadJeane Wood as Mrs. Fessenden, the housemotherBeach Dickerson as Terry's boyfriend. Released by American International Pictures. Find this movie available to stream on Pluto, Plex, Tubi or rent on Prime Video.View the Sorority Girl trailer here.Follow the American International Podcast on Letterboxd and Instagram @aip_pod and on Facebook at facebook.com/AmericanInternationalPodcast.Our open and close includes clips from the following films/trailers: How to Make a Monster (1958), The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962), I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957), High School Hellcats (1958), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), The Wild Angels (1966), It Conquered the World (1956), The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971), and Female Jungle (1955)

Dragstrip Girl (1957) Jeff and Cheryl soup up their jalopies and race at dangerous speeds to see Dragstrip Girl. Directed by Edward L. Cahn Written by Lou Rusoff Based on story by Lou Rusoff Produced by Alex Gordon and Executive Produced by Samuel Z. Arkoff Starring:Fay Spain as Louise Blake John Ashley as Fred Armstrong Steve Terrell as Jim Donaldson Frank Gorshin as Tommy Burns Tommy Ivo as Rick Camden Dorothy Bruce as Anna Blake Don Shelton and Sam Blake Russ Bender as the Police Lieutenant Gracia Narciso as Mama Tito Vuolo as Papa Produced by Golden State Productions and distributed by American International Pictures. Find this movie available to stream on Tubi or rent on Prime Video. View the Dragstrip Girl trailer here. Follow the American International Podcast on Letterboxd and Instagram @aip_pod and on Facebook at facebook.com/AmericanInternationalPodcast. Our open and close includes clips from the following films/trailers: How to Make a Monster (1958), The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962), I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957), High School Hellcats (1958), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), The Wild Angels (1966), It Conquered the World (1956), The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971), and Female Jungle (1955)

War Gods of the Deep (1965) AIP Production #6504/6534 Jeff and Cheryl explore an undersea kingdom with a dangerous source of renewable energy. Directed by Jacques Tourneur Screenplay by Charles Bennett and Louis M. Heyward with additional dialogue by David Whitaker Based on "The City in the Sea" by Edgar Allan Poe Produced by George Willoughby and Daniel Haller (Bruton Film productions and AIP.) Starring:Vincent Price as Sir Hugh, The Captain David Tomlinson as Harold Tufnell-Jones Tab Hunter as Ben Harris Susan Hart as Jill Tregillis John Le Mesurier as Rev. Jonathan Ives Henry Oscar as Mumford Derek Newark as Dan Roy Patrick as Simon and Herbert the chicken as herself Produced by Homer Productions and released by American International Pictures. Find this movie available to stream on MGM+ or rent on Prime Video. View the War Gods of the Deep trailer here.Follow the American International Podcast on Letterboxd, Twitter and Instagram @aip_pod and on Facebook at facebook.com/AmericanInternationalPodcast. Our open and close includes clips from the following films/trailers: How to Make a Monster (1958), The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962), I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957), High School Hellcats (1958), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), The Wild Angels (1966), It Conquered the World (1956), The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971), and Female Jungle (1955)

Diary of a Bachelor (1964)AIP Production #6413/6441 Directed by Sandy Howard Written by Ken Barnett Produced by Sandy Howard for Homer Productions; released by American International Pictures Jeff and Cheryl sneak a peak at the private journal of a prolific dater in Diary of a Bachelor. Starring William Traylor as Skip O'Hara Joe Silver as Charlie Barrett Dagne Crane as Joanne Denise Lor as Jane Woods Jan Crockett as Jennifer Watters Susan Dean as Barbara Eleni Kiamos as Angie Pisano Arlene Golonka as Lois Joan Holloway as Nancy Feather Mickey Deems as Barney Washburn Paula Stewart as Carlotta Jones Dom DeLuise as Marvin Rollins Jackie Kannon as Bob Haney Lorna Thatcher as Mrs. O'Hara Produced by Homer Productions and released by American International Pictures. Find this movie available to stream on MGM+ or rent on Prime Video. Follow the American International Podcast on Letterboxd, Twitter and Instagram @aip_pod and on Facebook at facebook.com/AmericanInternationalPodcast. Our open and close includes clips from the following films/trailers: How to Make a Monster (1958), The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962), I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957), High School Hellcats (1958), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), The Wild Angels (1966), It Conquered the World (1956), The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971), and Female Jungle (1955)

The Vampire Lovers (1970)AIP Production #7005 Directed by Roy Ward Baker Screenplay by Tudor Gates, based on ‘Carmilla' by Sheridan Le FanuAdaptation by Harry Fine, Tudor Gates and Michael StyleProduced by Michael Style and Harry Fine for Fantale films/Hammer Films, distributed by AIP Jeff and Cheryl are titillated by the…well, you know, in the Vampire Lovers.Starring Ingrid Pitt as Marcilla/Carmilla/Mircalla KarnsteinPippa Steele as Laura SpielsdorfMadeline Smith as Emma MortonPeter Cushing as General SpielsdorfGeorge Cole as Roger MortonDawn Addams as the CountessKate O'Mara as the governess, Mademoiselle PerrodotDouglas Wilmer as Baron Joachim von HartogJon Finch as Carl EbhardtFerdy Mayne as the doctorKirsten Lindholm as the First Vampire (the blonde woman)John Forbes-Robertson as the Man in BlackShelagh Wilcocks as the housekeeperHarvey Hall as Renton, the butlerJanet Key as Gretchin, the maidCharles Farrell as the landlord Co-produced by Hammer Pictures and American International Pictures. Find this movie streaming on Tubi, Freevee or ScreenPix, or rent it on Vudu.Follow the American International Podcast on Letterboxd, Twitter and Instagram @aip_pod and on Facebook at facebook.com/AmericanInternationalPodcast.View the Vampire Lovers trailer here.Our open and close includes clips from the following films/trailers: How to Make a Monster (1958), The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962), I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957), High School Hellcats (1958), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), The Wild Angels (1966), It Conquered the World (1956), The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971), and Female Jungle (1955)

Crime and Passion (1976) AIP Production #7524 Jeff and Cheryl learn the perils of not checking your cannon before you fire it in Crime and Passion. Directed by Ivan Passer Written by Alan R. Trustman, David M. Wolf and Ivan Passer Based on An Ace Up My Sleeve by James Hadley Chase Produced by Barney Bernhard and Robert L. Abrams. Starring:Omar Sharif as André Ferren Karen Black as Susan Winters Joseph Bottoms as Larry Bernhard Wicki as Hermann Rolf Heinz Ehrenfreund as Henkel Elma Karlowa as Masseuse Volker Prechtel as Gastwirt Erich Padalewski as Autoverkäufer Robert L. Abrams as Mr. Blatt Franz Muxeneder as Priester Margarete Soper as Sylvia Produced by Gloria Pictures and released in the United States by American International Pictures. Find this movie streaming on YouTube as Frankenstein's Spukschloss. Follow the American International Podcast on Letterboxd and Instagram @aip_pod and on Facebook at facebook.com/AmericanInternationalPodcast. View the Crime and Passion television trailer here. Our open and close includes clips from the following films/trailers: How to Make a Monster (1958), The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962), I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957), High School Hellcats (1958), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), The Wild Angels (1966), It Conquered the World (1956), The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971), and Female Jungle (1955)

Blacula (1972) AIP Production #7211 Jeff and Cheryl decide to take up antiquing in the hopes of finding the coffin containing Blacula.Directed by William Crain Screenplay by Joan Torres, Raymond Koenig and Richard Glouner Produced by Power Productions Samuel Z. Arkoff and Joseph T. Naar Starring: William Marshall as Prince Mamuwalde / Blacula Denise Nicholas as Michelle Williams Vonetta McGee as Tina Williams / Luva Gordon Pinsent as Lieutenant Jack Peters Thalmus Rasulala as Dr. Gordon Thomas Emily Yancy as Nancy, The Nightclub Photographer Lance Taylor Sr. as Swenson, The Funeral Director Logan Field as Sergeant Barnes Ted Harris as Bobby McCoy Rick Metzler as Billy Schaffer Ketty Lester as Juanita Jones / Taxi Cabbie Charles Macaulay as Count Dracula Ji-Tu Cumbuka as "Skillet" Elisha Cook, Jr. as Sam, The Morgue Attendant Eric Brotherson as Real Estate Agent The Hues Corporation as Themselves, The Performers At The Nightclub Produced by AIP and the Power Company and released under American International Pictures. Find this movie streaming on Freevee, Pluto or Screenpix or rent it on Prime, Vudu or Apple TV+.Follow the American International Podcast on Letterboxd, Twitter and Instagram @aip_pod and on Facebook at facebook.com/AmericanInternationalPodcast.View the Blacula trailer here.Our open and close includes clips from the following films/trailers: How to Make a Monster (1958), The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962), I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957), High School Hellcats (1958), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), The Wild Angels (1966), It Conquered the World (1956), The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971), and Female Jungle (1955)

Futureworld (1976)AIP Production #7612 Jeff and Cheryl start saving up for an out-of-this-world adventure in Futureworld.Directed by Richard T. Heffron Written by Mayo Simon, George Schenck Produced by Paul N. Lazarus III, James T. Aubrey for the Aubrey Company and distributed by AIP Starring: Peter Fonda as Chuck Browning Blythe Danner as Tracy Ballard aka Socks Arthur Hill as Dr. Duffy Yul Brynner as the Gunslinger John Ryan as Dr. Morton Schneider Stuart Margolin as Harry Croft James M. Connor as Clark the robot Allen Ludden as game show host Robert Cornthwaite as Mr. Reed Angela Greene as Mrs. Reed Darrell Larson as Eric Nancy Bell as Erica Bert Conroy as Mr. Karnovsky Dorothy Konrad as Mrs. Karnovsky John Fujioka as Mr. Takaguchi Dana Lee as Mr. Takaguchi's aideJim Antonio as Ron Thurlow Produced by The Aubrey Company and released under American International Pictures. Find this movie streaming on Screenpix, Tubi, Pluto or Plex or rent it on Prime or Apple TV+. Follow the American International Podcast on Letterboxd, Twitter and Instagram @aip_pod and on Facebook at facebook.com/AmericanInternationalPodcast. View the Futureworld trailer here.Our open and close includes clips from the following films/trailers: How to Make a Monster (1958), The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962), I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957), High School Hellcats (1958), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), The Wild Angels (1966), It Conquered the World (1956), The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971), and Female Jungle (1955)

The Hand (1960)AIP Production #6018 Jeff and Cheryl poke at the holes in the plot as two London detectives try to unravel the mystery and finger the killer in The Hand.Directed by Henry CassWritten by Ray Cooney and Tony HiltonProduced by Bill Luckwell Starring:Derek Bond as Roberts / Roger CrawshawRonald Leigh-Hunt as Inspector MunyardRay Cooney as Sgt. David PollittReed De Rouen as Michael John BrodieBryan Coleman as George AdamsWalter Randall as Japanese commanderTony Hilton as Police Sgt. Paul FosterHarold Scott as Charlie TaplowGwenda Ewen as Nurse JohnsMichael Moore as Dr. MetcalfeRonald Wilson as DoctorGarard Green as Dr. Simon CrawshawJean Dallas as Nurse GeiberDavid Blake Kelly as Jay MarshallReginald Hearne as Noel BrodieMadeleine Burgess as Mrs. Brodie Produced by Walton Studios and released in the United States under American International Pictures. Find this movie streaming on YouTube or rent it on Amazon Prime.Follow the American International Podcast on Letterboxd, Twitter and Instagram @aip_pod and on Facebook at facebook.com/AmericanInternationalPodcast. Our open and close includes clips from the following films/trailers: How to Make a Monster (1958), The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962), I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957), High School Hellcats (1958), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), The Wild Angels (1966), It Conquered the World (1956), The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971), and Female Jungle (1955)

The Food of the Gods (1976) AIP Production #7608 Jeff and Cheryl look into personal growth through dietary changes in The Food of the Gods.Directed by Bert I. Gordon Written by Bert I. Gordon, based on a portion of the novel by HG Wells Produced by Samuel Z. Arkoff and Bert I. Gordon Starring: Marjoe Gortner as Morgan Pamela Franklin as Lorna Ralph Meeker as Jack Bensington Jon Cypher as Brian Ida Lupino as Mrs. Skinner Belinda Balaski as Rita Tom Stovall as Thomas John McLiam as Mr. Skinner Chuck Courtney as Davis Reg Tunnicliffe as ferry attendant Produced and released under American International Pictures. Find this movie streaming on Tubi, Pluto or Plex or rent it on Vudu.Follow the American International Podcast on Letterboxd, Twitter and Instagram @aip_pod and on Facebook at facebook.com/AmericanInternationalPodcast.View The Food of the Gods trailer at here. Our open and close includes clips from the following films/trailers: How to Make a Monster (1958), The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962), I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957), High School Hellcats (1958), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), The Wild Angels (1966), It Conquered the World (1956), The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971), and Female Jungle (1955)

The Amityville Horror (1979)AIP Production #7904 Jeff and Cheryl watch the housing market rise and fall thanks to a pesky demon incursion in The Amityville Horror. Directed by Stuart Rosenberg Screenplay by Sandor Stern Based on the book The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson Produced by Elliot Geisinger and Ronald Saland for American International Pictures Starring: James Brolin as George Lutz Margot Kidder as Kathleen 'Kathy' Lutz Rod Steiger as Father Francis 'Frank' Delaney Don Stroud as Father Bolen Murray Hamilton as Father Ryan John Larch as Father Nuncio Natasha Ryan as Amy Lutz K. C. Martel as Greg Lutz Meeno Peluce as Matt Lutz Michael Sacks as Jeff Helen Shaver as Carolyn Amy Wright as Jackie, The Babysitter Val Avery as Sergeant Gionfriddo Elsa Raven as Mrs. Townsend Irene Dailey as Aunt Helena Marc Vahanian as Jimmy Ellen Saland as Jimmy's Wife Eddie Barth as Agucci James Tolkan as Coroner Produced and released under American International Pictures. Find this movie streaming on Max or rent it on Prime Video, Vudu or Apple TV. Follow the American International Podcast on Letterboxd, Twitter and Instagram @aip_pod and on Facebook at facebook.com/AmericanInternationalPodcast. View The Amityville Horror trailer here. Our open and close includes clips from the following films/trailers: How to Make a Monster (1958), The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962), I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957), High School Hellcats (1958), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), The Wild Angels (1966), It Conquered the World (1956), The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971), and Female Jungle (1955)

Frankenstein Conquers the World (1966) AIP Production #6601/6608Jeff and Cheryl are ringside as the amazing colossal Frankenstein fights his nemesis, Baragon, both above and below ground. Directed by Ishirō HondaScreenplay by Takeshi KimuraStory by Reuben Bercovitch and Jerry SohlProduced by Tomoyuki Tanaka for Toho Enterprises, Henry G. Saperstein Enterprises Starring:Nick Adams as Dr. James BowenTadao Takashima as Dr. Ken'ichiro KawajiKumi Mizuno as Dr. Sueko TogamiYoshio Tsuchiya as Mr. KawaiJun Tazaki as Military AdvisorYoshifumi Tajima as MurataTakashi Shimura as Hiroshima surgeonSusumu Fujita as Osaka Police ChiefPeter Mann as Dr. RiesendorfKeiko Sawai as Tazuko TowoiKoji Furuhata as FrankensteinHaruo Nakajima as Baragon Produced by Toho Enterprises, Henry G. Saperstein Enterprises and released under American International Pictures. Find this movie streaming on the Criterion Channel. Follow the American International Podcast on Letterboxd, Twitter and Instagram @aip_pod and on Facebook at facebook.com/AmericanInternationalPodcast. View the Frankenstein Conquers the World trailer here. Our open and close includes clips from the following films/trailers: How to Make a Monster (1958), The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962), I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957), High School Hellcats (1958), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), The Wild Angels (1966), It Conquered the World (1956), The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971), and Female Jungle (1955)

Get cozy, ghouls! This week's episode is all about Roger Corman's cozy spin on HP Lovecraft starring Vincent Price; The Haunted Palace (1963). From wiki: “The Haunted Palace is a 1963 horror film released by American International Pictures, starring Vincent Price, Lon Chaney Jr. and Debra Paget (in her final film), in a story about a village held in the grip of a dead necromancer. The film was directed by Roger Corman and is one of his series of eight films largely based on the works of American author Edgar Allan Poe.”  But first: Josh and Dru go to the West side! Drusilla is Lovecraft's great great grandniece or something. Drusilla watched The Erl King (1931) directed by Marie-Louise Iribe on Criterion.  Josh watched the first film by an obscure director named Steven Spielberg called Duel and became a men's rights activist. (Kidding!) Also mentioned: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Häxan, Jean Cocteau, Hell Comes to Frog Town, Guy Maddin, Kenneth Anger, Road Games, The Vanishing Point, Death Proof, Jaws, Tenebrae, Scooby Doo, Elisha Cook Jr., Lair of the White Worm, The Haunting of Julia, cozy horror, Joe Dante, Alan Arkush, The Sentinel, and more! NEXT WEEK: The Cremator (1969) Website: http://www.bloodhauspod.comTwitter: https://twitter.com/BloodhausPodInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/bloodhauspod/Email: bloodhauspod@gmail.comDrusilla's art: https://www.sisterhydedesign.com/Drusilla's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hydesister/Drusilla's Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/drew_phillips/Joshua's website: https://www.joshuaconkel.com/Joshua's Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/joshuaconkel.bsky.socialInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/joshua_conkel/Joshua's Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/joshuaconkel   

Sergeant Deadhead (1965)AIP Production #6510/6553 Jeff and Cheryl perform an interstellar experiment to determine if two Frankie Avalons are better than one in Sergeant Deadhead.Directed by Norman TaurogWritten by Louis M. HeywardProduced by James H. Nicholson and Samuel Z. Arkoff Starring Frankie Avalon as Sergeant O. K. Deadhead/Sergeant DonovanDeborah Walley as Airman Lucy TurnerCesar Romero as Admiral StonehamFred Clark as Gen. Rufus FoggGale Gordon as Captain WeiskopfHarvey Lembeck as Private McEvoyJohn Ashley as Private FilroyBuster Keaton as Private BlinkenReginald Gardiner as Lieutenant Commander TalbottEve Arden as Lieutenant KinseyPat Buttram as The PresidentDonna Loren as Susan Produced by Alta Vista Productions and released under American International Pictures. Find this movie streaming on Amazon Prime, MGM+ or on Spectrum TV.Follow the American International Podcast on Letterboxd, Twitter and Instagram @aip_pod and on Facebook at facebook.com/AmericanInternationalPodcast.Our open and close includes clips from the following films/trailers: How to Make a Monster (1958), The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962), I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957), High School Hellcats (1958), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), The Wild Angels (1966), It Conquered the World (1956), The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971), and Female Jungle (1955)

Record City (1977) AIP Production #7714 Jeff and Cheryl track a day in the life of the weirdest and wackiest purveyors of popular music in the Greater Los Angeles area in Record City.Directed by Dennis Steinmetz Written by Ron Friedman Produced by James T. Aubrey and Joe Byrne for The Aubrey Company Music by Freddie Perren Starring Jeff Altman as Engineer Leonard Barr as Sickly Man Ed Begley Jr. as Pokey Sorrell Booke as Coznowski Dennis Bowen as Danny Ruth Buzzi as Olga Michael Callan as Eddie Jack Carter as Manny Rick Dees as Gordon Kinky Friedman as Himself Stuart Getz as Rupert Alice Ghostley as Worried Wife Tony Giorgio as Mr. F Frank Gorshin as Chameleon Maria Grimm as Rita John Halsey as Priest In The Fetus Brothers Joe Higgins as Doyle Ted Lange as The Wiz Alan Oppenheimer as Blind Man Isaac Ruiz as MachoHarold Sakata as GucciWendy Schaal as LorraineLarry Storch as Deaf ManElliott Street as HitchTimothy Thomerson as MartySusan Tolsky as GoldieDeborah White as VivianHart Wiliams as Razzie Pee WilliePamela Zinszer as Surfer GirlJoe Abdullah as Arab Sheik Produced by The Aubrey Company and released under American International Pictures. Find this movie streaming on MGM+ or on Prime Video.Follow the American International Podcast on Letterboxd, Twitter and Instagram @aip_pod and on Facebook at facebook.com/AmericanInternationalPodcast.View the Record City trailer here.Our open and close includes clips from the following films/trailers: How to Make a Monster (1958), The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962), I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957), High School Hellcats (1958), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), The Wild Angels (1966), It Conquered the World (1956), The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971), and Female Jungle (1955)

In this episode, I spoke with the author Chris Alexander on his book Corman/Poe: Interviews and Essays Exploring the Making of Roger Corman's Edgar Allan Poe Films, 1960-1964. Produced on modest budgets for American International Pictures, Roger Corman's adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe stories were popular in their time as escapist horror cinema. Most starred horror icon Vincent Price and were written (and "freely adapted") by the likes of Richard Matheson, Charles Beaumont and Robert Towne.

The Last Man on Earth (1964) AIP Production #6424 Jeff and Cheryl daydream about what it would be like to not have to deal with traffic or grocery store queues in The Last Man on Earth. Directed by Sidney Salkow and Ubaldo B. RagonaScreenplay by Logan Swanson and William F. LeicesterItalian version: Furio M. Monetti and Ubaldo B. Ragona Based on I Am Legend by Richard Matheson Produced by Robert L. Lippert Starring: Vincent Price as Dr. Robert Morgan Franca Bettoia as Ruth Collins Emma Danieli as Virginia Morgan Giacomo Rossi-Stuart as Ben Cortman Umberto Rau as Dr. Mercer Christi Courtland as Kathy Morgan Tony Corevi as the governor Hector Ribotta as the TV reporter Carolyn De Fonseca, uncredited, dubbed Franca Bettoia's voice in the English release of the filmProduced by Associated Producers, Produzioni La Regina and AIP and released under American International Pictures. Find this movie streaming on Tubi, the Roku channel, Plex, etc., or rent it on Prime, Apple TV+ or Vudu.Follow the American International Podcast on Letterboxd, Twitter and Instagram @aip_pod and on Facebook at facebook.com/AmericanInternationalPodcast.View The Last Man on Earth trailer here.Our open and close includes clips from the following films/trailers: How to Make a Monster (1958), The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962), I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957), High School Hellcats (1958), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), The Wild Angels (1966), It Conquered the World (1956), The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971), and Female Jungle (1955)

It Conquered the World (1956) Jeff and Cheryl prepare for Earth's invasion by a terrifying creature straight from the salad bar in It Conquered the World.Produced by Sunset Productions for American International PicturesProduced and Directed by Roger CormanWritten by Lou Rusoff and Charles B. Griffith (uncredited) Starring:Peter Graves as Dr. Paul NelsonLee Van Cleef as Dr. Tom AndersonBeverly Garland as Claire AndersonSally Fraser as Joan NelsonRuss Bender as General James PattickTaggart Casey as Sheriff N.J. ShallertKaren Kadler as Dr. Ellen PetersDick Miller as Sgt. NeilJonathan Haze as Corporal Manuel OrtizPaul Harbor as Dr. Floyd MasonCharles B. Griffith as Dr. Pete SheltonThomas E. Jackson as George HaskellMarshall Bradford as Secretary PlattDavid McMahon as General CarpenterPaul Blaisdell as The Monster (uncredited) Produced and released under American International Pictures.Find this movie streaming (if you can) or get a bootleg VHS version from someone on the dark web. Follow the American International Podcast on Letterboxd, Twitter and Instagram @aip_pod and on Facebook at facebook.com/AmericanInternationalPodcast.View the It Conquered the World trailer here.Our open and close includes clips from the following films/trailers: How to Make a Monster (1958), The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962), I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957), High School Hellcats (1958), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), The Wild Angels (1966), It Conquered the World (1956), The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971), and Female Jungle (1955)