Podcasts about easy riders

Send us a Text Message.Welcome to another thrilling episode of "What About Vietnam"! Today, we're hitting the brakes for a moment to give you an insider's glimpse into the exhilarating world of motorbiking around this stunning country. Join us as we explore essential safety tips and uncover unforgettable routes that will make your journey truly remarkable!Guest InsightsBen Mitchell shares expert advice on navigating Vietnam's roads. His years of riding and local knowledge is gold.Chris Pantelli recounts his recent tour in northern Vietnam and shares with us his insights and new found passion for Vietnam.Key Points raised you won't want to miss:-Safety First Always wear a full-face helmet Hear advice around the nuances of Vietnamese drivers – bike and car Licensing and InsuranceVietnamese motorbike licensing required for legal drivingFines for riding without a licenseProper insurance coverage is crucialTravel OptionsGuided tours vs. self-guided adventuresGuided tour options for less experienced riders to VietnamBest Routes and ExperiencesHo Chi Minh Highway for scenic viewsNorthern Vietnam's stunning landscapesExploring rural villages and fishing communitiesPractical TipsBest times to travel in different regionsPacking essentials for long ridesWhether you're an experienced rider or a curious traveller, motorbiking in Vietnam offers an unparalleled adventure. From the bustling cities to remote mountain passes, this mode of transport unlocks the true essence of Vietnam. Links to some tour companies, mentioned in the showBen's Top 3 motorbike Tour Companies - OnyabikAdventures in Hoi An- Easy Rider - - https://www.easy-riders.net/- Adrenaline Rush Trail (ART) In Saigon- Cuong's Motorcycle Adventures. Cường is the original offroad outfit and the true King Of The NorthChris's tour company mentioned:-ADV motorcycle tours and dirt bike travel - https://www.dirtbiketravel.com/enduro-motorbike-toursSelf touring – Check out https://www.vietnamcoracle.com/Awesome maps and local advice many riders swear by. Thank you for listening. Give us a review on your podcast channel - Apple is easiest.Follow our social pages on FB, IG,LinkedIn and TikTokLet me design your customised private tour of Vietnam - See our new Travel ServicesWe have a new partnership which is helping support this podcast. If you have a Dental Procedure why not find out what's possible through What About Vietnam's beauty travel partner Worldwide Beauty Hospital. Check out our website here, contact us direct; speak to Kelley at WAV, as she has been a dental patient for 10 years, or mention #whataboutvietnam to receive 5% discount at Worldwide Beauty Hospital What have you got to lose? Get your FREE consult today.

Put on your spectacles, nerds! We're talking some long-form PROSE in this episode. Our subject today is Peter Biskind's Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock 'N' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood. That's right, not a MOVIE like we typically feature on this podcast, but a BOOK instead. We aim to give you a tour through the thrilling yet crass world Biskind maps out in this book and also take time check in with ourselves as to our general impressions of the Movie Brats. Topics include: Bogdanovich vs. Platt, Coppola's megalomania, and crocodile tears for a dead pig.

This week, we've got the one and only Becky Goebel aka  @actuallyitsaxel in studio to share some stories and insight from her incredible career in the motorcycle industry over the yearsSpecializing primarily in the motorcycle industry - Becky is a full-time journalist, content producer, event producer, brand ambassador, on-screen motorcyclist, entrepreneur, emcee, bike builder, and beyond.Beckys experience has lead her to be featured on the cover of 5 magazines & published in over 30 publications including Marie Claire, VICE, EasyRiders, and HOG Magazine, appear in numerous television shows including CW's Riverdale and AMC's RIDE with Norman Reedus, appear in numerous music videos, and has taken her around the world to shoot brand campaigns in Europe, Mexico, Japan and more.Becky is the first woman to complete a motorcycle as an Invited Builder for Born Free Show. Her bikes are available to be rented for shoots. Becky has 6 bikes available including a 1948 Harley Davidson Panhead Show Bike and the Harley Davidson Sportster used for Beyonce's Feature in British Vogue June 2022.WHERE TO FIND BECKYwww.actuallyitsaxel.comhttps://www.youtube.com/@actuallyitsaxel -  @actuallyitsaxel https://www.instagram.com/co.axelhttps://www.instagram.com/actuallyitsaxel/OUR WEBSITE: https://2lanelife.com/ USE CODE: "YOUTUBE" FOR 10% OFF OF PARTS & ACCESSORIES2LANELIFE INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/2lanelife/GAYLIN'S INSTAGRAM - https://www.instagram.com/xerox57/LANCE'S INSTAGRAM - https://www.instagram.com/biglancec/JOSH'S INSTAGRAM - https://www.instagram.com/imridingplaces/Want to SAVE on EagleRider Rentals? - CLICK HEREABOUT 2LANELIFEWe travel the country on our Harley-Davidson motorcycles, exploring some of the best roads the country has to offer. Our goal is to share all of the neat history and attractions across the back roads, a.k.a. the 2Lanes of America using a cinematic approach unique to our experiences. Along this journey, we meet tons of amazing people, and learn something new every time. We are here to inspire travel!Friends:Thrashin' SupplyLegend SuspensionsCustom Dynamics Motorcycle LightingEagleRider Motorcycle Rentals & Tours Feuling PartsKlock WerksCobra USAMaxima Racing OilsBell HelmetsSaddlem...

Cinema: The Bikeriders  Something in the Water STREAMING:  Trigger Warning (Netflix) We Were the Lucky Ones (Disney+) Black Barbie (Netflix) Power of the Dream (Prime Video) Federer: Twelve Final Days (Prime Video) America's Sweethearts: Dallas Texas Cowboys (Netflix) Outstanding: A Comedy Revolution (Netflix) The End We Start From (Netflix) Agents of Mystery (Netflix) Gangs of Galicia (Netflix) James Blunt: One Brit Wonder (Netflix) NEW MUSIC: Avril Lavigne – Greatest Hits Lankum – Live in Dublin NEW BOOKS: The Other Valley by Scott Alexander Howard

EPISODE #419-- What happens when New Hollywood meets Old Hollywood? A spree killing, apparently. And repurposed stock footage from some Roger Corman schlock (RIP). We're talking Peter Bogdonavich's TARGETS from 1968. We also talk about how a lot of old heads helped inspire the new (and also how Peter Bogdonavich was kind of a massive sack of garbage, human being-wise). We also talk about George Miller's BEYOND THUNDERDOME (1985) and FURIOSA (2024), as well as Michael Bay's own debut picture, BAD BOYS (1995). In Cruz's Cinema Corner, he talks about THE AMERICAN FRIEND by Wim Wenders and DUNE 2 from this year. Lots of good stuff. Nice little spread of cinema. Join the cause at Patreon.com/Quality. Follow the us on Twitter @kislingtwits, on Bluesky at kislingconnection.bsky, on Instagram @kislingwhatsit, and on Tiktok @kislingkino. You can watch Cruz and show favorite Alexis Simpson on You Tube in "They Live Together." Thanks to our artists Julius Tanag (http://www.juliustanag.com) and Sef Joosten (http://spexdoodles.tumblr.com). The theme music is "Eine Kleine Sheissemusik" by Drew Alexander. Listen to DRACULA: A RADIO PLAY on Apple Podcasts, at dracularadio.podbean.com, and at the Long Beach Playhouse at https://lbplayhouse.org/show/dracula And, as always, Support your local unions! UAW, SAG-AFTRA, and WGA strong and please leave us a review on iTunes or whatever podcatcher you listened to us on!

This week I'm thrilled to be joined by Peter Biskind to discuss his new book, Pandora's Box: How Guts, Guile, and Greed Upended TV. From the rise of HBO to the streaming boom, how we watch TV—and what gets shown on TV—has radically changed over the last few decades. We discuss the role of technology, advertising, and changing audience tastes, and muse about the role TV's antiheroes played in paving the way for Donald Trump. If you're a fan of Biskind's previous books, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls and Down and Dirty Pictures, you'll love Pandora's Box. (If you haven't read Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, do yourself a favor and pick up a copy today.) And if you enjoyed this podcast, please share it with a friend!

Resort Spotlight: Les 7 Laux (Les Sept Laux) LOCATION Very close to the city of Grenoble, just up in the Belledonne mountain range in the Dauphiné Alps. Drive into the city of Grenoble in around 30-40 minutes traffic permitting and the airport is just over a one hour's drive away too. Chambery is also just 50 kms away, so another option for flying in and then driving from Calais would normally take about 8.5 hours. The train would be London-Paris-Lyon-Grenoble and then a taxi or a bus from there. Not too difficult because you get pretty close in Grenoble and whilst that might not be for everyone...could do a nice little stop over on the way too. THE SKI AREA  There's 120 km's of ski trails that link up three separate villages, there's about 22 ski lifts, mostly chairs and some drag lifts plus a gondola too, and 90% of the lifts are 10 years old or newer.  Within that 120 km's there's 45 individual ski trails that include green, blue, red and black, so genuinely something for every level of skier and snowboarder . It is mostly blues and reds, but there's 7 black runs so pretty significant and it has the largest freeride area in the region including the The Vallons du Pra trail which is basically a marked off-piste route.  The beginner's terrain is extensive and separate from the main ski area and then there's a nice progression onto green runs after that. The majority of runs are blue and red so we are talking about all this freeride terrain but at the end of the day it's beginners and intermediates that actually get the best deal here.  SKI SCHOOLS  There's the ESF, ESI: Pro 7 school that also offers freestyle and freeride lessons and a dedicated snowboard school called Slash  and another called Easy Riders. They all say they have English speaking instructors.SNOW RECORDVillage is 1350, and it goes up to 2400 metres, that's more than a 1,000 metre vertical and with its location they get good snowfalls through the winter and well into spring here.  A lot of the slopes are north westerly facing so they hold the snow well.THE VILLAGES  The main village is Prapoutel and it's where most of the accommodation and facilities are. It's mostly self-catered accommodation and there's a good choice of both value and higher end places to stay and it's easy to walk around – it's not tiny in any sense but it's not like a massive town either. It does have that sort of purpose built feel, but in a nice way and the views across the valley are fantastic.Why is it called Les 7 (seven) Laux?It was founded in the 1960's / 70's by a group formed of 7 communes in the area.Where do I go for a pint?O'Bar BUWhat about a bit of Tartiflette ?Le Rocher Blanc Prices for the actual holiday?A starting price of around £1500 for the whole apartment for a week and that includes a return Eurotunnel fare peakretreats.co.uk or call them on 023 9283 9310Peak Retreats is the French Alps specialist and they have been organising holidays in the French Alps for over 20 years. They have multiple awards pretty much on a yearly basis and they are ABTA bonded. In the meantime Happy Skiing :). Please do leave a review it's the only way other like minded skiers get to find us! And don't forget to check us out on the following channels inthesnow.comyoutube.com/inthesnowmagfacebook.com/inthesnowinstagram.com/inthesnowand contact us with your suggestions for further episodes at hello@InTheSnow.com

Bob Bitchin rode with various motorcycle clubs back in the 1970's and 80's, created the tabloid Biker News, Tattoo Magazine, edited Big Bike, Choppers, Chopper Guide, and Easy Riders, and was contributing editor to Forbes, Penthouse, Hustler, and New Look, and Created Lattitudes and Attitudes Magazine. He has written a number of books including Biker to Sailor, Letters From The Lost Soul, The Sailing Life, Brotherhood of Outlaws, BIKER, Emerald Bay, King Harbor, Starboard Attitude, DORF, and Grand Bay. We talk about being a biker, riding with motorcycle clubs, brotherhood, drugs, quitting drugs, sailing, Sons of Anarchy, his book "Brotherhood of Outlaws," informants, contracts, and much more.

Wouter Post in gesprek met filmregisseur en scenarioschrijver Martin Koolhoven, bekend van 'Het schnitzelparadijs', 'Oorlogswinter' en 'Brimstone'. Bronnen en links bij deze uitzending: De officiële trailer van 'Napoleon': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAZWXUkrjPc De film 'Waterloo', Sergej Bondartsjoek (1970): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DcWJrzK0wU Trailer van 'Napoleon', Abel Gance (1927): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6504eRh5h6M Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace, in de vertaling van Aylmer and Louise Maude: https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/2600 Een deel van de film 'Citizen Kane', Orson Welles (1941): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74ol6mKC3aY Bart van Loo, 'Napoleon. De schaduw van de revolutie' (2014): https://www.bartvanloo.info/site/portfolio/napoleon/ 'Easy Riders, Raging Bulls', Peter-Biskind (1998): https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Easy-Riders-Raging-Bulls/Peter-Biskind/9780684857084 De officiële trailer van '1917', Sam Mendes (2019): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqNYrYUiMfg De officiële trailer van 'Titane', Julia Ducournau (2021): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R67Lt-4PYb4 Originele trailer van 'Easy Rider', Dennis Hopper (1969): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlfpTppsR0U De officiële trailer van 'Taxidriver', Martin Scorsese (1976): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5IligQP7Fo Binnenkort in première bij de VPRO, 'Koolhoven presenteert': https://www.vpro.nl/programmas/koolhoven-presenteert.html

"This brisk, blistering account of how streaming has changed where we put our eyeballs is classic binge-worthy reading. I had no idea the people involved in creating culture-altering shows are as entertaining as the shows themselves, but Peter Biskind did, and you'll never look at them same way again."-Steven Soderbergh Bestselling author of Easy Riders, Raging Bulls and Down and Dirty Pictures, cultural critic Peter Biskind turns his eye toward the new golden age of television, sparked by the fall of play-it-safe network TV and the rise of boundary-busting cable, followed by streaming, which overturned both-based on exclusive, candid, and colorful interviews with executives, writers, showrunners, directors, and actors We live in the era of "Peak TV," in which television has seized the entertainment mantle from movies and dominates our leisure time. How-and why-did this happen? Just as he looked at the renegade filmmakers of the 1970s in his bestselling classic Easy Riders, Raging Bulls and at the rise of independent films in the 1990s in Down and Dirty Pictures, now acclaimed cultural critic Peter Biskind turns his sharp-eyed attention to the so-called "golden age of television" in his latest, PANDORA'S BOX: How Guts, Guile, and Greed Upended TV (William Morrow; on sale November 7, 2023; 384 pages, $32.50; ISBN 978-0-06-299166-9). Instead of focusing on one service, like HBO, PANDORA'S BOX asks, "What did HBO do, besides give us The Sopranos?" The answer: It gave us a revolution. The Sopranos marked the beginning of the turn away from play-it-safe network TV, ushering in an era of boundary-busting cable shows like Mad Men, Breaking Bad, The Americans, and more. Biskind bites off a big chunk of entertainment history, following HBO from its birth into maturity, moving on to the basic cablers like FX and AMC, and ending with the streamers and their wars, pitting Netflix against Amazon Prime Video, Max, and the killer pluses-Disney, Apple TV, and Paramount.

Tim and Jen finally give the departed William Friedkin a proper sendoff with a discussion of his once-maligned masterpiece, Sorcerer. Guest Darren Herczeg provides his usual able assistance.To clear up an anecdote Jen related during the episode: she says that Paramount president Charles Bluhdorn freaked out when he spotted himself in the group photo of oil company executives in a scene from Sorcerer. The source of this story is screenwriter Walon Green, who describes Bluhdorn as having had a "shit hemorrhage" during the screening. However, a review of the offending scene reveals only other Gulf+Western execs, not Bluhdorn."To me, they looked like a bunch of thugs," Friedkin said (as quoted in Peter Biskind's Easy Riders, Raging Bulls).Catch the documentary Friedkin Uncut on Tubi, where the man himself evokes Hitler in the first five minutes. We'll miss you, Billy. Have You Seen This? BONUS episodes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Bestselling author of "Easy Riders, Raging Bulls and Down and Dirty Pictures," cultural critic Peter Biskind turns his eye toward the new golden age of television in "Pandora's Box: How Guts, Guile, and Greed Upended TV." There will be a Book Release Celebration for Peter Biskind at Spencertown Academy on Sunday at 2 p.m.

"This brisk, blistering account of how streaming has changed where we put our eyeballs is classic binge-worthy reading. I had no idea the people involved in creating culture-altering shows are as entertaining as the shows themselves, but Peter Biskind did, and you'll never look at them same way again."-Steven Soderbergh Bestselling author of Easy Riders, Raging Bulls and Down and Dirty Pictures, cultural critic Peter Biskind turns his eye toward the new golden age of television, sparked by the fall of play-it-safe network TV and the rise of boundary-busting cable, followed by streaming, which overturned both-based on exclusive, candid, and colorful interviews with executives, writers, showrunners, directors, and actors We live in the era of "Peak TV," in which television has seized the entertainment mantle from movies and dominates our leisure time. How-and why-did this happen? Just as he looked at the renegade filmmakers of the 1970s in his bestselling classic Easy Riders, Raging Bulls and at the rise of independent films in the 1990s in Down and Dirty Pictures, now acclaimed cultural critic Peter Biskind turns his sharp-eyed attention to the so-called "golden age of television" in his latest, PANDORA'S BOX: How Guts, Guile, and Greed Upended TV (William Morrow; on sale November 7, 2023; 384 pages, $32.50; ISBN 978-0-06-299166-9). Instead of focusing on one service, like HBO, PANDORA'S BOX asks, "What did HBO do, besides give us The Sopranos?" The answer: It gave us a revolution. The Sopranos marked the beginning of the turn away from play-it-safe network TV, ushering in an era of boundary-busting cable shows like Mad Men, Breaking Bad, The Americans, and more. Biskind bites off a big chunk of entertainment history, following HBO from its birth into maturity, moving on to the basic cablers like FX and AMC, and ending with the streamers and their wars, pitting Netflix against Amazon Prime Video, Max, and the killer pluses-Disney, Apple TV, and Paramount.

In this episode, we spoke with Emmy-nominated Cinematographer Martina Radwan. Martina has shot award-winning documentaries including The Last Year, Food and Country, The Social Dilemma, How to Survive a Pandemic, Hot Coffee, Arthur Miller: Writer, Saving Face, Tomorrow, Tomorrow, Tomorrow, and episodes of American Masters, Frontline, Independent Lens, and P.O.V. On the narrative front, her films include The Killing Floor, Personal Velocity, Love Liza, Nico Icon, and Wim Wenders' Until the End of The World. In our chat, she shares her journey shooting projects all over the world, how she learned her craft, and insights on the art of documentary filmmaking today.The Making Of is presented by AJA Video Systems:AJA ColorBox: A powerhouse for color conversionPerform LUT-based color transformations with powerful video processing using AJA ColorBox in live, on-set, and post production environments. The compact device, which features 12G-SDI in/out and HDMI 2.0 out, provides advanced-level color science via the AJA Color Pipeline, as well as support for Colorfront, ORION-CONVERT, BBC, and NBCU color management approaches. Learn more here: www.aja.com/colorboxZEISS introduces their new camera tracking systemWith CinCraft Scenario, ZEISS presents a new, powerful and flexible camera tracking system as part of their CinCraft ecosystem. Built upon NCAM's unique tracking technology and ZEISS' expertise in lens data, the camera tracking system introduces a user experience designed to match the film crew's workflow and ease of use. Learn more hereFilm Book of the Month:The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of HollywoodChinatown is the Holy Grail of 1970s cinema. Its twist ending is the most notorious in American film and its closing line of dialogue the most haunting. Here for the first time is the incredible true story of its making. Looming over the story of this classic movie is the imminent eclipse of the '70s filmmaker-friendly studios as they gave way to the corporate Hollywood we know today. In telling that larger story, The Big Goodbye will take its place alongside classics like Easy Riders, Raging Bulls and The Devil's Candy as one of the great movie-world books ever written. Get a copy hereOWC Thunderbolt Go DockThe OWC Thunderbolt Go Dock is the first of its kind, full-featured Thunderbolt dock with a built-in power supply and 11 ports, for additional ease and connectivity while on the Go. It's a one-dock solution that works with all past, present and future Thunderbolt and USB devices and accessories. Browse hereGreat Film & TV Music at No Cost to You!All you need to do is provide music cue sheets for your qualified projects. It's Really That Simple.  In addition to most TV Shows and Feature Films, even TV Pilots can qualify. We're not talking about music that sounds like it should be free, this is cutting-edge underscore used daily on a global basis by Hollywood's Major Film & TV Studios. Visit us herePodcast Rewind:October 2023 - Ep. 20…The Making Of is published by Michael Valinsky.To promote your products or services to over 7,700 leading film & TV industry pros reading this newsletter, email us at mvalinsky@me.com Get full access to The Making Of at themakingof.substack.com/subscribe

American Grooves, explores the origins of at least TWO versions of the Easy Rider musical myth- and it didn't originate with a motorcycle! From Sam McGee and Barbecue Bob to Mae West, with a bit of Jelly Roll Morton thrown in to set you on year ear! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/american-grooves-hour/support

#108 – Kino Kults filmas ne tikai skatās, bet par tām arī lasa! Jā, mēs ne mirkli nevaram bez kino, tāpēc tēmas, kas saistītas par un ap to, mēdz ielavīties arī mūsu lasāmsarakstos, un šoreiz padalīsimies ar dažiem ieteikumiem, ko palasīt, ja interesē aizkulišu stāsti un ne tikai! Visus ieteikumus atradīsiet arī paša apraksta beigās, lai tas, kas ieintersē, vēlāk ir vieglāk atrodams. Šajā raidījumā: Miniziņas, jo nekas baigi interesants nav noticis streiku dēļ (00:03:10); Ko mēs esam izlasījuši (00:20:00). Montāža: Toms Cielēns. Minētās grāmatas: "Alien", "Aliens" – Alan Dean Foster "DisneyWar" – James B. Stewart "Down and Dirty Pictures: Miramax, Sundance, and the Rise of Independent Film", "Easy Riders, Raging Bulls" – Peter Biskind "The Greatest Sci-Fi Movies Never Made", "Tales From Development Hell" – David Hughes "The Grip of Film" – Richard Ayoade "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" – Brian Selznick "The Last Action Heroes: The Triumphs, Flops, and Feuds of Hollywood's Kings of Carnage" – Nick de Semlyen "The Men Who Would Be King" – Nicole LaPorte "Nothing Lasts Forever" – Roderick Thorp "Radiance" – Catherynne M. Valente "Rebel Without a Crew" – Robert Rodriguez "Steve Jobs" – Walter Isaacson

What is it like to experience emotions without being able to identify their sources? What happens when a person feels intense self-loathing but cannot articulate why—even as his star rises? Join Mike and Dan for an extended conversation about Raging Bull, Martin Scorsese's 1980 masterpiece and a film that it took the guys three years of podcasting to get the nerve to tackle. Dan explains why Raging Bull is a film that Flannery O'Connor would have admired; Mike talks about what happens when the violence confined by sports to a specific place spills over into other spaces; both debate the degree to which Jake can understand himself at the end of the film. As a portrait of a soul in distress, Raging Bull is one of the best. Peter Biskind's terrific Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock 'N' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood tells the story of how Raging Bull was made and how it marked the end of one of the greatest eras in American film. Follow us on Twitter or Letterboxd. Incredible bumper music by John Deley. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

What is it like to experience emotions without being able to identify their sources? What happens when a person feels intense self-loathing but cannot articulate why—even as his star rises? Join Mike and Dan for an extended conversation about Raging Bull, Martin Scorsese's 1980 masterpiece and a film that it took the guys three years of podcasting to get the nerve to tackle. Dan explains why Raging Bull is a film that Flannery O'Connor would have admired; Mike talks about what happens when the violence confined by sports to a specific place spills over into other spaces; both debate the degree to which Jake can understand himself at the end of the film. As a portrait of a soul in distress, Raging Bull is one of the best. Peter Biskind's terrific Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock 'N' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood tells the story of how Raging Bull was made and how it marked the end of one of the greatest eras in American film. Follow us on Twitter or Letterboxd. Incredible bumper music by John Deley. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What is it like to experience emotions without being able to identify their sources? What happens when a person feels intense self-loathing but cannot articulate why—even as his star rises? Join Mike and Dan for an extended conversation about Raging Bull, Martin Scorsese's 1980 masterpiece and a film that it took the guys three years of podcasting to get the nerve to tackle. Dan explains why Raging Bull is a film that Flannery O'Connor would have admired; Mike talks about what happens when the violence confined by sports to a specific place spills over into other spaces; both debate the degree to which Jake can understand himself at the end of the film. As a portrait of a soul in distress, Raging Bull is one of the best. Peter Biskind's terrific Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock 'N' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood tells the story of how Raging Bull was made and how it marked the end of one of the greatest eras in American film. Follow us on Twitter or Letterboxd. Incredible bumper music by John Deley. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/film

In the glorious days of the 70s and early 80s in the US, there was a birth of auteurs and a move towards independent films and away from huge legacy studio systems. Just a few of the names associated with this movement, captured controversially by author Peter Biskind in his book Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, were Peter Bogdanovich, Francis Ford Coppola, Brian De Palma, Steven Spielberg, and George Lucas. All have made film that is memorialized as some of the finest or most ground-breaking in history. All have had, not only success, but their share of misses, as one must when aiming high. But joining them and others in their auteur cohort is a producer and especially a director who, I believe, has changed American and world cinema. A writer, director, producer, actor, conservator of film, a film historian. A man whose background and family bent him, luckily for us, in the direction of the dreams of cinema. And a director who has had to pull himself up repeatedly to make important films, who has gone from critical and monetary successes to works that were underappreciated in their time or missed their audience completely. Martin Scorsese. email: David@thosewonderfulpeople.comWebsite and blog: www.thosewonderfulpeople.comIG: @thosewonderfulpeopleTwitter: @FilmsInTheDark

Since encountering a grass snake at the age of eight, Dr Rhys Jones has felt a profound connection with reptiles. He has rescued them, toured the country with them and even studied them at Cardiff University; an achievement that seemed impossible when he graduated from school with just 3 O Levels - and undiagnosed dyslexia. In this adventure-packed chat with Olly, Rhys reveals how his snake-charming skills have come in handy with Masai tribespeople, BBC camera crews, and even assisting the Police with drug busts. Rhys' memoir, ‘Becoming Dr Jones: A Wild Life', is released on Aug 3rd.  _____________ Meanwhile, in the Zeitgeist, Ollie Peart - having taken a gander at Meta's ‘Twitter killer', Threads - turns his hand to eFoiling. Boosted by a 2.5 hr battery and speeds of up to 50 km/hr, is electric hydrofoil riding about to revolutionise watersports? Ollie heads to Poole's Easy Riders to find out, aboard an ‘aeroplane grade' Fliteboard… If you have a trend you'd like to challenge Ollie to investigate in a future episode, fill in the Feedback form on our website, MODERNMANN.CO.UK. _____________________ Elsewhere, in the Foxhole, Alix Fox considers Roam's selection of skin tone condoms - a welcome addition to diverse bedroom play, or an unnecessary innovation? Her listener question of the month comes from an anonymous 34 year-old MannFan recently diagnosed with rectal cancer.  What impact will the radiation therapy, chemotherapy and surgery have on her sex life? What tips can Alix offer to offset the vaginal scarring, early on-set menopause and fatigue that may result? And how do you maintain body positivity during sex with a stoma? With help from Bowel Cancer UK, Trekstock, and Hayley Gullen - author of upcoming graphic novel ‘This Might Surprise You' - Alix investigates. If you have a question of sex you'd like Alix to answer, fill in the Feedback form on our website, MODERNMANN.CO.UK. You can remain anonymous if you wish. _____________________ In music corner, our Record of the Month comes from ‘people's poet' Jamie Webster, and his new single, ‘Voice of the Voiceless'  _____________________ We're an entirely independent show and we rely on LISTENERS LIKE YOU to fund our podcast and bring our monthly extravaganza to your ears.  Buy us a beer, drop us a line and become a Mannbassador on our website, MODERNMANN.CO.UK … And we'll see you again on August 10th - with our annual ‘How To Be A Dad' special! _____________________ Presenter: Olly Mann. Contributors: Ollie Peart, Alix Fox, Dr Rhys Jones, Jamie Webster. Producer: Matt Hill. Theme Music: ‘Skies Over Cairo' by Django Django. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Copyright: Olly Mann / Rethink Audio 2023. Sponsor: BetterHelp. Get started today and enjoy 10% off your first month of convenient and affordable therapy when you visit https://betterhelp.com/mann Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, we welcomed one of the most talented Gaffers in the business, Mr. Jeff Murrell. Jeff joined us to share about his life and work on films including True Lies, Get Shorty, Men in Black, Gone in 60 Seconds, Lords of Dogtown, Live Free or Die Hard, Ted, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, Seberg, Godzilla vs. Kong, The Tomorrow War, and Megalopolis! We learned about how Jeff got started in the business, how he learned his craft, his thoughts on the latest lighting technologies, and advice for new filmmakers.The Making Of is presented by AJA Video Systems:As color pipelines evolve, the AJA FS-HDR and ColorBox keep pace. At NAB 2023, AJA announced support for the latest ARRI LogC4 color science along with updated Colorfront Live and TV Modes for real time SDR / HDR color space conversions. More information at www.aja.com/family/colorRemembering Bryce It was just one month ago, on May 19th, 2023, that we lost a longtime friend and colleague, Bryce Button. Bryce was an incredibly smart, warm and generous person — and helped provide priceless advice over the years and as we launched this podcast. A heartfelt Thank You to Bryce for all your support and friendship. We will miss you.Film Festival of the Month:Mallorca Film Festival — October 18-24, 2023The Evolution Mallorca Int'l Film Festival enters its 12th edition with a clear mission — Bridging Cultures, Bridging People. The festival is recognized as "One of Europe's 10 Most Exciting Film Festivals" by The Guardian, as MovieMaker's “Top 50 Film Festivals Worth The Entry Fee” six years in a row, and appears on the 100 Best Reviewed Film Festival list on FilmFreeway.com! EMIFF is helping shape a creative community, encouraging independent filmmakers to network and thrive in this idyllic Mediterranean island paradise. More at evolutionfilmfestival.comZEISS Conversations with Jonathan Ingalls The next installment of ZEISS Conversations is coming up on Thursday, June 29 at 12pm PDT/ 3pm EDT! Their latest exciting episode is with Jonathan Ingalls, the renowned expert in the field of Documentary Cinematography. They'll start the conversation with his latest project: "100 Years of Warner Bros.," shot on ZEISS CP.3 and CZ.2 Cinema Zooms. At the end, they'll have time to cover other favorites such as “Blackfish,” “The Imagineering Story,” and they'll take questions from the audience. Register hereFilm Book of the MonthTo kick off our summer book series, we begin with Easy Riders, Raging Bulls.“When the low-budget biker movie Easy Rider shocked Hollywood with its success in 1969, a new Hollywood era was born. This was an age when talented young filmmakers such as Scorsese, Coppola, and Spielberg, along with a new breed of actors, including De Niro, Pacino, and Nicholson, became the powerful figures who would make such modern classics as The Godfather, Chinatown, Taxi Driver, & Jaws. Easy Riders, Raging Bulls follows the wild ride that was Hollywood in the '70s — an unabashed celebration of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll (both onscreen and off) and a climate where innovation and experimentation reigned supreme. Based on hundreds of interviews with the directors themselves, producers, stars, agents, writers, studio executives, spouses, and ex-spouses, this is the full, candid story of Hollywood's last golden age.” Pick up a copy hereOWC Thunderbolt Go DockThe OWC Thunderbolt Go Dock is the first of its kind, full-featured Thunderbolt dock with a built-in power supply and 11 ports, for additional ease and connectivity while on the Go. It's a one-dock solution that works with all past, present and future Thunderbolt and USB devices and accessories. Browse herePodcast Rewind:May 2023 - Episode IX…Note: photo in thumbnail taken by Phil Caruso. On set of Megalopolis.The Making Of is created and hosted by Michael Valinsky.Reach out anytime at mvalinsky@me.com Get full access to The Making Of at themakingof.substack.com/subscribe

This week's show is a fantastic mix of Rock and Blues, a fantastic playlist for your Sunday morning ride out! We listen to some amazing artists including Rolling Stones, Lonnie Mac, Cinderella, Motorhead, and more.......but all with a twist of the blues.... Take a tour on your motorcycle and stick in your headphones with this week's Ride Time radio, find out all the latest from Easy Rider Tenerife, and catch up with the last motorcycle meeting in the south. Ride Time Radio is Easy Riders' very own radio show, aired across the canary islands every Sunday courtesy of Atlantico radio and sponsored by Rock n Hopz Craft Beer and Burger bar in El Medano. Easy Rider Tenerife - Southcoast. Motorcycle Rental Tenerife Edf. Clara Toledo, Local 5/6, Calle Moraditas, Las Chafiras, Tenerife, 38639. We are above Banco Santander!   Easy Rider Tenerife - Westcoast Motorcycle Rental Tenerife Puerto De La Cruz Office, C/ Candias Bajas 29 C.P 38312, La Orotava, Tenerife.   CONTACT US Guides: +34 639 845 346 Office: +34 922 703 793 Emergency: +34 686 017 773 Breakdown Service: +34 900 101 369 Email - ride@easyridertenerife.com Web - easyridertenerife.com Guided Tour Packages https://tenerifemotorcycletours.com     RADIO SHOW: Ride Time Radio Atlantico FM Santa Cruz • 88.3 FM La Laguna • 91.7 FM Zona sur • 94.7 FM Zona Norte • 88.1 FM Icod de los Vinos • 102.6 FM Every Sunday at 8pm   Socials: Youtube - youtube.com/channel/UC6YnHt4X1b4cI4ChvvFw0ug Instagram - @easyridertenerifeclassicbikes Facebook - Easy Rider Tenerife Twitter - twitter.com/easytenerife Podcast - easyridertenerife.podbean.com Linktree - linktr.ee/Easyridertenerife  Buy Me A Beer: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/EasyT   As seen on Freddie Dobbs…https://youtu.be/XITU0GMAnWc . .⁣ .⁣ #easyridertenerife #tenerife #canaryislands #motorcycles #motorcycleholidays #motorcyclesofinstagram #motorcyclerentals #motorcycletours #tenerifeexcursions

(5/19/23) Market performance vs economic data: This is a White-collar Recession; the AI narrative has created a positive fever in Tech stocks. Janet Yellen's Only Fans plan; Where do you place your money now for the least risk? The importance of Financial Plan Matching. Is there industry pressure for ESG? Need for Investment Policy Statement to include, "no ESG." Book: "Capitalist Punishment;" "Green Smuggling" noted by Committee to Unleash Posterity; financial managers pushing for political agendas over profits for customers. Is your portfolio being "greenwashed:" no product change, but higher "ESG" fees? How a charitable giving strategy would work w ESG; Candid Coffee preview; Touring Texas; "Easy Riders" redux: "ESG Rider?" Activities w Kids, and a generation that's moving away from social media (Generation Alpha). SEG-1: This is a White-Collar Recession SEG-2: Janet Yellen's Only Fans & Financial Plan Matching SEG-3: Is ESG Investing DOA? SEG-4: Charitable Giving Strategies & ESG Investing Hosted by RIA Advisors Director of Financial Planning, Richard Rosso, CFP, w Senior Advisor Danny Ratliff, CFP Produced by Brent Clanton, Executive Producer -------- Watch today's show on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zpbNF_feEE&list=PLVT8LcWPeAugpcGzM8hHyEP11lE87RYPe&index=1 -------- The latest installment of our new feature, Before the Bell | "Is It Too Late to Get Into AI Trades?" is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uN009ZF1WM&list=PLwNgo56zE4RAbkqxgdj-8GOvjZTp9_Zlz&index=1 -------- Our previous show is here: "Have We Already Gone Through a Recession that Didn't Register?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-PJcFnut-Q&list=PLVT8LcWPeAugpcGzM8hHyEP11lE87RYPe&index=1&t=4s -------- Register for our next Candid Coffee: "Breaking Your Money Malaise this Summer:" https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/1116747842950/WN_ht5MHKFTSX2kRo0__-DtLw ------- Articles Mentioned in Today's Show: "Headwinds To Lower Bond Yields" https://realinvestmentadvice.com/headwinds-to-lower-bond-yields "The AI Revolution. A Repeat Of History." https://realinvestmentadvice.com/the-ai-revolution-a-repeat-of-history/ ------- Get more info & commentary: https://realinvestmentadvice.com/newsletter/ -------- SUBSCRIBE to The Real Investment Show here: http://www.youtube.com/c/TheRealInvestmentShow -------- Visit our Site: https://www.realinvestmentadvice.com Contact Us: 1-855-RIA-PLAN -------- Subscribe to SimpleVisor: https://www.simplevisor.com/register-new -------- Connect with us on social: https://twitter.com/RealInvAdvice https://twitter.com/LanceRoberts https://www.facebook.com/RealInvestmentAdvice/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/realinvestmentadvice/ #InvestingAdvice #Recession #ESG #WhiteCollarRecession #ESGInvesting #CharitableGiving #FinancialPlanMatching #JanetYellen #AI #Markets #Money #Investing

(5/19/23) Market performance vs economic data: This is a White-collar Recession; the AI narrative has created a positive fever in Tech stocks. Janet Yellen's Only Fans plan; Where do you place your money now for the least risk? The importance of Financial Plan Matching. Is there industry pressure for ESG? Need for Investment Policy Statement to include, "no ESG." Book: "Capitalist Punishment;" "Green Smuggling" noted by Committee to Unleash Posterity; financial managers pushing for political agendas over profits for customers. Is your portfolio being "greenwashed:" no product change, but higher "ESG" fees? How a charitable giving strategy would work w ESG; Candid Coffee preview; Touring Texas; "Easy Riders" redux: "ESG Rider?" Activities w Kids, and a generation that's moving away from social media (Generation Alpha). SEG-1: This is a White-Collar Recession SEG-2: Janet Yellen's Only Fans & Financial Plan Matching SEG-3: Is ESG Investing DOA? SEG-4: Charitable Giving Strategies & ESG Investing Hosted by RIA Advisors Director of Financial Planning, Richard Rosso, CFP, w Senior Advisor Danny Ratliff, CFP Produced by Brent Clanton, Executive Producer -------- Watch today's show on our YouTube channel:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zpbNF_feEE&list=PLVT8LcWPeAugpcGzM8hHyEP11lE87RYPe&index=1 -------- The latest installment of our new feature, Before the Bell | "Is It Too Late to Get Into AI Trades?" is here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uN009ZF1WM&list=PLwNgo56zE4RAbkqxgdj-8GOvjZTp9_Zlz&index=1 --------  Our previous show is here: "Have We Already Gone Through a Recession that Didn't Register?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-PJcFnut-Q&list=PLVT8LcWPeAugpcGzM8hHyEP11lE87RYPe&index=1&t=4s -------- Register for our next Candid Coffee: "Breaking Your Money Malaise this Summer:" https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/1116747842950/WN_ht5MHKFTSX2kRo0__-DtLw ------- Articles Mentioned in Today's Show: "Headwinds To Lower Bond Yields" https://realinvestmentadvice.com/headwinds-to-lower-bond-yields "The AI Revolution. A Repeat Of History." https://realinvestmentadvice.com/the-ai-revolution-a-repeat-of-history/ ------- Get more info & commentary:  https://realinvestmentadvice.com/newsletter/ -------- SUBSCRIBE to The Real Investment Show here: http://www.youtube.com/c/TheRealInvestmentShow -------- Visit our Site: https://www.realinvestmentadvice.com Contact Us: 1-855-RIA-PLAN -------- Subscribe to SimpleVisor: https://www.simplevisor.com/register-new -------- Connect with us on social: https://twitter.com/RealInvAdvice https://twitter.com/LanceRoberts https://www.facebook.com/RealInvestmentAdvice/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/realinvestmentadvice/ #InvestingAdvice #Recession #ESG #WhiteCollarRecession #ESGInvesting #CharitableGiving #FinancialPlanMatching #JanetYellen #AI #Markets #Money #Investing

It's Oscar Week! A week we'll always love… even if we haven't seen the all the movies. Our guest this week is Michael Schulman, author of Oscar Wars, a definitive bio of the awards ceremony and the organization that created it. From the catfights of Joan Fontaine and Olivia de Havilland to the slap heard round the world, this book has it all. Halle Berry, Frank Capra, Steven Spielberg, John Wayne, Dennis Hopper, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls and Citizen Kanes, they are all here and you don't want to miss any of them. We loved every moment of this conversation…and we didn't want you to miss a thing. So, no bookstore again this week, but next week we are back with a bookstore, promise. Books mentioned in the podcast: Play It as It Lays by Joan Didion “Jumpers” by Tad Friend for The New Yorker https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2003/10/13/jumpers Hollywood: The Oral History by Sam Wasson Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M.: Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany's, and the Dawn of the Modern Woman by Sam Wasson

Matt joins us to discuss what he read for the February book club prompt. 00:00 - Book challenge updates from MoMBl regulars and listeners The February Prompt: Read a book about filmmaking of film history. 00: 9:56 - Matt talks about Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock 'N Roll Generation Saved Hollywood. 00:45: 18 - Sam talks about Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War. 01:03:30 - Tessa talks about Hollywood Harmony: Musical Wonder and the Sound of Cinema. The March Prompt: Read a book that takes place over the course of fifty or more years. 01:13:35 - The Romance Reading Sub-Challenge: The Bodyguard by Katherine Center, Souless by Gail Carriger, and The Lotus Palace by Jeannie Lin. Elyse's link for all the films mentioned in Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: https://letterboxd.com/chicken__tendi/list/easy-riders-raging-bulls-filmography-1967/ Join our discord community here: https://t.co/VXKe87hY6g

Episode 162 of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at "Daydream Believer", and the later career of the Monkees, and how four Pinocchios became real boys. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a twenty-minute bonus episode available, on "Born to be Wild" by Steppenwolf. 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 this time, as even after splitting it into multiple files, there are simply too many Monkees tracks excerpted. The best versions of the Monkees albums are the triple-CD super-deluxe versions that used to be available from monkees.com , and I've used Andrew Sandoval's liner notes for them extensively in this episode. Sadly, though, none of those are in print. However, at the time of writing there is a new four-CD super-deluxe box set of Headquarters (with a remixed version of the album rather than the original mixes I've excerpted here) available from that site, and I used the liner notes for that here. Monkees.com also currently has the intermittently-available BluRay box set of the entire Monkees TV series, which also has Head and 33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee. For those just getting into the group, my advice is to start with this five-CD set, which contains their first five albums along with bonus tracks. The single biggest source of information I used in this episode is the first edition of Andrew Sandoval's The Monkees; The Day-By-Day Story. Sadly that is now out of print and goes for hundreds of pounds. Sandoval released a second edition of the book in 2021, which I was unfortunately unable to obtain, but that too is now out of print. If you can find a copy of either, do get one. Other sources used were Monkee Business by Eric Lefcowitz, and the autobiographies of three of the band members and one of the songwriters — Infinite Tuesday by Michael Nesmith, They Made a Monkee Out of Me by Davy Jones, I'm a Believer by Micky Dolenz, and Psychedelic Bubble-Gum by Bobby Hart. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript When we left the Monkees, they were in a state of flux. To recap what we covered in that episode, the Monkees were originally cast as actors in a TV show, and consisted of two actors with some singing ability -- the former child stars Davy Jones and Micky Dolenz -- and two musicians who were also competent comic actors, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork.  The show was about a fictional band whose characters shared names with their actors, and there had quickly been two big hit singles, and two hit albums, taken from the music recorded for the TV show's soundtrack. But this had caused problems for the actors. The records were being promoted as being by the fictional group in the TV series, blurring the line between the TV show and reality, though in fact for the most part they were being made by session musicians with only Dolenz or Jones adding lead vocals to pre-recorded backing tracks. Dolenz and Jones were fine with this, but Nesmith, who had been allowed to write and produce a few album tracks himself, wanted more creative input, and more importantly felt that he was being asked to be complicit in fraud because the records credited the four Monkees as the musicians when (other than a tiny bit of inaudible rhythm guitar by Tork on a couple of Nesmith's tracks) none of them played on them. Tork, meanwhile, believed he had been promised that the group would be an actual group -- that they would all be playing on the records together -- and felt hurt and annoyed that this wasn't the case. They were by now playing live together to promote the series and the records, with Dolenz turning out to be a perfectly competent drummer, so surely they could do the same in the studio? So in January 1967, things came to a head. It's actually quite difficult to sort out exactly what happened, because of conflicting recollections and opinions. What follows is my best attempt to harmonise the different versions of the story into one coherent narrative, but be aware that I could be wrong in some of the details. Nesmith and Tork, who disliked each other in most respects, were both agreed that this couldn't continue and that if there were going to be Monkees records released at all, they were going to have the Monkees playing on them. Dolenz, who seems to have been the one member of the group that everyone could get along with, didn't really care but went along with them for the sake of group harmony. And Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider, the production team behind the series, also took Nesmith and Tork's side, through a general love of mischief. But on the other side was Don Kirshner, the music publisher who was in charge of supervising the music for the TV show. Kirshner was adamantly, angrily, opposed to the very idea of the group members having any input at all into how the records were made. He considered that they should be grateful for the huge pay cheques they were getting from records his staff writers and producers were making for them, and stop whinging. And Davy Jones was somewhere in the middle. He wanted to support his co-stars, who he genuinely liked, but also, he was a working actor, he'd had other roles before, he'd have other roles afterwards, and as a working actor you do what you're told if you don't want to lose the job you've got. Jones had grown up in very severe poverty, and had been his family's breadwinner from his early teens, and artistic integrity is all very nice, but not as nice as a cheque for a quarter of a million dollars. Although that might be slightly unfair -- it might be fairer to say that artistic integrity has a different meaning to someone like Jones, coming from musical theatre and a tradition of "the show must go on", than it does to people like Nesmith and Tork who had come up through the folk clubs. Jones' attitude may also have been affected by the fact that his character in the TV show didn't play an instrument other than the occasional tambourine or maracas. The other three were having to mime instrumental parts they hadn't played, and to reproduce them on stage, but Jones didn't have that particular disadvantage. Bert Schneider, one of the TV show's producers, encouraged the group to go into the recording studio themselves, with a producer of their choice, and cut a couple of tracks to prove what they could do. Michael Nesmith, who at this point was the one who was most adamant about taking control of the music, chose Chip Douglas to produce. Douglas was someone that Nesmith had known a little while, as they'd both played the folk circuit -- in Douglas' case as a member of the Modern Folk Quartet -- but Douglas had recently joined the Turtles as their new bass player. At this point, Douglas had never officially produced a record, but he was a gifted arranger, and had just arranged the Turtles' latest single, which had just been released and was starting to climb the charts: [Excerpt: The Turtles, "Happy Together"] Douglas quit the Turtles to work with the Monkees, and took the group into the studio to cut two demo backing tracks for a potential single as a proof of concept. These initial sessions didn't have any vocals, but featured Nesmith on guitar, Tork on piano, Dolenz on drums, Jones on tambourine, and an unknown bass player -- possibly Douglas himself, possibly Nesmith's friend John London, who he'd played with in Mike and John and Bill. They cut rough tracks of two songs, "All of Your Toys", by another friend of Nesmith's, Bill Martin, and Nesmith's "The Girl I Knew Somewhere": [Excerpt: The Monkees, "The Girl I Knew Somewhere (Gold Star Demo)"] Those tracks were very rough and ready -- they were garage-band tracks rather than the professional studio recordings that the Candy Store Prophets or Jeff Barry's New York session players had provided for the previous singles -- but they were competent in the studio, thanks largely to Chip Douglas' steadying influence. As Douglas later said "They could hardly play. Mike could play adequate rhythm guitar. Pete could play piano but he'd make mistakes, and Micky's time on drums was erratic. He'd speed up or slow down." But the takes they managed to get down showed that they *could* do it. Rafelson and Schneider agreed with them that the Monkees could make a single together, and start recording at least some of their own tracks. So the group went back into the studio, with Douglas producing -- and with Lester Sill from the music publishers there to supervise -- and cut finished versions of the two songs. This time the lineup was Nesmith on guitar, Tork on electric harpsichord -- Tork had always been a fan of Bach, and would in later years perform Bach pieces as his solo spot in Monkees shows -- Dolenz on drums, London on bass, and Jones on tambourine: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "The Girl I Knew Somewhere (first recorded version)"] But while this was happening, Kirshner had been trying to get new Monkees material recorded without them -- he'd not yet agreed to having the group play on their own records. Three days after the sessions for "All of Your Toys" and "The Girl I Knew Somewhere", sessions started in New York for an entire album's worth of new material, produced by Jeff Barry and Denny Randell, and largely made by the same Red Bird Records team who had made "I'm a Believer" -- the same musicians who in various combinations had played on everything from "Sherry" by the Four Seasons to "Like a Rolling Stone" by Dylan to "Leader of the Pack", and with songs by Neil Diamond, Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich, Leiber and Stoller, and the rest of the team of songwriters around Red Bird. But at this point came the meeting we talked about towards the end of the "Last Train to Clarksville" episode, in which Nesmith punched a hole in a hotel wall in frustration at what he saw as Kirshner's obstinacy. Kirshner didn't want to listen to the recordings the group had made. He'd promised Jeff Barry and Neil Diamond that if "I'm a Believer" went to number one, Barry would get to produce, and Diamond write, the group's next single. Chip Douglas wasn't a recognised producer, and he'd made this commitment. But the group needed a new single out. A compromise was offered, of sorts, by Kirshner -- how about if Barry flew over from New York to LA to produce the group, they'd scrap the tracks both the group and Barry had recorded, and Barry would produce new tracks for the songs he'd recorded, with the group playing on them? But that wouldn't work either. The group members were all due to go on holiday -- three of them were going to make staggered trips to the UK, partly to promote the TV series, which was just starting over here, and partly just to have a break. They'd been working sixty-plus hour weeks for months between the TV series, live performances, and the recording studio, and they were basically falling-down tired, which was one of the reasons for Nesmith's outburst in the meeting. They weren't accomplished enough musicians to cut tracks quickly, and they *needed* the break. On top of that, Nesmith and Barry had had a major falling-out at the "I'm a Believer" session, and Nesmith considered it a matter of personal integrity that he couldn't work with a man who in his eyes had insulted his professionalism. So that was out, but there was also no way Kirshner was going to let the group release a single consisting of two songs he hadn't heard, produced by a producer with no track record. At first, the group were insistent that "All of Your Toys" should be the A-side for their next single: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "All Of Your Toys"] But there was an actual problem with that which they hadn't foreseen. Bill Martin, who wrote the song, was under contract to another music publisher, and the Monkees' contracts said they needed to only record songs published by Screen Gems. Eventually, it was Micky Dolenz who managed to cut the Gordian knot -- or so everyone thought. Dolenz was the one who had the least at stake of any of them -- he was already secure as the voice of the hits, he had no particular desire to be an instrumentalist, but he wanted to support his colleagues. Dolenz suggested that it would be a reasonable compromise to put out a single with one of the pre-recorded backing tracks on one side, with him or Jones singing, and with the version of "The Girl I Knew Somewhere" that the band had recorded together on the other. That way, Kirshner and the record label would get their new single without too much delay, the group would still be able to say they'd started recording their own tracks, everyone would get some of what they wanted. So it was agreed -- though there was a further stipulation. "The Girl I Knew Somewhere" had Nesmith singing lead vocals, and up to that point every Monkees single had featured Dolenz on lead on both sides. As far as Kirshner and the other people involved in making the release decisions were concerned, that was the way things were going to continue. Everyone was fine with this -- Nesmith, the one who was most likely to object in principle, in practice realised that having Dolenz sing his song would make it more likely to be played on the radio and used in the TV show, and so increase his royalties. A vocal session was arranged in New York for Dolenz and Jones to come and cut some vocal tracks right before Dolenz and Nesmith flew over to the UK. But in the meantime, it had become even more urgent for the group to be seen to be doing their own recording. An in-depth article on the group in the Saturday Evening Post had come out, quoting Nesmith as saying "It was what Kirshner wanted to do. Our records are not our forte. I don't care if we never sell another record. Maybe we were manufactured and put on the air strictly with a lot of hoopla. Tell the world we're synthetic because, damn it, we are. Tell them the Monkees are wholly man-made overnight, that millions of dollars have been poured into this thing. Tell the world we don't record our own music. But that's us they see on television. The show is really a part of us. They're not seeing something invalid." The press immediately jumped on the band, and started trying to portray them as con artists exploiting their teenage fans, though as Nesmith later said "The press decided they were going to unload on us as being somehow illegitimate, somehow false. That we were making an attempt to dupe the public, when in fact it was me that was making the attempt to maintain the integrity. So the press went into a full-scale war against us." Tork, on the other hand, while he and Nesmith were on the same side about the band making their own records, blamed Nesmith for much of the press reaction, later saying "Michael blew the whistle on us. If he had gone in there with pride and said 'We are what we are and we have no reason to hang our heads in shame' it never would have happened." So as far as the group were concerned, they *needed* to at least go with Dolenz's suggested compromise. Their personal reputations were on the line. When Dolenz arrived at the session in New York, he was expecting to be asked to cut one vocal track, for the A-side of the next single (and presumably a new lead vocal for "The Girl I Knew Somewhere"). When he got there, though, he found that Kirshner expected him to record several vocals so that Kirshner could choose the best. That wasn't what had been agreed, and so Dolenz flat-out refused to record anything at all. Luckily for Kirshner, Jones -- who was the most co-operative member of the band -- was willing to sing a handful of songs intended for Dolenz as well as the ones he was meant to sing. So the tape of "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You", the song intended for the next single, was slowed down so it would be in a suitable key for Jones instead, and he recorded the vocal for that: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You"] Incidentally, while Jones recorded vocals for several more tracks at the session -- and some would later be reused as album tracks a few years down the line -- not all of the recorded tracks were used for vocals, and this later gave rise to a rumour that has been repeated as fact by almost everyone involved, though it was a misunderstanding. Kirshner's next major success after the Monkees was another made-for-TV fictional band, the Archies, and their biggest hit was "Sugar Sugar", co-written and produced by Jeff Barry: [Excerpt: The Archies, "Sugar Sugar"] Both Kirshner and the Monkees have always claimed that the Monkees were offered "Sugar, Sugar" and turned it down. To Kirshner the moral of the story was that since "Sugar, Sugar" was a massive hit, it proved his instincts right and proved that the Monkees didn't know what would make a hit. To the Monkees, on the other hand, it showed that Kirshner wanted them to do bubblegum music that they considered ridiculous. This became such an established factoid that Dolenz regularly tells the story in his live performances, and includes a version of "Sugar, Sugar" in them, rearranged as almost a torch song: [Excerpt: Micky Dolenz, "Sugar, Sugar (live)"] But in fact, "Sugar, Sugar" wasn't written until long after Kirshner and the Monkees had parted ways. But one of the songs for which a backing track was recorded but no vocals were ever completed was "Sugar Man", a song by Denny Randell and Sandy Linzer, which they would later release themselves as an unsuccessful single: [Excerpt: Linzer and Randell, "Sugar Man"] Over the years, the Monkees not recording "Sugar Man" became the Monkees not recording "Sugar, Sugar". Meanwhile, Dolenz and Nesmith had flown over to the UK to do some promotional work and relax, and Jones soon also flew over, though didn't hang out with his bandmates, preferring to spend more time with his family. Both Dolenz and Nesmith spent a lot of time hanging out with British pop stars, and were pleased to find that despite the manufactured controversy about them being a manufactured group, none of the British musicians they admired seemed to care. Eric Burdon, for example, was quoted in the Melody Maker as saying "They make very good records, I can't understand how people get upset about them. You've got to make up your minds whether a group is a record production group or one that makes live appearances. For example, I like to hear a Phil Spector record and I don't worry if it's the Ronettes or Ike and Tina Turner... I like the Monkees record as a grand record, no matter how people scream. So somebody made a record and they don't play, so what? Just enjoy the record." Similarly, the Beatles were admirers of the Monkees, especially the TV show, despite being expected to have a negative opinion of them, as you can hear in this contemporary recording of Paul McCartney answering a fan's questions: Excerpt: Paul McCartney talks about the Monkees] Both Dolenz and Nesmith hung out with the Beatles quite a bit -- they both visited Sgt. Pepper recording sessions, and if you watch the film footage of the orchestral overdubs for "A Day in the Life", Nesmith is there with all the other stars of the period. Nesmith and his wife Phyllis even stayed with the Lennons for a couple of days, though Cynthia Lennon seems to have thought of the Nesmiths as annoying intruders who had been invited out of politeness and not realised they weren't wanted. That seems plausible, but at the same time, John Lennon doesn't seem the kind of person to not make his feelings known, and Michael Nesmith's reports of the few days they stayed there seem to describe a very memorable experience, where after some initial awkwardness he developed a bond with Lennon, particularly once he saw that Lennon was a fan of Captain Beefheart, who was a friend of Nesmith, and whose Safe as Milk album Lennon was examining when Nesmith turned up, and whose music at this point bore a lot of resemblance to the kind of thing Nesmith was doing: [Excerpt: Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band, "Yellow Brick Road"] Or at least, that's how Nesmith always told the story later -- though Safe as Milk didn't come out until nearly six months later. It's possible he's conflating memories from a later trip to the UK in June that year -- where he also talked about how Lennon was the only person he'd really got on with on the previous trip, because "he's a compassionate person. I know he has a reputation for being caustic, but it is only a cover for the depth of his feeling." Nesmith and Lennon apparently made some experimental music together during the brief stay, with Nesmith being impressed by Lennon's Mellotron and later getting one himself. Dolenz, meanwhile, was spending more time with Paul McCartney, and with Spencer Davis of his current favourite band The Spencer Davis Group. But even more than that he was spending a lot of time with Samantha Juste, a model and TV presenter whose job it was to play the records on Top of the Pops, the most important British TV pop show, and who had released a record herself a couple of months earlier, though it hadn't been a success: [Excerpt: Samantha Juste, "No-one Needs My Love Today"] The two quickly fell deeply in love, and Juste would become Dolenz's first wife the next year. When Nesmith and Dolenz arrived back in the US after their time off, they thought the plan was still to release "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You" with "The Girl I Knew Somewhere" on the B-side. So Nesmith was horrified to hear on the radio what the announcer said were the two sides of the new Monkees single -- "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You", and "She Hangs Out", another song from the Jeff Barry sessions with a Davy vocal. Don Kirshner had gone ahead and picked two songs from the Jeff Barry sessions and delivered them to RCA Records, who had put a single out in Canada. The single was very, *very* quickly withdrawn once the Monkees and the TV producers found out, and only promo copies seem to circulate -- rather than being credited to "the Monkees", both sides are credited to '"My Favourite Monkee" Davy Jones Sings'. The record had been withdrawn, but "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You" was clearly going to have to be the single. Three days after the record was released and pulled, Nesmith, Dolenz and Tork were back in the studio with Chip Douglas, recording a new B-side -- a new version of "The Girl I Knew Somewhere", this time with Dolenz on vocals. As Jones was still in the UK, John London added the tambourine part as well as the bass: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "The Girl I Knew Somewhere (single version)"] As Nesmith told the story a couple of months later, "Bert said 'You've got to get this thing in Micky's key for Micky to sing it.' I said 'Has Donnie made a commitment? I don't want to go there and break my neck in order to get this thing if Donnie hasn't made a commitment. And Bert refused to say anything. He said 'I can't tell you anything except just go and record.'" What had happened was that the people at Columbia had had enough of Kirshner. As far as Rafelson and Schneider were concerned, the real problem in all this was that Kirshner had been making public statements taking all the credit for the Monkees' success and casting himself as the puppetmaster. They thought this was disrespectful to the performers -- and unstated but probably part of it, that it was disrespectful to Rafelson and Schneider for their work putting the TV show together -- and that Kirshner had allowed his ego to take over. Things like the liner notes for More of the Monkees which made Kirshner and his stable of writers more important than the performers had, in the view of the people at Raybert Productions, put the Monkees in an impossible position and forced them to push back. Schneider later said "Kirshner had an ego that transcended everything else. As a matter of fact, the press issue was probably magnified a hundred times over because of Kirshner. He wanted everybody thinking 'Hey, he's doing all this, not them.' In the end it was very self-destructive because it heightened the whole press issue and it made them feel lousy." Kirshner was out of a job, first as the supervisor for the Monkees and then as the head of Columbia/Screen Gems Music. In his place came Lester Sill, the man who had got Leiber and Stoller together as songwriters, who had been Lee Hazelwood's production partner on his early records with Duane Eddy, and who had been the "Les" in Philles Records until Phil Spector pushed him out. Sill, unlike Kirshner, was someone who was willing to take a back seat and just be a steadying hand where needed. The reissued version of "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You" went to number two on the charts, behind "Somethin' Stupid" by Frank and Nancy Sinatra, produced by Sill's old colleague Hazelwood, and the B-side, "The Girl I Knew Somewhere", also charted separately, making number thirty-nine on the charts. The Monkees finally had a hit that they'd written and recorded by themselves. Pinocchio had become a real boy: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "The Girl I Knew Somewhere (single version)"] At the same session at which they'd recorded that track, the Monkees had recorded another Nesmith song, "Sunny Girlfriend", and that became the first song to be included on a new album, which would eventually be named Headquarters, and on which all the guitar, keyboard, drums, percussion, banjo, pedal steel, and backing vocal parts would for the first time be performed by the Monkees themselves. They brought in horn and string players on a couple of tracks, and the bass was variously played by John London, Chip Douglas, and Jerry Yester as Tork was more comfortable on keyboards and guitar than bass, but it was in essence a full band album. Jones got back the next day, and sessions began in earnest. The first song they recorded after his return was "Mr. Webster", a Boyce and Hart song that had been recorded with the Candy Store Prophets in 1966 but hadn't been released. This was one of three tracks on the album that were rerecordings of earlier outtakes, and it's fascinating to compare them, to see the strengths and weaknesses of both approaches. In the case of "Mr. Webster", the instrumental backing on the earlier version is definitely slicker: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "Mr. Webster (1st Recorded Version)"] But at the same time, there's a sense of dynamics in the group recording that's lacking from the original, like the backing dropping out totally on the word "Stop" -- a nice touch that isn't in the original. I am only speculating, but this may have been inspired by the similar emphasis on the word "stop" in "For What It's Worth" by Tork's old friend Stephen Stills: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "Mr. Webster (album version)"] Headquarters was a group album in another way though -- for the first time, Tork and Dolenz were bringing in songs they'd written -- Nesmith of course had supplied songs already for the two previous albums. Jones didn't write any songs himself yet, though he'd start on the next album, but he was credited with the rest of the group on two joke tracks, "Band 6", a jam on the Merrie Melodies theme “Merrily We Roll Along”, and "Zilch", a track made up of the four band members repeating nonsense phrases: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "Zilch"] Oddly, that track had a rather wider cultural resonance than a piece of novelty joke album filler normally would. It's sometimes covered live by They Might Be Giants: [Excerpt: They Might Be Giants, "Zilch"] While the rapper Del Tha Funkee Homosapien had a worldwide hit in 1991 with "Mistadobalina", built around a sample of Peter Tork from the track: [Excerpt: Del Tha Funkee Homosapien,"Mistadobalina"] Nesmith contributed three songs, all of them combining Beatles-style pop music and country influences, none more blatantly than the opening track, "You Told Me", which starts off parodying the opening of "Taxman", before going into some furious banjo-picking from Tork: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "You Told Me"] Tork, meanwhile, wrote "For Pete's Sake" with his flatmate of the time, and that became the end credits music for season two of the TV series: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "For Pete's Sake"] But while the other band members made important contributions, the track on the album that became most popular was the first song of Dolenz's to be recorded by the group. The lyrics recounted, in a semi-psychedelic manner, Dolenz's time in the UK, including meeting with the Beatles, who the song refers to as "the four kings of EMI", but the first verse is all about his new girlfriend Samantha Juste: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "Randy Scouse Git"] The song was released as a single in the UK, but there was a snag. Dolenz had given the song a title he'd heard on an episode of the BBC sitcom Til Death Us Do Part, which he'd found an amusing bit of British slang. Til Death Us Do Part was written by Johnny Speight, a writer with Associated London Scripts, and was a family sitcom based around the character of Alf Garnett, an ignorant, foul-mouthed reactionary bigot who hated young people, socialists, and every form of minority, especially Black people (who he would address by various slurs I'm definitely not going to repeat here), and was permanently angry at the world and abusive to his wife. As with another great sitcom from ALS, Steptoe and Son, which Norman Lear adapted for the US as Sanford and Son, Til Death Us Do Part was also adapted by Lear, and became All in the Family. But while Archie Bunker, the character based on Garnett in the US version, has some redeeming qualities because of the nature of US network sitcom, Alf Garnett has absolutely none, and is as purely unpleasant and unsympathetic a character as has ever been created -- which sadly didn't stop a section of the audience from taking him as a character to be emulated. A big part of the show's dynamic was the relationship between Garnett and his socialist son-in-law from Liverpool, played by Anthony Booth, himself a Liverpudlian socialist who would later have a similarly contentious relationship with his own decidedly non-socialist son-in-law, the future Prime Minister Tony Blair. Garnett was as close to foul-mouthed as was possible on British TV at the time, with Speight regularly negotiating with the BBC bosses to be allowed to use terms that were not otherwise heard on TV, and used various offensive terms about his family, including referring to his son-in-law as a "randy Scouse git". Dolenz had heard the phrase on TV, had no idea what it meant but loved the sound of it, and gave the song that title. But when the record came out in the UK, he was baffled to be told that the phrase -- which he'd picked up from a BBC TV show, after all -- couldn't be said normally on BBC broadcasts, so they would need to retitle the track. The translation into American English that Dolenz uses in his live shows to explain this to Americans is to say that "randy Scouse git" means "horny Liverpudlian putz", and that's more or less right. Dolenz took the need for an alternative title literally, and so the track that went to number two in the UK charts was titled "Alternate Title": [Excerpt: The Monkees, "Randy Scouse Git"] The album itself went to number one in both the US and the UK, though it was pushed off the top spot almost straight away by the release of Sgt Pepper. As sessions for Headquarters were finishing up, the group were already starting to think about their next album -- season two of the TV show was now in production, and they'd need to keep generating yet more musical material for it. One person they turned to was a friend of Chip Douglas'. Before the Turtles, Douglas had been in the Modern Folk Quartet, and they'd recorded "This Could Be the Night", which had been written for them by Harry Nilsson: [Excerpt: The MFQ, "This Could Be The Night"] Nilsson had just started recording his first solo album proper, at RCA Studios, the same studios that the Monkees were using. At this point, Nilsson still had a full-time job in a bank, working a night shift there while working on his album during the day, but Douglas knew that Nilsson was a major talent, and that assessment was soon shared by the group when Nilsson came in to demo nine of his songs for them: [Excerpt: Harry Nilsson, "1941 (demo)"] According to Nilsson, Nesmith said after that demo session "You just sat down there and blew our minds. We've been looking for songs, and you just sat down and played an *album* for us!" While the Monkees would attempt a few of Nilsson's songs over the next year or so, the first one they chose to complete was the first track recorded for their next album, Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn, and Jones, Ltd., a song which from the talkback at the beginning of the demo was always intended for Davy Jones to sing: [Excerpt: Harry Nilsson, "Cuddly Toy (demo)"] Oddly, given his romantic idol persona, a lot of the songs given to Jones to sing were anti-romantic, and often had a cynical and misogynistic edge. This had started with the first album's "I Want to Be Free", but by Pisces, it had gone to ridiculous extremes. Of the four songs Jones sings on the album, "Hard to Believe", the first song proper that he ever co-wrote, is a straightforward love  song, but the other three have a nasty edge to them. A remade version of Jeff Barry's "She Hangs Out" is about an underaged girl, starts with the lines "How old d'you say your sister was? You know you'd better keep an eye on her" and contains lines like "she could teach you a thing or two" and "you'd better get down here on the double/before she gets her pretty little self in trouble/She's so fine". Goffin and King's "Star Collector" is worse, a song about a groupie with lines like "How can I love her, if I just don't respect her?" and "It won't take much time, before I get her off my mind" But as is so often the way, these rather nasty messages were wrapped up in some incredibly catchy music, and that was even more the case with "Cuddly Toy", a song which at least is more overtly unpleasant -- it's very obvious that Nilsson doesn't intend the protagonist of the song to be at all sympathetic, which is possibly not the case in "She Hangs Out" or "Star Collector". But the character Jones is singing is *viciously* cruel here, mocking and taunting a girl who he's coaxed to have sex with him, only to scorn her as soon as he's got what he wanted: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "Cuddly Toy"] It's a great song if you like the cruelest of humour combined with the cheeriest of music, and the royalties from the song allowed Nilsson to quit the job at the bank. "Cuddly Toy", and Chip Douglas and Bill Martin's song "The Door Into Summer", were recorded the same way as Headquarters, with the group playing *as a group*, but as recordings for the album progressed the group fell into a new way of working, which Peter Tork later dubbed "mixed-mode". They didn't go back to having tracks cut for them by session musicians, apart from Jones' song "Hard to Believe", for which the entire backing track was created by one of his co-writers overdubbing himself, but Dolenz, who Tork always said was "incapable of repeating a triumph", was not interested in continuing to play drums in the studio. Instead, a new hybrid Monkees would perform most of the album. Nesmith would still play the lead guitar, Tork would provide the keyboards, Chip Douglas would play all the bass and add some additional guitar, and "Fast" Eddie Hoh, the session drummer who had been a touring drummer with the Modern Folk Quartet and the Mamas and the Papas, among others, would play drums on the records, with Dolenz occasionally adding a bit of acoustic guitar. And this was the lineup that would perform on the hit single from Pisces. "Pleasant Valley Sunday" was written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King, who had written several songs for the group's first two albums (and who would continue to provide them with more songs). As with their earlier songs for the group, King had recorded a demo: [Excerpt: Carole King, "Pleasant Valley Sunday (demo)"] Previously -- and subsequently -- when presented with a Carole King demo, the group and their producers would just try to duplicate it as closely as possible, right down to King's phrasing. Bob Rafelson has said that he would sometimes hear those demos and wonder why King didn't just make records herself -- and without wanting to be too much of a spoiler for a few years' time, he wasn't the only one wondering that. But this time, the group had other plans. In particular, they wanted to make a record with a strong guitar riff to it -- Nesmith has later referenced their own "Last Train to Clarksville" and the Beatles' "Day Tripper" as two obvious reference points for the track. Douglas came up with a riff and taught it to Nesmith, who played it on the track: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "Pleasant Valley Sunday"] The track also ended with the strongest psychedelic -- or "psycho jello" as the group would refer to it -- freak out that they'd done to this point, a wash of saturated noise: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "Pleasant Valley Sunday"] King was unhappy with the results, and apparently glared at Douglas the next time they met. This may be because of the rearrangement from her intentions, but it may also be for a reason that Douglas later suspected. When recording the track, he hadn't been able to remember all the details of her demo, and in particular he couldn't remember exactly how the middle eight went. This is the version on King's demo: [Excerpt: Carole King, "Pleasant Valley Sunday (demo)"] While here's how the Monkees rendered it, with slightly different lyrics: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "Pleasant Valley Sunday"] I also think there's a couple of chord changes in the second verse that differ between King and the Monkees, but I can't be sure that's not my ears deceiving me. Either way, though, the track was a huge success, and became one of the group's most well-known and well-loved tracks, making number three on the charts behind "All You Need is Love" and "Light My Fire". And while it isn't Dolenz drumming on the track, the fact that it's Nesmith playing guitar and Tork on the piano -- and the piano part is one of the catchiest things on the record -- meant that they finally had a proper major hit on which they'd played (and it seems likely that Dolenz contributed some of the acoustic rhythm guitar on the track, along with Bill Chadwick, and if that's true all three Monkee instrumentalists did play on the track). Pisces is by far and away the best album the group ever made, and stands up well against anything else that came out around that time. But cracks were beginning to show in the group. In particular, the constant battle to get some sort of creative input had soured Nesmith on the whole project. Chip Douglas later said "When we were doing Pisces Michael would come in with three songs; he knew he had three songs coming on the album. He knew that he was making a lot of money if he got his original songs on there. So he'd be real enthusiastic and cooperative and real friendly and get his three songs done. Then I'd say 'Mike, can you come in and help on this one we're going to do with Micky here?' He said 'No, Chip, I can't. I'm busy.' I'd say, 'Mike, you gotta come in the studio.' He'd say 'No Chip, I'm afraid I'm just gonna have to be ornery about it. I'm not comin' in.' That's when I started not liking Mike so much any more." Now, as is so often the case with the stories from this period, this appears to be inaccurate in the details -- Nesmith is present on every track on the album except Jones' solo "Hard to Believe" and Tork's spoken-word track "Peter Percival Patterson's Pet Pig Porky", and indeed this is by far the album with *most* Nesmith input, as he takes five lead vocals, most of them on songs he didn't write. But Douglas may well be summing up Nesmith's *attitude* to the band at this point -- listening to Nesmith's commentaries on episodes of the TV show, by this point he felt disengaged from everything that was going on, like his opinions weren't welcome. That said, Nesmith did still contribute what is possibly the single most innovative song the group ever did, though the innovations weren't primarily down to Nesmith: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "Daily Nightly"] Nesmith always described the lyrics to "Daily Nightly" as being about the riots on Sunset Strip, but while they're oblique, they seem rather to be about streetwalking sex workers -- though it's perhaps understandable that Nesmith would never admit as much. What made the track innovative was the use of the Moog synthesiser. We talked about Robert Moog in the episode on "Good Vibrations" -- he had started out as a Theremin manufacturer, and had built the ribbon synthesiser that Mike Love played live on "Good Vibrations", and now he was building the first commercially available easily usable synthesisers. Previously, electronic instruments had either been things like the clavioline -- a simple monophonic keyboard instrument that didn't have much tonal variation -- or the RCA Mark II, a programmable synth that could make a wide variety of sounds, but took up an entire room and was programmed with punch cards. Moog's machines were bulky but still transportable, and they could be played in real time with a keyboard, but were still able to be modified to make a wide variety of different sounds. While, as we've seen, there had been electronic keyboard instruments as far back as the 1930s, Moog's instruments were for all intents and purposes the first synthesisers as we now understand the term. The Moog was introduced in late spring 1967, and immediately started to be used for making experimental and novelty records, like Hal Blaine's track "Love In", which came out at the beginning of June: [Excerpt: Hal Blaine, "Love In"] And the Electric Flag's soundtrack album for The Trip, the drug exploitation film starring Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper and written by Jack Nicholson we talked about last time, when Arthur Lee moved into a house used in the film: [Excerpt: The Electric Flag, "Peter's Trip"] In 1967 there were a total of six albums released with a Moog on them (as well as one non-album experimental single). Four of the albums were experimental or novelty instrumental albums of this type. Only two of them were rock albums -- Strange Days by the Doors, and Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn, & Jones Ltd by the Monkees. The Doors album was released first, but I believe the Monkees tracks were recorded before the Doors overdubbed the Moog on the tracks on their album, though some session dates are hard to pin down exactly. If that's the case it would make the Monkees the very first band to use the Moog on an actual rock record (depending on exactly how you count the Trip soundtrack -- this gets back again to my old claim that there's no first anything). But that's not the only way in which "Daily Nightly" was innovative. All the first seven albums to feature the Moog featured one man playing the instrument -- Paul Beaver, the Moog company's West Coast representative, who played on all the novelty records by members of the Wrecking Crew, and on the albums by the Electric Flag and the Doors, and on The Notorious Byrd Brothers by the Byrds, which came out in early 1968. And Beaver did play the Moog on one track on Pisces, "Star Collector". But on "Daily Nightly" it's Micky Dolenz playing the Moog, making him definitely the second person ever to play a Moog on a record of any kind: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "Daily Nightly"] Dolenz indeed had bought his own Moog -- widely cited as being the second one ever in private ownership, a fact I can't check but which sounds plausible given that by 1970 less than thirty musicians owned one -- after seeing Beaver demonstrate the instrument at the Monterey Pop Festival. The Monkees hadn't played Monterey, but both Dolenz and Tork had attended the festival -- if you watch the famous film of it you see Dolenz and his girlfriend Samantha in the crowd a *lot*, while Tork introduced his friends in the Buffalo Springfield. As well as discovering the Moog there, Dolenz had been astonished by something else: [Excerpt: The Jimi Hendrix Experience, "Hey Joe (Live at Monterey)"] As Peter Tork later put it "I didn't get it. At Monterey Jimi followed the Who and the Who busted up their things and Jimi bashed up his guitar. I said 'I just saw explosions and destruction. Who needs it?' But Micky got it. He saw the genius and went for it." Dolenz was astonished by Hendrix, and insisted that he should be the support act on the group's summer tour. This pairing might sound odd on paper, but it made more sense at the time than it might sound. The Monkees were by all accounts a truly astonishing live act at this point -- Frank Zappa gave them a backhanded compliment by saying they were the best-sounding band in LA, before pointing out that this was because they could afford the best equipment. That *was* true, but it was also the case that their TV experience gave them a different attitude to live performance than anyone else performing at the time. A handful of groups had started playing stadiums, most notably of course the Beatles, but all of these acts had come up through playing clubs and theatres and essentially just kept doing their old act with no thought as to how the larger space worked, except to put their amps through a louder PA. The Monkees, though, had *started* in stadiums, and had started out as mass entertainers, and so their live show was designed from the ground up to play to those larger spaces. They had costume changes, elaborate stage sets -- like oversized fake Vox amps they burst out of at the start of the show -- a light show and a screen on which film footage was projected. In effect they invented stadium performances as we now know them. Nesmith later said "In terms of putting on a show there was never any question in my mind, as far as the rock 'n' roll era is concerned, that we put on probably the finest rock and roll stage show ever. It was beautifully lit, beautifully costumed, beautifully produced. I mean, for Christ sakes, it was practically a revue." The Monkees were confident enough in their stage performance that at a recent show at the Hollywood Bowl they'd had Ike and Tina Turner as their opening act -- not an act you'd want to go on after if you were going to be less than great, and an act from very similar chitlin' circuit roots to Jimi Hendrix. So from their perspective, it made sense. If you're going to be spectacular yourselves, you have no need to fear a spectacular opening act. Hendrix was less keen -- he was about the only musician in Britain who *had* made disparaging remarks about the Monkees -- but opening for the biggest touring band in the world isn't an opportunity you pass up, and again it isn't such a departure as one might imagine from the bills he was already playing. Remember that Monterey is really the moment when "pop" and "rock" started to split -- the split we've been talking about for a few months now -- and so the Jimi Hendrix Experience were still considered a pop band, and as such had played the normal British pop band package tours. In March and April that year, they'd toured on a bill with the Walker Brothers, Cat Stevens, and Englebert Humperdinck -- and Hendrix had even filled in for Humperdinck's sick guitarist on one occasion. Nesmith, Dolenz, and Tork all loved having Hendrix on tour with them, just because it gave them a chance to watch him live every night (Jones, whose musical tastes were more towards Anthony Newley, wasn't especially impressed), and they got on well on a personal level -- there are reports of Hendrix jamming with Dolenz and Steve Stills in hotel rooms. But there was one problem, as Dolenz often recreates in his live act: [Excerpt: Micky Dolenz, "Purple Haze"] The audience response to Hendrix from the Monkees' fans was so poor that by mutual agreement he left the tour after only a handful of shows. After the summer tour, the group went back to work on the TV show and their next album. Or, rather, four individuals went back to work. By this point, the group had drifted apart from each other, and from Douglas -- Tork, the one who was still keenest on the idea of the group as a group, thought that Pisces, good as it was, felt like a Chip Douglas album rather than a Monkees album. The four band members had all by now built up their own retinues of hangers-on and collaborators, and on set for the TV show they were now largely staying with their own friends rather than working as a group. And that was now reflected in their studio work. From now on, rather than have a single producer working with them as a band, the four men would work as individuals, producing their own tracks, occasionally with outside help, and bringing in session musicians to work on them. Some tracks from this point on would be genuine Monkees -- plural -- tracks, and all tracks would be credited as "produced by the Monkees", but basically the four men would from now on be making solo tracks which would be combined into albums, though Dolenz and Jones would occasionally guest on tracks by the others, especially when Nesmith came up with a song he thought would be more suited to their voices. Indeed the first new recording that happened after the tour was an entire Nesmith solo album -- a collection of instrumental versions of his songs, called The Wichita Train Whistle Sings, played by members of the Wrecking Crew and a few big band instrumentalists, arranged by Shorty Rogers. [Excerpt: Michael Nesmith, "You Told Me"] Hal Blaine in his autobiography claimed that the album was created as a tax write-off for Nesmith, though Nesmith always vehemently denied it, and claimed it was an artistic experiment, though not one that came off well. Released alongside Pisces, though, came one last group-recorded single. The B-side, "Goin' Down", is a song that was credited to the group and songwriter Diane Hildebrand, though in fact it developed from a jam on someone else's song. Nesmith, Tork, Douglas and Hoh attempted to record a backing track for a version of Mose Allison's jazz-blues standard "Parchman Farm": [Excerpt: Mose Allison, "Parchman Farm"] But after recording it, they'd realised that it didn't sound that much like the original, and that all it had in common with it was a chord sequence. Nesmith suggested that rather than put it out as a cover version, they put a new melody and lyrics to it, and they commissioned Hildebrand, who'd co-written songs for the group before, to write them, and got Shorty Rogers to write a horn arrangement to go over their backing track. The eventual songwriting credit was split five ways, between Hildebrand and the four Monkees -- including Davy Jones who had no involvement with the recording, but not including Douglas or Hoh. The lyrics Hildebrand came up with were a funny patter song about a failed suicide, taken at an extremely fast pace, which Dolenz pulls off magnificently: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "Goin' Down"] The A-side, another track with a rhythm track by Nesmith, Tork, Douglas, and Hoh, was a song that had been written by John Stewart of the Kingston Trio, who you may remember from the episode on "San Francisco" as being a former songwriting partner of John Phillips. Stewart had written the song as part of a "suburbia trilogy", and was not happy with the finished product. He said later "I remember going to bed thinking 'All I did today was write 'Daydream Believer'." Stewart used to include the song in his solo sets, to no great approval, and had shopped the song around to bands like We Five and Spanky And Our Gang, who had both turned it down. He was unhappy with it himself, because of the chorus: [Excerpt: John Stewart, "Daydream Believer"] Stewart was ADHD, and the words "to a", coming as they did slightly out of the expected scansion for the line, irritated him so greatly that he thought the song could never be recorded by anyone, but when Chip Douglas asked if he had any songs, he suggested that one. As it turned out, there was a line of lyric that almost got the track rejected, but it wasn't the "to a". Stewart's original second verse went like this: [Excerpt: John Stewart, "Daydream Believer"] RCA records objected to the line "now you know how funky I can be" because funky, among other meanings, meant smelly, and they didn't like the idea of Davy Jones singing about being smelly. Chip Douglas phoned Stewart to tell him that they were insisting on changing the line, and suggesting "happy" instead. Stewart objected vehemently -- that change would reverse the entire meaning of the line, and it made no sense, and what about artistic integrity? But then, as he later said "He said 'Let me put it to you this way, John. If he can't sing 'happy' they won't do it'. And I said 'Happy's working real good for me now.' That's exactly what I said to him." He never regretted the decision -- Stewart would essentially live off the royalties from "Daydream Believer" for the rest of his life -- though he seemed always to be slightly ambivalent and gently mocking about the song in his own performances, often changing the lyrics slightly: [Excerpt: John Stewart, "Daydream Believer"] The Monkees had gone into the studio and cut the track, again with Tork on piano, Nesmith on guitar, Douglas on bass, and Hoh on drums. Other than changing "funky" to "happy", there were two major changes made in the studio. One seems to have been Douglas' idea -- they took the bass riff from the pre-chorus to the Beach Boys' "Help Me Rhonda": [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "Help Me Rhonda"] and Douglas played that on the bass as the pre-chorus for "Daydream Believer", with Shorty Rogers later doubling it in the horn arrangement: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "Daydream Believer"] And the other is the piano intro, which also becomes an instrumental bridge, which was apparently the invention of Tork, who played it: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "Daydream Believer"] The track went to number one, becoming the group's third and final number one hit, and their fifth of six million-sellers. It was included on the next album, The Birds, The Bees, and the Monkees, but that piano part would be Tork's only contribution to the album. As the group members were all now writing songs and cutting their own tracks, and were also still rerecording the odd old unused song from the initial 1966 sessions, The Birds, The Bees, and the Monkees was pulled together from a truly astonishing amount of material. The expanded triple-CD version of the album, now sadly out of print, has multiple versions of forty-four different songs, ranging from simple acoustic demos to completed tracks, of which twelve were included on the final album. Tork did record several tracks during the sessions, but he spent much of the time recording and rerecording a single song, "Lady's Baby", which eventually stretched to five different recorded versions over multiple sessions in a five-month period. He racked up huge studio bills on the track, bringing in Steve Stills and Dewey Martin of the Buffalo Springfield, and Buddy Miles, to try to help him capture the sound in his head, but the various takes are almost indistinguishable from one another, and so it's difficult to see what the problem was: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "Lady's Baby"] Either way, the track wasn't finished by the time the album came out, and the album that came out was a curiously disjointed and unsatisfying effort, a mixture of recycled old Boyce and Hart songs, some songs by Jones, who at this point was convinced that "Broadway-rock" was going to be the next big thing and writing songs that sounded like mediocre showtunes, and a handful of experimental songs written by Nesmith. You could pull together a truly great ten- or twelve-track album from the masses of material they'd recorded, but the one that came out was mediocre at best, and became the first Monkees album not to make number one -- though it still made number three and sold in huge numbers. It also had the group's last million-selling single on it, "Valleri", an old Boyce and Hart reject from 1966 that had been remade with Boyce and Hart producing and their old session players, though the production credit was still now given to the Monkees: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "Valleri"] Nesmith said at the time he considered it the worst song ever written. The second season of the TV show was well underway, and despite -- or possibly because of -- the group being clearly stoned for much of the filming, it contains a lot of the episodes that fans of the group think of most fondly, including several episodes that break out of the formula the show had previously established in interesting ways. Tork and Dolenz were both also given the opportunity to direct episodes, and Dolenz also co-wrote his episode, which ended up being the last of the series. In another sign of how the group were being given more creative control over the show, the last three episodes of the series had guest appearances by favourite musicians of the group members who they wanted to give a little exposure to, and those guest appearances sum up the character of the band members remarkably well. Tork, for whatever reason, didn't take up this option, but the other three did. Jones brought on his friend Charlie Smalls, who would later go on to write the music for the Broadway musical The Wiz, to demonstrate to Jones the difference between Smalls' Black soul and Jones' white soul: [Excerpt: Davy Jones and Charlie Smalls] Nesmith, on the other hand, brought on Frank Zappa. Zappa put on Nesmith's Monkee shirt and wool hat and pretended to be Nesmith, and interviewed Nesmith with a false nose and moustache pretending to be Zappa, as they both mercilessly mocked the previous week's segment with Jones and Smalls: [Excerpt: Michael Nesmith and Frank Zappa] Nesmith then "conducted" Zappa as Zappa used a sledgehammer to "play" a car, parodying his own appearance on the Steve Allen Show playing a bicycle, to the presumed bemusement of the Monkees' fanbase who would not be likely to remember a one-off performance on a late-night TV show from five years earlier. And the final thing ever to be shown on an episode of the Monkees didn't feature any of the Monkees at all. Micky Dolenz, who directed and co-wrote that episode, about an evil wizard who was using the power of a space plant (named after the group's slang for dope) to hypnotise people through the TV, chose not to interact with his guest as the others had, but simply had Tim Buckley perform a solo acoustic version of his then-unreleased song "Song to the Siren": [Excerpt: Tim Buckley, "Song to the Siren"] By the end of the second season, everyone knew they didn't want to make another season of the TV show. Instead, they were going to do what Rafelson and Schneider had always wanted, and move into film. The planning stages for the film, which was initially titled Changes but later titled Head -- so that Rafelson and Schneider could bill their next film as "From the guys who gave you Head" -- had started the previous summer, before the sessions that produced The Birds, The Bees, and the Monkees. To write the film, the group went off with Rafelson and Schneider for a short holiday, and took with them their mutual friend Jack Nicholson. Nicholson was at this time not the major film star he later became. Rather he was a bit-part actor who was mostly associated with American International Pictures, the ultra-low-budget film company that has come up on several occasions in this podcast. Nicholson had appeared mostly in small roles, in films like The Little Shop of Horrors: [Excerpt: The Little Shop of Horrors] He'd appeared in multiple films made by Roger Corman, often appearing with Boris Karloff, and by Monte Hellman, but despite having been a working actor for a decade, his acting career was going nowhere, and by this point he had basically given up on the idea of being an actor, and had decided to start working behind the camera. He'd written the scripts for a few of the low-budget films he'd appeared in, and he'd recently scripted The Trip, the film we mentioned earlier: [Excerpt: The Trip trailer] So the group, Rafelson, Schneider, and Nicholson all went away for a weekend, and they all got extremely stoned, took acid, and talked into a tape recorder for hours on end. Nicholson then transcribed those recordings, cleaned them up, and structured the worthwhile ideas into something quite remarkable: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "Ditty Diego"] If the Monkees TV show had been inspired by the Marx Brothers and Three Stooges, and by Richard Lester's directorial style, the only precursor I can find for Head is in the TV work of Lester's colleague Spike Milligan, but I don't think there's any reasonable way in which Nicholson or anyone else involved could have taken inspiration from Milligan's series Q.  But what they ended up with is something that resembles, more than anything else, Monty Python's Flying Circus, a TV series that wouldn't start until a year after Head came out. It's a series of ostensibly unconnected sketches, linked by a kind of dream logic, with characters wandering from one loose narrative into a totally different one, actors coming out of character on a regular basis, and no attempt at a coherent narrative. It contains regular examples of channel-zapping, with excerpts from old films being spliced in, and bits of news footage juxtaposed with comedy sketches and musical performances in ways that are sometimes thought-provoking, sometimes distasteful, and occasionally both -- as when a famous piece of footage of a Vietnamese prisoner of war being shot in the head hard-cuts to screaming girls in the audience at a Monkees concert, a performance which ends with the girls tearing apart the group and revealing that they're really just cheap-looking plastic mannequins. The film starts, and ends, with the Monkees themselves attempting suicide, jumping off a bridge into the ocean -- but the end reveals that in fact the ocean they're in is just water in a glass box, and they're trapped in it. And knowing this means that when you watch the film a second time, you find that it does have a story. The Monkees are trapped in a box which in some ways represents life, the universe, and one's own mind, and in other ways represents the TV and their TV careers. Each of them is trying in his own way to escape, and each ends up trapped by his own limitations, condemned to start the cycle over and over again. The film features parodies of popular film genres like the boxing film (Davy is supposed to throw a fight with Sonny Liston at the instruction of gangsters), the Western, and the war film, but huge chunks of the film take place on a film studio backlot, and characters from one segment reappear in another, often commenting negatively on the film or the band, as when Frank Zappa as a critic calls Davy Jones' soft-shoe routine to a Harry Nilsson song "very white", or when a canteen worker in the studio calls the group "God's gift to the eight-year-olds". The film is constantly deconstructing and commenting on itself and the filmmaking process -- Tork hits that canteen worker, whose wig falls off revealing the actor playing her to be a man, and then it's revealed that the "behind the scenes" footage is itself scripted, as director Bob Rafelson and scriptwriter Jack Nicholson come into frame and reassure Tork, who's concerned that hitting a woman would be bad for his image. They tell him they can always cut it from the finished film if it doesn't work. While "Ditty Diego", the almost rap rewriting of the Monkees theme we heard earlier, sets out a lot of how the film asks to be interpreted and how it works narratively, the *spiritual* and thematic core of the film is in another song, Tork's "Long Title (Do I Have to Do This All Over Again?)", which in later solo performances Tork would give the subtitle "The Karma Blues": [Excerpt: The Monkees, "Long Title (Do I Have To Do This All Over Again?)"] Head is an extraordinary film, and one it's impossible to sum up in anything less than an hour-long episode of its own. It's certainly not a film that's to everyone's taste, and not every aspect of it works -- it is a film that is absolutely of its time, in ways that are both good and bad. But it's one of the most inventive things ever put out by a major film studio, and it's one that rightly secured the Monkees a certain amount of cult credibility over the decades. The soundtrack album is a return to form after the disappointing Birds, Bees, too. Nicholson put the album together, linking the eight songs in the film with collages of dialogue and incidental music, repurposing and recontextualising the dialogue to create a new experience, one that people have compared with Frank Zappa's contemporaneous We're Only In It For The Money, though while t

“Then we'll get real systemic change,” says Eugenia Lim when talking about making structural changes in the art world that reflect genuine diversity, “but I think we're still just the tip of the iceberg. It's still quite surface, but it's good to be even pushing and talking about these things I think.” At a moment where politics and individuals feel increasingly divided, Lim creates videos, film and installations that look beyond divisiveness, capitalism and exploitation, to forefront the power of collectivity—something she speaks to in our latest podcast series Conflated.This series centres on the ideas of inflation and conflation, linking with a touring exhibition also titled, Conflated. In ways both metaphorical and material, the show looks at ideas of inflation and deflation through creative, environmental, and political ways. And one of the artists in the show is Lim. Lim is an Australian artist of Chinese-Singaporean descent and her work partly explores this by subverting cultural stereotypes in ways both intelligent and very witty. In past works she's taken on invented personas, inhabiting them across multiple videos, performances and sites. Lim is also one of the previous co-directors of the experimental art organisation Aphids, and we talk about one of Aphids's latest performance works EASY RIDERS, which looks at the gig economy and capitalism—and we discuss how worker exploitation is an ongoing concern in Eugenia's work. In addition to her thought-provoking practice, Lim also has co-directed the inaugural Channels Festival, and she was founding editor of the journal Assemble Papers. In our conversation she talks through her latest work with Kyneton locals, an area in regional Victoria, and how her work speaks to collective acts and what this means in a divisive political time like the one we're living. You can also listen back to the first episode of this series with artist Zoë Bastin on conflation, bodies and transformative politics, and the second episode with David Cross on inflatables, experimentation and precarity.With a current showing at ANU School of Art and Design Gallery, NETS Victoria are touring Conflated nationally throughout 2022 and 2023:ANU School of Art and Design Gallery(Canberra ACT)29 September—4 NovemberLogan Art Gallery(Logan QLD)29 July 2023—3 September 2023Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery(Swan Hill VIC)1 October 2023—3 December 2023This series is kindly sponsored by NETS Victoria who are nationally touring Conflated, assisted by the Australian Government's Visions of Australia program and the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria.Produced and presented by Tiarney Miekus, engineering by Patrick Telfer, and music by Mino Peric.

This week on Every Rom Com we’re covering the foundational movie of the time loop genre - “Groundhog Day”! You’ll definitely learn something new, as we discuss everything from its filming location, to the story behind the script, to the history of Groundhog Day itself. We also delve into time loop ethics, pitch perhaps our wildest sequel idea yet, and proffer intriguing theories about Ned Ryerson. And of course we cover the romance of it all, though the most romantic part of this episode might be how Steve from “For Me These Films R The Juice” would choose to spend his time loop! Don’t miss this fact and fun-filled episode on an essential film! 0:00-12:22 - Intro, Monadnock Underground Updates From Zoe, Introducing Steve Doyle From The Podcast “For Me These Films R The Juice”! To Check Out Monadnock Underground And/Or Submit: https://www.monadnockunderground.com/ To Check Out “For Me These Films R The Juice”: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/for-me-these-films-r-the-juice/id1592377993 You can also follow Steve and the podcast on Twitter @FilmsRtheJuice, on Instagram @thesefilmsrthejuice, and on his Facebook page: For me, these Films R the Juice Guest Bio: Steve Doyle From “For Me These Films R The Juice”: Steve Doyle has been podcasting since October 2021. The inspiration to begin For me, these Films R the Juice came from listening to The Rewatchables and The Cine-Files podcasts and also returning to the cinema after the Covid lockdowns. These things reignited Steve’s passion for film and made him think, 'I’m going to give that a try.' The first 7 episodes of For me, these Films R the Juice are solo efforts by Steve, focusing on deep dives into some of his favourite and most seen films such as Pulp Fiction, Shaun of the Dead & No Country For Old Men. Episode 8 onwards features a guest with whom he discusses a film or film topic including a Tom Cruise Film Draft with Edward from That 80s Movie Podcast and Wayne from Recasted 2.0. Steve was a big cinephile from his mid teens to early twenties. During this period he started to gain a deeper knowledge of and appreciation for film acting, film making and film history by taking an A-Level in Film Studies and subscribing to Empire Magazine. These two avenues, along with sharing the same passion for film with two of his best friends, made Steve become fascinated by certain actors (Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino, Ed Norton, Ray Liotta) directors (Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppolla, Oliver Stone) and film history (the book ‘Easy Riders, Raging Bulls’, Film Documentaries and DVD ‘Making Ofs’). Episode 9 of the podcast in which Steve is joined by the close friends mentioned, Dan and Dean, to compare Al Pacino and Robert De Niro really conveys their joint love of film at that time. Outside of podcasting Steve has recently started a new job within his local hospital’s Cancer Support department which he is enjoying and finding very rewarding. Other than work, podcasting, watching films, and getting to his local driving range whenever he can, Steve enjoys spending time with his wife and t

Episode one hundred and fifty-three of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “Heroes and Villains” by the Beach Boys, and the collapse of the Smile album. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a sixteen-minute bonus episode available, on "I Had Too Much to Dream Last Night" by the Electric Prunes. 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 There is no Mixcloud this week, because there were too many Beach Boys songs in the episode. I used many resources for this episode. As well as the books I referred to in all the Beach Boys episodes, listed below, I used Domenic Priore's book Smile: The Story of Brian Wilson's Lost Masterpiece and Richard Henderson's 33 1/3 book on Van Dyke Parks' Song Cycle. Stephen McParland has published many, many books on the California surf and hot-rod music scenes, including several on both the Beach Boys and Gary Usher.  His books can be found at https://payhip.com/CMusicBooks Andrew Doe's Bellagio 10452 site is an invaluable resource. Jon Stebbins' The Beach Boys FAQ is a good balance between accuracy and readability. And Philip Lambert's Inside the Music of Brian Wilson is an excellent, though sadly out of print, musicological analysis of Wilson's music from 1962 through 67. Catch a Wave: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson by Peter Ames Carlin is the best biography of Wilson. I have also referred to Brian Wilson's autobiography, I Am Brian Wilson, and to Mike Love's, Good Vibrations: My Life as a Beach Boy. As a good starting point for the Beach Boys' music in general, I would recommend this budget-priced three-CD set, which has a surprisingly good selection of their material on it, including the single version of “Heroes and Villains”. The box set The Smile Sessions  contains an attempt to create a finished album from the unfinished sessions, plus several CDs of outtakes and session material. Transcript [Opening -- "intro to the album" studio chatter into "Our Prayer"] Before I start, I'd just like to note that this episode contains some discussion of mental illness, including historical negative attitudes towards it, so you may want to check the transcript or skip this one if that might be upsetting. In November and December 1966, the filmmaker David Oppenheim and the conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein collaborated on a TV film called "Inside Pop: The Rock Revolution".  The film was an early attempt at some of the kinds of things this podcast is doing, looking at how music and social events interact and evolve, though it was dealing with its present rather than the past. The film tried to cast as wide a net as possible in its fifty-one minutes. It looked at two bands from Manchester -- the Hollies and Herman's Hermits -- and how the people identified as their leaders, "Herman" (or Peter Noone) and Graham Nash, differed on the issue of preventing war: [Excerpt: Inside Pop, the Rock Revolution] And it made a star of East Coast teenage singer-songwriter Janis Ian with her song about interracial relationships, "Society's Child": [Excerpt: Janis Ian, "Society's Child"] And Bernstein spends a significant time, as one would expect, analysing the music of the Beatles and to a lesser extent the Stones, though they don't appear in the show. Bernstein does a lot to legitimise the music just by taking it seriously as a subject for analysis, at a time when most wouldn't: [Excerpt: Leonard Bernstein talking about "She Said She Said"] You can't see it, obviously, but in the clip that's from, as the Beatles recording is playing, Bernstein is conducting along with the music, as he would a symphony orchestra, showing where the beats are falling. But of course, given that this was filmed in the last two months of 1966, the vast majority of the episode is taken up with musicians from the centre of the music world at that time, LA. The film starts with Bernstein interviewing Tandyn Almer,  a jazz-influenced songwriter who had recently written the big hit "Along Comes Mary" for The Association: [Excerpt: Inside Pop: The Rock Revolution] It featured interviews with Roger McGuinn, and with the protestors at the Sunset Strip riots which were happening contemporaneously with the filming: [Excerpt: Inside Pop: The Rock Revolution] Along with Frank Zappa's rather acerbic assessment of the potential of the youth revolutionaries: [Excerpt: Inside Pop: The Rock Revolution] And ended (other than a brief post-commercial performance over the credits by the Hollies) with a performance by Tim Buckley, whose debut album, as we heard in the last episode, had featured Van Dyke Parks and future members of the Mothers of Invention and Buffalo Springfield: [Excerpt: Inside Pop: The Rock Revolution] But for many people the highlight of the film was the performance that came right before Buckley's, film of Brian Wilson playing a new song from the album he was working on. One thing I should note -- many sources say that the voiceover here is Bernstein. My understanding is that Bernstein wrote and narrated the parts of the film he was himself in, and Oppenheim did all the other voiceover writing and narration, but that Oppenheim's voice is similar enough to Bernstein's that people got confused about this: [Excerpt: Inside Pop: The Rock Revolution] That particular piece of footage was filmed in December 1966, but it wasn't broadcast until April the twenty-fifth, 1967, an eternity in mid-sixties popular music. When it was broadcast, that album still hadn't come out. Precisely one week later, the Beach Boys' publicist Derek Taylor announced that it never would: [Excerpt: Brian Wilson, "Surf's Up"] One name who has showed up in a handful of episodes recently, but who we've not talked that much about, is Van Dyke Parks. And in a story with many, many, remarkable figures, Van Dyke Parks may be one of the most remarkable of all. Long before he did anything that impinges on the story of rock music, Parks had lived the kind of life that would be considered unbelievable were it to be told as fiction. Parks came from a family that mixed musical skill, political progressiveness, and achievement. His mother was a scholar of Hebrew, while his father was a neurologist, the first doctor to admit Black patients to a white Southern hospital, and had paid his way through college leading a dance band. Parks' father was also, according to the 33 1/3 book on Song Cycle, a member of "John Philip Sousa's Sixty Silver Trumpets", but literally every reference I can find to Sousa leading a band of that name goes back to that book, so I've no idea what he was actually a member of, but we can presume he was a reasonable musician. Young Van Dyke started playing the clarinet at four, and was also a singer from a very early age, as well as playing several other instruments. He went to the American Boychoir School in Princeton, to study singing, and while there he sang with Toscaninni, Thomas Beecham, and other immensely important conductors of the era. He also had a very special accompanist for one Christmas carolling session. The choir school was based in Princeton, and one of the doors he knocked on while carolling was that of Princeton's most famous resident, Albert Einstein, who heard the young boy singing "Silent Night", and came out with his violin and played along. Young Van Dyke was only interested in music, but he was also paying the bills for his music tuition himself -- he had a job. He was a TV star. From the age of ten, he started getting roles in TV shows -- he played the youngest son in the 1953 sitcom Bonino, about an opera singer, which flopped because it aired opposite the extremely popular Jackie Gleason Show. He would later also appear in that show, as one of several child actors who played the character of Little Tommy Manicotti, and he made a number of other TV appearances, as well as having a small role in Grace Kelly's last film, The Swan, with Alec Guinness and Louis Jourdain. But he never liked acting, and just did it to pay for his education. He gave it up when he moved on to the Carnegie Institute, where he majored in composition and performance. But then in his second year, his big brother Carson asked him to drop out and move to California. Carson Parks had been part of the folk scene in California for a few years at this point. He and a friend had formed a duo called the Steeltown Two, but then both of them had joined the folk group the Easy Riders, a group led by Terry Gilkyson. Before Carson Parks joined, the Easy Riders had had a big hit with their version of "Marianne", a calypso originally by the great calypsonian Roaring Lion: [Excerpt: The Easy Riders, "Marianne"] They hadn't had many other hits, but their songs became hits for other people -- Gilkyson wrote several big hits for Frankie Laine, and the Easy Riders were the backing vocalists on Dean Martin's recording of a song they wrote, "Memories are Made of This": [Excerpt: Dean Martin and the Easy Riders, "Memories are Made of This"] Carson Parks hadn't been in the group at that point -- he only joined after they'd stopped having success -- and eventually the group had split up. He wanted to revive his old duo, the Steeltown Two, and persuaded his family to let his little brother Van Dyke drop out of university and move to California to be the other half of the duo. He wanted Van Dyke to play guitar, while he played banjo. Van Dyke had never actually played guitar before, but as Carson Parks later said "in 90 days, he knew more than most folks know after many years!" Van Dyke moved into an apartment adjoining his brother's, owned by Norm Botnick, who had until recently been the principal viola player in a film studio orchestra, before the film studios all simultaneously dumped their in-house orchestras in the late fifties, so was a more understanding landlord than most when it came to the lifestyles of musicians. Botnick's sons, Doug and Bruce, later went into sound engineering -- we've already encountered Bruce Botnick in the episode on the Doors, and he will be coming up again in the future. The new Steeltown Two didn't make any records, but they developed a bit of a following in the coffeehouses, and they also got a fair bit of session work, mostly through Terry Gilkyson, who was by that point writing songs for Disney and would hire them to play on sessions for his songs. And it was Gilkyson who both brought Van Dyke Parks the worst news of his life to that point, and in doing so also had him make his first major mark on music. Gilkyson was the one who informed Van Dyke that another of his brothers, Benjamin Riley Parks, had died in what was apparently a car accident. I say it was apparently an accident because Benjamin Riley Parks was at the time working for the US State Department, and there is apparently also some evidence that he was assassinated in a Cold War plot. Gilkyson also knew that neither Van Dyke nor Carson Parks had much money, so in order to help them afford black suits and plane tickets to and from the funeral, Gilkyson hired Van Dyke to write the arrangement for a song he had written for an upcoming Disney film: [Excerpt: Jungle Book soundtrack, "The Bare Necessities"] The Steeltown Two continued performing, and soon became known as the Steeltown Three, with the addition of a singer named Pat Peyton. The Steeltown Three recorded two singles, "Rock Mountain", under that group name: [Excerpt: The Steeltown Three, "Rock Mountain"] And a version of "San Francisco Bay" under the name The South Coasters, which I've been unable to track down. Then the three of them, with the help of Terry Gilkyson, formed a larger group in the style of the New Christy Minstrels -- the Greenwood County Singers. Indeed, Carson Parks would later claim that  Gilkyson had had the idea first -- that he'd mentioned that he'd wanted to put together a group like that to Randy Sparks, and Sparks had taken the idea and done it first. The Greenwood County Singers had two minor hot one hundred hits, only one of them while Van Dyke was in the band -- "The New 'Frankie and Johnny' Song", a rewrite by Bob Gibson and Shel Silverstein of the old traditional song "Frankie and Johnny": [Excerpt: The Greenwood County Singers, "The New Frankie and Johnny Song"] They also recorded several albums together, which gave Van Dyke the opportunity to practice his arrangement skills, as on this version of  "Vera Cruz" which he arranged: [Excerpt: The Greenwood County Singers, "Vera Cruz"] Some time before their last album, in 1965, Van Dyke left the Greenwood County Singers, and was replaced by Rick Jarrard, who we'll also be hearing more about in future episodes. After that album, the group split up, but Carson Parks would go on to write two big hits in the next few years. The first and biggest was a song he originally wrote for a side project. His future wife Gaile Foote was also a Greenwood County Singer, and the two of them thought they might become folk's answer to Sonny and Cher or Nino Tempo and April Stevens: [Excerpt: Carson and Gaile, "Somethin' Stupid"] That obviously became a standard after it was covered by Frank and Nancy Sinatra. Carson Parks also wrote "Cab Driver", which in 1968 became the last top thirty hit for the Mills Brothers, the 1930s vocal group we talked about way way back in episode six: [Excerpt: The Mills Brothers, "Cab Driver"] Meanwhile Van Dyke Parks was becoming part of the Sunset Strip rock and roll world. Now, until we get to 1967, Parks has something of a tangled timeline. He worked with almost every band around LA in a short period, often working with multiple people simultaneously, and nobody was very interested in keeping detailed notes. So I'm going to tell this as a linear story, but be aware it's very much not -- things I say in five minutes might happen after, or in the same week as, things I say in half an hour. At some point in either 1965 or 1966 he joined the Mothers of Invention for a brief while. Nobody is entirely sure when this was, and whether it was before or after their first album. Some say it was in late 1965, others in August 1966, and even the kind of fans who put together detailed timelines are none the wiser, because no recordings have so far surfaced of Parks with the band. Either is plausible, and the Mothers went through a variety of keyboard players at this time -- Zappa had turned to his jazz friend Don Preston, but found Preston was too much of a jazzer and told him to come back when he could play "Louie Louie" convincingly, asked Mac Rebennack to be in the band but sacked him pretty much straight away for drug use, and eventually turned to Preston again once Preston had learned to rock and roll. Some time in that period, Van Dyke Parks was a Mother, playing electric harpsichord. He may even have had more than one stint in the group -- Zappa said "Van Dyke Parks played electric harpsichord in and out." It seems likely, though, that it was in summer of 1966, because in an interview published in Teen Beat Magazine in December 66, but presumably conducted a few months prior, Zappa was asked to describe the band members in one word each and replied: "Ray—Mahogany Roy—Asbestos Jim—Mucilage Del—Acetate Van Dyke—Pinocchio Billy—Boom I don't know about the rest of the group—I don't even know about these guys." Sources differ as to why Parks didn't remain in the band -- Parks has said that he quit after a short time because he didn't like being shouted at, while Zappa said "Van Dyke was not a reliable player. He didn't make it to rehearsal on time and things like that." Both may be true of course, though I've not heard anyone else ever criticise Parks for his reliability. But then also Zappa had much more disciplinarian standards than most rock band leaders. It's possibly either through Zappa that he met Tom Wilson, or through Tom Wilson that he met Frank Zappa, but either way Parks, like the Mothers of Invention, was signed to MGM records in 1966, where he released two solo singles co-produced by Wilson and an otherwise obscure figure named Tim Alvorado. The first was "Number Nine", which we heard last week, backed with "Do What You Wanta": [Excerpt: Van Dyke Parks, "Do What You Wanta"] At least one source I've read says that the lyrics to "Do What You Wanta" were written not by Parks but by his friend Danny Hutton, but it's credited as a Parks solo composition on the label. It was after that that the Van Dyke Parks band -- or as they were sometimes billed, just The Van Dyke Parks formed, as we discussed last episode, based around Parks, Steve Stills, and Steve Young, and they performed a handful of shows with bass player Bobby Rae and drummer Walt Sparman, playing a mix of original material, primarily Parks' songs, and covers of things like "Dancing in the Street". The one contemporaneous review of a live show I've seen talks about  the girls in the audience screaming and how "When rhythm guitarist Steve Stillman imitated the Barry McGuire emotional scene, they almost went wiggy". But The Van Dyke Parks soon split up, and Parks the individual recorded his second single, "Come to the Sunshine": [Excerpt: Van Dyke Parks, "Come to the Sunshine"] Around the time he left the Greenwood County Singers, Van Dyke Parks also met Brian Wilson for the first time, when David Crosby took him up to Wilson's house to hear an acetate of the as-yet-unreleased track "Sloop John B". Parks was impressed by Wilson's arrangement techniques, and in particular the way he was orchestrating instrumental combinations that you couldn't do with a standard live room setup, that required overdubbing and close-micing. He said later "The first stuff I heard indicated this kind of curiosity for the recording experience, and when I went up to see him in '65 I don't even think he had the voices on yet, but I heard that long rotational breathing, that long flute ostinato at the beginning... I knew this man was a great musician." [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "Sloop John B (instrumental)"] In most of 1966, though, Parks was making his living as a session keyboard player and arranger, and much of the work he was getting was through Lenny Waronker. Waronker was a second-generation music industry professional. His father, Si Waronker, had been a violinist in the Twentieth Century Fox studio orchestra before founding Liberty Records (the label which indirectly led to him becoming immortalised in children's entertainment, when Liberty Records star David Seville named his Chipmunk characters after three Liberty executives, with Simon being Si Waronker's full forename). The first release on Liberty Records had been a version of "The Girl Upstairs", an instrumental piece from the Fox film The Seven-Year Itch. The original recording of that track, for the film, had been done by the Twentieth Century Fox Orchestra, written and conducted by Alfred Newman, the musical director for Fox: [Excerpt: Alfred Newman, "The Girl Upstairs"] Liberty's soundalike version was conducted by Newman's brother Lionel, a pianist at the studio who later became Fox's musical director for TV, just as his brother was for film, but who also wrote many film scores himself. Another Newman brother, Emil, was also a film composer, but the fourth brother, Irving, had gone into medicine instead. However, Irving's son Randy wanted to follow in the family business, and he and Lenny Waronker, who was similarly following his own father by working for Liberty Records' publishing subsidiary Metric Music, had been very close friends ever since High School. Waronker got Newman signed to Metric Music, where he wrote "They Tell Me It's Summer" for the Fleetwoods: [Excerpt: The Fleetwoods, "They Tell Me It's Summer"] Newman also wrote and recorded a single of his own in 1962, co-produced by Pat Boone: [Excerpt: Randy Newman, "Golden Gridiron Boy"] Before deciding he wasn't going to make it as a singer and had better just be a professional songwriter. But by 1966 Waronker had moved on from Metric to Warner Brothers, and become a junior A&R man. And he was put in charge of developing the artists that Warners had acquired when they had bought up a small label, Autumn Records. Autumn Records was a San Francisco-based label whose main producer, Sly Stone, had now moved on to other things after producing the hit record "Laugh Laugh" for the Beau Brummels: [Excerpt: The Beau Brummels, "Laugh Laugh"] The Beau Brummels  had had another hit after that and were the main reason that Warners had bought the label, but their star was fading a little. Stone had also been mentoring several other groups, including the Tikis and the Mojo Men, who all had potential. Waronker gathered around himself a sort of brains trust of musicians who he trusted as songwriters, arrangers, and pianists -- Randy Newman, the session pianist Leon Russell, and Van Dyke Parks. Their job was to revitalise the career of the Beau Brummels, and to make both the Tikis and the Mojo Men into successes. The tactic they chose was, in Waronker's words, “Go in with a good song and weird it out.” The first good song they tried weirding out was in late 1966, when Leon Russell came up with a clarinet-led arrangement of Paul Simon's "59th Street Bridge Song (Feeling Groovy)" for the Tikis, who performed it but who thought that their existing fanbase wouldn't accept something so different, so it was put out under another name, suggested by Parks, Harpers Bizarre: [Excerpt: Harpers Bizarre, "Feeling Groovy"] Waronker said of Parks and Newman “They weren't old school guys. They were modern characters but they had old school values regarding certain records that needed to be made, certain artists who needed to be heard regardless. So there was still that going on. The fact that ‘Feeling Groovy' was a number 10 hit nationwide and ‘Sit Down, I Think I Love You'  made the Top 30 on Western regional radio, that gave us credibility within the company. One hit will do wonders, two allows you to take chances.” We heard "Sit Down, I Think I Love You" last episode -- that's the song by Parks' old friend Stephen Stills that Parks arranged for the Mojo Men: [Excerpt: The Mojo Men, "Sit Down, I Think I Love You"] During 1966 Parks also played on Tim Buckley's first album, as we also heard last episode: [Excerpt: Tim Buckley, "Aren't You the Girl?"] And he also bumped into Brian Wilson on occasion, as they were working a lot in the same studios and had mutual friends like Loren Daro and Danny Hutton, and he suggested the cello part on "Good Vibrations". Parks also played keyboards on "5D" by the Byrds: [Excerpt: The Byrds, "5D (Fifth Dimension)"] And on the Spirit of '67 album for Paul Revere and the Raiders, produced by the Byrds' old producer Terry Melcher. Parks played keyboards on much of the album, including the top five hit "Good Thing": [Excerpt: Paul Revere and the Raiders, "Good Thing"] But while all this was going on, Parks was also working on what would become the work for which he was best known. As I've said, he'd met Brian Wilson on a few occasions, but it wasn't until summer 1966 that the two were formally introduced by Terry Melcher, who knew that Wilson needed a new songwriting collaborator, now Tony Asher's sabbatical from his advertising job was coming to an end, and that Wilson wanted someone who could do work that was a bit more abstract than the emotional material that he had been writing with Asher. Melcher invited both of them to a party at his house on Cielo Drive -- a house which would a few years later become notorious -- which was also attended by many of the young Hollywood set of the time. Nobody can remember exactly who was at the party, but Parks thinks it was people like Jack Nicholson and Peter and Jane Fonda. Parks and Wilson hit it off, with Wilson saying later "He seemed like a really articulate guy, like he could write some good lyrics". Parks on the other hand was delighted to find that Wilson "liked Les Paul, Spike Jones, all of these sounds that I liked, and he was doing it in a proactive way." Brian suggested Parks write the finished lyrics for "Good Vibrations", which was still being recorded at this time, and still only had Tony Asher's dummy lyrics,  but Parks was uninterested. He said that it would be best if he and Brian collaborate together on something new from scratch, and Brian agreed. The first time Parks came to visit Brian at Brian's home, other than the visit accompanying Crosby the year before, he was riding a motorbike -- he couldn't afford a car -- and forgot to bring his driver's license with him. He was stopped by a police officer who thought he looked too poor to be in the area, but Parks persuaded the police officer that if he came to the door, Brian Wilson would vouch for him. Brian got Van Dyke out of any trouble because the cop's sister was a Beach Boys fan, so he autographed an album for her. Brian and Van Dyke talked for a while. Brian asked if Van Dyke needed anything to help his work go smoothly, and Van Dyke said he needed a car. Brian asked what kind. Van Dyke said that Volvos were supposed to be pretty safe. Brian asked how much they cost. Van Dyke said he thought they were about five thousand dollars. Brian called up his office and told them to get a cheque delivered to Van Dyke for five thousand dollars the next day, instantly earning Van Dyke's loyalty. After that, they got on with work. To start with, Brian played Van Dyke a melody he'd been working on, a melody based on a descending scale starting on the fourth: [Plays "Heroes and Villains" melody] Parks told Wilson that the melody reminded him vaguely of Marty Robbins' country hit "El Paso" from 1959, a song about a gunfighter, a cantina, and a dancing woman: [Excerpt: Marty Robbins, "El Paso"] Wilson said that he had been thinking along the same lines, a sort of old west story, and thought maybe it should be called "Heroes and Villains". Parks started writing, matching syllables to Wilson's pre-conceived melody -- "I've been in this town so long that back in the city I've been taken for lost and gone and unknown for a long, long time" [Excerpt: Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks, "Heroes and Villains demo"] As Parks put it "The engine had started. It was very much ad hoc. Seat of the pants. Extemporaneous values were enforced. Not too much precommitment to ideas. Or, if so, equally pursuing propinquity." Slowly, over the next several months, while the five other Beach Boys were touring, Brian and Van Dyke refined their ideas about what the album they were writing, initially called Dumb Angel but soon retitled Smile, should be. For Van Dyke Parks it was an attempt to make music about America and American mythology. He was disgusted, as a patriot, with the Anglophilia that had swept the music industry since the arrival of the Beatles in America two and a half years earlier, particularly since that had happened so soon after the deaths both of President Kennedy and of Parks' own brother who was working for the government at the time he died. So for him, the album was about America, about Plymouth Rock, the Old West, California, and Hawaii. It would be a generally positive version of the country's myth, though it would of course also acknowledge the bloodshed on which the country had been built: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "Bicycle Rider" section] As he put it later "I was dead set on centering my life on the patriotic ideal. I was a son of the American revolution, and there was blood on the tracks. Recent blood, and it was still drying. The whole record seemed like a real effort toward figuring out what Manifest Destiny was all about. We'd come as far as we could, as far as Horace Greeley told us to go. And so we looked back and tried to make sense of that great odyssey." Brian had some other ideas -- he had been studying the I Ching, and Subud, and he wanted to do something about the four classical elements, and something religious -- his ideas were generally rather unfocused at the time, and he had far more ideas than he knew what to usefully do with. But he was also happy with the idea of a piece about America, which fit in with his own interest in "Rhapsody in Blue", a piece that was about America in much the same way. "Rhapsody in Blue" was an inspiration for Brian primarily in how it weaved together variations on themes. And there are two themes that between them Brian was finding endless variations on. The first theme was a shuffling between two chords a fourth away from each other. [demonstrates G to C on guitar] Where these chords are both major, that's the sequence for "Fire": [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow/Fire"] For the "Who ran the Iron Horse?" section of "Cabin Essence": [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "Cabinessence"] For "Vegetables": [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "Vegetables"] And more. Sometimes this would be the minor supertonic and dominant seventh of the key, so in C that would be Dm to G7: [Plays Dm to G7 fingerpicked] That's the "bicycle rider" chorus we heard earlier, which was part of a song known as "Roll Plymouth Rock" or "Do You Like Worms": [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "Bicycle Rider"] But which later became a chorus for "Heroes and Villains": [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "Heroes and Villains"] But that same sequence is also the beginning of "Wind Chimes": [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "Wind Chimes"] The "wahalla loo lay" section of "Roll Plymouth Rock": [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "Roll Plymouth Rock"] And others, but most interestingly, the minor-key rearrangement of "You Are My Sunshine" as "You Were My Sunshine": [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "You Were My Sunshine"] I say that's most interesting, because that provides a link to another of the major themes which Brian was wringing every drop out of, a phrase known as "How Dry I Am", because of its use under those words in an Irving Berlin song, which was a popular barbershop quartet song but is now best known as a signifier of drunkenness in Looney Tunes cartoons: [Excerpt: Daffy Duck singing "How Dry I Am" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ap4MMn7LpzA ] The phrase is a common one in early twentieth century music, especially folk and country, as it's made up of notes in the pentatonic scale -- it's the fifth, first, second, and third of the scale, in that order: [demonstrates "How Dry I Am"] And so it's in the melody to "This Land is Your Land", for example, a song which is very much in the same spirit of progressive Americana in which Van Dyke Parks was thinking: [Excerpt: Woody Guthrie, "This Land is Your Land"] It's also the start of the original melody of "You Are My Sunshine": [Excerpt: Jimmie Davis, "You Are My Sunshine" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYvgNEU4Am8] Brian rearranged that melody when he stuck it into a minor key, so it's no longer "How Dry I Am" in the Beach Boys version, but if you play the "How Dry I Am" notes in a different rhythm, you get this: [Plays "He Gives Speeches" melody] Which is the start of the melody to "He Gives Speeches": [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "He Gives Speeches"] Play those notes backwards, you get: [Plays "He Gives Speeches" melody backwards] Do that and add onto the end a passing sixth and then the tonic, and then you get: [Plays that] Which is the vocal *countermelody* in "He Gives Speeches": [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "He Gives Speeches"] And also turns up in some versions of "Heroes and Villains": [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "Heroes and Villains (alternate version)"] And so on. Smile was an intricate web of themes and variations, and it incorporated motifs from many sources, both the great American songbook and the R&B of Brian's youth spent listening to Johnny Otis' radio show. There were bits of "Gee" by the Crows, of "Twelfth Street Rag", and of course, given that this was Brian Wilson, bits of Phil Spector. The backing track to the verse of "Heroes and Villains": [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "Heroes and Villains"] Owed more than a little to a version of "Save the Last Dance For Me" that Spector had produced for Ike and Tina Turner: [Excerpt: Ike and Tina Turner, "Save the Last Dance For Me"] While one version of the song “Wonderful” contained a rather out-of-place homage to Etta James and “The Wallflower”: [Excerpt: “Wonderful (Rock With Me Henry)”] As the recording continued, it became more and more obvious that the combination of these themes and variations was becoming a little too much for Brian.  Many of the songs he was working on were made up of individual modules that he was planning to splice together the way he had with "Good Vibrations", and some modules were getting moved between tracks, as he tried to structure the songs in the edit. He'd managed it with "Good Vibrations", but this was an entire album, not just a single, and it was becoming more and more difficult. David Anderle, who was heading up the record label the group were looking at starting, would talk about Brian playing him acetates with sections edited together one way, and thinking it was perfect, and obviously the correct way to put them together, the only possible way, and then hearing the same sections edited together in a different way, and thinking *that* was perfect, and obviously the correct way to put them together. But while a lot of the album was modular, there were also several complete songs with beginnings, middles, ends, and structures, even if they were in several movements. And those songs showed that if Brian could just get the other stuff right, the album could be very, very, special. There was "Heroes and Villains" itself, of course, which kept changing its structure but was still based around the same basic melody and story that Brian and Van Dyke had come up with on their first day working together. There was also "Wonderful", a beautiful, allusive, song about innocence lost and regained: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "Wonderful"] And there was CabinEssence, a song which referenced yet another classic song, this time "Home on the Range", to tell a story of idyllic rural life and of the industrialisation which came with westward expansion: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "CabinEssence"] The arrangement for that song inspired Van Dyke Parks to make a very astute assessment of Brian Wilson. He said later "He knew that he had to adhere to the counter-culture, and I knew that I had to. I think that he was about as estranged from it as I was.... At the same time, he didn't want to lose that kind of gauche sensibility that he had. He was doing stuff that nobody would dream of doing. You would never, for example, use one string on a banjo when you had five; it just wasn't done. But when I asked him to bring a banjo in, that's what he did. This old-style plectrum thing. One string. That's gauche." Both Parks and Wilson were both drawn to and alienated from the counterculture, but in very different ways, and their different ways of relating to the counterculture created the creative tension that makes the Smile project so interesting. Parks is fundamentally a New Deal Liberal, and was excited by the progresssive nature of the counterculture, but also rather worried about its tendency to throw the baby out with the bathwater, and to ignore the old in pursuit of the new. He was an erudite, cultured, sophisticated man who thought that there was value to be found in the works and attitudes of the past, even as one must look to the future. He was influenced by the beat poets and the avant garde art of the time, but also said of his folk music period "A harpist would bring his harp with him and he would play and recite a story which had been passed down the generations. This particular legacy continued through Arthurian legend, and then through the Middle Ages, and even into the nineteenth century. With all these songs, half of the story was the lyrics, and the folk songs were very interesting. They were tremendously thought-driven songs; there was nothing confusing about that. Even when the Kingston Trio came out -- and Brian has already admitted his debt to the Kingston Trio -- 'Tom Dooley', the story of a murder most foul 'MTA' an urban nightmare -- all of this thought-driven music was perfectly acceptable.  It was more than a teenage romantic crisis." Brian Wilson, on the other hand, was anything *but* sophisticated. He is a simple man in the best sense of the term -- he likes what he likes, doesn't like what he doesn't like, and has no pretensions whatsoever about it. He is, at heart, a middle-class middle-American brought up in suburbia, with a taste for steaks and hamburgers, broad physical comedy, baseball, and easy listening music. Where Van Dyke Parks was talking about "thought-driven music", Wilson's music, while thoughtful, has always been driven by feelings first and foremost. Where Parks is influenced by Romantic composers like Gottschalk but is fundamentally a craftsman, a traditionalist, a mason adding his work to a cathedral whose construction started before his birth and will continue after his death, Wilson's music has none of the stylistic hallmarks of Romantic music, but in its inspiration it is absolutely Romantic -- it is the immediate emotional expression of the individual, completely unfiltered. When writing his own lyrics in later years Wilson would come up with everything from almost haiku-like lyrics like "I'm a leaf on a windy day/pretty soon I'll be blown away/How long with the wind blow?/Until I die" to "He sits behind his microphone/Johnny Carson/He speaks in such a manly tone/Johnny Carson", depending on whether at the time his prime concern was existential meaninglessness or what was on the TV. Wilson found the new counterculture exciting, but was also very aware he didn't fit in. He was developing a new group of friends, the hippest of the hip in LA counterculture circles -- the singer Danny Hutton, Mark Volman of the Turtles, the writers Michael Vosse and Jules Siegel, scenester and record executive David Anderle -- but there was always the underlying implication that at least some of these people regarded him as, to use an ableist term but one which they would probably have used, an idiot savant. That they thought of him, as his former collaborator Tony Asher would later uncharitably put it, as "a genius musician but an amateur human being". So for example when Siegel brought the great postmodern novelist Thomas Pynchon to visit Brian, both men largely sat in silence, unable to speak to each other; Pynchon because he tended to be a reactive person in conversation and would wait for the other person to initiate topics of discussion, Brian because he was so intimidated by Pynchon's reputation as a great East Coast intellectual that he was largely silent for fear of making a fool of himself. It was this gaucheness, as Parks eventually put it, and Parks' understanding that this was actually a quality to be cherished and the key to Wilson's art, that eventually gave the title to the most ambitious of the complete songs the duo were working on. They had most of the song -- a song about the power of music, the concept of enlightenment, and the rise and fall of civilisations: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "Surf's Up"] But Parks hadn't yet quite finished the lyric. The Beach Boys had been off on tour for much of Brian and Van Dyke's collaboration, and had just got back from their first real tour of the UK, where Pet Sounds had been a smash hit, rather than the middling success it had been in the US, and "Good Vibrations" had just become their first number one single. Brian and Van Dyke played the song for Brian's brother Dennis, the Beach Boys' drummer, and the band member most in tune with Brian's musical ambitions at this time. Dennis started crying, and started talking about how the British audiences had loved their music, but had laughed at their on-stage striped-shirt uniforms. Parks couldn't tell if he was crying because of the beauty of the unfinished song, the humiliation he had suffered in Britain, or both. Dennis then asked what the name of the song was, and as Parks later put it "Although it was the most gauche factor, and although maybe Brian thought it was the most dispensable thing, I thought it was very important to continue to use the name and keep the elephant in the room -- to keep the surfing image but to sensitise it to new opportunities. One of these would be an eco-consciousness; it would be speaking about the greening of the Earth, aboriginal people, how we had treated the Indians, taking on those things and putting them into the thoughts that come with the music. That was a solution to the relevance of the group, and I wanted the group to be relevant." Van Dyke had decided on a title: "Surf's Up": [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "Surf's Up"] As the group were now back from their tour, the focus for recording shifted from the instrumental sessions to vocal ones. Parks had often attended the instrumental sessions, as he was an accomplished musician and arranger himself, and would play on the sessions, but also wanted to learn from what Brian was doing -- he's stated later that some of his use of tuned percussion in the decades since, for example, has come from watching Brian's work. But while he was also a good singer, he was not a singer in the same style as the Beach Boys, and they certainly didn't need his presence at those sessions, so he continued to work on his lyrics, and to do his arrangement and session work for other artists, while they worked in the studio. He was also, though, starting to distance himself from Brian for other reasons. At the start of the summer, Brian's eccentricity and whimsy had seemed harmless -- indeed, the kind of thing he was doing, such as putting his piano in a sandbox so he could feel the sand with his feet while he wrote, seems very much on a par with Maureen Cleave's descriptions of John Lennon in the same period. They were two newly-rich, easily bored, young men with low attention spans and high intelligence who could become deeply depressed when understimulated and so would get new ideas into their heads, spend money on their new fads, and then quickly discard them. But as the summer wore on into autumn and winter, Brian's behaviour became more bizarre, and to Parks' eyes more distasteful. We now know that Brian was suffering a period of increasing mental ill-health, something that was probably not helped by the copious intake of cannabis and amphetamines he was using to spur his creativity, but at the time most people around him didn't realise this, and general knowledge of mental illness was even less than it is today. Brian was starting to do things like insist on holding business meetings in his swimming pool, partly because people wouldn't be able to spy on him, and partly because he thought people would be more honest if they were in the water. There were also events like the recording session where Wilson paid for several session musicians, not to play their instruments, but to be recorded while they sat in a pitch-black room and played the party game Lifeboat with Jules Siegel and several of Wilson's friends, most of whom were stoned and not really understanding what they were doing, while they got angrier and more frustrated. Alan Jardine -- who unlike the Wilson brothers, and even Mike Love to an extent, never indulged in illegal drugs -- has talked about not understanding why, in some vocal sessions, Brian would make the group crawl on their hands and knees while making noises like animals: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "Heroes and Villains Part 3 (Animals)"] As Parks delicately put it "I sensed all that was destructive, so I withdrew from those related social encounters." What this meant though was that he was unaware that not all the Beach Boys took the same attitude of complete support for the work he and Brian had been doing that Dennis Wilson -- the only other group member he'd met at this point -- took. In particular, Mike Love was not a fan of Parks' lyrics. As he said later "I called it acid alliteration. The [lyrics are] far out. But do they relate like 'Surfin' USA,' like 'Fun Fun Fun,' like 'California Girls,' like 'I Get Around'? Perhaps not! So that's the distinction. See, I'm into success. These words equal successful hit records; those words don't" Now, Love has taken a lot of heat for this over the years, and on an artistic level that's completely understandable. Parks' lyrics were, to my mind at least, the best the Beach Boys ever had -- thoughtful, intelligent, moving, at times profound, often funny, often beautiful. But, while I profoundly disagree with Love, I have a certain amount of sympathy for his position. From Love's perspective, first and foremost, this is his source of income. He was the only one of the Beach Boys to ever have had a day job -- he'd worked at his father's sheet metal company -- and didn't particularly relish the idea of going back to manual labour if the rock star gig dried up. It wasn't that he was *opposed* to art, of course -- he'd written the lyrics to "Good Vibrations", possibly the most arty rock single released to that point, hadn't he? -- but that had been *commercial* art. It had sold. Was this stuff going to sell? Was he still going to be able to feed his wife and kids? Also, up until a few months earlier he had been Brian's principal songwriting collaborator. He was *still* the most commercially successful collaborator Brian had had. From his perspective, this was a partnership, and it was being turned into a dictatorship without him having been consulted. Before, it had been "Mike, can you write some lyrics for this song about cars?", now it was "Mike, you're going to sing these lyrics about a crow uncovering a cornfield". And not only that, but Mike had not met Brian's new collaborator, but knew he was hanging round with Brian's new druggie friends. And Brian was behaving increasingly weirdly, which Mike put down to the influence of the drugs and these new friends. It can't have helped that at the same time the group's publicist, Derek Taylor, was heavily pushing the line "Brian Wilson is a genius". This was causing Brian some distress -- he didn't think of himself as a genius, and he saw the label as a burden, something it was impossible to live up to -- but was also causing friction in the group, as it seemed that their contributions were being dismissed. Again, I don't agree with Mike's position on any of this, but it is understandable. It's also the case that Mike Love is, by nature, a very assertive and gregarious person, while Brian Wilson, for all that he took control in the studio, is incredibly conflict-avoidant and sensitive. From what I know of the two men's personalities, and from things they've said, and from the session recordings that have leaked over the years, it seems entirely likely that Love will have seen himself as having reasonable criticisms, and putting them to Brian clearly with a bit of teasing to take the sting out of them; while Brian will have seen Love as mercilessly attacking and ridiculing the work that meant so much to him in a cruel and hurtful manner, and that neither will have understood at the time that that was how the other was seeing things. Love's criticisms intensified. Not of everything -- he's several times expressed admiration for "Heroes and Villains" and "Wonderful" -- but in general he was not a fan of Parks' lyrics. And his criticisms seemed to start to affect Brian. It's difficult to say what Brian thinks about Parks' lyrics, because he has a habit in interviews of saying what he thinks the interviewer wants to hear, and the whole subject of Smile became a touchy one for him for a long time, so in some interviews he has talked about how dazzlingly brilliant they are, while at other times he's seemed to agree with Love, saying they were "Van Dyke Parks lyrics", not "Beach Boys lyrics". He may well sincerely think both at the same time, or have thought both at different times. This came to a head with a session for the tag of "Cabinessence": [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "Cabinessence"] Love insisted on having the line "over and over the crow flies uncover the cornfield" explained to him, and Brian eventually decided to call Van Dyke Parks and have him come to the studio. Up to this point, Parks had no idea that there was anything controversial, so when Brian phoned him up and very casually said that Mike had a few questions about the lyrics, could he come down to the studio? He went without a second thought. He later said "The only person I had had any interchange with before that was Dennis, who had responded very favorably to 'Heroes and Villains' and 'Surf's Up'. Based on that, I gathered that the work would be approved. But then, with no warning whatsoever, I got that phone call from Brian. And that's when the whole house of cards came tumbling down." Parks got to the studio, where he was confronted by an angry Mike Love, insisting he explain the lyrics. Now, as will be, I hope, clear from everything I've said, Parks and Love are very, very, *very* different people. Having met both men -- albeit only in formal fan-meeting situations where they're presenting their public face -- I actually find both men very likeable, but in very different ways. Love is gregarious, a charmer, the kind of man who would make a good salesman and who people use terms like "alpha male" about. He's tall, and has a casual confidence that can easily read as arrogance, and a straightforward sense of humour that can sometimes veer into the cruel. Parks, on the other hand, is small, meticulously well-mannered and well-spoken, has a high, precise, speaking voice which probably reads as effeminate to the kind of people who use terms like "alpha male", and the kind of devastating intelligence and Southern US attention to propriety which means that if he *wanted* to say something cruel about someone, the victim would believe themselves to have been complimented until a horrific realisation two days after the event. In every way, from their politics to their attitudes to art versus commerce to their mannerisms to their appearance, Mike Love and Van Dyke Parks are utterly different people, and were never going to mix well. And Brian Wilson, who was supposed to be the collaborator for both of them, was not mediating between them, not even expressing an opinion -- his own mental problems had reached the stage where he simply couldn't deal with the conflict. Parks felt ambushed and hurt, Love felt angry, especially when Parks could not explain the literal meaning of his lyrics. Eventually Parks just said "I have no excuse, sir", and left. Parks later said "That's when I lost interest. Because basically I was taught not to be where I wasn't wanted, and I could feel I wasn't wanted. It was like I had someone else's job, which was abhorrent to me, because I don't even want my own job. It was sad, so I decided to get away quick." Parks continued collaborating with Wilson, and continued attending instrumental sessions, but it was all wheelspinning -- no significant progress was made on any songs after that point, in early December. It was becoming clear that the album wasn't going to be ready for its planned Christmas release, and it was pushed back to January, but Brian's mental health was becoming worse and worse. One example that's often cited as giving an insight into Brian's mental state at the time is his reaction to going to the cinema to see John Frankenheimer's classic science fiction horror film Seconds. Brian came in late, and the way the story is always told, when he was sat down the screen was black and a voice said from the darkness, "Hello Mr. Wilson". That moment does not seem to correspond with anything in the actual film, but he probably came in around the twenty-four minute mark, where the main character walks down a corridor, filmed in a distorted, hallucinatory manner, to be greeted: [Excerpt: Seconds, 24:00] But as Brian watched the film, primed by this, he became distressed by a number of apparent similarities to his life. The main character was going through death and rebirth, just as he felt he was. Right after the moment I just excerpted, Mr. Wilson is shown a film, and of course Brian was himself watching a film. The character goes to the beach in California, just like Brian. The character has a breakdown on a plane, just like Brian, and has to take pills to cope, and the breakdown happens right after this: [Excerpt: Seconds, from about 44:22] A studio in California? Just like where Brian spent his working days? That kind of weird coincidence can be affecting enough in a work of art when one is relatively mentally stable, but Brian was not at all stable. By this point he was profoundly paranoid -- and he may have had good reason to be. Some of Brian's friends from this time period have insisted that Brian's semi-estranged abusive father and former manager, Murry, was having private detectives watch him and his brothers to find evidence that they were using drugs. If you're in the early stages of a severe mental illness *and* you're self-medicating with illegal drugs, *and* people are actually spying on you, then that kind of coincidence becomes a lot more distressing. Brian became convinced that the film was the work of mind gangsters, probably in the pay of Phil Spector, who were trying to drive him mad and were using telepathy to spy on him. He started to bar people who had until recently been his friends from coming to sessions -- he decided that Jules Siegel's girlfriend was a witch and so Siegel was no longer welcome -- and what had been a creative process in the studio degenerated into noodling and second-guessing himself. He also, with January having come and the album still not delivered, started doing side projects,  some of which, like his production of tracks for photographer Jasper Daily, seem evidence either of his bizarre sense of humour, or of his detachment from reality, or both: [Excerpt: Jasper Daily, "Teeter Totter Love"] As 1967 drew on, things got worse and worse. Brian was by this point concentrating on just one or two tracks, but endlessly reworking elements of them. He became convinced that the track "Fire" had caused some actual fires to break out in LA, and needed to be scrapped. The January deadline came and went with no sign of the album. To add to that, the group discovered that they were owed vast amounts of unpaid royalties by Capitol records, and legal action started which meant that even were the record to be finished it might become a pawn in the legal wrangling. Parks eventually became exasperated by Brian -- he said later "I was victimised by Brian Wilson's buffoonery" -- and he quit the project altogether in February after a row with Brian. He returned a couple of weeks later out of a sense of loyalty, but quit again in April. By April, he'd been working enough with Lenny Waronker that Waronker offered him a contract with Warner Brothers as a solo artist -- partly because Warners wanted some insight into Brian Wilson's techniques as a hit-making producer. To start with, Parks released a single, to dip a toe in the water, under the pseudonym "George Washington Brown". It was a largely-instrumental cover version of Donovan's song "Colours", which Parks chose because after seeing the film Don't Look Back, a documentary of Bob Dylan's 1965 British tour, he felt saddened at the way Dylan had treated Donovan: [Excerpt: George Washington Brown, "Donovan's Colours"] That was not a hit, but it got enough positive coverage, including an ecstatic review from Richard Goldstein in the Village Voice, that Parks was given carte blanche to create the album he wanted to create, with one of the largest budgets of any album released to that date. The result was a masterpiece, and very similar to the vision of Smile that Parks had had -- an album of clever, thoroughly American music which had more to do with Charles Ives than the British Invasion: [Excerpt: Van Dyke Parks, "The All Golden"] But Parks realised the album, titled Song Cycle, was doomed to failure when at a playback session, the head of Warner Brothers records said "Song Cycle? So where are the songs?" According to Parks, the album was only released because Jac Holzman of Elektra Records was also there, and took out his chequebook and said he'd release the album if Warners wouldn't, but it had little push, apart from some rather experimental magazine adverts which were, if anything, counterproductive. But Waronker recognised Parks' talent, and had even written into Parks' contract that Parks would be employed as a session player at scale on every session Waronker produced -- something that didn't actually happen, because Parks didn't insist on it, but which did mean Parks had a certain amount of job security. Over the next couple of years Parks and Waronker co-produced the first albums by two of their colleagues from Waronker's brains trust, with Parks arranging -- Randy Newman: [Excerpt: Randy Newman, "I Think It's Going to Rain Today"] And Ry Cooder: [Excerpt: Ry Cooder, "One Meat Ball"] Waronker would refer to himself, Parks, Cooder, and Newman as "the arts and crafts division" of Warners, and while these initial records weren't very successful, all of them would go on to bigger things. Parks would be a pioneer of music video, heading up Warners' music video department in the early seventies, and would also have a staggeringly varied career over the years, doing everything from teaming up again with the Beach Boys to play accordion on "Kokomo" to doing the string arrangements on Joanna Newsom's album Ys, collaborating with everyone from U2 to Skrillex,  discovering Rufus Wainwright, and even acting again, appearing in Twin Peaks. He also continued to make massively inventive solo albums, releasing roughly one every decade, each unique and yet all bearing the hallmarks of his idiosyncratic style. As you can imagine, he is very likely to come up again in future episodes, though we're leaving him for now. Meanwhile, the Beach Boys were floundering, and still had no album -- and now Parks was no longer working with Brian, the whole idea of Smile was scrapped. The priority was now to get a single done, and so work started on a new, finished, version of "Heroes and Villains", structured in a fairly conventional manner using elements of the Smile recordings. The group were suffering from numerous interlocking problems at this point, and everyone was stressed -- they were suing their record label, Dennis' wife had filed for divorce, Brian was having mental health problems, and Carl had been arrested for draft dodging -- though he was later able to mount a successful defence that he was a conscientious objector. Also, at some point around this time, Bruce Johnston seems to have temporarily quit the group, though this was never announced -- he doesn't seem to have been at any sessions from late May or early June through mid-September, and didn't attend the two shows they performed in that time. They were meant to have performed three shows, but even though Brian was on the board of the Monterey Pop Festival, they pulled out at the last minute, saying that they needed to deal with getting the new single finished and with Carl's draft problems. Some or all of these other issues almost certainly fed into that, but the end result was that the Beach Boys were seen to have admitted defeat, to have handed the crown of relevance off to the San Francisco groups. And even if Smile had been released, there were other releases stealing its thunder. If it had come out in December it would have been massively ahead of its time, but after the Beatles released Sgt Pepper it would have seemed like it was a cheap copy -- though Parks has always said he believes the Beatles heard some of the Smile tapes and copied elements of the recordings, though I don't hear much similarity myself. But I do hear a strong similarity in "My World Fell Down" by Sagittarius, which came out in June, and which was largely made by erstwhile collaborators of Brian -- Gary Usher produced, Glen Campbell sang lead, and Bruce Johnston sang backing vocals: [Excerpt: Sagittarius, "My World Fell Down"] Brian was very concerned after hearing that that someone *had* heard the Smile tapes, and one can understand why. When "Heroes and Villains" finally came out, it was a great single, but only made number twelve in the charts. It was fantastic, but out of step with the times, and nothing could have lived up to the hype that had built up around it: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "Heroes and Villains"] Instead of Smile, the group released an album called Smiley Smile, recorded in a couple of months in Brian's home studio, with no studio musicians and no involvement from Bruce, other than the previously released singles, and with the production credited to "the Beach Boys" rather than Brian. Smiley Smile has been unfairly dismissed over the years, but it's actually an album that was ahead of its time. It's a collection of stripped down versions of Smile songs and new fragments using some of the same motifs, recorded with minimal instrumentation. Some of it is on a par with the Smile material it's based on: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "Wonderful"] Some is, to my ears, far more beautiful than the Smile versions: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "Wind Chimes"] And some has a fun goofiness which relates back to one of Brian's discarded ideas for Smile, that it be a humour album: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "She's Going Bald"] The album was a commercial flop, by far the least successful thing the group had released to that point in the US, not even making the top forty when it came out in September, though it made the top ten in the UK, but interestingly it *wasn't* a critical flop, at least at first. While the scrapping of Smile had been mentioned, it still wasn't widely known, and so for example Richard Goldstein, the journalist whose glowing review of "Donovan's Colours" in the Village Voice had secured Van Dyke Parks the opportunity to make Song Cycle, gave it a review in the New York Times which is written as if Goldstein at least believes it *is* the album that had been promised all along, and he speaks of it very perceptively -- and here I'm going to quote quite extensively, because the narrative about this album has always been that it was panned from the start and made the group a laughing stock: "Smiley Smile hardly reads like a rock cantata. But there are moments in songs such as 'With Me Tonight' and 'Wonderful' that soar like sacred music. Even the songs that seem irrelevant to a rock-hymn are infused with stained-glass melodies. Wilson is a sound sculptor and his songs are all harmonious litanies to the gentle holiness of love — post-Christian, perhaps but still believing. 'Wind Chimes', the most important piece on the album, is a fine example of Brian Wilson's organic pop structure. It contains three movements. First, Wilson sets a lyric and melodic mood ("In the late afternoon, you're hung up on wind chimes"). Then he introduces a totally different scene, utilizing passages of pure, wordless harmony. His two-and-a-half minute hymn ends with a third movement in which the voices join together in an exquisite round, singing the words, "Whisperin' winds set my wind chimes a-tinklin'." The voices fade out slowly, like the bittersweet afternoon in question. The technique of montage is an important aspect of Wilson's rock cantata, since the entire album tends to flow as a single composition. Songs like 'Heroes and Villains', are fragmented by speeding up or slowing down their verses and refrains. The effect is like viewing the song through a spinning prism. Sometimes, as in 'Fall Breaks and Back to Winter' (subtitled "W. Woodpecker Symphony"), the music is tiered into contrapuntal variations on a sliver of melody. The listener is thrown into a vast musical machine of countless working gears, each spinning in its own orbit." That's a discussion of the album that I hear when I listen to Smiley Smile, and the group seem to have been artistically happy with it, at least at first. They travelled to Hawaii to record a live album (with Brian, as Bruce was still out of the picture), taking the Baldwin organ that Brian used all over Smiley Smile with them, and performed rearranged versions of their old hits in the Smiley Smile style. When the recordings proved unusable, they recreated them in the studio, with Bruce returning to the group, where he would remain, with the intention of overdubbing audience noise and releasing a faked live album: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "California Girls [Lei'd studio version]"] The idea of the live album, to be called Lei'd in Hawaii, was scrapped, but that's not the kind of radical reimagining of your sound that you do if you think you've made an artistic failure. Indeed, the group's next albu

This week we were saddened to receive the news that long-time Pixar production designer Ralph Eggleston passed away after a long battle with cancer. I spoke with Ralph for one of our first episodes, so my instinct was to remember him by re-running that episode this week instead of what we had planned. I'm joined by long-time Pixar animator Shawn Krause, who has known Ralph, or Eggman as many knew him, since the early Pixar days.Ralph shared his journey and his wisdom generously in this interview, talking about his beginnings at Cal Arts, his big break animating on Family Dog with Brad Bird, Fern Gully with Bill and Sue Kroyer, and his time at Pixar. He gets in-depth about his process and adds tips and advice for young artists. This episode was our longest and one of our most popular, so I encourage you to listen and learn and appreciate this talent who is gone too soon. Toward the end of the episode, Ralph talks about a recommended reading list for filmmaking and production design. We've shared the list below. The Big Goodbye, by Sam WassonAll text, a few pics.  An exceptionally well-written account of the making of the movie Chinatown, with lots of design insight by the film's production designer Richard Sylbert.  Can get on iPad…one of the best books on making a film EVER.  Blast to read (like Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, but on one film!)By Design, by Vincent LoBruttoAll text.  Interviews with film production designers. Hollywood Art , by Beverly HeisnerGREAT survey of the design departments of the major film studios in the early to late 20th Century.  Lots of medium-quality pics, but a great starting place for names and films to look into further. Designs on Film:  A Century of Art Direction, by Cathy WhitlockExcellent book LOADED with high-quality images.  Selznick's Vision, by Alan David Vertrees and Thomas SchatzEXCELLENT book on the design and making of Gone with the Wind.  At first, it reads like a doctoral thesis, which it probably is.  But endlessly fascinating.  The first film to give credit to Production Design to the great William Cameron Menzies.William Cameron Menzies:  The Shape of Films to Come, by James CurtisTerrific biography of the great William Cameron MenziesDesigning Movies:  Portrait of a Hollywood Artist, by Richard SylbertAutobiography of Richard SylbertProduction Design and Art Direction (Screencraft Series), by Peter EttedguiGreat overview of more modern films.  Lots of interviews and TONS of images!   Production Design:  Visual Design for Film and Television, by Peg McClellanExcellent book.  Lots of practical stuff.Production Design for Screen:   Visual Storytelling in Film and Television, by Jane BarnwellLots of good basic info.The Art of the Hollywood Backdrop, by Richard M. Isackes, Karen L. Maness- - Thanks for listening. If you have any comments or suggestions please get in touch. Host & Producer: Michael WakelamExecutive Producer: Eric M. MillerMusic by: Rich DickersonAudio Engineering: Mike RochaThe Creators Society is a professional society for all disciplines of the animation industry. Our mission is to bring the animation community together to build strong relationships, provide education, and form a better understanding of the different roles we all play in creating animated stories. We celebrate and promote the love of animation, and all the talented Creators who breathe life and imagination into their work.

Get your bell bottoms, your peace sign, your tie dye and your … crucifix!This week's guest is Gwendolyn Kiste and her new novel, Reluctant Immortals, transports us to San Francisco in 1968, the summer after the Summer of Love, when the sun is setting on the hippie movement. Into this chaos comes a quarter of iconic Gothic characters, ready to fight it out all over again.Like the book, the surface of this conversation belies its inner darkness. Yes we talk hippies. Yes we talk Haunted Hollywood. Yes we talk cheesy movies. But we also get into the horrific implications of vampires for sexual consent, the true hideous power of the patriarchy, and how women are weaponised against women.There is substantial conversation about domestic and sexual abuse in the second half of the conversation. Just a warning in case this is a problem for you. It's a tough conversation, but a good one.Enjoy!Reluctant Immortals is released in North America on August 23rd by and in the UK on November 22nd by Titan.Other books discussed in this episode include:Something Borrowed, Something Blood-soaked (2018), by Christa CarmenTo Be Devoured (2019), by Sarah TantlingerThe Rust Maidens (2018), by Gwendolyn Kiste“The Eight People Who Murdered Me (Excerpt from Lucy Westenra's Diary)”, by Gwendolyn Kiste, Nightmare Magazine, issue 86, (2019)“The Woman Out of the Attic, by Gwendolyn Kiste, in Haunted House Short Stories (2019)Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock 'N Roll Generation Saved Hollywood (1998), by Peter BiskindSupport Talking Scared on PatreonCome talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Support the show

Jen and Tim marvel at the cursed, ill-conceived, bloated sequel to Chinatown, The Two Jakes.Errata: Jen was wrong and Polanski fled the country in February of 1978, not 1977.The Two Jakes derailed the Robert Towne/Jack Nicholson friendship, which had been forged in the early 60s while both worked for Roger Corman, for at least a decade. Towne admitted as much in Peter Biskind's Easy Riders, Raging Bulls. However, in a 2006 interview, Towne parries a question about the film thusly:Well, in the interest of maintaining my friendships with Jack Nicholson and Robert Evans, I'd rather not go into it, but let's just say The Two Jakes wasn't a pleasant experience for any of us. But, we're all still friends, and that's what matters most. Robert TowneSo, you know, awwwwww.The History Channel website has the cold hard facts about Jack Nicholson's 1994 road rage incident, in which he attacked another motorist's car with a golf club. Have You Seen This? BONUS episodes See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Easy Drugs & Raging Egos: New Hollywood & the Auteur Era On this week's episode of WatchThis W/RickRamos, Mr. Chavez & I take a look at Ted Demme & Richard LaGravenese's IFC Documentary, A Decade Under the Influence and Kenneth Bowser's Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex, Drugs and Rock 'N' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood.  It's a great time for a couple of cinema nerds to look at one of the greatest periods in the history of cinema. We look at the big names and the legacy of the 70s that continues to fascinate us 30+ years later. This week we talk the usual names: DePalma, Coppola, Spielberg, Bogdanovich, Schrader, and many more including - of course - Scorsese. It's a whole lot of fun. Take a listen and let us know what you think. Questions, Comments, Complaints, & Suggestions can be directed to gondoramos@yahoo.com. Our Continued Thanks for Your Love and Support.   

Welcome to ShopTalk, America's first and favorite weekly motorcycle talk show. Thanks to our good friends at Dennis Kirk, we come to your headspace every Sunday night at 9 PM EST with a little bit of news, some cool products, and some great people from the industry. Episode 199 is off the hook with two legendary guests! We've got Mondo Porras from Denver's Choppers and Dave Nichols, Editor of the Classic Easyriders in the sidecar. They're going to be giving us the scoop on the Replica Captain America Panhead Sweepstakes bike that will be given away through Classic Easyriders. We've got a great feature bike on one of the coolest Ironheads from Convict Customz that we've seen in a while and of course all the bullshit we can fit!

Today on another encore edition of the Rarified Heir Podcast, we bring you our conversation with Dave Jenkins whose father was character actor Paul Jenkins, his mother is famed casting director Jane Jenkins and his stepmother, actress Sally Kemp. We hear all about growing up the son of Paul Jenkins who starred in more than 40 TV roles – from shows like Mannix to MASH. We learn about the ups and downs of trying to be a working actor in Hollywood and all that comes along with it. From Philly to LA, it was a grind but it was a what a person does to live out their dream to be an actor. Sally Kemp mines much of the same territory here – with roles on Bonanza to Bosom Buddies – for the classically trained actress. Again, we hear first hand accounts of perseverance, dedication to their craft and their dream. For mom Jane Jenkins, her route to Hollywood from the East Coast brought her to the doorstep to some of the biggest films and A-List directors in the Easy Riders and Raging Bulls era and beyond. She worked for Rob Reiner and Francis Ford Coppola while casting the likes of Michelle Pfeiffer, River Phoenix and Michael Keaton in some of their earliest films, if not their first role ever. So take a listen, set your internal clock back a little bit and take a listen to Dave Jenkins on the Rarified Heir Podcast. Everyone has a story.

This week we go back in time to the tumultuous 1960s and visit a pivotal year in the evolution of the cinema landscape. The old studio system is dying and new forms of film making are taking over. The Easy Riders and Raging Bull are on their way, and they bring International Cinema and Music Videos to crush the old paths. So become a time traveler and join us for this episode

Episode #4 of the Motorcycle Knuckle Busters podcast. Enjoy our next guest Michael Lichter. Michael Lichter is an American writer, biker, and photographer of the biker-lifestyle, known for his work with Easyriders magazine.Since the early 1980s, Michael Lichter has been photographing custom motorcycles and photographing packs of bikers in places like Daytona Beach and Sturgis, South Dakota for the pages of Easyriders magazine.This interview was recorded with  Michael Lichter on February 24th, 2022.

Help produce Basic Folk by contributing at basicfolk.com/donateEliza Gilkyson is a middle child, a constant reinventor of herself and a surprise teacher of songwriting. Her father, the acclaimed folk singer/songwriter Terry Gilkyson, moved his family to California in the late 1940's to pursue a career in folk music. He found success with his group The Easy Riders and as a staff songwriter for Disney. He wrote songs for animated films and most famously "Bear Necessities" from The Jungle Book, which earned him an Oscar nomination. Terry greatly influenced Eliza's style with a love of melody, natural talent and visceral writing. Young Eliza spent time in the southwestern US soaking in the sounds of "western folk." That sound encompasses her new album Songs From the River Wind (out on Jan 14, 2022). She's spent many years going back and forth from New Mexico to California, to Austin, Texas and back to New Mexico again. The pandemic and settling into her third act put a lot of things into perspective, including officially moving 100% to her beloved Taos, New Mexico. The new album is not political, which is unusual for Eliza, who's been known to write pointed political scorchers on her records. Lots of these songs and sounds are encompassing a time gone by featuring moments of joy and beauty. The sounds of the album completely encapsulate her dad's trademark style, led by Taos band The 'Rifters, who accompany Eliza this time around. Eliza's embarking on another new reinvention of herself, which she has been known to do over the course of her amazing life. Most famously, at 50 years old around the year 2000, Gilkyson reclaimed the identity of "folk singer" and released her career-affirming and changing album Hard Times in Babylon. That record unlocked her writing and set her on a path of authentic creation in her music and she has not looked back. Here's to constant reinvention!   Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

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RAZ and REA run hard at the new track in Indonesia We love the new World Superbike track in Indonesia RIP Easy Riders... Good luck Easy Riders

Que tal!? We're still enjoying the sunshine (and working hard!) in España. Lots of recommendations today - a deodorant, a vegetable, a comedy instagram account, documentaries and tv shows. Find us @makingthecutpodcast on instagram to send us your recommendations and for the best experience listen on the Entale app.02:15 - Ricky Merino - https://www.instagram.com/rickymerino/04:19 - David Beckham Instinct - https://www.amazon.co.uk/David-Beckham-Instinct-Deodorant-Spray/dp/B000PY08ZS/ref=asc_df_B000PY08ZS/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=310642411145&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=7199821805075406467&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9041110&hvtargid=pla-560774377416&psc=1&th=1&psc=105:12 - Tom Ford Grey Vetiver - https://www.theperfumeshop.com/tom-ford/grey-vetiver/eau-de-parfum-for-him/p/73010EDPJU?varSel=1189976&gclid=Cj0KCQjwqKuKBhCxARIsACf4XuFAFfuEi_YuaMe7dLGytGVS2yYqZC88NvGTsOJYb5xDGQNCXGWmyOoaAh0EEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds06:04 - Megan Rossi - https://www.instagram.com/theguthealthdoctor/?hl=en06:14 - Romanesco - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanesco_broccoli08:47 - Is this a QR code-enabled graveyard in Japan? - https://www.indiatoday.in/fact-check/story/fact-check-qr-code-graveyard-japan-1853260-2021-09-1511:29 - The North Water - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7660970/16:44 - uespiiiiii - https://www.instagram.com/uespiiiiii/?hl=en19:13 - Easy Riders and Raging Bulls - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Easy-Riders-Raging-Bulls-Sex-drugs/dp/074754421220:00 - Easy Riders, Raging Bulls - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0359203/22:54 - Ted Lasso - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10986410/23:42 - Apple One - https://www.apple.com/uk/apple-one/31:18 - Grape and Fig - https://grapeandfig.com/36:45 - Turning Point - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15260794/37:50 - Afghanistan: The Great Game - A Personal View by Rory Stewart - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01jk6ch40:40 - Ruby Wax Met… - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01dn14q/episodes/guide42:10 - Dom in the Kitchen - https://www.dominthekitchen.com/42:40 - Bee Gees Statue - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-isle-of-man-57769115 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Opinions That Don't Matter ep.72 Medical Wheel Of Fortune!The Stanley Cup Predictions from the past… Go Habs Go!Handman Handyman, we are neither.My grandmother's paintings...  Music chat… Kati's new book Traumatized is available for preorder...  https://geni.us/Bfak0j Order Yours Today!Psychology, McDonalds, Jamba Juice & The GapKati the bug hunter in TexasStephen King's “The Mist” Texas styleVitamins, guitar picks and accidents Texas cuisine & gas station bbq Barefoot Scientist foot treatmentAUDIENCE LETTERSStrange pet names & Hot Dog Water - Ben The Space Boss Our childhood dogs, Corny & ChaChi remembered! A clarification from the previous episode regarding G-Wagons of the SkySurströmming, mimosasalad, university - Emilie the Bold Baptism by pickled fish &  Mimosasallad Swedish Recipe ( please make this and report back!)2 orangeshandful of grapes1/2 a pineapple1 apple1/2 heavy cream1/2 mayo2 tbls dijon mustardsalt and pepper to taste(though I think no matter how much salt and pepper you add you can't save this salad)Mix and eatAdvice for College students… Sorry I tend to get long winded… - KaelA discussion on Autism  Be careful not to throw out the baby Jesus with the Holy Bathwater.  - Fr. DubucSend your message to https://www.speakpipe.com/OTDMWelcome back, moving, bats, carpets, hardwood or tiles, favorite movies and what grinds my gears - Christoph the Mighty! Billy Boots, Rain Galoshes and Spurs! A barred owl looking for Austin real estate - I use the app BirdnetOwl box: https://mikedupuyhawkfood.com/kestrel-box-wood/I want an owl because mouse poop almost feel in my mouth…Book recommendation: Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock 'N' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood https://www.amazon.com/dp/0684857081/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_SR1A5Z9ZYX77VBYXJB8JOTDM Discord server:  https://discord.gg/pejMSCynJyHospital stories - Erin the Wise!German dorms, my blood disease and a funny ID story - Matt the MajesticKati's new book TRAUMATIZED is available for preorder in print, ebook & audiobook. Order your copy today!  https://geni.us/Bfak0j  Are you following and downloading Opinions That Don't Matter on Spotify?https://open.spotify.com/show/1ptUPzDqFJJ8dYnAKcK1MRSend your fan art to OTDMpod@gmail.comThe video version of Opinions That Don't Matterhttps://www.youtube.com/opinionsthatdontmatterAsk Kati Anything! (2nd podcast) audio:  https://askkatianything.buzzsprout.com/OTDM Community Spot  https://discord.gg/APYrebpJ2uKatiTikTok  @KatimortonInstagram @katimortonSeanTikTok @hatori_seanzoInstagram @seansaintlouis

- “Right across the street and down from the Rock Shop there is a mobile home park, that's where Lou Kimsey, the original editor of Easyriders, lived, right there.“ - Dave Nichols

Bill Moseley is an actor, musician and horror icon.  He burst onto the horror scene in a huge way as Chop Top in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, and has since starred in movies like Repo the Genetic Opera and the TV show Carnivàle. But perhaps most notable is Bill's chillingly well realized portrayal of Otis B. Driftwood in Rob Zombie's Firefly family trilogy, including House of 1,000 Corpses, The Devil's Rejects, and the up and coming 3 From Hell. Bill and I talked about his career history, including a pretty incredible story about how he got on the radar of Tobe Hooper for Texas Chainsaw 2 through a short film he made called The Texas Chainsaw Manicure. We also got into details about his acting process and how he gets into the psychotic mindset of characters like Otis. And of course, we discussed what we can expect from 3 From Hell.  Speaking to Bill was a real treat. I'm a huge fan of him and The Devil's Rejects is not just one of  my favorite horror movies of all time, but one of my favorite movies of all time. To me it was a perfect blend of fascinating (even lovable) characters in a grounded, believable sun-scorched reality that had the Americana flavorings of classic road movies like Easyriders and Badlands. It delivered the blood in the big way and had moments of palpably bone-chilling psychotic brutality. All of this plus a killer soundtrack. As you'll hear in the interview, Bill is an incredibly nice guy, he was so generous with his time and knowledge and I was so humbled to be able to speak to him.  Here are 3 key creative lessons learned from this conversation with Bill Moseley.  Make stuff & put it out there. Bill was a struggling actor who, on a whim, made a fun short film in a day with his buddies called The Texas Chainsaw Manicure. With very little expectation of it getting much recognition, Bill sent it around to multiple networks and it got in front of Tobe Hooper who then cast Bill as Chop Top in Texas Chainsaw 2. This put Bill on the trajectory of being the horror icon he is today.  Get out of the way! When filming 3 From Hell, Bill began screwing up Otis' lines because he was over-thinking the performance and becoming insecure. After take after bad take, Bill suddenly heard the voice of Otis in his own psyche tell him to get out of the way and let him do his job. Bill said that he sat the performance out at this point and simply let Otis take over which made the performance go much smoother. This idea of getting out of the way is relevant to most artists, not just actors, who often will stifle the flow of their own creativity by over-thinking the material and finding reasons to feel self conscious. This may be part of being human but it's destructive to the creative process. Sometimes, the best way to serve your art is to get the hell out of its way! Art is not safe. During a particularly brutal hotel room scene in The Devil's Rejects (you know the one) Bill struggled to get through the large number of takes and mentioned to Rob Zombie that he was emotionally struggling to get through the performance. Without skipping a beat, Rob Zombie replied “Art is not safe” - meaning, that working in horror and other darker arts, can take an emotional toll on those involved when it's taken seriously. It's supposed to. Yes, there are those goofy, schlocky slashers and exploitation films that exists for cheap thrills & entertainment, but then there is the type of horror that is meant to portray larger truths about real evil. Sometimes the only way to properly depict evil is to confront and embrace the inherent danger that comes with exploring it. That's exactly what Bill did which is probably why Otis is such an effective character (and probably why he's still stuck in Bill's head).

Live from Mystery Monday March 25 featuring Easy Riders and Vintage Pistol --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/Mrdr/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/Mrdr/support

Which band were given their first break by an estate agent and played the definitive Psych song? Eddie Kramer helps the beatles and the Rolling Stones and Jimi Hendrix - legend.

On today's podcast adventure, Adolfo Acosta and Mark Espinosa join Ethan Edwards and Martin Pawley on the trail of some Comanche when they discuss John Ford's essential classic THE SEARCHERS. On the show, Adolfo and Mark discuss: • The insane fact that the Academy Awards ignored the film • Patrick Wayne's terrible acting • How we first experienced THE SEARCHERS • The stunning cinematography • The John Wayne “charachter”• The “true story” that inspired the film • The magnificent opening and closing shots• Ethan and Martha's secret love• Ford's influence on the likes of Lucas, Scorsese, Bogdanovich, Tarantino, Milius• Ford's exploration of racism• Ethan and Scar as mirror images of each other• Is this John Wayne's greatest performance?• Ethan Edwards: the anti-heroPLUS: Mini Discussions on:• DUMBO (1941)• SONG OF THE SOUTH (1946)• BATMAN: THE KILLING JOKE (2016)• SUICIDE SQUAD (2016)• BATMAN V SUPERMAN: ULTIMATE EDITION (2016)• SALO, OR THE 120 DAYS OF SODOM (1975)• CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST (1980)• THE FLY (1986)• TRUE GRIT (1969, 2010)• THE KING OF KINGS (1961)• STAR WARS (1977)• The book EASY RIDERS, RAGING BULLS by Peter Biskind• Michael Cimino• THE CONQUEROR (1956)• TOUCH OF EVIL (1958)• STAR WARS: EPISODE II - ATTACK OF THE CLONES (2002)• HOW THE WEST WAS WON (1962)• BAMBI (1942)And More!

It's like Matt and Alison always say: "It's real hard to be free when you are bought and sold in the marketplace." Hear a discussion of Warren Beatty's Best Picture-winning "Reds," get recommendations on great New Hollywood-era films available now on demand/streaming and more. Queue Shots: Movies From the New Hollywood Era Dog Day Afternoon The Panic in Needle Park 3 Women Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid One From the Heart Paper Moon Listeners' Choice Review Reds Behind the 8-Ball: 3 New Releases Matt: Moon Jackie Brown Immortals Alison: American Animal Nothing Sacred Urbanized 2 Expiring Titles (Expiration Date): Matt: Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (7/12) Alice Neel (7/12) Alison: 2010: The Year We Make Contact (7/16) Caramel (7/17) 1 Random Film From Our Queue Matt: Run For Cover Alison: Together Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices