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Tech Bro NonsenseFormer Google CEO Tells Congress That 99 Percent of All Electricity Will Be Used to Power Superintelligent AIbillionaire tech tycoon and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt comments to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce: "What we need from you is we need the energy in all forms, renewable, non-renewable, whatever. It needs to be there, and it needs to be there quickly.""Many people project demand for our industry will go from 3 percent to 99 percent of total generation... an additional 29 gigawatts by 2027 and 67 more gigawatts by 2030. If [China] comes to superintelligence first, it changes the dynamic of power globally, in ways that we have no way of understanding or predicting.”Meta Says It's Okay to Feed Copyrighted Books Into Its AI Model Because They Have No "Economic Value"In the ongoing suit Richard Kadrey et al v. Meta Platforms, led by a group of authors including Pulitzer Prize winner Andrew Sean Greer and National Book Award winner Ta-Nehisi Coates, the Mark Zuckerberg-led company has argued that its alleged scraping of over seven million books from the pirated library LibGen constituted "fair use" of the material, and was therefore not illegal.Meta's attorneys are also arguing that the countless books that the company used to train its multibillion-dollar language models and springboard itself into the headspinningly buzzy AI race are actually worthless. Meta cited an expert witness who downplayed the books' individual importance, averring that a single book adjusted its LLM's performance "by less than 0.06 percent on industry standard benchmarks, a meaningless change no different from noise." Thus there's no market in paying authors to use their copyrighted works, Meta says, because "for there to be a market, there must be something of value to exchange," as quoted by Vanity Fair — "but none of [the authors'] works has economic value, individually, as training data." Other communications showed that Meta employees stripped the copyright pages from the downloaded books.Tellingly, the unofficial policy seems to be to not speak about it at all: "In no case would we disclose publicly that we had trained on LibGen, however there is practical risk external parties could deduce our use of this dataset," an internal Meta slide deck read. The deck noted that "if there is media coverage suggesting we have used a dataset we know to be pirated, such as LibGen, this may undermine our negotiating position with regulators on these issues."Lauren Sánchez in Space Was Marie Antoinette in a Penis-Shaped RocketKaty Perry Boasts About Ridiculous Rocket Launch While NASA Is Scrubbing History of Women in Space“It's about a collective energy and making space for future women. It's about this wonderful world that we see right out there and appreciating it. This is all for the benefit of Earth.”Last month, the Orlando Sentinel first reported, NASA scrubbed language from a webpage about the agency's Artemis missions declaring that a goal of the mission was to put the first woman and first person of color on the Moon; just a few days later, NASA Watch reported that comic books imagining the first woman on the Moon had been deleted from NASA's website.A webpage for "Women at NASA" is still standing, but pictures of women and people of color — astronauts, engineers, scientists — have reportedly been removed from NASA's real-world hallways amid the so-called "DEI" purge. Per Scientific American, the word "inclusion" has been removed as one of NASA's core pillars. And as 404 Media reported in February, NASA personnel were directed to remove mentions of women in leadership positions from its website.OpenAI NonsenseOpenAI Is Secretly Building a Social NetworkOpenAI has been secretly building its own social media platform, which The Verge reports is intended to resemble X-formerly-Twitter — the social media middleweight owned by CEO Sam Altman's arch-nemesis, Elon MuskOpenAI updated its safety framework—but no longer sees mass manipulation and disinformation as a critical riskOpenAI said it will stop assessing its AI models prior to releasing them for the risk that they could persuade or manipulate people, possibly helping to swing elections or create highly effective propaganda campaigns.The company said it would now address those risks through its terms of service, restricting the use of its AI models in political campaigns and lobbying, and monitoring how people are using the models once they are released for signs of violations.OpenAI also said it would consider releasing AI models that it judged to be “high risk” as long as it has taken appropriate steps to reduce those dangers—and would even consider releasing a model that presented what it called “critical risk” if a rival AI lab had already released a similar model. Previously, OpenAI had said it would not release any AI model that presented more than a “medium risk.”Saying 'please' and 'thank you' to ChatGPT costs OpenAI millions, Sam Altman saysBeing nice to your AI chatbot requires computational power that raises electricity and water costsAltman responded to a user on X (formerly Twitter) who asked how much the company has lost in electricity costs from people being polite to their models: “Tens of millions of dollars well spent — you never know,” the CEO wrote.AI models rely heavily on energy stored in global data centers — which already accounts for about 2% of the global electricity consumption. Polite responses also add to OpenAI's water bill. AI uses water to cool the servers that generate the data. A study from the University of California, Riverside, said that using GPT-4 to generate 100 words consumes up to three bottles of water — and even a three-word response such as “You are welcome” uses about 1.5 ounces of water.Antitrust NonsenseTrump DOJ's plan to restructure Google hurts consumers, national security, says exec: 'Wildly overbroad'Kent Walker, Google's president of global affairs: "We're very concerned about DOJ's proposal. We think it would hurt American consumers, our economy, our tech leadership, even national security. The proposed reform from DOJ "would result in unprecedented government overreach that would harm American consumers, developers, and small businesses — and jeopardize America's global economic and technological leadership at precisely the moment it's needed most."8 revelations from Mark Zuckerberg's 3 days on the witness stand in Meta's antitrust trialThe FTC alleges Meta "helped cement" its illegal monopoly in the social media market with its acquisition of Instagram and the messaging app WhatsApp more than a decade ago.8 revelations:Antitrust worries surfaced years agoTwo years before the FTC initially sued Meta over allegations that it violated US competition laws, Zuckerberg considered breaking Instagram out into its own company to avoid potential antitrust scrutiny, according to a 2018 internal email revealed by the government at trial."I wonder if we should consider the extreme step of spinning Instagram out as a separate company," Zuckerberg wrote in the email to company executives. "As calls to break up the big tech companies grow, there is a non-trivial chance that we will be forced to spin out Instagram and perhaps WhatsApp in the next 5-10 years anyway." If a break up were to happen, Zuckerberg wrote, history showed that companies could end up better off.Asked about this view at trial, Zuckerberg said, "I'm not sure exactly what I had in mind then."A 'crazy idea' to boost Facebook's relevanceZuckerberg's "crazy idea" for Facebook in 2022 involved purging all users' friends. The CEO — fearful that Facebook was losing cultural relevance — made the proposal in a 2022 email to the social network's top brass."Option 1. Double down on Friending," Zuckerberg wrote in the message. "One potentially crazy idea is to consider wiping everyone's graphs and having them start again."Sheryl Sandberg wanted to play Settlers of CatanZuckerberg once offered to give Sheryl Sandberg, the former COO of Meta, a tutorial in the board game Settlers of Catan.The lesson offer came up in 2012 messages in which the two discussed the fresh $1 billion purchase of Instagram, partially redacted missives presented by the FTC during Zuckerberg's testimony showed."We would love it. I want to learn Settlers of Catan too so we can play," Sandberg told Zuckerberg in the message. He responded: "I can definitely teach you Settlers of Catan. It's very easy to learn."Meta's rivalry with TikTok has only just begunDuring his testimony, Zuckerberg hammered home Meta's argument that the tech giant faces massive competition from other apps, especially TikTok."TikTok is still bigger than either Facebook or Instagram," Zuckerberg testified. "I don't like it when our competitors do better than us. You can sort of bet that I'm not going to rest until we are doing quite a bit better than we are doing now.”Facebook Camera app struggles were a source of worryInstagram's early rise shook Zuckerberg. As his company struggled to mount its response with the Facebook Camera app, the CEO began to lose his patience."What is going on with our photos team?" Zuckerberg wrote in a 2011 message to top executives, as revealed by the FTC in court. Zuckerberg then described a number of individuals, whose names were redacted, as being "checked out." He added another person didn't want "to work with this team because he thinks this team sucks."In May 2012, Facebook launched a photo-sharing app called Facebook Camera, which aims to make it simpler for the social network's users to upload and browse photos on smartphones. Only weeks after Facebook spent $1 billion on a similar photo-sharing app called Instagram. Zuckerberg tried to buy Snapchat for $6 billionZuckerberg's failed bid to buy Snapchat was highlighted by the government to bolster its argument that Meta sought to maintain its dominance in the social media market through acquisitions rather than competition.Facebook isn't really for friends anymoreWhile under questioning by the FTC, Zuckerberg said that Facebook had greatly evolved since he launched the platform more than 20 years ago and that its main purpose wasn't really to connect with friends anymore.The FTC argues that Meta monopolizes the market for "personal social networking services.""The friend part has gone down quite a bit," Zuckerberg testified. He said the Facebook feed has "turned into more of a broad discovery and entertainment space."Not impressed by WhatsApp cofounderZuckerberg wasn't too impressed with one of WhatsApp's cofounders after a 2012 meeting he had with company leadership."I found him fairly impressive although disappointingly (or maybe positive for us) unambitious," Zuckerberg wrote in an email to colleagues after the meeting, it was revealed at trial.Jan Koum and Brian Acton cofounded WhatsApp in 2009. Zuckerberg said in his testimony that he thinks he was referring to Koum. Asked about his email, Zuckerberg seemed uneasy. He said that Koum was clearly smart but that he and Acton were staunchly opposed to growing their messaging app enough to be a real threat to Facebook. Zuckerberg would go on to buy WhatsApp in 2014 for $19 billion.Mark Zuckerberg's Meta Platforms adds former Trump advisor to the board days before an antitrust showdown with the FTCMeta Platforms is further boosting its lineup of heavy hitters with the additions of Stripe CEO Patrick Collison and Dina Powell McCormick to the mix. Powell McCormick was the former Deputy National Security Advisor to President Donald Trump during his first term. Married to Republican Senator Dave McCormick, former CEO of Bridgewater Associates, one of the world's largest hedge fundsStakeholder/shareholder activism NonsenseBP suffers investor rebellion at first AGM since climate strategy U-turnBP suffered an investor rebellion on Thursday after facing shareholders for the first time since abandoning its climate strategy at a meeting marred by protest.About a quarter of shareholders (24.3%) voted against the chair, Helge Lund, which marked the first time in at least a decade that more than 10% of BP's shareholders voted against the re-election of the chair.The outgoing chair told shareholders that the company had “pursued too much while looking to build new low-carbon businesses” but that “lessons have been learned”.BP's CEO Murray Auchincloss (2.7% against), repeated his previous claim that BP's optimism in the global green energy transition was “misplaced”, and that the board's “one simple goal” was to “grow the long-term value of your investment”.Mark Van Baal, the founder of the green activist investor group Follow This, said shareholders had “made it clear that weakening climate commitments is unacceptable”. He added: “This historical result serves as a wake-up call to BP's board and emphasises investor expectation for robust governance mechanisms and genuine leadership on ESG issues.”Starbucks CEO faces major backlash after details of his work routine are revealed: 'Ill-conceived decision'A press release from the National Center for Public Policy Research reported on the hypocrisy of Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol's transportation practices when considering the company's public commitment to eco-friendly practices.Niccol travels regularly from his home in Newport Beach, California, to Starbucks' headquarters in Seattle, Washington, via private jet. Each 2,000-mile round-trip commute releases nearly nine tons of carbon dioxide.The National Center for Public Policy Research's Free Enterprise Project's director Stefan Padfield pointed out the discrepancy of policy and practice during his presentation of Proposal 8 requesting an annual report on emissions congruency. He noted that each round trip made by Niccol "is roughly the annual energy-consumption footprint of the typical American household."This analogy paints a vivid picture of the hypocrisy between Starbucks' public environmental commitments and the practices of the CEO. Gaps are apparent. Target CEO Cornell meets with Sharpton to discuss DEI rollback as civil rights leader considers boycottCEO Brian Cornell met with the Rev. Al Sharpton in New York on Thursday as the retailer faces calls for a boycott and a slowdown in foot traffic that began after it walked back key diversity, equity and inclusion programs, the civil rights leader told CNBC Wednesday.The meeting, which Target asked for, comes after some civil rights groups urged consumers not to shop at Target in response to the retailer's decision to cut back on DEI. While Sharpton has not yet called for a boycott of Target, he has supported efforts from others to stop shopping at the retailer's stores.“You can't have an election come and all of a sudden, change your old positions,” Sharpton told CNBC in a Wednesday interview ahead of the meeting. “If an election determines your commitment to fairness then fine, you have a right to withdraw from us, but then we have a right to withdraw from you.”IBM Informs Staff of DEI Retreat as Trump-Era Scrutiny GrowsEmployees were told of the changes earlier this week, in a memo that cited “inherent tensions in practicing inclusion.” Legal considerations and shifting attitudes to DEI were among the factors for the company. IBM CEO Arvind Krishna discussed the changes in his monthly video update to employees Thursday.Anti-DEI activist Robby Starbuck said he first contacted the company in February to question its policies. IBM confirmed it discussed its changes with Starbuck.The company (-10% gender influence gap) also disbanded a diversity council that represents the views of employee groups as part of its reevaluation.Exxon Faces No Shareholder Proposals for First Time in 25 YearsThe absence of requests in Exxon's proxy statement comes a year after the company sued two climate-focused investors to remove what it described as their “extreme agenda.” It also tracks with the US Securities and Exchange Commission's decision to back guidelines that make it easier for corporations to block votes on shareholder resolutions at their annual meetings.Exxon said in a statement late Monday that it received only one proposal this year and the SEC agreed it should be discarded because “it tried to micromanage the company.”Occidental Petroleum Corp., Valero Energy Corp. and Dow Inc. are other companies with no shareholder proposals up for vote at this year's annual meetings.Exxon said this year marks “the first time in recent history that our proxy includes zero proposals from activists.” It was just four years ago that a small fund scored a victory over Exxon, placing three directors on the company's board.Climate activist shareholder group Follow This pauses big oil campaignClimate activist shareholder group Follow This said on Thursday a lack of investor appetite has forced it to suspend its nearly decade-long campaign seeking stronger commitments from major oil and gas producers to emission cutsHarley-Davidson slams activist investor, saying its campaign is messing up its CEO searchIn early April, H Partners' Jared Dourdeville, who had been a Harley director since 2022, abruptly resigned from the board, saying among other things that Harley had “cultural depletion” because of its work-from-home policies and the exit of several senior leaders. And that was not his only point of contention with the rest of the board.Investment firm H Partners, a major investor with 9.1% of Harley's shares, in an open letter filed on Wednesday, urged fellow shareholders to remove three longtime directors from Harley's eight-member board at its annual meeting in mid-May by withholding votes for them. H Partners said the board had not held Harley CEO Jochen Zeitz accountable for what it called his repeated “strategic execution failures” and “severe underperformance.”CEO/Chair Zeitz (2007, 30%)Lead DIrector Norman Thomas Linebarger (2008, 13%)Sara Levinson (1996, 20%)"We believe Mr. Zeitz, Mr. Linebarger, and Ms. Levinson should be held accountable for the destruction of shareholder value,"Harley's bylaws stipulate that directors who win less than 50% of votes in an election must tender their resignations.Harley announced last week that Zeitz, CEO since 2020 and board member for 18 years, would resign but stay in his role until a successor is found. H Partners wants him out now.That followed a letter issued a day earlier by Harley-Davidson, which accused H Partners of “publicly campaigning” against it and saying that those efforts are also “adversely impacting the CEO search process and ongoing execution of the Hardwire strategic plan,” referring to a turnaround plan it launched in 2021.Harley said that it began a CEO search late last year after Zeitz expressed interest in retiring and has interviewed three potential CEOs, including one supported by Dourdeville, but declined to offer any the job. The company has also said that Dourdeville had cast only one vote against the majority during his time as a director and that as recently as November 2024 he had expressed support for Zeitz.Harley-Davidson faces board fight from H Partners amid calls for CEO to exit soon

1hr of fresh electronic music ⚡️Like the Show? Click the [Repost] ↻ button so more people can hear it!

This is co-write with Jimmy Bralower who is playing drums and doing production. I am playing bass and guitar. ©1990 Derrik Jordan and Jimmy Bralower

01 Sweet Nothing (Quadis Remix) Enzo Elia, Quadis 02 Stellar Venue (Dilby Remix) Julian Millan 03 Shadows (N-You-Up Dub) Gina Breeze ft. Sophie Joy 04 French Blonde (Original Mix) Frank Amodo 05 Me Me Me (Original Mix) Catz'n Dogz & Nala 06 Night (Original Mix) EFFE (BR) 07 Searchin' (Radio Slave Remix) Damian Lazarus ft. Jem Cooke 08 Tiki Tiki (Extended Mix) Dario Nunez, Javi Colina 09 Like It Like That (Original Mix) Chocolate Dice 10 How Good It Feels (Original Mix) Benny Charles 11 I Can't Stop (Joseph Capriati Extended Groove Remix) Sandy Rivera 12 Hotel East (Extended Version) The Deepshakerz & Xander Pratt 13 See This (Original Mix) Beat Blenders 14 Feel Good Original Mix) Angel Heredia, Javi Galan 15 Con Son (The Cube Guys Extended Remix) David Penn & Hosse ft. Africa G 16 Good Day (Original Mix) Jennifer Marley 17 Bring Your Love (Original Mix) GutterGizmo 18 Dance All Night (Original Mix) Enzo Carrera 19 Renegade (Extended Mix) Bolier & Voost 20 It Feels So Good (Extended Mix) Matt Sassari & HUGEL ft. Sonique 21 Niño (Marco Lys Remix) Luca Garaboni feat. Fabiola Osorio 22 Una Más (Original Mix) Camiel Daamen 23 Trapped (Extended Club Mix) Kevin McKay, Hotswing 24 In My Heart (Original Mix) Lee Drift 25 NA$TY (Ortiginal Mix) Stacey Pullen 26 Cymbal (Manda Moor Remix) Ammo Avenue

| Ten Per Cent (Walter Gibbons 12" Mix)  | Double Exposure  | 1976 | Don't You Want My Love  | Debbie Jacobs  | 1979 | Too Much Too Late (Nigel Lowis Philly Mix)  | Full Flava feat. Dee Johnson  | 2020 | Searchin' For Some Lovin' (Vocal)  | Debbie Trusty  | 1982 | Love Itch (Vocal Version)  | Roshelle Fleming  | 1985 | Can't You Feel It  | Michele  | 1977 | The Survivor (feat. Phyllis Hyman)  | Joe Sample  | 1985 | She's Just A Groupie (Vocal)  | Bobby Nunn  | 1982 | A Little Bit Of Jazz  | The Nick Straker Band  | 1981 | Rodeo Drive (High Steppin')  | The Crusaders  | 1979 | Moomba  | Richard Elliot  | 1999 | Fire (Vocal/LP Version)  | Fire Fox  | 1985 | Keeping Secrets  | Switch  | 1984 | C'est La Vie  | The Manhattans  | 1985 | Slow Luv (All Thru The Night) (Family Remix)  | The Drizabone Soul Family  | 2011 | Just The Way You Like It  | The S.O.S. Band  | 1984 | Out/Gone  | Trina Broussard  | 2004 | Open Up Your Heart  | Theryl  | 1989 | When You Look In My Eyes (12" Version)  | Cherrelle  | 1984

Watcha Searchin' 4? 12 - 1 by Emmanuel Baptist Church, San Jose, CA

| The Medicine Song  | Stephanie Mills  | 1984 | Love's Gonna Get You (Watch Out Baby For Love) (Club Version)  | Modern-nique feat. Larry Woo  | 1986 | It's Alright (Extended Version)  | NV  | 1983 | A Little Lovin' (Keeps The Doctor Away) (Disco Version)  | The Raes  | 1978 | Haven't Stopped Dancing Yet (Original 12" Mix)  | Gonzalez  | 1977 | It's Right  | Michelle Wallace  | 1982 | All Night Long (She's Got The Moves I Like)  | The B.B. & Q. Band  | 1982 | Can You See Where I'm Coming From  | Instant Funk  | 1980 | We're On The Right Track (Disco Version)  | Ultra High Frequency  | 1976 | Don't Stop Your Love (Special Extended Version)  | Booker T.  | 1981 | Party All Night  | Kreuz  | 1995 | Hot Pants Road  | The JB's  | 1972 | Searchin'  | The Stylistics  | 1981 | Love Light In Flight (Extended Version)  | Stevie Wonder  | 1984 | Don't Change Your Ways  | Krystol  | 1984 | What You See Is What You Sweat  | Aretha Franklin  | 1991 | Where My Lips Have Been  | Dionne Warwick  | 1993 | Before You Know It  | Marlena Shaw  | 1988 | Stomp And Buck Dance  | The Crusaders  | 1974 | By All Means  | Alphonse Mouzon  | 1981

Leisure Groove – “Casa Funk” Ron Carroll – “Holiday” [Afro Disco Chicago] Ovidio – “When My Baby Calls” [Moulton Music] Jose Uceda – “Searchin” [Feverball] Haji & Emmanuel – “Take Me Away” [Big Love] Pat Bedeau ft. Anna Marie Johnson – “Special Kind Of Love” [Bedfunk] Seb Skalski ft. Rona Ray – “Its Getting Started” […] The post Citrus Sound Show 5th Nov 2024 appeared first on SSRadio.

The Coasters were formed 69 years ago this month, when two members of an L.A.-based R&B group called The Robins came east to join Atlantic Records. The new group was dubbed The Coasters because they crossed the continent to come together.About the same time, songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller produced “Smokey Joe's Cafe" for The Robins (their sixth for the group). Atlantic liked the tune so much, the company offered Leiber and Stoller an independent production contract to bring The Robins to Atlantic. However, when only two Robins — Carl Gardner and Bobby Nunn — wanted to make the move to New York, the new Coasters were born; the group's association with Leiber and Stoller was a match made in rock ‘n' roll heaven. The Family Flood grew up singing, laughing and dancing to The Coasters' string of good-humored storytelling hits. Theirs were some of the most joyful radio moments of the 1950s and early ‘60s, starting with “Down in Mexico,” “Young Blood” and “Searchin',” quickly followed by “Yakety Yak,” “Charlie Brown,” “Poison Ivy,” “Little Egypt.”About This SongAs reported earlier, the song featured in this video that Pamela Bowen shot at a recent rehearsal dropped into The Coaster's world in 1957, and various incarnations of The Flood have played it for the past four decades. (For more on that part of the story, click here.)For this latest rendition, the guys were joined by Floodster Emeritus Paul Martin who dropped by to sit in for the evening. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 1937flood.substack.com

Original production by Jose Uceda, Additional Remix Production by Ladies On Mars. Mastered by Matias Parisi Mastering. Feverball 2024

Original production by Jose Uceda, Additional Remix Production by Ladies On Mars. Mastered by Matias Parisi Mastering. Feverball 2024

The Music Authority Podcast...listen, like, comment, download, share, repeat…heard daily on Podchaser, Deezer, Amazon Music, Audible, Listen Notes, Mixcloud, Player FM, Tune In, Podcast Addict, Cast Box, Radio Public, Pocket Cast, APPLE iTunes, and direct for the source distribution site: *Podcast - https://themusicauthority.transistor.fm/  AND NOW there is a website! TheMusicAuthority.comThe Music Authority Podcast! Special Recorded Network Shows, too! Different than my daily show! Seeing that I'm gone from FB now…Follow me on “X” Jim Prell@TMusicAuthority*Radio Candy Radio Monday Wednesday, & Friday 7PM ET, 4PM PT*Rockin' The KOR Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday at 7PM UK time, 2PM ET, 11AM PT  www.koradio.rocks*Pop Radio UK Friday, Saturday, & Sunday 6PM UK, 1PM ET, 10AM PT! *The Sole Of Indie https://soleofindie.rocks/ Monday Through Friday 6-7PM EST!*AltPhillie.Rocks Sunday, Thursday, & Saturday At 11:00AM ET!October 17, 2024, Thursday, hour two…@Kyle Richards - Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft@Nick Frater - Hold On, Caroline [Goodbye Kayfabe] (@Great Sheiks Music) (koolkatmusik.com)@Bob Koening - Backroad Pond [Abbey Lane]@Radio City - It's OK@Miss Georgia Peach - Do You Know What Love Means [XOXOXO Vol.1] (@Rum Bar Records)@Susan Surftone - Mustang [Nobody In The Real World]@Marc Platt - I'm Searchin' [Beautiful Dreamer]@The Buzzcocks - Whatever Happened To...?@Natalie Sweet - I Still Want You [Oh, By The Way...It's Natalie Sweet] (@Rum Bar Records)@The Zombies - I'm Going Home [Begin Here]@The Speed Of Sound - Leaf Blower [Museum Of Tomorrow] (@Big Stir Records)@Stephen Lawrenson - Mother Nature's Daughter [Somewhere Else]@Del Amitri - Crashing Down [Twisted]@The Kinks - Long Tall Shorty [The Kinks]@Ken Lintern - No Words [Saying Goodbye]@Rick Hromadka - Circular Haze [Trippin Dinosaurs]@Three Hour Tour - I Wanted You Around [B Side Oblivion]@Richard Turgeon - Keanu Reeves [Go Deep] (koolkatmusik.com)@Andy Kim - Rock Me Gently

| Don't Wanna Wait  | Lew Kirton  | 1986 | Keep On Jammin' (Extended Version)  | Willie Hutch  | 1985 | (Where Have You Been) All My Life  | Eddie Holman  | 1977 | Could This Be Love (Ben Liebrand Sure Why Not Mix)  | Ceejay  | 1987 | Searchin' For Some Lovin' (Vocal)  | Debbie Trusty  | 1982 | Stay Close To Me  | Five Stairsteps & Cubie  | 1968 | I Like Being In Love With You  | Wilson Williams  | 1978 | Clean Sweep  | Bobby Broom  | 1981 | Vanishing Love  | The Chi-Lites  | 1976 | Our Music  | Gang's Back  | 1982 | Boy Where Have You Been (Vocal/Long Mix)  | Roz Ryan  | 1983 | Good Love  | Ray, Goodman & Brown  | 1986 | C'est La Vie  | The Manhattans  | 1985 | Oasis  | Roberta Flack  | 1988 | Don't Cha Love It  | The Miracles  | 1974 | Woman's Got Soul  | The Impressions  | 1965 | Never Say Never (Dance)  | Deniece Williams  | 1987 | More Than A Picture  | Calvin Richardson  | 2014 | Ride On Love  | George Duke  | 1982 | Love Is Like A River  | Fattburger  | 1995 | Hot (M.F.C. Extended)  | CeCe Peniston feat. Mothers Favorite Child  | 2018 | Big Time Lover  | Cornelius Brothers & Sister Rose  | 1973 | There's Nothing Better  | Otis Leavill  | 1970 | Love Me Down  | Atlantic Starr  | 1982 | My Heart  | Donell Jones  | 1996 | Still In Love With You  | Cherrelle  | 1991

indie artist, Music, commentary

Searchin' desk drawers.

Chuck Edwards - "Downtown Soulville" - 45 Music behind DJ: Kellie Greene - "Move On" - 45 Ray Charles - "That's All I Am to You" - 45 William Bell - "Just As i Thought" - 45 Betty Boothe - "Just a Little Bit of True Love" - 45 Prince Nolan - "Whippersnapper" - 45 Check-Mates Inc. - "Searchin for Love" - 45 Music behind DJ: Denzil "Dumpy" Rice - "De-Funky Dumpy" - 45 Soul Sisters - "Think About the Good Times" - 45 Baby Washington - "Think About the Good Times" - 45 The Olympics - "Good Things" - 45 Sam & Bill - "I'll Try" - 45 Music behind DJ: Duke Turner & the Gems of Peace - "Shake Your Rang-a-Tang" - 45 Little Charles - "Give Me a Chance" - 45 Johnnie Jackson and the Blazers featuring Merle Spears - "What You Gonna Do" - 45 Jackey Beavers - "Love That Never Grows Old" - 45 Towanda Barnes - "(You Better) Find Someone to Love" - 45 Howard Tate - "Plenty of Love" - 45 Music behind DJ: Washpan Band - "What Can a Man Do" - 45 Betty Everett - "Unlucky Girl" - 45 Bobby Womack - "Don't Look Back" - 45 Larry Williams and Johnny Watson with the Kaleidoscope - "Nobody" - 45 The Passionettes - "Sister Watch Yourself" - 45 Jackie Wilson - "Helpless" - 45 Music behind DJ: Bill Doggett - "The Funky Whistler" - 45 https://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/141481

Welcome to Pride Anthems volume 13. It must be June - the traditional Pride month around the world. This years Pride celebrations have come under attack, particularly in the USA from predominantly Christian conservative groups. These people don't like the idea of a section of the community carving out a living space for themselves and seem to be jealous of our innate ability to have a fabulous time while supporting each other against their prejudice. Our community is very diverse and very accepting of pretty much everyone. So in that spirit, I present to you the 2024 edition of Pride Anthems. Was there ever a more appropriately titled song than ABBA's "Dancing Queen"? The Jackers Revenge remix of it is awesome and kicks off the set. I wanted the track selection on this set to reflect empowerment and freedom of choice in life and love. These 21 songs do that I believe. Some are classic dance floor anthems such as "Touch Me", "Hot Stuff", "Believe" and "Searchin". Others have been purposefully written and recorded for the community such as "Fight On" and "Chosen Family". Included are hit songs from Whitney, Mariah, Rihanna, Taylor, and of course, Kylie. Remixes come from across the spectrum with standouts from Division 4, Moto Blanco and 7th Heaven. The wonderful Mark from Dirty Disco once again came to my rescue and generously forwarded me some advance mixes as well as a private one. I always seem to be thanking him in my comments but I truly mean it Mark. There is drive and energy in this set which is indicative of the LGBTQ+ community. Happy Pride month everyone. EnjoyAnthony1/ "DANCING QUEEN" (Jackers Revenge Remix) - ABBA2/ "FIGHT ON" (Original Club Mix) - CACTUSHEAD ft. EDDY QUEENS3/ "TOUCH ME" (eSQUIRE Remix) - SAMANTHA FOX4/ "CRAZY IN LOVE" (Division 4 Remix) - BEYONCE`5/ "THIS IS WHAT YOU CAME FOR" (Barry Harris Club Mix) - RHIANNA ft. CALVIN HARRIS6/ "HOT STUFF" (Ghostbusterz Remix) - DONNA SUMMER7/ "BLEEDING LOVE" (Moto Blanco Full Vocal Club Mix) - LEONA LEWIS8/ "CHOSEN FAMILY" (Dirty Disco & Matt Consola Rainbow Remix) - SHAUNA JENSEN9/ "CALL ME MAYBE" (Almighty Club Mix) - CARLY RAE JEPSEN10/ "BELIEVE" (Dirty Disco 25th Anniversary Classic Club Rework) - CHER11/ "BAD BLOOD" (Dirty Disco Private Remix) - TAYLOR SWIFT12/ "FUNKYTOWN" (Dirty Disco Classic Club Rework) - LIPS INC.13/ "SHOW SOME LOVE" (Funky Junction & Priyon Joni Remix) - FIRST LADIES OF DISCO14/ "LIVE YOUR LIFE BE FREE" (Sagi Kariv Remix) - BELINDA CARLISLE15/ "GREATEST LOVE OF ALL" (HenriqMoraes Classic Club Mix) - WHITNEY HOUSTON16/ "AGAINST ALL ODDS" (TAKE A LOOK AT ME NOW) (HenriqMoraes Club Mix) - MARIAH CAREY17/ "SEARCHIN" (7th Heaven 40th Anniversary Club Mix) - HAZELL DEAN18/ "CALL ME" (7th Heaven Club Mix) - SPAGNA19/ "I BELIEVE IN YOU" (Wayne G. vs. Club Junkies Club Mix) - KYLIE MINOGUE20/ "I WILL FLY" (Wayne G. & Porl Young Atlantis Anthem Club Mix) - THE DISKO KATZ ft. INAYA DAY21/ "WE CAN GET THERE" (Thunderpuss Club Mix) - MARY GRIFFIN

Nigel's guest today is iconic pop star Hazell Dean, who has been lighting up dance floors as the Queen Of Hi NRG since her iconic queer anthem Searchin' (I Gotta Find A Man) became a massive smash back in 1984. Her back catalogue of other incredible tunes includes Who's Leaving Who, Maybe We Should Call It A Day and Whatever I Do. Hazell is a gay woman and a huge Trans Ally and supporter of Trans Rights. She is Patron of Pride in Surrey and has featured on the Pride Power List as one of the most influential LGBTQ people in the UK. She recently celebrated 40 years of Searchin' with the release of fabulous new remixes. This series is a celebration of a beautiful queer community; people of all ages, people who have had to tread their own path to live their real truth, who have fought with their emotions and emerged victorious, who inspire, who aspire and always entertain. Hosted by Nigel May. Every week, Nigel speaks to a person from the LGBTQ+ rainbow to hear their story; one person, one life, one conversation. And guaranteed, a Gay Old Time!Follow us on instagram @agayoldtimepodcast Produced by Pineapple Audio Production Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"Still searchin'." For Lou Wall and her peers and audience, there is little delineation between the online and offline worlds. So of course, her comedy lives in both worlds too. In this conversation, she talks about proving herself to herself, how comedy translates internationally in a hyper-connected world, and how performance and delivery have changed over the generations. See Lou Wall on tour: https://comedy.com.au/tour/lou-wall-the-bisexuals-lament/ TOFOP merch, Patreon, and more: https://linktr.ee/TOFOP   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

An under the weather Viper resorts to Plan B when Bayonetta Origins' soundtrack doesn't show up in time. Stay inside and enjoy the cosy vibes before things get too manic outside as we get festive and chat about the week ahead. TRACKLISTING: 00:00:00 Mastered Realm - Proto IceCap Act 1 - Sonic Origins (MJ Sound Team Remix) 00:02:14 Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai DX - Jingle Bell 00:06:14 Sonic Superstars - Frozen Base Zone - Act 2 00:08:41 Let's Get into the Mix! 00:16:52 Napple Tale: Arsia in Daydream - Winter Petal 00:17:23 Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name (Ryu ga Gotoku 7 Gaiden: Mei o Keshita Otoko) - SAYONARA Silent Night [Full Spec Edition] 00:22:26 Sega Rally 2 - Searchin' For My Dreams 00:27:01 Sakura Wars (Sakura Taisen) [Saturn] - This World is Pleasant ~Winter Performance~ 00:30:17 Welcome to your RadioSEGA LiVE Weekend! 00:51:42 Tama: Adventurous Ball in Giddy Labyrinth - Stage 2 (Frozen Cave) 00:55:15 Project Chaos - Ice Cap 4 Life [WIP] ~GaMeBoX~ 00:57:42 Christmas NiGHTS - The Dragon Gave a Loud Scream : In Holy Night 00:59:39 Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled - Gingerbread Joyride (Nitro-Fueled Mix) 01:02:49 Changing the Tune to Your Friday Night! 01:21:43 Shining Force CROSS ELYSION - Frozen Soil Spread 01:25:17 Shin Megami Tensei IMAGINE - Christmas 2014 Battle 01:28:29 Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games [DS] - Adventure Tours - Boss 01:30:40 Thanks for Listening! 01:35:23 Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games - Shops

Jules Nagele aka listentojules ist Soulmusikerin. Sie versucht, Musik mit Nachhaltigkeit zu verbinden und hat dafür jede Menge Tipps. Ihr neues Album ist in enger Zusammenarbeit mit einer Nachhaltigkeitsmanagerin entstanden. Es geht zum Beispiel um Ökostrom für's Mixing & Mastering, Second Hand Merchandise, Konzert-Tourneen mit der Bahn und selbstgekochtes Catering. Jules geht es nicht darum, den Zeigefinger zu erheben, sondern in einen gemeinsamen Austausch zu kommen. Denn Nachhaltigkeit muss nicht automatisch mehr Kosten, Zeit und Verzicht bedeuten. Webseite: https://www.listentojules.com/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/listentojules Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/listentojules/ Erwähnt: Deepgrooves Vinyl Presswerk, Music Declares Emergency, RAT für Kunst und Kultur Mannheim, Landesverband professioneller freier Theater RLP Musik in dieser Podcast Folge: „Movin' On“ und „Searchin'“ by listentojules, von ihrem Album „Kaleidoscope“. BACKSTAGE unterstützen? ♥ Hier entlang: https://backstage.podcaster.de/unterstuetzen/ RSS-Feed: https://backstage.podcaster.de/BackstagePodcast.rss Blog: https://backstage.podcaster.de Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BackstagePodcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/backstage_podcast Kontakt Leni Bohrmann: backstagepodcast@gmx.de BACKSTAGE! wird gefördert durch den Stadtverband für Kultur der Stadt Neustadt e.V.

Red In 30 Podcast | Jesus, Truth, & You https://www.redin30.com SUBSCRIBE TO APPLE & SPOTIFY PODCASTS Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/2OlV8Yv... Apple https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... TWITTER https://twitter.com/redin30 INSTAGRAM https://www.instagram.com/redin30/#redin30 #jesustruthandyou #jesus #podcast

Getting a haircut and buying bird feeder seeds today and then a restful afternoon before I make dinner for Lori & myself.  A weirdly slow, nothing going on Tuesday!  The Music Authority Podcast... listen, like, comment, download, share, repeat…heard daily on Podchaser, Deezer, Amazon Music, Audible, Listen Notes, Mixcloud, Player FM, Tune In, Podcast Addict, Cast Box, Radio Public, and Pocket Cast, and APPLE iTunes!  Follow the show on X JimPrell@TMusicAuthority!  Please, are you listening? Please, are you sharing the podcast?  Please, has a podcast mention been placed into your social media?  How does and can one listen in? Let me list the ways...*Podcast - https://themusicauthority.transistor.fm/   The Music Authority Podcast!  Special Recorded Network Shows, too!  Different than my daily show! *Radio Candy Radio Monday Wednesday, & Friday 7PM ET, 4PM PT*Rockin' The KOR Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday at 7PM UK time, 2PM ET, 11AM PT  www.koradio.rocks*Pop Radio UK Friday, Saturday, & Sunday 6PM UK, 1PM ET, 10AM PT!  *The Sole Of Indie  https://soleofindie.rocks/  Monday Through Friday 6-7PM EST!August 15, 2023, Tuesday, act one…Orbis 2.0 - TMA SHOW OPEN THEMEJust We Two - 04 The Music Moves Me On [Don't Turn The Page]The Ventures - 01_Fly Me To the Moon [New Space] (Hi-Tide Recordings)GypsyMoths - 05 Tilt-A-Whirl [Sounds On] (Rum Bar Records)The Well Wishers - 03_Merilee [How I Won The War (Re-Issue)]The Cornfed Project - 08 I Don't Care [The Cornfed Project] (@TCP Records Rum Bar Records)Radio Days - 01 I Got A Love [Wassup Rocker Radio Presents- Sick Sounds 3]The 2:19 - 10 - Abandon Hope [Revelator]Cruzados - 08 Wing And A Prayer [Land Of The Endless Sun] (Rum Bar Records)@Happy As You Like - 10 Miss You [Happy As You Like]SOFT RIOT - 06 Wishing You Were Wrong [No]Tamar Berk - 01 Skipping The Cracks [The Restless Dreams Of Youth]Branded Human - 6. Hello Hello [Awake]Checkpoint Charley - Harvey (My Best Friend)Civic Green - Nowhere Close [Sailing The River]Dennis Davison - 01 Creatures Of Love [Creature Feature]Marc Platt - 06 - I'm Searchin' [Dis Time It's Poisonal] (Rum Bar Records)Blaine Campbell- 07_Summertime in the Sunshine [Blaine Campbell And The California Sound]Leopard Print Taser - 7.Miasma [Existential Bathroom Graffiti]Tamar Berk - 03 What's Become Of Me, My Friend [Tiny Injuries]The Mommyheads - 07 Why Aren't You Smiling [Coney Island Kid]

http://deepfunkymeb.podomatic.comA 2 HOUR SPECIAL MIX THIS MONTH - 30 NEW FRESH TRACKS.......THANKS FOR DOWNLOADING MY LATEST FRESH PUMPING FUNKY PIANO HOUSE MUZIC ~ MIXED BY MARKIEBEEZ - LEAVE A MESSAGE.1. Nice To Antibes - Vaudafunk 2. Gotta Keep Movin On - Marc Cotterell 3. Somebody - White Ocean4. There Was A Groove - Lounna Dazz, The Flying Robin5. Get Get Down (Extended Mix) - Monki 6. Feel My Desire (Instrumental Mix) - Roog7. Get Loose (Extended Vocal Mix) - David Penn8. Turn Your Love (Mirko & Meex Extended Remix) - Mattei Omich, Vittoria Hyde9. Missing You (2023 Mixes) (Michael Gray Instrumental Remix) - Artful Ridney, Terri Walker10. Piano Solo (Piano Solo Off Mix) - Blanco K 11. Get Wild (12Inch Mix) - Sugarstarr, Acoustic Element12. I Want It Again - Ralph C13. Make Your Move (Hiast Vocal Remix) - Mark Holmes14. Jack Had A Groove (Glen Horsborough Remix) - HP Vince, Chuck Roberts15. Italo House Mix (Club Mix) - Stardate16. About Your Love - Antoine Clamaran17. Everything (Mirko & Meex Remix) - In It Together18. Funk Sensation - Turntables Night Fever19. Euphoria (Extended Mix) - Claptone 20. Waterfall 2023 (Dr Packer Extended Remix) - Atlantic Ocean21. I Just Want To Dance (Extended Mix) - MRJ22. Groove Story - Alfie Chappell23. I Got It (Niles Cooper Remix) - Tete De La Course24. You Dont Need To Tell Me - Hendt25. The Real Thing - Mike Chenery26. Real Believers - Richard Les Crees27. Out There (Extended Mix) - Genpop, Tonis28. Drink 4 Too - Boogietraxx29. Searchin' (Per QX & Filip Grönlund Remix) - Hatiras. Per QX, Filip Grönlund30. La Space (Don Rimini Jealous Mix) - 2 Bad Dancers, Don Rimini

This show is an exploration of musical gems that the lamestream mainstream will not allow you to hear!  Be the MUSICAL REBEL you know you always wanted to be! Bust free from conventional thought!  Be musically BOLD!   The Music Authority Podcast... listen, like, comment, download, share, repeat…heard daily on Podchaser, Deezer, Amazon Music, Audible, Listen Notes, Google Podcast Manager, Mixcloud, Player FM, Stitcher, Tune In, Podcast Addict, Cast Box, Radio Public, and Pocket Cast, and APPLE iTunes!  Follow the show on TWITTER JimPrell@TMusicAuthority!  Please, are you listening? Please, are you sharing the podcast?  Please, has a podcast mention been placed into your social media?  How does and can one listen in? Let me list the ways...*Podcast - https://themusicauthority.transistor.fm/   The Music Authority Podcast!  Special Recorded Network Shows, too!  Different than my daily show! *Radio Candy Radio Monday Wednesday, & Friday 7PM ET, 4PM PT*Rockin' The KOR Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday at 7PM UK time, 2PM ET, 11AM PT  www.koradio.rocks*Pop Radio UK Friday, Saturday, & Sunday 6PM UK, 1PM ET, 10AM PT!  April 7, 2023, Friday, act two…Dany Laj and The Looks - In Other Words [We Are Busy Bodies]PMS and the mood swings - 04 Only Friend in New York City [10 One Hit Wonders]Bish Bash - Must Be Joking [Beauty Queen]Greg Pope - 09 The Real You [A Few Seconds Of Fame]Wilson Pickett - Wait Till The Midnight HourThe Crushtones - 07 From The Get-GoWard White - 05 Ice Cream Chords [Ice Cream Chords]Greg Ieronimo - 10 Wasted [Never Leaving California]@Big Star - Till the End of the Day [Third/Sister Lovers]The Everly Brothers - 03 - I've Been Wrong Before [Two Yanks In England]@The Methods - 03 Running Out Of Time [July 24, 2001 Integral Studio Demo]Surf School Dropouts - 06 Searchin' for the Perfect Wave [Summer is a State of Mind]Johnny Jetson - Shine You UpMuscle Souls - For The Good [Mark On The World]The Dogmatics - I Love Rock And Roll [She's The One – EP] (Rum Bar Records)POP4 - What's It Gonna Be Like [POP! Fights The Flames (benefit album)] (Goldstar Recordings)The Supernaturals - Veronica [Bird Of Luck] (@Satchel Britchet Records)Butch Young - One Foot In [IPO Vol 10]The Muffs - The Kids Have Gone Away [No Holiday] (Omnivore Recordings)

We been SEARCHIN' and SEARCHIN' for darkness and finally, we found it! This week the “Mouthpiece of the Northeast” Jimmy J and the “80's Horror God” Sean T shoot the breeze with the Producer of the “In Search of Darkness” 80's Horror documentaries Part I,II,and III, Mr. Robin Block from CreatorVC! We're discussin': -How these documentaries came to fruition - Acquiring the actors/actresses for the interviews -Picking the films to discuss -Why 80's and horror are synonymous  - Stories from behind the scenes  -The horror boom in the 2020's -Future projects in the works AND MUCH MORE! We want to thank Robin, the CreatorVC team, and all who were involved in the "In Search of Darkness" projects for providing the Horror Community with 3 masterfully done documentaries encapsulating 80's horror. Your work is now a part of our genres history that will be seen, praised, and discussed for generations to come! Thank you. Follow "In Search of Darkness" doc INSTAGRAM- @80shorrordoc FACEBOOK- https://www.facebook.com/80sHorrorDoc TWITTER- @80shorrordoc YOUTUBE- https://www.youtube.com/creatorvclive Follow us !! Facebook- ⁠Facebook.com/horrorheads365⁠ IG @HorrorHeads365 // Jimmy J- @JimmyJ.ENT // Steve Roman=@teezus_official // Sean Telepo- @metalsean // Josh Curzi- @Horrordaddy85//Creepy Bettie- @_creepyxbettie // Hope- @glitteringmoonlightphotos // Jonny Sparxx- @aliensinmyattic // Vader- @vaderbrink Twitter- @Horrorheads365 Any questions or comments EMAIL US! Horrorheads365@gmail.com Thank you for your support and for celebrating Horror...365!!! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/horrorheads365/support

Have you ever noticed that when it comes to our relationship with God, it often feels like we're playing a game of spiritual hide-and-seek? God seems to have a knack for being elusive when we're seeking Him, yet He pursues us relentlessly when we're not. Today, let's explore this fascinating dynamic with three points to consider, a call to action, and a conclusion. So buckle up, and let's dive in!* Playing Hard to Get: God's Mysterious WaysProverbs 25:2 says, "It is God's privilege to conceal things and the king's privilege to discover them." It's as if God enjoys keeping us on our toes, hiding His voice, His specific will, and His reasons in places that require us to put in the effort to find them. It's like a cosmic game of "Where's Waldo?" with the ultimate prize being a deeper understanding of God's heart.* Hungry for More: Pursuing God's Hidden TreasuresGod doesn't just hand everything to us on a silver platter – He wants to see who's truly hungry for His presence. Who will persist in the search to hear Him? Who desires an authentic relationship with Him, rather than just a set of rules to follow? The answers to these questions lie in our willingness to seek God wholeheartedly, even when He seems to be playing hard to get.* The Journey Matters: Growing Closer to God Through the SearchIn our pursuit of God, the journey itself is significant. Those who are content with a surface-level, the religious practice may give up early in the quest. But those who can only be satisfied by a genuine encounter with God will persevere, deepening their relationship with Him as they uncover His hidden treasures.Call to Action:Commit to seeking God and discovering His concealed treasures, even when it feels like you're playing spiritual hide-and-seek. Embrace the journey, knowing that the process of searching will draw you closer to God's heart. Be persistent in your pursuit, and don't be discouraged when the answers don't come easily.Conclusion:The game of spiritual hide-and-seek that God seems to play with us can be frustrating at times, but it's also an incredible opportunity to grow in our relationship with Him. As we embrace the challenge of discovering God's hidden treasures, we'll find ourselves drawn closer to His heart and experiencing a deeper connection with our Creator. So, my friends, let's lace up our spiritual sneakers and get ready to play the most rewarding game of hide-and-seek we'll ever experience!Let's Pray…Lord, I'll never give up my desire for more of You  —more closeness, better hearing, a deeper connection. Draw me closer and show me the secrets of Your heart.My Reasons To Believe is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to My Reasons To Believe at myr2b.substack.com/subscribe

  Ivan Julian has been one of music's most celebrated players and most in-demand collaborators for more than four decades.   Indeed, Ivan Julian has spent his life soaking up a wealth of experiences, musical and otherwise. The son of a Navy officer, he grew up in such exotic locales as Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, nurturing a sensitive, creative streak that quickly manifested itself musically. At the age of 13, while living in Washington, D.C., he became the singer in a Led Zeppelin  cover band; the following year, he began playing guitar. Having already studied bassoon and saxophone, Julian spent his high school years studying music theory as  a part-time student in a college program. At 19, his wanderlust led him to London, where he joined U.K. R&B hitmakers The Foundations, (Build Me Up Buttercup) with whom he toured throughout Great Britain and Europe. It was during one of these tours that he decided to stay on in Macedonia to absorb and study the musical scales and rhythms that would have a major influence on his playing.     Then Julian returned to the U.S. and settled in New York, just in time to become part of the emerging punk rock movement. A founding member of the seminal Richard Hell and the Voidoids, he was now playing alongside trend-setting punk poet Hell, fabled guitarist Robert Quine and drummer Marc Bell (a.k.a. Marky  Ramone). Julian's instrumental and songwriting contributions to the band's classic  album Blank Generation established him as one of the scene's most acclaimed and influential axemen.  After the Voidoids disbanded, Julian stepped out to form the Outsets as a vehicle for his own vocal and songwriting efforts. Combining rock, funk and  African rhythms, the Outsets became a beloved fixture on New York's burgeoning  club scene, winning considerable critical acclaim for such releases as the debut single  “I'm Searchin' for You”/”Fever,” a self-titled EP produced by Garland Jeffreys and  the posthumously released The Punk/Funk Voodoo Collection. Teaming up with Bush  Tetras singer Cynthia Sley Julian's next band, the Lovelies, won substantial  attention with the release of the Mad Orphan LP. Also, during this time he regrouped with former bandmate Richard Hell to do an extensive tour of Japan.  By this point, Julian's abilities as a collaborator had become sought after by a wide array of acts. He plays on “The Call Up” and “Ivan Meets GI Joe” with The Clash (on their Sandinista album), collaborated with Afrika Bambaataa and Bernie  Worrell of Parliament/Funkadelic. He also joined England's Shriekback for two  tours of North America and Europe. Julian spent much of the 1990s touring and recording with Matthew Sweet.   In recent years, Ivan has concentrated mainly on studio work, producing and/or recording artist such as Sean Lennon and producing three albums by The  Fleshtones. He's also developed his recording studio, SuperGiraffeSound into one of New York's hottest new recording facilities, working with numerous local, national and international bands.  His solo LP, The Naked Flame was named one of the best records of the year by several trade magazines in Europe and the states including Trouser Press. Soon after came The Fauntleroys EP, Below the Pink Pony, a collaboration with Alejandro Escovedo, Nick Tremulis and Linda Pittman.     His newest album ‘Swing Your Lanterns' is available on PRAVDA Records. The songs encompass his experiences of the past five years and more; Some of which, we have all lived through.  Ivan's Info Web site home Spotify  5jcYTu6SCsjZnl4AEL5Rc2    

"Pretty sure you've got me confused with somebody else. Cuz the way you look at me can't be good for your health. Then again I'm not surprised, that the Devil's in your eyes..." ~New Music "Devil" by Bonchi. Evil 6 6 6 Collab featuring Breaks / House / Electronica / Dance / Techno / Electro / Trap / DnB / Jungle / Hardcore / Psytrance. Searchin' for... the Devil...

Every 6 months or so, I spend a weekend cleaning and ripping my old vinyl. I had forgotten about my last session for a long time and upon rediscovering the project folder I realized there was a decent selection of '90s gems in that batch and a mixtape was born. Rip Chain: SL-1210MK2, M44G (JICO Stylus), Scarlett 2i2 DAC, Audacity Vanilla Ice - Ice Ice Baby (Miami Drop Mix) Debbie Deb - I'm Searchin' (Short Vocal Version) Pam Russo - It Works For Me (Drumapella) Bassheads - Is There Anybody Out There? (Just Get Up and Dance Edit) Vanessa Williams - Running Back to You (Radio Edit) Corina - Summertime Summertime (Spanglish) INOJ - Love You Down City Boyz - Get 'Em Up Hypnotone - Dream Beam (Original Mix) Joeski Love - Pee-Wee's Dance (Instrumental Dub) LL Cool J - Rock the Bells (Original Version) Queens Brooklyn Connection - This Is Called Hip Hop (Instrumental) L. the Head Toucha - Too Complex (Street) Kwest Tha Madd Lad - Lubrication (Safe Sex Radio Version) Obscure Disorder - Maintain the Focus (Dirty) Jedi Mind Tricks - Retaliation Most Wanted ft. Pras - Ain't No Stoppin' (Album Version) G. Simone - Music for the '90s Bruno Mars - Versace on the Floor (-8 on My Technics)

TRACKLIST 0:00 ?????? - Even If (Album Version) 4:30 Amel Larrieux - Beyond 7:00 Amel Larrieux - lucky to be me 12:00 Amel Larrieux - you're my thrill 15:00 Amel Larrieux - We Can Be New 21:30 Amel Larrieux - A Million Sapphires 23:00 ?????? - Sweet Misery (Album Version) 27:00 Amel Larrieux - Moment to Reflect 31:00 Amel Larrieux - Earn My Affections 34:30 Amel Larrieux - Magic 38:00 Amel Larrieux - Congo 42:00 Amel Larrieux - Berries and Cream 46:00 Amel Larrieux - If I Were A Bell 49:00 Amel Larrieux - All I Got 52:30 Amel Larrieux - Get Up 56:00 ?????? - Get Up (Thread Had Fun Remix) 1:00:00 Amel Larrieux - Trapped Being Human 1:04:00 Amel Larrieux - All I Got2 1:06:30 ?????? - I n I (Album Version) 1:10:00 ?????? - Infinite Possibilities (Album Version) 1:14:00 Amel Larrieux - Unanswered Question (Album Version) 1:17:00 Amel Larrieux - You Don't See Me 1:20:00 ?????? - Make Me Whole 1:24:00 Amel Larrieux - Weary 1:27:30 Amel Larrieux - Just Once 1:31:00 Amel Larrieux - Sacred 1:34:00 Amel Larrieux - Say You Want It All 1:38:00 Amel Larrieux - Mountain Of When 1:42:00 Amel Larrieux - Orange Glow 1:46:00 ?????? - Weather (Album Version) 1:51:30 Amel Larrieux - Giving Something Up 1:54:30 Amel Larrieux - Dear To Me 1:58:30 ?????? - Searchin' For My Soul (Album Version) 2:02:00 ?????? - Shine (Album Version) 2:06:00 Amel Larrieux - Afraid 2:11:30 Amel Larrieux - Have You 2:13:00 Amel Larrieux - Morning (Album Version) 2:14:00 Amel Larrieux - Morning 2:16:30 Amel Larrieux - Trouble 2:19:00 Amel Larrieux - i like the sunrise 2:23:30 Amel Larrieux - See Where You Are 2:26:30 Amel Larrieux - "No One Else" 2:30:00 Amel Larrieux - Bravebird 2:34:00 Amel Larrieux - Soon 2:36:00 Amel Larrieux - try your wings 2:39:00 ?????? - Down (Album Version) 2:43:30 Amel Larrieux - Danger 2:47:30 Amel Larrieux - something wonderful 2:51:00 Amel Larrieux - younger than springtime 2:55:30 Amel Larrieux - I Do Take 3:00:30 Amel Larrieux - I Do Take 2 3:05:30 Amel Larrieux - wild is the wind 3:09:00 Amel Larrieux - Don't Let Me Down 3:12:00 Amel Larrieux - For Real 3:15:30 Amel Larrieux - shadow of smile 3:18:00 Amel Larrieux - Danger 2 3:22:00 Amel Larrieux - Your Eyes 3:25:30 Amel Larrieux - Gills And Tails 3:30:00 Amel Larrieux - Ur the Shhh 3:34:00 Amel Larrieux - if i loved you R&B, R N B Type: Mix monte carlo

Matt, The Direct-To-Video Connoisseur has joined the search party as we continue our quest for a subject. What treasures will we find on today's episode? Which action stars may start appearing in holiday fare? Or what other wacky surprises will ensue? Find out today!

Singer-songwriter Vonda Shepard played herself on TV's Ally McBeal, performing at the characters' favorite piano bar, and she co-wrote and sang the show's theme song, “Searchin' My Soul.” But even with multiple Ally McBeal-tie-in albums, there's been much more to Shepard's career than the show. She performed her first gig as a 14-year-old, toured in Rickie Lee Jones' band and duetted with Dan Hill on the 1987 smash “Can't We Try.” Years of development with Warner Brothers led to her self-titled debut album, but the label dropped her, Ally McBeal creator David E. Kelley boosted her, and she kept writing songs and releasing albums, including this year's Red Light, Green Light (produced by husband Mitchell Froom). She reflects on her career's many twists and turns in this lively, wide-ranging Caropop conversation. (Photo by Greg Shappell & Nick Leopold.)

“The primary source of unconscious priming…is your conscious experience.” Our consciousness is where we bring everything together, where we integrate and form a rich integration of our experience. This result is that this experience gets spread out to all the processes of the mind which is pivotal to how priming, an unconscious effect, actually works. John Bargh is a researcher and professor at Yale University and is probably the leading researcher on behavioral priming and has been studying this topic for almost 40 years. Not only that but he is a long term friend of Behavioral Grooves Podcast. In this episode with John, we explore with him both the past and future of priming as well as some of the controversies surrounding it.  “The more important the goal, the more primable it is”   Topics (4:36) Welcome and speed round questions. (7:50) Why priming gets a bad rap. (13:01) What exactly is a prime? (16:17) Where does future research in priming need to go? (19:46) How does priming differ from expectation theory and the placebo effect? (22:33) How is framing not priming? (24:07) What is the summation of experience? (32:02) The stupid reason John went into social psychology. (40:51) What the meta analysis studies on priming have found. (45:50) Science communication: how to tell the good science from the bad. (49:03) The importance of podcasting to bridge the gap between science and people. (1:00:03) Grooving session with Tim and Kurt on priming.    © 2022 Behavioral Grooves   Links John Bargh book “Before You Know It: The Unconscious Reasons We Do What We Do”: https://amzn.to/3yUHka8 Episode 248, Do We Control Situations or Do Situations Control Us? With John Bargh: https://behavioralgrooves.com/episode/control-situations-with-john-bargh/  Episode 155, John Bargh: Dante, Coffee and the Unconscious Mind: https://behavioralgrooves.com/episode/john-bargh-unconscious-mind/  Global Workspace Theory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_workspace_theory  Bargh JA. “What have we been priming all these years? On the development, mechanisms, and ecology of nonconscious social behavior.” Eur J Soc Psychol. 2006: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19844598/  Shinobu Kitayama, University of Michigan: https://lsa.umich.edu/psych/people/faculty/kitayama.html  Daphna Oyserman, University of Southern California: https://dornsife.usc.edu/daphna-oyserman  Paul J. Reber, Northwestern University: https://www.reberlab.psych.northwestern.edu/people/paul/  Daniel Schacter, “Amnesia observed: Remembering and forgetting in a natural environment” (1983): https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1983-26025-001  Parafoveal Processing: https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/psychology/parafoveal-processing  Jeffrey W. Sherman (2017) “A Final Word on Train Wrecks”: https://psychology.ucdavis.edu/people/sherm/cv  Evan Weingarten, Qijia Chen, Maxwell McAdams, Jessica Yi, Justin Hepler, Dolores Albarracin (2016) “On Priming Action: Conclusions from a Meta-Analysis of the Behavioral Effects of Incidentally-Presented Words”: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27957520/  Xiao Chen, Gary P. Latham, Ronald F. Piccolo, Guy Itzchakov (2019) “An Enumerative Review and a Meta-Analysis of Primed Goal Effects on Organizational Behavior”: https://iaap-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/apps.12239  Roy F. Baumeister and Kathleen D. Vohs (2003): “Sobriety Epidemic Endangers Nation's Well-Being”: https://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/sobriety-epidemic-endangers-nations-well-being  Episode 147, Gary Latham, PhD: Goal Setting, Prompts, Priming, and Skepticism: https://behavioralgrooves.com/episode/gary-latham-goal-setting-prompts/     Musical Links  AC/DC “Hells Bells”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etAIpkdhU9Q  Psychedelic Porn Crumpets “Acid Dent”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuQyIQ0NA0k  acid dad “Searchin'”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzSwzUAqVWw  The Orb “Blue Room”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQ8nTbS9mOE  Nirvana “Smells Like Teen Spirit”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTWKbfoikeg  Pearl Jam “Black”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgaRVvAKoqQ  The Who “Who You Are”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNbBDrceCy8  Led Zeppelin “All My Love”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXC87EABywo  Dead Pirates “Alexis”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9FsgAyZop4  Hadestown Broadway Show “Way Down Hadestown”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJIc3RtJK7U 

Episode 6 is here and we introduce a new segment, Searchin' for Pappy, in which we give our weekly updates on our new whiskey purchases. Obviously, when searching for Pappy Van Winkle you run across other quality whiskies that must also be sampled. This week, Wally, the store owner from Whiskey Willys sets up Gary with Russells 13yr Barrel Proof and an Elijah Craig Barrel Proof store pick, both amazing bottles! Thank you, Wally, and belated birthday! Steve discusses his new Barrel Bourbon and Buffalo Trace store picks from Novi Party Store. Amazing juice!Whiskey Standoff battles two wheated bourbons, with Redemption Bourbon going up against Larceny Bourbon. Steve struggles to open a bottle of bourbon, ground breaking podcast material. What are our opinions on the two entry level high wheated products, give a listen to find out!Stump the Bro, we discuss barrel proof, cask strength and full proof whiskies. What are the differences? Criteria for each? Don't they all mean just high proof whiskies which will burn your tongue off and scorch your esophagus for years? Possibly...Oh, and we have added more cheesy sound effects, thoughts? Love some feedback!Give us a listen and follow! Twitter @realbourbonbrosInstagram therealbourbonbrosYouTube TheRealBourbonBrosFacebook Bourbon Bro Gary SteveThank you for listening and all the support, spread the word! We would love any feedback as well!-The Real Bourbon Bros

| Don't Know Yet (Original Mix)  | Ezel feat. Rona Ray | Into My Life (Flow Culture Vocal Mix)  | Mark Lewis feat. Tumelo | Something About You (Village Soul Mix)  | Funkshun feat. Lincoln | Choose To Choose  | Moon Rocket, LauMii | Love At First Sight (Steven Stone Mix)  | Soulbridge, Pathy Andreas | Fix Your Love (Ralf GUM Radio Edit)  | Ralf GUM, Bongi Mvuyana, Kafele | You Give Me Love (Mijangos Afro Soul Mix)  | Artwork Sounds, Unqle Chriz | Time Waits For No One (Geoffrey's Yes Indeedy Dub)  | Teddy Douglas, Carmen Brown | Secrets (Michael Gray Main Mix)  | Joe Ventura, Priya, DJ Biddy | Fly High (Soulful High Vocal Mix)  | Brutha Basil, N'Dinga Gaba | Don't Turn Around 2.0 (Famous Rebel House Mix)  | Black Ivory Tribute  | Kiss Of Life (Extended Mix)  | Lexa Hill & The Young Punx | The One (Final Mix Master)  | Juanita Wynn | Tell The World How I Feel About ‘Cha Baby  | Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes | Searchin' For Some Lovin' (Vocal)  | Debbie Trusty | So Good For You  | Bunny DeBarge | Too Much Too Fast (Vocal)  | Vera Brown & Rich Girls | That Girl Wants To Dance With Me  | Gregory Hines | Keeping Good Loving  | Sister Sledge | Love Is Serious  | The Stylistics | Good Love (Extended Remix)  | Meli'sa Morgan

We start season four of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs with an extra-long look at "San Francisco" by Scott McKenzie, and at the Monterey Pop Festival, and the careers of the Mamas and the Papas and P.F. Sloan. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a ten-minute bonus episode available, on "Up, Up, and Away" by the 5th Dimension. 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 As usual, all the songs excerpted in the podcast can be heard in full at Mixcloud. Scott McKenzie's first album is available here. There are many compilations of the Mamas and the Papas' music, but sadly none that are in print in the UK have the original mono mixes. This set is about as good as you're going to find, though, for the stereo versions. Information on the Mamas and the Papas came from Go Where You Wanna Go: The Oral History of The Mamas and the Papas by Matthew Greenwald, California Dreamin': The True Story Of The Mamas and Papas by Michelle Phillips, and Papa John by John Phillips and Jim Jerome. Information on P.F. Sloan came from PF - TRAVELLING BAREFOOT ON A ROCKY ROAD by Stephen McParland and What's Exactly the Matter With Me? by P.F. Sloan and S.E. Feinberg. The film of the Monterey Pop Festival is available on this Criterion Blu-Ray set. Sadly the CD of the performances seems to be deleted. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript Welcome to season four of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs. It's good to be back. Before we start this episode, I just want to say one thing. I get a lot of credit at times for the way I don't shy away from dealing with the more unsavoury elements of the people being covered in my podcast -- particularly the more awful men. But as I said very early on, I only cover those aspects of their life when they're relevant to the music, because this is a music podcast and not a true crime podcast. But also I worry that in some cases this might mean I'm giving a false impression of some people. In the case of this episode, one of the central figures is John Phillips of the Mamas and the Papas. Now, Phillips has posthumously been accused of some truly monstrous acts, the kind of thing that is truly unforgivable, and I believe those accusations. But those acts didn't take place during the time period covered by most of this episode, so I won't be covering them here -- but they're easily googlable if you want to know. I thought it best to get that out of the way at the start, so no-one's either anxiously waiting for the penny to drop or upset that I didn't acknowledge the elephant in the room. Separately, this episode will have some discussion of fatphobia and diet culture, and of a death that is at least in part attributable to those things. Those of you affected by that may want to skip this one or read the transcript. There are also some mentions of drug addiction and alcoholism. Anyway, on with the show. One of the things that causes problems with rock history is the tendency of people to have selective memories, and that's never more true than when it comes to the Summer of Love, summer of 1967. In the mythology that's built up around it, that was a golden time, the greatest time ever, a period of peace and love where everything was possible, and the world looked like it was going to just keep on getting better. But what that means, of course, is that the people remembering it that way do so because it was the best time of their lives. And what happens when the best time of your life is over in one summer? When you have one hit and never have a second, or when your band splits up after only eighteen months, and you have to cope with the reality that your best years are not only behind you, but they weren't even best years, but just best months? What stories would you tell about that time? Would you remember it as the eve of destruction, the last great moment before everything went to hell, or would you remember it as a golden summer, full of people with flowers in their hair? And would either really be true? [Excerpt: Scott McKenzie, "San Francisco"] Other than the city in which they worked, there are a few things that seem to characterise almost all the important figures on the LA music scene in the middle part of the 1960s. They almost all seem to be incredibly ambitious, as one might imagine. There seem to be a huge number of fantasists among them -- people who will not only choose the legend over reality when it suits them, but who will choose the legend over reality even when it doesn't suit them. And they almost all seem to have a story about being turned down in a rude and arrogant manner by Lou Adler, usually more or less the same story. To give an example, I'm going to read out a bit of Ray Manzarek's autobiography here. Now, Manzarek uses a few words that I can't use on this podcast and keep a clean rating, so I'm just going to do slight pauses when I get to them, but I'll leave the words in the transcript for those who aren't offended by them: "Sometimes Jim and Dorothy and I went alone. The three of us tried Dunhill Records. Lou Adler was the head man. He was shrewd and he was hip. He had the Mamas and the Papas and a big single with Barry McGuire's 'Eve of Destruction.' He was flush. We were ushered into his office. He looked cool. He was California casually disheveled and had the look of a stoner, but his eyes were as cold as a shark's. He took the twelve-inch acetate demo from me and we all sat down. He put the disc on his turntable and played each cut…for ten seconds. Ten seconds! You can't tell jack [shit] from ten seconds. At least listen to one of the songs all the way through. I wanted to rage at him. 'How dare you! We're the Doors! This is [fucking] Jim Morrison! He's going to be a [fucking] star! Can't you see that? Can't you see how [fucking] handsome he is? Can't you hear how groovy the music is? Don't you [fucking] get it? Listen to the words, man!' My brain was a boiling, lava-filled Jell-O mold of rage. I wanted to eviscerate that shark. The songs he so casually dismissed were 'Moonlight Drive,' 'Hello, I Love You,' 'Summer's Almost Gone,' 'End of the Night,' 'I Looked at You,' 'Go Insane.' He rejected the whole demo. Ten seconds on each song—maybe twenty seconds on 'Hello, I Love You' (I took that as an omen of potential airplay)—and we were dismissed out of hand. Just like that. He took the demo off the turntable and handed it back to me with an obsequious smile and said, 'Nothing here I can use.' We were shocked. We stood up, the three of us, and Jim, with a wry and knowing smile on his lips, cuttingly and coolly shot back at him, 'That's okay, man. We don't want to be *used*, anyway.'" Now, as you may have gathered from the episode on the Doors, Ray Manzarek was one of those print-the-legend types, and that's true of everyone who tells similar stories about Lou Alder. But... there are a *lot* of people who tell similar stories about Lou Adler. One of those was Phil Sloan. You can get an idea of Sloan's attitude to storytelling from a story he always used to tell. Shortly after he and his family moved to LA from New York, he got a job selling newspapers on a street corner on Hollywood Boulevard, just across from Schwab's Drug Store. One day James Dean drove up in his Porsche and made an unusual request. He wanted to buy every copy of the newspaper that Sloan had -- around a hundred and fifty copies in total. But he only wanted one article, something in the entertainment section. Sloan didn't remember what the article was, but he did remember that one of the headlines was on the final illness of Oliver Hardy, who died shortly afterwards, and thought it might have been something to do with that. Dean was going to just clip that article from every copy he bought, and then he was going to give all the newspapers back to Sloan to sell again, so Sloan ended up making a lot of extra money that day. There is one rather big problem with that story. Oliver Hardy died in August 1957, just after the Sloan family moved to LA. But James Dean died in September 1955, two years earlier. Sloan admitted that, and said he couldn't explain it, but he was insistent. He sold a hundred and fifty newspapers to James Dean two years after Dean's death. When not selling newspapers to dead celebrities, Sloan went to Fairfax High School, and developed an interest in music which was mostly oriented around the kind of white pop vocal groups that were popular at the time, groups like the Kingston Trio, the Four Lads, and the Four Aces. But the record that made Sloan decide he wanted to make music himself was "Just Goofed" by the Teen Queens: [Excerpt: The Teen Queens, "Just Goofed"] In 1959, when he was fourteen, he saw an advert for an open audition with Aladdin Records, a label he liked because of Thurston Harris. He went along to the audition, and was successful. His first single, released as by Flip Sloan -- Flip was a nickname, a corruption of "Philip" -- was produced by Bumps Blackwell and featured several of the musicians who played with Sam Cooke, plus Larry Knechtel on piano and Mike Deasey on guitar, but Aladdin shut down shortly after releasing it, and it may not even have had a general release, just promo copies. I've not been able to find a copy online anywhere. After that, he tried Arwin Records, the label that Jan and Arnie recorded for, which was owned by Marty Melcher (Doris Day's husband and Terry Melcher's stepfather). Melcher signed him, and put out a single, "She's My Girl", on Mart Records, a subsidiary of Arwin, on which Sloan was backed by a group of session players including Sandy Nelson and Bruce Johnston: [Excerpt: Philip Sloan, "She's My Girl"] That record didn't have any success, and Sloan was soon dropped by Mart Records. He went on to sign with Blue Bird Records, which was as far as can be ascertained essentially a scam organisation that would record demos for songwriters, but tell the performers that they were making a real record, so that they would record it for the royalties they would never get, rather than for a decent fee as a professional demo singer would get. But Steve Venet -- the brother of Nik Venet, and occasional songwriting collaborator with Tommy Boyce -- happened to come to Blue Bird one day, and hear one of Sloan's original songs. He thought Sloan would make a good songwriter, and took him to see Lou Adler at Columbia-Screen Gems music publishing. This was shortly after the merger between Columbia-Screen Gems and Aldon Music, and Adler was at this point the West Coast head of operations, subservient to Don Kirshner and Al Nevins, but largely left to do what he wanted. The way Sloan always told the story, Venet tried to get Adler to sign Sloan, but Adler said his songs stunk and had no commercial potential. But Sloan persisted in trying to get a contract there, and eventually Al Nevins happened to be in the office and overruled Adler, much to Adler's disgust. Sloan was signed to Columbia-Screen Gems as a songwriter, though he wasn't put on a salary like the Brill Building songwriters, just told that he could bring in songs and they would publish them. Shortly after this, Adler suggested to Sloan that he might want to form a writing team with another songwriter, Steve Barri, who had had a similar non-career non-trajectory, but was very slightly further ahead in his career, having done some work with Carol Connors, the former lead singer of the Teddy Bears. Barri had co-written a couple of flop singles for Connors, before the two of them had formed a vocal group, the Storytellers, with Connors' sister. The Storytellers had released a single, "When Two People (Are in Love)" , which was put out on a local independent label and which Adler had licensed to be released on Dimension Records, the label associated with Aldon Music: [Excerpt: The Storytellers "When Two People (Are in Love)"] That record didn't sell, but it was enough to get Barri into the Columbia-Screen Gems circle, and Adler set him and Sloan up as a songwriting team -- although the way Sloan told it, it wasn't so much a songwriting team as Sloan writing songs while Barri was also there. Sloan would later claim "it was mostly a collaboration of spirit, and it seemed that I was writing most of the music and the lyric, but it couldn't possibly have ever happened unless both of us were present at the same time". One suspects that Barri might have a different recollection of how it went... Sloan and Barri's first collaboration was a song that Sloan had half-written before they met, called "Kick That Little Foot Sally Ann", which was recorded by a West Coast Chubby Checker knockoff who went under the name Round Robin, and who had his own dance craze, the Slauson, which was much less successful than the Twist: [Excerpt: Round Robin, "Kick that Little Foot Sally Ann"] That track was produced and arranged by Jack Nitzsche, and Nitzsche asked Sloan to be one of the rhythm guitarists on the track, apparently liking Sloan's feel. Sloan would end up playing rhythm guitar or singing backing vocals on many of the records made of songs he and Barri wrote together. "Kick That Little Foot Sally Ann" only made number sixty-one nationally, but it was a regional hit, and it meant that Sloan and Barri soon became what Sloan later described as "the Goffin and King of the West Coast follow-ups." According to Sloan "We'd be given a list on Monday morning by Lou Adler with thirty names on it of the groups who needed follow-ups to their hit." They'd then write the songs to order, and they started to specialise in dance craze songs. For example, when the Swim looked like it might be the next big dance, they wrote "Swim Swim Swim", "She Only Wants to Swim", "Let's Swim Baby", "Big Boss Swimmer", "Swim Party" and "My Swimmin' Girl" (the last a collaboration with Jan Berry and Roger Christian). These songs were exactly as good as they needed to be, in order to provide album filler for mid-tier artists, and while Sloan and Barri weren't writing any massive hits, they were doing very well as mid-tier writers. According to Sloan's biographer Stephen McParland, there was a three-year period in the mid-sixties where at least one song written or co-written by Sloan was on the national charts at any given time. Most of these songs weren't for Columbia-Screen Gems though. In early 1964 Lou Adler had a falling out with Don Kirshner, and decided to start up his own company, Dunhill, which was equal parts production company, music publishers, and management -- doing for West Coast pop singers what Motown was doing for Detroit soul singers, and putting everything into one basket. Dunhill's early clients included Jan and Dean and the rockabilly singer Johnny Rivers, and Dunhill also signed Sloan and Barri as songwriters. Because of this connection, Sloan and Barri soon became an important part of Jan and Dean's hit-making process. The Matadors, the vocal group that had provided most of the backing vocals on the duo's hits, had started asking for more money than Jan Berry was willing to pay, and Jan and Dean couldn't do the vocals themselves -- as Bones Howe put it "As a singer, Dean is a wonderful graphic artist" -- and so Sloan and Barri stepped in, doing session vocals without payment in the hope that Jan and Dean would record a few of their songs. For example, on the big hit "The Little Old Lady From Pasadena", Dean Torrence is not present at all on the record -- Jan Berry sings the lead vocal, with Sloan doubling him for much of it, Sloan sings "Dean"'s falsetto, with the engineer Bones Howe helping out, and the rest of the backing vocals are sung by Sloan, Barri, and Howe: [Excerpt: Jan and Dean, "The Little Old Lady From Pasadena"] For these recordings, Sloan and Barri were known as The Fantastic Baggys, a name which came from the Rolling Stones' manager Andrew Oldham and Mick Jagger, when the two were visiting California. Oldham had been commenting on baggys, the kind of shorts worn by surfers, and had asked Jagger what he thought of The Baggys as a group name. Jagger had replied "Fantastic!" and so the Fantastic Baggys had been born. As part of this, Sloan and Barri moved hard into surf and hot-rod music from the dance songs they had been writing previously. The Fantastic Baggys recorded their own album, Tell 'Em I'm Surfin', as a quickie album suggested by Adler: [Excerpt: The Fantastic Baggys, "Tell 'Em I'm Surfin'"] And under the name The Rally Packs they recorded a version of Jan and Dean's "Move Out Little Mustang" which featured Berry's girlfriend Jill Gibson doing a spoken section: [Excerpt: The Rally Packs, "Move Out Little Mustang"] They also wrote several album tracks for Jan and Dean, and wrote "Summer Means Fun" for Bruce and Terry -- Bruce Johnston, later of the Beach Boys, and Terry Melcher: [Excerpt: Bruce and Terry, "Summer Means Fun"] And they wrote the very surf-flavoured "Secret Agent Man" for fellow Dunhill artist Johnny Rivers: [Excerpt: Johnny Rivers, "Secret Agent Man"] But of course, when you're chasing trends, you're chasing trends, and soon the craze for twangy guitars and falsetto harmonies had ended, replaced by a craze for jangly twelve-string guitars and closer harmonies. According to Sloan, he was in at the very beginning of the folk-rock trend -- the way he told the story, he was involved in the mastering of the Byrds' version of "Mr. Tambourine Man". He later talked about Terry Melcher getting him to help out, saying "He had produced a record called 'Mr. Tambourine Man', and had sent it into the head office, and it had been rejected. He called me up and said 'I've got three more hours in the studio before I'm being kicked out of Columbia. Can you come over and help me with this new record?' I did. I went over there. It was under lock and key. There were two guards outside the door. Terry asked me something about 'Summer Means Fun'. "He said 'Do you remember the guitar that we worked on with that? How we put in that double reverb?' "And I said 'yes' "And he said 'What do you think if we did something like that with the Byrds?' "And I said 'That sounds good. Let's see what it sounds like.' So we patched into all the reverb centres in Columbia Music, and mastered the record in three hours." Whether Sloan really was there at the birth of folk rock, he and Barri jumped on the folk-rock craze just as they had the surf and hot-rod craze, and wrote a string of jangly hits including "You Baby" for the Turtles: [Excerpt: The Turtles, "You Baby"] and "I Found a Girl" for Jan and Dean: [Excerpt: Jan and Dean, "I Found a Girl"] That song was later included on Jan and Dean's Folk 'n' Roll album, which also included... a song I'm not even going to name, but long-time listeners will know the one I mean. It was also notable in that "I Found a Girl" was the first song on which Sloan was credited not as Phil Sloan, but as P.F. Sloan -- he didn't have a middle name beginning with F, but rather the F stood for his nickname "Flip". Sloan would later talk of Phil Sloan and P.F. Sloan as almost being two different people, with P.F. being a far more serious, intense, songwriter. Folk 'n' Roll also contained another Sloan song, this one credited solely to Sloan. And that song is the one for which he became best known. There are two very different stories about how "Eve of Destruction" came to be written. To tell Sloan's version, I'm going to read a few paragraphs from his autobiography: "By late 1964, I had already written ‘Eve Of Destruction,' ‘The Sins Of A Family,' ‘This Mornin',' ‘Ain't No Way I'm Gonna Change My Mind,' and ‘What's Exactly The Matter With Me?' They all arrived on one cataclysmic evening, and nearly at the same time, as I worked on the lyrics almost simultaneously. ‘Eve Of Destruction' came about from hearing a voice, perhaps an angel's. The voice instructed me to place five pieces of paper and spread them out on my bed. I obeyed the voice. The voice told me that the first song would be called ‘Eve Of Destruction,' so I wrote the title at the top of the page. For the next few hours, the voice came and went as I was writing the lyric, as if this spirit—or whatever it was—stood over me like a teacher: ‘No, no … not think of all the hate there is in Red Russia … Red China!' I didn't understand. I thought the Soviet Union was the mortal threat to America, but the voice went on to reveal to me the future of the world until 2024. I was told the Soviet Union would fall, and that Red China would continue to be communist far into the future, but that communism was not going to be allowed to take over this Divine Planet—therefore, think of all the hate there is in Red China. I argued and wrestled with the voice for hours, until I was exhausted but satisfied inside with my plea to God to either take me out of the world, as I could not live in such a hypocritical society, or to show me a way to make things better. When I was writing ‘Eve,' I was on my hands and knees, pleading for an answer." Lou Adler's story is that he gave Phil Sloan a copy of Bob Dylan's Bringing it All Back Home album and told him to write a bunch of songs that sounded like that, and Sloan came back a week later as instructed with ten Dylan knock-offs. Adler said "It was a natural feel for him. He's a great mimic." As one other data point, both Steve Barri and Bones Howe, the engineer who worked on most of the sessions we're looking at today, have often talked in interviews about "Eve of Destruction" as being a Sloan/Barri collaboration, as if to them it's common knowledge that it wasn't written alone, although Sloan's is the only name on the credits. The song was given to a new signing to Dunhill Records, Barry McGuire. McGuire was someone who had been part of the folk scene for years, He'd been playing folk clubs in LA while also acting in a TV show from 1961. When the TV show had finished, he'd formed a duo, Barry and Barry, with Barry Kane, and they performed much the same repertoire as all the other early-sixties folkies: [Excerpt: Barry and Barry, "If I Had a Hammer"] After recording their one album, both Barrys joined the New Christy Minstrels. We've talked about the Christys before, but they were -- and are to this day -- an ultra-commercial folk group, led by Randy Sparks, with a revolving membership of usually eight or nine singers which included several other people who've come up in this podcast, like Gene Clark and Jerry Yester. McGuire became one of the principal lead singers of the Christys, singing lead on their version of the novelty cowboy song "Three Wheels on My Wagon", which was later released as a single in the UK and became a perennial children's favourite (though it has a problematic attitude towards Native Americans): [Excerpt: The New Christy Minstrels, "Three Wheels on My Wagon"] And he also sang lead on their big hit "Green Green", which he co-wrote with Randy Sparks: [Excerpt: The New Christy Minstrels, "Green Green"] But by 1965 McGuire had left the New Christy Minstrels. As he said later "I'd sung 'Green Green' a thousand times and I didn't want to sing it again. This is January of 1965. I went back to LA to meet some producers, and I was broke. Nobody had the time of day for me. I was walking down street one time to see Dr. Strangelove and I walked by the music store, and I heard "Green Green" comin' out of the store, ya know, on Hollywood Boulevard. And I heard my voice, and I thought, 'I got four dollars in my pocket!' I couldn't believe it, my voice is comin' out on Hollywood Boulevard, and I'm broke. And right at that moment, a car pulls up, and the radio is playing 'Chim Chim Cherie" also by the Minstrels. So I got my voice comin' at me in stereo, standin' on the sidewalk there, and I'm broke, and I can't get anyone to sign me!" But McGuire had a lot of friends who he'd met on the folk scene, some of whom were now in the new folk-rock scene that was just starting to spring up. One of them was Roger McGuinn, who told him that his band, the Byrds, were just about to put out a new single, "Mr. Tambourine Man", and that they were about to start a residency at Ciro's on Sunset Strip. McGuinn invited McGuire to the opening night of that residency, where a lot of other people from the scene were there to see the new group. Bob Dylan was there, as was Phil Sloan, and the actor Jack Nicholson, who was still at the time a minor bit-part player in low-budget films made by people like American International Pictures (the cinematographer on many of Nicholson's early films was Floyd Crosby, David Crosby's father, which may be why he was there). Someone else who was there was Lou Adler, who according to McGuire recognised him instantly. According to Adler, he actually asked Terry Melcher who the long-haired dancer wearing furs was, because "he looked like the leader of a movement", and Melcher told him that he was the former lead singer of the New Christy Minstrels. Either way, Adler approached McGuire and asked if he was currently signed -- Dunhill Records was just starting up, and getting someone like McGuire, who had a proven ability to sing lead on hit records, would be a good start for the label. As McGuire didn't have a contract, he was signed to Dunhill, and he was given some of Sloan's new songs to pick from, and chose "What's Exactly the Matter With Me?" as his single: [Excerpt: Barry McGuire, "What's Exactly the Matter With Me?"] McGuire described what happened next: "It was like, a three-hour session. We did two songs, and then the third one wasn't turning out. We only had about a half hour left in the session, so I said 'Let's do this tune', and I pulled 'Eve of Destruction' out of my pocket, and it just had Phil's words scrawled on a piece of paper, all wrinkled up. Phil worked the chords out with the musicians, who were Hal Blaine on drums and Larry Knechtel on bass." There were actually more musicians than that at the session -- apparently both Knechtel and Joe Osborn were there, so I'm not entirely sure who's playing bass -- Knechtel was a keyboard player as well as a bass player, but I don't hear any keyboards on the track. And Tommy Tedesco was playing lead guitar, and Steve Barri added percussion, along with Sloan on rhythm guitar and harmonica. The chords were apparently scribbled down for the musicians on bits of greasy paper that had been used to wrap some takeaway chicken, and they got through the track in a single take. According to McGuire "I'm reading the words off this piece of wrinkled paper, and I'm singing 'My blood's so mad, feels like coagulatin'", that part that goes 'Ahhh you can't twist the truth', and the reason I'm going 'Ahhh' is because I lost my place on the page. People said 'Man, you really sounded frustrated when you were singing.' I was. I couldn't see the words!" [Excerpt: Barry McGuire, "Eve of Destruction"] With a few overdubs -- the female backing singers in the chorus, and possibly the kettledrums, which I've seen differing claims about, with some saying that Hal Blaine played them during the basic track and others saying that Lou Adler suggested them as an overdub, the track was complete. McGuire wasn't happy with his vocal, and a session was scheduled for him to redo it, but then a record promoter working with Adler was DJing a birthday party for the head of programming at KFWB, the big top forty radio station in LA at the time, and he played a few acetates he'd picked up from Adler. Most went down OK with the crowd, but when he played "Eve of Destruction", the crowd went wild and insisted he play it three times in a row. The head of programming called Adler up and told him that "Eve of Destruction" was going to be put into rotation on the station from Monday, so he'd better get the record out. As McGuire was away for the weekend, Adler just released the track as it was, and what had been intended to be a B-side became Barry McGuire's first and only number one record: [Excerpt: Barry McGuire, "Eve of Destruction"] Sloan would later claim that that song was a major reason why the twenty-sixth amendment to the US Constitution was passed six years later, because the line "you're old enough to kill but not for votin'" shamed Congress into changing the constitution to allow eighteen-year-olds to vote. If so, that would make "Eve of Destruction" arguably the single most impactful rock record in history, though Sloan is the only person I've ever seen saying that As well as going to number one in McGuire's version, the song was also covered by the other artists who regularly performed Sloan and Barri songs, like the Turtles: [Excerpt: The Turtles, "Eve of Destruction"] And Jan and Dean, whose version on Folk & Roll used the same backing track as McGuire, but had a few lyrical changes to make it fit with Jan Berry's right-wing politics, most notably changing "Selma, Alabama" to "Watts, California", thus changing a reference to peaceful civil rights protestors being brutally attacked and murdered by white supremacist state troopers to a reference to what was seen, in the popular imaginary, as Black people rioting for no reason: [Excerpt: Jan and Dean, "Eve of Destruction"] According to Sloan, he worked on the Folk & Roll album as a favour to Berry, even though he thought Berry was being cynical and exploitative in making the record, but those changes caused a rift in their friendship. Sloan said in his autobiography "Where I was completely wrong was in helping him capitalize on something in which he didn't believe. Jan wanted the public to perceive him as a person who was deeply concerned and who embraced the values of the progressive politics of the day. But he wasn't that person. That's how I was being pulled. It was when he recorded my actual song ‘Eve Of Destruction' and changed a number of lines to reflect his own ideals that my principles demanded that I leave Folk City and never return." It's true that Sloan gave no more songs to Jan and Dean after that point -- but it's also true that the duo would record only one more album, the comedy concept album Jan and Dean Meet Batman, before Jan's accident. Incidentally, the reference to Selma, Alabama in the lyric might help people decide on which story about the writing of "Eve of Destruction" they think is more plausible. Remember that Lou Adler said that it was written after Adler gave Sloan a copy of Bringing it All Back Home and told him to write a bunch of knock-offs, while Sloan said it was written after a supernatural force gave him access to all the events that would happen in the world for the next sixty years. Sloan claimed the song was written in late 1964. Selma, Alabama, became national news in late February and early March 1965. Bringing it All Back Home was released in late March 1965. So either Adler was telling the truth, or Sloan really *was* given a supernatural insight into the events of the future. Now, as it turned out, while "Eve of Destruction" went to number one, that would be McGuire's only hit as a solo artist. His next couple of singles would reach the very low end of the Hot One Hundred, and that would be it -- he'd release several more albums, before appearing in the Broadway musical Hair, most famous for its nude scenes, and getting a small part in the cinematic masterpiece Werewolves on Wheels: [Excerpt: Werewolves on Wheels trailer] P.F. Sloan would later tell various stories about why McGuire never had another hit. Sometimes he would say that Dunhill Records had received death threats because of "Eve of Destruction" and so deliberately tried to bury McGuire's career, other times he would say that Lou Adler had told him that Billboard had said they were never going to put McGuire's records on the charts no matter how well they sold, because "Eve of Destruction" had just been too powerful and upset the advertisers. But of course at this time Dunhill were still trying for a follow-up to "Eve of Destruction", and they thought they might have one when Barry McGuire brought in a few friends of his to sing backing vocals on his second album. Now, we've covered some of the history of the Mamas and the Papas already, because they were intimately tied up with other groups like the Byrds and the Lovin' Spoonful, and with the folk scene that led to songs like "Hey Joe", so some of this will be more like a recap than a totally new story, but I'm going to recap those parts of the story anyway, so it's fresh in everyone's heads. John Phillips, Scott McKenzie, and Cass Elliot all grew up in Alexandria, Virginia, just a few miles south of Washington DC. Elliot was a few years younger than Phillips and McKenzie, and so as is the way with young men they never really noticed her, and as McKenzie later said "She lived like a quarter of a mile from me and I never met her until New York". While they didn't know who Elliot was, though, she was aware who they were, as Phillips and McKenzie sang together in a vocal group called The Smoothies. The Smoothies were a modern jazz harmony group, influenced by groups like the Modernaires, the Hi-Los, and the Four Freshmen. John Phillips later said "We were drawn to jazz, because we were sort of beatniks, really, rather than hippies, or whatever, flower children. So we used to sing modern harmonies, like Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross. Dave Lambert did a lot of our arrangements for us as a matter of fact." Now, I've not seen any evidence other than Phillips' claim that Dave Lambert ever arranged for the Smoothies, but that does tell you a lot about the kind of music that they were doing. Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross were a vocalese trio whose main star was Annie Ross, who had a career worthy of an episode in itself -- she sang with Paul Whiteman, appeared in a Little Rascals film when she was seven, had an affair with Lenny Bruce, dubbed Britt Ekland's voice in The Wicker Man, played the villain's sister in Superman III, and much more. Vocalese, you'll remember, was a style of jazz vocal where a singer would take a jazz instrumental, often an improvised one, and add lyrics which they would sing, like Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross' version of "Cloudburst": [Excerpt: Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross, "Cloudburst"] Whether Dave Lambert ever really did arrange for the Smoothies or not, it's very clear that the trio had a huge influence on John Phillips' ideas about vocal arrangement, as you can hear on Mamas and Papas records like "Once Was a Time I Thought": [Excerpt: The Mamas and the Papas, "Once Was a Time I Thought"] While the Smoothies thought of themselves as a jazz group, when they signed to Decca they started out making the standard teen pop of the era, with songs like "Softly": [Excerpt, The Smoothies, "Softly"] When the folk boom started, Phillips realised that this was music that he could do easily, because the level of musicianship among the pop-folk musicians was so much lower than in the jazz world. The Smoothies made some recordings in the style of the Kingston Trio, like "Ride Ride Ride": [Excerpt: The Smoothies, "Ride Ride Ride"] Then when the Smoothies split, Phillips and McKenzie formed a trio with a banjo player, Dick Weissman, who they met through Izzy Young's Folklore Centre in Greenwich Village after Phillips asked Young to name some musicians who could make a folk record with him. Weissman was often considered the best banjo player on the scene, and was a friend of Pete Seeger's, to whom Seeger sometimes turned for banjo tips. The trio, who called themselves the Journeymen, quickly established themselves on the folk scene. Weissman later said "we had this interesting balance. John had all of this charisma -- they didn't know about the writing thing yet -- John had the personality, Scott had the voice, and I could play. If you think about it, all of those bands like the Kingston Trio, the Brothers Four, nobody could really *sing* and nobody could really *play*, relatively speaking." This is the take that most people seemed to have about John Phillips, in any band he was ever in. Nobody thought he was a particularly good singer or instrumentalist -- he could sing on key and play adequate rhythm guitar, but nobody would actually pay money to listen to him do those things. Mark Volman of the Turtles, for example, said of him "John wasn't the kind of guy who was going to be able to go up on stage and sing his songs as a singer-songwriter. He had to put himself in the context of a group." But he was charismatic, he had presence, and he also had a great musical mind. He would surround himself with the best players and best singers he could, and then he would organise and arrange them in ways that made the most of their talents. He would work out the arrangements, in a manner that was far more professional than the quick head arrangements that other folk groups used, and he instigated a level of professionalism in his groups that was not at all common on the scene. Phillips' friend Jim Mason talked about the first time he saw the Journeymen -- "They were warming up backstage, and John had all of them doing vocal exercises; one thing in particular that's pretty famous called 'Seiber Syllables' -- it's a series of vocal exercises where you enunciate different vowel and consonant sounds. It had the effect of clearing your head, and it's something that really good operetta singers do." The group were soon signed by Frank Werber, the manager of the Kingston Trio, who signed them as an insurance policy. Dave Guard, the Kingston Trio's banjo player, was increasingly having trouble with the other members, and Werber knew it was only a matter of time before he left the group. Werber wanted the Journeymen as a sort of farm team -- he had the idea that when Guard left, Phillips would join the Kingston Trio in his place as the third singer. Weissman would become the Trio's accompanist on banjo, and Scott McKenzie, who everyone agreed had a remarkable voice, would be spun off as a solo artist. But until that happened, they might as well make records by themselves. The Journeymen signed to MGM records, but were dropped before they recorded anything. They instead signed to Capitol, for whom they recorded their first album: [Excerpt: The Journeymen, "500 Miles"] After recording that album, the Journeymen moved out to California, with Phillips' wife and children. But soon Phillips' marriage was to collapse, as he met and fell in love with Michelle Gilliam. Gilliam was nine years younger than him -- he was twenty-six and she was seventeen -- and she had the kind of appearance which meant that in every interview with an older heterosexual man who knew her, that man will spend half the interview talking about how attractive he found her. Phillips soon left his wife and children, but before he did, the group had a turntable hit with "River Come Down", the B-side to "500 Miles": [Excerpt: The Journeymen, "River Come Down"] Around the same time, Dave Guard *did* leave the Kingston Trio, but the plan to split the Journeymen never happened. Instead Phillips' friend John Stewart replaced Guard -- and this soon became a new source of income for Phillips. Both Phillips and Stewart were aspiring songwriters, and they collaborated together on several songs for the Trio, including "Chilly Winds": [Excerpt: The Kingston Trio, "Chilly Winds"] Phillips became particularly good at writing songs that sounded like they could be old traditional folk songs, sometimes taking odd lines from older songs to jump-start new ones, as in "Oh Miss Mary", which he and Stewart wrote after hearing someone sing the first line of a song she couldn't remember the rest of: [Excerpt: The Kingston Trio, "Oh Miss Mary"] Phillips and Stewart became so close that Phillips actually suggested to Stewart that he quit the Kingston Trio and replace Dick Weissman in the Journeymen. Stewart did quit the Trio -- but then the next day Phillips suggested that maybe it was a bad idea and he should stay where he was. Stewart went back to the Trio, claimed he had only pretended to quit because he wanted a pay-rise, and got his raise, so everyone ended up happy. The Journeymen moved back to New York with Michelle in place of Phillips' first wife (and Michelle's sister Russell also coming along, as she was dating Scott McKenzie) and on New Year's Eve 1962 John and Michelle married -- so from this point on I will refer to them by their first names, because they both had the surname Phillips. The group continued having success through 1963, including making appearances on "Hootenanny": [Excerpt: The Journeymen, "Stack O'Lee (live on Hootenanny)"] By the time of the Journeymen's third album, though, John and Scott McKenzie were on bad terms. Weissman said "They had been the closest of friends and now they were the worst of enemies. They talked through me like I was a medium. It got to the point where we'd be standing in the dressing room and John would say to me 'Tell Scott that his right sock doesn't match his left sock...' Things like that, when they were standing five feet away from each other." Eventually, the group split up. Weissman was always going to be able to find employment given his banjo ability, and he was about to get married and didn't need the hassle of dealing with the other two. McKenzie was planning on a solo career -- everyone was agreed that he had the vocal ability. But John was another matter. He needed to be in a group. And not only that, the Journeymen had bookings they needed to complete. He quickly pulled together a group he called the New Journeymen. The core of the lineup was himself, Michelle on vocals, and banjo player Marshall Brickman. Brickman had previously been a member of a folk group called the Tarriers, who had had a revolving lineup, and had played on most of their early-sixties recordings: [Excerpt: The Tarriers, "Quinto (My Little Pony)"] We've met the Tarriers before in the podcast -- they had been formed by Erik Darling, who later replaced Pete Seeger in the Weavers after Seeger's socialist principles wouldn't let him do advertising, and Alan Arkin, later to go on to be a film star, and had had hits with "Cindy, O Cindy", with lead vocals from Vince Martin, who would later go on to be a major performer in the Greenwich Village scene, and with "The Banana Boat Song". By the time Brickman had joined, though, Darling, Arkin, and Martin had all left the group to go on to bigger things, and while he played with them for several years, it was after their commercial peak. Brickman would, though, also go on to a surprising amount of success, but as a writer rather than a musician -- he had a successful collaboration with Woody Allen in the 1970s, co-writing four of Allen's most highly regarded films -- Sleeper, Annie Hall, Manhattan, and Manhattan Murder Mystery -- and with another collaborator he later co-wrote the books for the stage musicals Jersey Boys and The Addams Family. Both John and Michelle were decent singers, and both have their admirers as vocalists -- P.F. Sloan always said that Michelle was the best singer in the group they eventually formed, and that it was her voice that gave the group its sound -- but for the most part they were not considered as particularly astonishing lead vocalists. Certainly, neither had a voice that stood out the way that Scott McKenzie's had. They needed a strong lead singer, and they found one in Denny Doherty. Now, we covered Denny Doherty's early career in the episode on the Lovin' Spoonful, because he was intimately involved in the formation of that group, so I won't go into too much detail here, but I'll give a very abbreviated version of what I said there. Doherty was a Canadian performer who had been a member of the Halifax Three with Zal Yanovsky: [Excerpt: The Halifax Three, "When I First Came to This Land"] After the Halifax Three had split up, Doherty and Yanovsky had performed as a duo for a while, before joining up with Cass Elliot and her husband Jim Hendricks, who both had previously been in the Big Three with Tim Rose: [Excerpt: Cass Elliot and the Big 3, "The Banjo Song"] Elliot, Hendricks, Yanovsky, and Doherty had formed The Mugwumps, sometimes joined by John Sebastian, and had tried to go in more of a rock direction after seeing the Beatles on Ed Sullivan. They recorded one album together before splitting up: [Excerpt: The Mugwumps, "Searchin'"] Part of the reason they split up was that interpersonal relationships within the group were put under some strain -- Elliot and Hendricks split up, though they would remain friends and remain married for several years even though they were living apart, and Elliot had an unrequited crush on Doherty. But since they'd split up, and Yanovsky and Sebastian had gone off to form the Lovin' Spoonful, that meant that Doherty was free, and he was regarded as possibly the best male lead vocalist on the circuit, so the group snapped him up. The only problem was that the Journeymen still had gigs booked that needed to be played, one of them was in just three days, and Doherty didn't know the repertoire. This was a problem with an easy solution for people in their twenties though -- they took a huge amount of amphetamines, and stayed awake for three days straight rehearsing. They made the gig, and Doherty was now the lead singer of the New Journeymen: [Excerpt: The New Journeymen, "The Last Thing on My Mind"] But the New Journeymen didn't last in that form for very long, because even before joining the group, Denny Doherty had been going in a more folk-rock direction with the Mugwumps. At the time, John Phillips thought rock and roll was kids' music, and he was far more interested in folk and jazz, but he was also very interested in making money, and he soon decided it was an idea to start listening to the Beatles. There's some dispute as to who first played the Beatles for John in early 1965 -- some claim it was Doherty, others claim it was Cass Elliot, but everyone agrees it was after Denny Doherty had introduced Phillips to something else -- he brought round some LSD for John and Michelle, and Michelle's sister Rusty, to try. And then he told them he'd invited round a friend. Michelle Phillips later remembered, "I remember saying to the guys "I don't know about you guys, but this drug does nothing for me." At that point there was a knock on the door, and as I opened the door and saw Cass, the acid hit me *over the head*. I saw her standing there in a pleated skirt, a pink Angora sweater with great big eyelashes on and her hair in a flip. And all of a sudden I thought 'This is really *quite* a drug!' It was an image I will have securely fixed in my brain for the rest of my life. I said 'Hi, I'm Michelle. We just took some LSD-25, do you wanna join us?' And she said 'Sure...'" Rusty Gilliam's description matches this -- "It was mind-boggling. She had on a white pleated skirt, false eyelashes. These were the kind of eyelashes that when you put them on you were supposed to trim them to an appropriate length, which she didn't, and when she blinked she looked like a cow, or those dolls you get when you're little and the eyes open and close. And we're on acid. Oh my God! It was a sight! And everything she was wearing were things that you weren't supposed to be wearing if you were heavy -- white pleated skirt, mohair sweater. You know, until she became famous, she suffered so much, and was poked fun at." This gets to an important point about Elliot, and one which sadly affected everything about her life. Elliot was *very* fat -- I've seen her weight listed at about three hundred pounds, and she was only five foot five tall -- and she also didn't have the kind of face that gets thought of as conventionally attractive. Her appearance would be cruelly mocked by pretty much everyone for the rest of her life, in ways that it's genuinely hurtful to read about, and which I will avoid discussing in detail in order to avoid hurting fat listeners. But the two *other* things that defined Elliot in the minds of those who knew her were her voice -- every single person who knew her talks about what a wonderful singer she was -- and her personality. I've read a lot of things about Cass Elliot, and I have never read a single negative word about her as a person, but have read many people going into raptures about what a charming, loving, friendly, understanding person she was. Michelle later said of her "From the time I left Los Angeles, I hadn't had a friend, a buddy. I was married, and John and I did not hang out with women, we just hung out with men, and especially not with women my age. John was nine years older than I was. And here was a fun-loving, intelligent woman. She captivated me. I was as close to in love with Cass as I could be to any woman in my life at that point. She also represented something to me: freedom. Everything she did was because she wanted to do it. She was completely independent and I admired her and was in awe of her. And later on, Cass would be the one to tell me not to let John run my life. And John hated her for that." Either Elliot had brought round Meet The Beatles, the Beatles' first Capitol album, for everyone to listen to, or Denny Doherty already had it, but either way Elliot and Doherty were by this time already Beatles fans. Michelle, being younger than the rest and not part of the folk scene until she met John, was much more interested in rock and roll than any of them, but because she'd been married to John for a couple of years and been part of his musical world she hadn't really encountered the Beatles music, though she had a vague memory that she might have heard a track or two on the radio. John was hesitant -- he didn't want to listen to any rock and roll, but eventually he was persuaded, and the record was put on while he was on his first acid trip: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "I Want to Hold Your Hand"] Within a month, John Phillips had written thirty songs that he thought of as inspired by the Beatles. The New Journeymen were going to go rock and roll. By this time Marshall Brickman was out of the band, and instead John, Michelle, and Denny recruited a new lead guitarist, Eric Hord. Denny started playing bass, with John on rhythm guitar, and a violinist friend of theirs, Peter Pilafian, knew a bit of drums and took on that role. The new lineup of the group used the Journeymen's credit card, which hadn't been stopped even though the Journeymen were no more, to go down to St. Thomas in the Caribbean, along with Michelle's sister, John's daughter Mackenzie (from whose name Scott McKenzie had taken his stage name, as he was born Philip Blondheim), a pet dog, and sundry band members' girlfriends. They stayed there for several months, living in tents on the beach, taking acid, and rehearsing. While they were there, Michelle and Denny started an affair which would have important ramifications for the group later. They got a gig playing at a club called Duffy's, whose address was on Creeque Alley, and soon after they started playing there Cass Elliot travelled down as well -- she was in love with Denny, and wanted to be around him. She wasn't in the group, but she got a job working at Duffy's as a waitress, and she would often sing harmony with the group while waiting at tables. Depending on who was telling the story, either she didn't want to be in the group because she didn't want her appearance to be compared to Michelle's, or John wouldn't *let* her be in the group because she was so fat. Later a story would be made up to cover for this, saying that she hadn't been in the group at first because she couldn't sing the highest notes that were needed, until she got hit on the head with a metal pipe and discovered that it had increased her range by three notes, but that seems to be a lie. One of the songs the New Journeymen were performing at this time was "Mr. Tambourine Man". They'd heard that their old friend Roger McGuinn had recorded it with his new band, but they hadn't yet heard his version, and they'd come up with their own arrangement: [Excerpt: The New Journeymen, "Mr. Tambourine Man"] Denny later said "We were doing three-part harmony on 'Mr Tambourine Man', but a lot slower... like a polka or something! And I tell John, 'No John, we gotta slow it down and give it a backbeat.' Finally we get the Byrds 45 down here, and we put it on and turn it up to ten, and John says 'Oh, like that?' Well, as you can tell, it had already been done. So John goes 'Oh, ah... that's it...' a light went on. So we started doing Beatles stuff. We dropped 'Mr Tambourine Man' after hearing the Byrds version, because there was no point." Eventually they had to leave the island -- they had completely run out of money, and were down to fifty dollars. The credit card had been cut up, and the governor of the island had a personal vendetta against them because they gave his son acid, and they were likely to get arrested if they didn't leave the island. Elliot and her then-partner had round-trip tickets, so they just left, but the rest of them were in trouble. By this point they were unwashed, they were homeless, and they'd spent their last money on stage costumes. They got to the airport, and John Phillips tried to write a cheque for eight air fares back to the mainland, which the person at the check-in desk just laughed at. So they took their last fifty dollars and went to a casino. There Michelle played craps, and she rolled seventeen straight passes, something which should be statistically impossible. She turned their fifty dollars into six thousand dollars, which they scooped up, took to the airport, and paid for their flights out in cash. The New Journeymen arrived back in New York, but quickly decided that they were going to try their luck in California. They rented a car, using Scott McKenzie's credit card, and drove out to LA. There they met up with Hoyt Axton, who you may remember as the son of Mae Axton, the writer of "Heartbreak Hotel", and as the performer who had inspired Michael Nesmith to go into folk music: [Excerpt: Hoyt Axton, "Greenback Dollar"] Axton knew the group, and fed them and put them up for a night, but they needed somewhere else to stay. They went to stay with one of Michelle's friends, but after one night their rented car was stolen, with all their possessions in it. They needed somewhere else to stay, so they went to ask Jim Hendricks if they could crash at his place -- and they were surprised to find that Cass Elliot was there already. Hendricks had another partner -- though he and Elliot wouldn't have their marriage annulled until 1968 and were still technically married -- but he'd happily invited her to stay with them. And now all her friends had turned up, he invited them to stay as well, taking apart the beds in his one-bedroom apartment so he could put down a load of mattresses in the space for everyone to sleep on. The next part becomes difficult, because pretty much everyone in the LA music scene of the sixties was a liar who liked to embellish their own roles in things, so it's quite difficult to unpick what actually happened. What seems to have happened though is that first this new rock-oriented version of the New Journeymen went to see Frank Werber, on the recommendation of John Stewart. Werber was the manager of the Kingston Trio, and had also managed the Journeymen. He, however, was not interested -- not because he didn't think they had talent, but because he had experience of working with John Phillips previously. When Phillips came into his office Werber picked up a tape that he'd been given of the group, and said "I have not had a chance to listen to this tape. I believe that you are a most talented individual, and that's why we took you on in the first place. But I also believe that you're also a drag to work with. A pain in the ass. So I'll tell you what, before whatever you have on here sways me, I'm gonna give it back to you and say that we're not interested." Meanwhile -- and this part of the story comes from Kim Fowley, who was never one to let the truth get in the way of him taking claim for everything, but parts of it at least are corroborated by other people -- Cass Elliot had called Fowley, and told him that her friends' new group sounded pretty good and he should sign them. Fowley was at that time working as a talent scout for a label, but according to him the label wouldn't give the group the money they wanted. So instead, Fowley got in touch with Nik Venet, who had just produced the Leaves' hit version of "Hey Joe" on Mira Records: [Excerpt: The Leaves, "Hey Joe"] Fowley suggested to Venet that Venet should sign the group to Mira Records, and Fowley would sign them to a publishing contract, and they could both get rich. The trio went to audition for Venet, and Elliot drove them over -- and Venet thought the group had a great look as a quartet. He wanted to sign them to a record contract, but only if Elliot was in the group as well. They agreed, he gave them a one hundred and fifty dollar advance, and told them to come back the next day to see his boss at Mira. But Barry McGuire was also hanging round with Elliot and Hendricks, and decided that he wanted to have Lou Adler hear the four of them. He thought they might be useful both as backing vocalists on his second album and as a source of new songs. He got them to go and see Lou Adler, and according to McGuire Phillips didn't want Elliot to go with them, but as Elliot was the one who was friends with McGuire, Phillips worried that they'd lose the chance with Adler if she didn't. Adler was amazed, and decided to sign the group right then and there -- both Bones Howe and P.F. Sloan claimed to have been there when the group auditioned for him and have said "if you won't sign them, I will", though exactly what Sloan would have signed them to I'm not sure. Adler paid them three thousand dollars in cash and told them not to bother with Nik Venet, so they just didn't turn up for the Mira Records audition the next day. Instead, they went into the studio with McGuire and cut backing vocals on about half of his new album: [Excerpt: Barry McGuire with the Mamas and the Papas, "Hide Your Love Away"] While the group were excellent vocalists, there were two main reasons that Adler wanted to sign them. The first was that he found Michelle Phillips extremely attractive, and the second is a song that John and Michelle had written which he thought might be very suitable for McGuire's album. Most people who knew John Phillips think of "California Dreamin'" as a solo composition, and he would later claim that he gave Michelle fifty percent just for transcribing his lyric, saying he got inspired in the middle of the night, woke her up, and got her to write the song down as he came up with it. But Michelle, who is a credited co-writer on the song, has been very insistent that she wrote the lyrics to the second verse, and that it's about her own real experiences, saying that she would often go into churches and light candles even though she was "at best an agnostic, and possibly an atheist" in her words, and this would annoy John, who had also been raised Catholic, but who had become aggressively opposed to expressions of religion, rather than still having nostalgia for the aesthetics of the church as Michelle did. They were out walking on a particularly cold winter's day in 1963, and Michelle wanted to go into St Patrick's Cathedral and John very much did not want to. A couple of nights later, John woke her up, having written the first verse of the song, starting "All the leaves are brown and the sky is grey/I went for a walk on a winter's day", and insisting she collaborate with him. She liked the song, and came up with the lines "Stopped into a church, I passed along the way/I got down on my knees and I pretend to pray/The preacher likes the cold, he knows I'm going to stay", which John would later apparently dislike, but which stayed in the song. Most sources I've seen for the recording of "California Dreamin'" say that the lineup of musicians was the standard set of players who had played on McGuire's other records, with the addition of John Phillips on twelve-string guitar -- P.F. Sloan on guitar and harmonica, Joe Osborn on bass, Larry Knechtel on keyboards, and Hal Blaine on drums, but for some reason Stephen McParland's book on Sloan has Bones Howe down as playing drums on the track while engineering -- a detail so weird, and from such a respectable researcher, that I have to wonder if it might be true. In his autobiography, Sloan claims to have rewritten the chord sequence to "California Dreamin'". He says "Barry Mann had unintentionally showed me a suspended chord back at Screen Gems. I was so impressed by this beautiful, simple chord that I called Brian Wilson and played it for him over the phone. The next thing I knew, Brian had written ‘Don't Worry Baby,' which had within it a number suspended chords. And then the chord heard 'round the world, two months later, was the opening suspended chord of ‘A Hard Day's Night.' I used these chords throughout ‘California Dreamin',' and more specifically as a bridge to get back and forth from the verse to the chorus." Now, nobody else corroborates this story, and both Brian Wilson and John Phillips had the kind of background in modern harmony that means they would have been very aware of suspended chords before either ever encountered Sloan, but I thought I should mention it. Rather more plausible is Sloan's other claim, that he came up with the intro to the song. According to Sloan, he was inspired by "Walk Don't Run" by the Ventures: [Excerpt: The Ventures, "Walk Don't Run"] And you can easily see how this: [plays "Walk Don't Run"] Can lead to this: [plays "California Dreamin'"] And I'm fairly certain that if that was the inspiration, it was Sloan who was the one who thought it up. John Phillips had been paying no attention to the world of surf music when "Walk Don't Run" had been a hit -- that had been at the point when he was very firmly in the folk world, while Sloan of course had been recording "Tell 'Em I'm Surfin'", and it had been his job to know surf music intimately. So Sloan's intro became the start of what was intended to be Barry McGuire's next single: [Excerpt: Barry McGuire, "California Dreamin'"] Sloan also provided the harmonica solo on the track: [Excerpt: Barry McGuire, "California Dreamin'"] The Mamas and the Papas -- the new name that was now given to the former New Journeymen, now they were a quartet -- were also signed to Dunhill as an act on their own, and recorded their own first single, "Go Where You Wanna Go", a song apparently written by John about Michelle, in late 1963, after she had briefly left him to have an affair with Russ Titelman, the record producer and songwriter, before coming back to him: [Excerpt: The Mamas and the Papas, "Go Where You Wanna Go"] But while that was put out, they quickly decided to scrap it and go with another song. The "Go Where You Wanna Go" single was pulled after only selling a handful of copies, though its commercial potential was later proved when in 1967 a new vocal group, the 5th Dimension, released a soundalike version as their second single. The track was produced by Lou Adler's client Johnny Rivers, and used the exact same musicians as the Mamas and the Papas version, with the exception of Phillips. It became their first hit, reaching number sixteen on the charts: [Excerpt: The 5th Dimension, "Go Where You Wanna Go"] The reason the Mamas and the Papas version of "Go Where You Wanna Go" was pulled was because everyone became convinced that their first single should instead be their own version of "California Dreamin'". This is the exact same track as McGuire's track, with just two changes. The first is that McGuire's lead vocal was replaced with Denny Doherty: [Excerpt: The Mamas and the Papas, "California Dreamin'"] Though if you listen to the stereo mix of the song and isolate the left channel, you can hear McGuire singing the lead on the first line, and occasional leakage from him elsewhere on the backing vocal track: [Excerpt: The Mamas and the Papas, "California Dreamin'"] The other change made was to replace Sloan's harmonica solo with an alto flute solo by Bud Shank, a jazz musician who we heard about in the episode on "Light My Fire", when he collaborated with Ravi Shankar on "Improvisations on the Theme From Pather Panchali": [Excerpt: Ravi Shankar, "Improvisation on the Theme From Pather Panchali"] Shank was working on another session in Western Studios, where they were recording the Mamas and Papas track, and Bones Howe approached him while he was packing his instrument and asked if he'd be interested in doing another session. Shank agreed, though the track caused problems for him. According to Shank "What had happened was that whe

1.  Searchin' I gotta find a man -Hazel Dean2. If you could read my mind-Stars on 543. walk alone-Cher4. Jump - Madonna5. Lift it UP - Inaya Day6. Drop a house (on her) - R&G ft L.7. Walk Away - Kelly Clarkson8. We found LOVE - Rihanna9. Dem Beats / Nails Hair hips  heels - Todrick10. Groove is in the heart - Dee Lite11. I beg your pardon- KON KAN12. Use it up, Wear it out - Pat n Mick13. Arms keep missing U-Rick Astley14. Gloria - Laura Brannigan15. Lets all chant-M Zigler Band (Original 12" vinyl)16. I just wanna F*ckin Dance -  Alison Jiear17. Family Affair - Mary J Blige18. Rasputin - Boney M19. I want to Dance, Again- J Lo ft Pitbull20. Let me think about it-Ida Corr 21. In de Getto - Skrillex22. Do it to it - Cherish23. Maluma - Madonna24. Where the hell ma phone - Lizzo25. Just a little while - Janet26. All nite, Dont Stop!  Janet 27. Nobody's Supposed to be here - Deborah Cox28. I feel love/your love-Donna vs Whitney29. CHER MEGAMIX - Original 1st Pride 04

The Absolute featuring Suzanne Plamer – “I Believe” (The Classic Rendition) Swing 52 – “The Joy You Bring” (Original Classic 12Inch) Byron Stingily – “It’s All Jesus” (Sean McCabe Remix) Marcel Vogel – “I Got Jesus” (Original Mix) Phoenix – “Searchin’ (My Prayer)” (Vocal Prayer Mix) Jasper Street Co. featuring Dawn Tallman – “Rejoicing (I’ll […] The post The Penthouse Sessions 1st May 2022 appeared first on SSRadio.

Join us for a trip down the rabbit hole as we search for our ancestors and investigate our genealogy.

So he said what's the problem baby What's the problem I don't know Well maybe I'm a GOD(GOD!) Searchin' for the killer of my acolyte Tuckin' my tentacles in tight Avoiding my family and Fallin' for a PI... Monster March begins with the Cthulhu-adjacent, pun-apparent, politic-of-death-exploring, Acsquidentally in Love by K.L. Hiers. Is it reasonable to approach a book with expectations as a reader? What is appealing about Urban Fantasy? What ISN'T appealing about tentacles? Wake your darkly dreaming asses up! We're talking a lover with three appendages for sex and dozens for just hugs and holdin' hands and stuff. This episode is brought to you by Kensington's newest title, The Most Eligible Bride in London by Ella Quinn. Whoa!mance is a part of the Frolic Podcast Network.

#80-76Intro/Outro: Rebel Rouser by Duane Eddy80. The Book of Love by The Monotones79. Hound Dog by Big Mama Thornton78. Searchin' by The Coasters77. Splish Splash by Bobby Darin76. Honky Tonk by Bill DoggettVote on your favorite song from today's episode

Episode 143 of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “Summer in the City'”, and at the short but productive career of the Lovin' Spoonful.  Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a ten-minute bonus episode available, on "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Any More" by the Walker Brothers and the strange career of Scott Walker. 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 As usual, all the songs excerpted in the podcast can be heard in full at Mixcloud. This box set contains all four studio albums by the Lovin' Spoonful, plus the one album by "The Lovin' Spoonful featuring Joe Butler", while this CD contains their two film soundtracks (mostly inessential instrumental filler, apart from "Darling Be Home Soon") Information about harmonicas and harmonicists comes from Harmonicas, Harps, and Heavy Breathers by Kim Field. There are only three books about the Lovin' Spoonful, but all are worth reading. Do You Believe in Magic? by Simon Wordsworth is a good biography of the band, while his The Magic's in the Music is a scrapbook of press cuttings and reminiscences. Meanwhile Steve Boone's Hotter Than a Match Head: My Life on the Run with the Lovin' Spoonful has rather more discussion of the actual music than is normal in a musician's autobiography. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript Let's talk about the harmonica for a while. The harmonica is an instrument that has not shown up a huge amount in the podcast, but which was used in a fair bit of the music we've covered. We've heard it for example on records by Bo Diddley: [Excerpt: Bo Diddley, "I'm a Man"] and by Bob Dylan: [Excerpt: Bob Dylan, "Blowin' in the Wind"] and the Rolling Stones: [Excerpt: The Rolling Stones, "Little Red Rooster"] In most folk and blues contexts, the harmonicas used are what is known as a diatonic harmonica, and these are what most people think of when they think of harmonicas at all. Diatonic harmonicas have the notes of a single key in them, and if you want to play a note in another key, you have to do interesting tricks with the shape of your mouth to bend the note. There's another type of harmonica, though, the chromatic harmonica. We've heard that a time or two as well, like on "Love Me Do" by the Beatles: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Love Me Do"] Chromatic harmonicas have sixteen holes, rather than the diatonic harmonica's ten, and they also have a slide which you can press to raise the note by a semitone, meaning you can play far more notes than on a diatonic harmonica -- but they're also physically harder to play, requiring a different kind of breathing to pull off playing one successfully. They're so different that John Lennon would distinguish between the two instruments -- he'd describe a chromatic harmonica as a harmonica, but a diatonic harmonica he would call a harp, like blues musicians often did: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Love These Goon Shows"] While the chromatic harmonica isn't a particularly popular instrument in rock music, it is one that has had some success in other fields. There have been some jazz and light-orchestral musicians who have become famous playing the instrument, like the jazz musician Max Geldray, who played in those Goon Shows the Beatles loved so much: [Excerpt: Max Geldray, "C-Jam Blues"] And in the middle of the twentieth century there were a few musicians who succeeded in making the harmonica into an instrument that was actually respected in serious classical music. By far the most famous of these was Larry Adler, who became almost synonymous with the instrument in the popular consciousness, and who reworked many famous pieces of music for the instrument: [Excerpt: Larry Adler, "Rhapsody in Blue"] But while Adler was the most famous classical harmonicist of his generation, he was not generally considered the best by other musicians. That was, rather, a man named John Sebastian. Sebastian, who chose to take his middle name as a surname partly to Anglicise his name but also, it seems, at least in part as tribute to Johann Sebastian Bach (which incidentally now makes it really, really difficult to search for copies of his masterwork "John Sebastian Plays Bach", as Internet searches uniformly think you're searching just for the composer...) started out like almost all harmonica players as an amateur playing popular music. But he quickly got very, very, good, and by his teens he was already teaching other children, including at a summer camp run by Albert Hoxie, a musician and entrepreneur who was basically single-handedly responsible for the boom in harmonica sales in the 1920s and 1930s, by starting up youth harmonica orchestras -- dozens or even hundreds of kids, all playing harmonica together, in a semi-militaristic youth organisation something like the scouts, but with harmonicas instead of woggles and knots. Hoxie's group and the various organisations copying it led to there being over a hundred and fifty harmonica orchestras in Chicago alone, and in LA in the twenties and thirties a total of more than a hundred thousand children passed through harmonica orchestras inspired by Hoxie. Hoxie's youth orchestras were largely responsible for the popularity of the harmonica as a cheap instrument for young people, and thus for its later popularity in the folk and blues worlds. That was only boosted in the Second World War by the American Federation of Musicians recording ban, which we talked about in the early episodes of the podcast -- harmonicas had never been thought of as a serious instrument, and so most professional harmonica players were not members of the AFM, but were considered variety performers and were part of the American Guild of Variety Artists, along with singers, ukulele players, and musical saw players. Of course, the war did also create a problem, because the best harmonicas were made in Germany by the Hohner company, but soon a lot of American companies started making cheap harmonicas to fill the gap in the market. There's a reason the cliche of the GI in a war film playing a harmonica in the trenches exists, and it's largely because of Hoxie. And Hoxie was based in Philadelphia, where John Sebastian lived as a kid, and he mentored the young player, who soon became a semi-professional performer. Sebastian's father was a rich banker, and discouraged him from becoming a full-time musician -- the plan was that after university, Sebastian would become a diplomat. But as part of his preparation for that role, he was sent to spend a couple of years studying at the universities of Rome and Florence, learning about Italian culture. On the boat back, though, he started talking to two other passengers, who turned out to be the legendary Broadway songwriting team Rodgers and Hart, the writers of such classic songs as "Blue Moon" and "My Funny Valentine": [Excerpt: Ella Fitzgerald, "My Funny Valentine"] Sebastian talked to his new friends, and told them that he was feeling torn between being a musician and being in the foreign service like his father wanted. They both told him that in their experience some people were just born to be artists, and that those people would never actually find happiness doing anything else. He took their advice, and decided he was going to become a full-time harmonica player. He started out playing in nightclubs, initially playing jazz and swing, but only while he built up a repertoire of classical music. He would rehearse with a pianist for three hours every day, and would spend the rest of his time finding classical works, especially baroque ones, and adapting them for the harmonica. As he later said “I discovered sonatas by Telemann, Veracini, Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, Hasse, Marcello, Purcell, and many others, which were written to be played on violin, flute, oboe, musette, even bagpipes... The composer seemed to be challenging each instrument to create the embellishments and ornaments to suit its particular voice. . . . I set about choosing works from this treasure trove that would best speak through my instrument.” Soon his nightclub repertoire was made up entirely of these classical pieces, and he was making records like John Sebastian Plays Bach: [Excerpt: John Sebastian, "Flute Sonata in B Minor BWV1030 (J.S. Bach)"] And while Sebastian was largely a lover of baroque music above all other forms, he realised that he would have to persuade new composers to write new pieces for the instrument should he ever hope for it to have any kind of reputation as a concert instrument, so he persuaded contemporary composers to write pieces like George Kleinsinger's "Street Corner Concerto", which Sebastian premiered with the New York Philharmonic: [Excerpt: John Sebastian, "Street Corner Concerto"] He became the first harmonica player to play an entirely classical repertoire, and regarded as the greatest player of his instrument in the world. The oboe player Jay S Harrison once wrote of seeing him perform "to accomplish with success a program of Mr. Sebastian's scope is nothing short of wizardry. . . . He has vast technical facility, a bulging range of colors, and his intentions are ever musical and sophisticated. In his hands the harmonica is no toy, no simple gadget for the dispensing of homespun tunes. Each single number of the evening was whittled, rounded, polished, and poised. . . . Mr. Sebastian's playing is uncanny." Sebastian came from a rich background, and he managed to earn enough as a classical musician to live the lifestyle of a rich artistic Bohemian. During the forties and fifties he lived in Greenwich Village with his family -- apart from a four-year period living in Rome from 1951 to 55 -- and Eleanor Roosevelt was a neighbour, while Vivian Vance, who played Ethel Mertz on I Love Lucy, was the godmother of his eldest son. But while Sebastian's playing was entirely classical, he was interested in a wider variety of music. When he would tour Europe, he would often return having learned European folk songs, and while he was living in Greenwich Village he would often be visited by people like Burl Ives, Woody Guthrie, and other folk singers living in the area. And that early influence rubbed off on Sebastian's son, John Benson Sebastian, although young John gave up trying to learn the harmonica the first time he tried, because he didn't want to be following too closely in his father's footsteps. Sebastian junior did, though, take up the guitar, inspired by the first wave rock and rollers he was listening to on Alan Freed's show, and he would later play the harmonica, though the diatonic harmonica rather than the chromatic. In case you haven't already figured it out, John Benson Sebastian, rather than his father, is a principal focus of this episode, and so to avoid confusion, from this point on, when I refer to "John Sebastian" or "Sebastian" without any qualifiers, I'm referring to the younger man. When I refer to "John Sebastian Sr" I'm talking about the father. But it was John Sebastian Sr's connections, in particular to the Bohemian folk and blues scenes, which gave his more famous son his first connection to that world of his own, when Sebastian Sr appeared in a TV show, in November 1960, put together by Robert Herridge, a TV writer and producer who was most famous for his drama series but who had also put together documentaries on both classical music and jazz, including the classic performance documentary The Sound of Jazz. Herridge's show featured both Sebastian Sr and the country-blues player Lightnin' Hopkins: [Excerpt: Lightnin' Hopkins, "Blues in the Bottle"] Hopkins was one of many country-blues players whose career was having a second wind after his discovery by the folk music scene. He'd been recording for fourteen years, putting out hundreds of records, but had barely performed outside Houston until 1959, when the folkies had picked up on his work, and in October 1960 he had been invited to play Carnegie Hall, performing with Pete Seeger and Joan Baez. Young John Sebastian had come along with his dad to see the TV show be recorded, and had an almost Damascene conversion -- he'd already heard Hopkins' recordings, but had never seen anything like his live performances. He was at that time attending a private boarding school, Blair Academy, and his roommate at the school also had his own apartment, where Sebastian would sometimes stay. Soon Lightnin' Hopkins was staying there as well, as somewhere he could live rent-free while he was in New York. Sebastian started following Hopkins around and learning everything he could, being allowed by the older man to carry his guitar and buy him gin, though the two never became close. But eventually, Hopkins would occasionally allow Sebastian to play with him when he played at people's houses, which he did on occasion. Sebastian became someone that Hopkins trusted enough that when he was performing on a bill with someone else whose accompanist wasn't able to make the gig and Sebastian put himself forward, Hopkins agreed that Sebastian would be a suitable accompanist for the evening. The singer he accompanied that evening was a performer named Valentine Pringle, who was a protege of Harry Belafonte, and who had a similar kind of sound to Paul Robeson. Sebastian soon became Pringle's regular accompanist, and played on his first album, I Hear America Singing, which was also the first record on which the great trumpet player Hugh Masakela played. Sadly, Paul Robeson style vocals were so out of fashion by that point that that album has never, as far as I can tell, been issued in a digital format, and hasn't even been uploaded to YouTube.  But this excerpt from a later recording by Pringle should give you some idea of the kind of thing he was doing: [Excerpt: Valentine Pringle, "Go 'Way From My Window"] After these experiences, Sebastian started regularly going to shows at Greenwich Village folk clubs, encouraged by his parents -- he had an advantage over his peers because he'd grown up in the area and had artistic parents, and so he was able to have a great deal of freedom that other people in their teens weren't. In particular, he would always look out for any performances by the great country blues performer Mississippi John Hurt. Hurt had made a few recordings for Okeh records in 1928, including an early version of "Stagger Lee", titled "Stack O'Lee": [Excerpt: Mississippi John Hurt, "Stack O'Lee Blues"] But those records had been unsuccessful, and he'd carried on working on a farm. and not performed other than in his tiny home town of Avalon, Mississippi, for decades. But then in 1952, a couple of his tracks had been included on the Harry Smith Anthology, and as a result he'd come to the attention of the folk and blues scholar community. They'd tried tracking him down, but been unable to until in the early sixties one of them had discovered a track on one of Hurt's records, "Avalon Blues", and in 1963, thirty-five years after he'd recorded six flop singles, Mississippi John Hurt became a minor star, playing the Newport Folk Festival and appearing on the Tonight Show. By this time, Sebastian was a fairly well-known figure in Greenwich Village, and he had become quite a virtuoso on the harmonica himself, and would walk around the city wearing a holster-belt containing harmonicas in a variety of different keys. Sebastian became a huge fan of Hurt, and would go and see him perform whenever Hurt was in New York. He soon found himself first jamming backstage with Hurt, and then performing with him on stage for the last two weeks of a residency. He was particularly impressed with what he called Hurt's positive attitude in his music -- something that Sebastian would emulate in his own songwriting. Sebastian was soon invited to join a jug band, called the Even Dozen Jug Band. Jug band music was a style of music that first became popular in the 1920s, and had many of the same musical elements as the music later known as skiffle. It was played on a mixture of standard musical instruments -- usually portable, "folky" ones like guitar and harmonica -- and improvised homemade instruments, like the spoons, the washboard, and comb and paper. The reason they're called jug bands is because they would involve someone blowing into a jug to make a noise that sounded a bit like a horn -- much like the coffee pot groups we talked about way back in episode six. The music was often hokum music, and incorporated elements of what we'd now call blues, vaudeville, and country music, though at the time those genres were nothing like as distinct as they're considered today: [Excerpt: Cincinnati Jug Band, "Newport Blues"] The Even Dozen Jug Band actually ended up having thirteen members, and it had a rather remarkable lineup. The leader was Stefan Grossman, later regarded as one of the greatest fingerpicking guitarists in America, and someone who will be coming up in other contexts in future episodes I'm sure, and they also featured David Grisman, a mandolin player who would later play with the Grateful Dead among many others;  Steve Katz, who would go on to be a founder member of Blood, Sweat and Tears and produce records for Lou Reed; Maria D'Amato, who under her married name Maria Muldaur would go on to have a huge hit with "Midnight at the Oasis"; and Joshua Rifkin, who would later go on to become one of the most important scholars of Bach's music of the latter half of the twentieth century, but who is best known for his recordings of Scott Joplin's piano rags, which more or less single-handedly revived Joplin's music from obscurity and created the ragtime revival of the 1970s: [Excerpt: Joshua Rifkin, "Maple Leaf Rag"] Unfortunately, despite the many talents involved, a band as big as that was uneconomical to keep together, and the Even Dozen Jug Band only played four shows together -- though those four shows were, as Muldaur later remembered, "Carnegie Hall twice, the Hootenanny television show and some church". The group did, though, make an album for Elektra records, produced by Paul Rothchild. Indeed, it was Rothchild who was the impetus for the group forming -- he wanted to produce a record of a jug band, and had told Grossman that if he got one together, he'd record it: [Excerpt: The Even Dozen Jug Band, "On the Road Again"] On that album, Sebastian wasn't actually credited as John Sebastian -- because he was playing harmonica on the album, and his father was such a famous harmonica player, he thought it better if he was credited by his middle name, so he was John Benson for this one album. The Even Dozen Jug Band split up after only a few months, with most of the band more interested in returning to university than becoming professional musicians, but Sebastian remained in touch with Rothchild, as they both shared an interest in the drug culture, and Rothchild started using him on sessions for other artists on Elektra, which was rapidly becoming one of the biggest labels for the nascent counterculture. The first record the two worked together on after the Even Dozen Jug Band was sparked by a casual conversation. Vince Martin and Fred Neil saw Sebastian walking down the street wearing his harmonica holster, and were intrigued and asked him if he played. Soon he and his friend Felix Pappalardi were accompanying Martin and Neil on stage, and the two of them were recording as the duo's accompanists: [Excerpt: Vince Martin and Fred Neil, "Tear Down the Walls"] We've mentioned Neil before, but if you don't remember him, he was one of the people around whom the whole Greenwich Village scene formed -- he was the MC and organiser of bills for many of the folk shows of the time, but he's now best known for writing the songs "Everybody's Talkin'", recorded famously by Harry Nilsson, and "The Dolphins", recorded by Tim Buckley. On the Martin and Neil album, Tear Down The Walls, as well as playing harmonica, Sebastian acted essentially as uncredited co-producer with Rothchild, but Martin and Neil soon stopped recording for Elektra. But in the meantime, Sebastian had met the most important musical collaborator he would ever have, and this is the start of something that will become a minor trend in the next few years, of important musical collaborations happening because of people being introduced by Cass Elliot. Cass Elliot had been a singer in a folk group called the Big 3 -- not the same group as the Merseybeat group -- with Tim Rose, and the man who would be her first husband, Jim Hendricks (not the more famous guitarist of a similar name): [Excerpt: Cass Elliot and the Big 3, "The Banjo Song"] The Big 3 had split up when Elliot and Hendricks had got married, and the two married members had been looking around for other musicians to perform with, when coincidentally another group they knew also split up. The Halifax Three were a Canadian group who had originally started out as The Colonials, with a lineup of Denny Doherty, Pat LaCroix and Richard Byrne. Byrne didn't turn up for a gig, and a homeless guitar player, Zal Yanovsky, who would hang around the club the group were playing at, stepped in. Doherty and LaCroix, much to Yanovsky's objections, insisted he bathe and have a haircut, but soon the newly-renamed Halifax Three were playing Carnegie Hall and recording for Epic Records: [Excerpt: The Halifax Three, "When I First Came to This Island"] But then a plane they were in crash-landed, and the group took that as a sign that they should split up. So they did, and Doherty and Yanovsky continued as a duo, until they hooked up with Hendricks and Elliot and formed a new group, the Mugwumps. A name which may be familiar if you recognise one of the hits of a group that Doherty and Elliot were in later: [Excerpt: The Mamas and the Papas, "Creeque Alley"] But we're skipping ahead a bit there. Cass Elliot was one of those few people in the music industry about whom it is impossible to find anyone with a bad word to say, and she was friendly with basically everyone, and particularly good at matching people up with each other. And on February the 7th 1964, she invited John Sebastian over to watch the Beatles' first performance on the Ed Sullivan Show. Like everyone in America, he was captivated by the performance: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "I Want to Hold Your Hand (live on the Ed Sullivan Show)"] But Yanovsky was also there, and the two played guitar together for a bit, before retreating to opposite sides of the room. And then Elliot spent several hours as a go-between, going to each man and telling him how much the other loved and admired his playing and wanted to play more with him. Sebastian joined the Mugwumps for a while, becoming one of the two main instrumentalists with Yanovsky, as the group pivoted from performing folk music to performing Beatles-inspired rock. But the group's management team, Bob Cavallo and Roy Silver, who weren't particularly musical people, and whose main client was the comedian Bill Cosby, got annoyed at Sebastian, because he and Yanovsky were getting on *too* well musically -- they were trading blues licks on stage, rather than sticking to the rather pedestrian arrangements that the group was meant to be performing -- and so Silver fired Sebastian fired from the group. When the Mugwumps recorded their one album, Sebastian had to sit in the control room while his former bandmates recorded with session musicians, who he thought were nowhere near up to his standard: [Excerpt: The Mugwumps, "Searchin'"] By the time that album was released, the Mugwumps had already split up. Sebastian had continued working as a session musician for Elektra, including playing on the album The Blues Project, which featured white Greenwich Village folk musicians like Eric Von Schmidt, Dave Van Ronk, and Spider John Koerner playing their versions of old blues records, including this track by Geoff Muldaur, which features Sebastian on harmonica and "Bob Landy" on piano -- a fairly blatant pseudonym: [Excerpt: Geoff Muldaur, "Downtown Blues"] Sebastian also played rhythm guitar and harmonica on the demos that became a big part of Tim Hardin's first album -- and his fourth, when the record company released the remaining demos. Sebastian doesn't appear to be on the orchestrated ballads that made Hardin's name -- songs like "Reason to Believe" and "Misty Roses" -- but he is on much of the more blues-oriented material, which while it's not anything like as powerful as Hardin's greatest songs, made up a large part of his repertoire: [Excerpt: Tim Hardin, "Ain't Gonna Do Without"] Erik Jacobsen, the producer of Hardin's records, was impressed enough by Sebastian that he got Sebastian to record lead vocals, for a studio group consisting of Sebastian, Felix Pappalardi, Jerry Yester and Henry Diltz of the Modern Folk Quartet, and a bass singer whose name nobody could later remember. The group, under the name "Pooh and the Heffalumps", recorded two Beach Boys knockoffs, "Lady Godiva" and "Rooty Toot", the latter written by Sebastian, though he would later be embarrassed by it and claim it was by his cousin: [Excerpt: Pooh and the Heffalumps, "Rooty Toot"] After that, Jacobsen became convinced that Sebastian should form a group to exploit his potential as a lead singer and songwriter. By this point, the Mugwumps had split up, and their management team had also split, with Silver taking Bill Cosby and Cavallo taking the Mugwumps, and so Sebastian was able to work with Yanovsky, and the putative group could be managed by Cavallo. But Sebastian and Yanovsky needed a rhythm section. And Erik Jacobsen knew a band that might know some people. Jacobsen was a fan of a Beatles soundalike group called the Sellouts, who were playing Greenwich Village and who were co-managed by Herb Cohen, the manager of the Modern Folk Quartet (who, as we heard a couple of episodes ago, would soon go on to be the manager of the Mothers of Invention). The Sellouts were ultra-professional by the standards  of rock groups of the time -- they even had a tape echo machine that they used on stage to give them a unique sound -- and they had cut a couple of tracks with Jacobsen producing, though I've not been able to track down copies of them. Their leader Skip Boone, had started out playing guitar in a band called the Blue Suedes, and had played in 1958 on a record by their lead singer Arthur Osborne: [Excerpt: Arthur Osborne, "Hey Ruby"] Skip Boone's brother Steve in his autobiography says that that was produced by Chet Atkins for RCA, but it was actually released on Brunswick records. In the early sixties, Skip Boone joined a band called the Kingsmen -- not the same one as the band that recorded "Louie Louie" -- playing lead guitar with his brother Steve on rhythm, a singer called Sonny Bottari, a saxophone player named King Charles, bass player Clay Sonier, and drummer Joe Butler. Sometimes Butler would get up front and sing, and then another drummer, Jan Buchner, would sit in in his place. Soon Steve Boone would replace Bonier as the bass player, but the Kingsmen had no success, and split up. From the ashes of the Kingsmen had formed the Sellouts, Skip Boone, Jerry Angus, Marshall O'Connell, and Joe Butler, who had switched from playing "Peppermint Twist" to playing "I Want to Hold Your Hand" in February 1964. Meanwhile Steve Boone went on a trip to Europe before starting at university in New York, where he hooked up again with Butler, and it was Butler who introduced him to Sebastian and Yanovsky. Sebastian and Yanovsky had been going to see the Sellouts at the behest of Jacobsen, and they'd been asking if they knew anyone else who could play that kind of material. Skip Boone had mentioned his little brother, and as soon as they met him, even before they first played together, they knew from his appearance that he would be the right bass player for them. So now they had at least the basis for a band. They hadn't played together, but Erik Jacobsen was an experienced record producer and Cavallo an experienced manager. They just needed to do some rehearsals and get a drummer, and a record contract was more or less guaranteed. Boone suggested Jan Buchner, the backup drummer from the Kingsmen, and he joined them for rehearsals. It was during these early rehearsals that Boone got to play on his first real record, other than some unreleased demos the Kingsmen had made. John Sebastian got a call from that "Bob Landy" we mentioned earlier, asking if he'd play bass on a session. Boone tagged along, because he was a fan, and when Sebastian couldn't get the parts down for some songs, he suggested that Boone, as an actual bass player, take over: [Excerpt: Bob Dylan, "Maggie's Farm"] But the new group needed a name, of course. It was John Sebastian who came up with the name they eventually chose, The Lovin' Spoonful, though Boone was a bit hesitant about it at first, worrying that it might be a reference to heroin -- Boone was from a very conservative, military, background, and knew little of drug culture and didn't at that time make much of a distinction between cannabis and heroin, though he'd started using the former -- but Sebastian was insistent. The phrase actually referred to coffee -- the name came from "Coffee Blues" by Sebastian's old idol Mississippi John Hurt – or at least Hurt always *said* it was about coffee, though in live performance he apparently made it clear that it was about cunnilingus: [Excerpt: Mississippi John Hurt, "Coffee Blues"] Their first show, at the Night Owl Club, was recorded, and there was even an attempt to release it as a CD in the 1990s, but it was left unreleased and as far as I can tell wasn't even leaked. There have been several explanations for this, but perhaps the most accurate one is just the comment from the manager of the club, who came up to the group after their two sets and told them “Hey, I don't know how to break this to you, but you guys suck.” There were apparently three different problems. They were underrehearsed -- which could be fixed with rehearsal -- they were playing too loud and hurting the patrons' ears -- which could be fixed by turning down the amps -- and their drummer didn't look right, was six years older than the rest of the group, and was playing in an out-of-date fifties style that wasn't suitable for the music they were playing. That was solved by sacking Buchner. By this point Joe Butler had left the Sellouts, and while Herb Cohen was interested in managing him as a singer, he was willing to join this new group at least for the moment. By now the group were all more-or-less permanent residents at the Albert Hotel, which was more or less a doss-house where underemployed musicians would stay, and which had its own rehearsal rooms. As well as the Spoonful, Cass Elliot and Denny Doherty lived there, as did the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. Joe Butler quickly fit into the group, and soon they were recording what became their first single, produced by Jacobsen, an original of Sebastian's called "Do You Believe in Magic?", with Sebastian on autoharp and vocals, Yanovsky on lead guitar and backing vocals, Boone on bass, Butler on drums, and Jerry Yester adding piano and backing vocals: [Excerpt: The Lovin' Spoonful, "Do You Believe in Magic?"] For a long time, the group couldn't get a deal -- the record companies all liked the song, but said that unless the group were English they couldn't sell them at the moment. Then Phil Spector walked into the Night Owl Cafe, where the new lineup of the group had become popular, and tried to sign them up. But they turned him down -- they wanted Erik Jacobsen to produce them; they were a team. Spector's interest caused other labels to be interested, and the group very nearly signed to Elektra. But again, signing to Elektra would have meant being produced by Rothchild, and also Elektra were an album label who didn't at that time have any hit single acts, and the group knew they had hit single potential. They did record a few tracks for Elektra to stick on a blues compilation, but they knew that Elektra wouldn't be their real home. Eventually the group signed with Charley Koppelman and Don Rubin, who had started out as songwriters themselves, working for Don Kirshner. When Kirshner's organisation had been sold to Columbia, Koppelman and Rubin had gone along and ended up working for Columbia as executives. They'd then worked for Morris Levy at Roulette Records, before forming their own publishing and record company. Rather than put out records themselves, they had a deal to license records to Kama Sutra Records, who in turn had a distribution deal with MGM Records. Koppelman and Rubin were willing to take the group and their manager and producer as a package deal, and they released the group's demo of "Do You Believe In Magic?" unchanged as their first single: [Excerpt: The Lovin' Spoonful, "Do You Believe in Magic?"] The single reached the top ten, and the group were soon in the studio cutting their first album, also titled Do You Believe In Magic? The album was a mix of songs that were part of the standard Greenwich Village folkie repertoire -- songs like Mississippi John Hurt's "Blues in the Bottle" and Fred Neil's "The Other Side of This Life" -- and a couple more originals. The group's second single was the first song that Steve Boone had co-written. It was inspired by a date he'd gone on with the photographer Nurit Wilde, who sadly for him didn't go on a second date, and who would later be the mother of Mike Nesmith's son Jason, but who he was very impressed by. He thought of her when he came up with the line "you didn't have to be so nice, I would have liked you anyway", and he and Sebastian finished up a song that became another top ten hit for the group: [Excerpt: (The Good Time Music of) The Lovin' Spoonful, "You Didn't Have to Be So Nice"] Shortly after that song was recorded, but before it was released, the group were called into Columbia TV with an intriguing proposition. Bert Schneider and Bob Rafelson, two young TV producers, were looking at producing a TV show inspired by A Hard Day's Night, and were looking for a band to perform in it. Would the Lovin' Spoonful be up for it? They were interested at first, but Boone and Sebastian weren't sure they wanted to be actors, and also it would involve the group changing its name. They'd already made a name for themselves as the Lovin' Spoonful, did they really want to be the Monkees instead? They passed on the idea. Instead, they went on a tour of the deep South as the support act to the Supremes, a pairing that they didn't feel made much sense, but which did at least allow them to watch the Supremes and the Funk Brothers every night. Sebastian was inspired by the straight four-on-the-floor beat of the Holland-Dozier-Holland repertoire, and came up with his own variation on it, though as this was the Lovin' Spoonful the end result didn't sound very Motown at all: [Excerpt: The Lovin' Spoonful, "Daydream"] It was only after the track was recorded that Yanovsky pointed out to Sebastian that he'd unconsciously copied part of the melody of the old standard "Got a Date With an Angel": [Excerpt: Al Bowlly, "Got a Date With an Angel"] "Daydream" became the group's third top ten hit in a row, but it caused some problems for the group. The first was Kama Sutra's advertising campaign for the record, which had the words "Lovin' Spoonful Daydream", with the initials emphasised. While the group were drug users, they weren't particularly interested in being promoted for that rather than their music, and had strong words with the label. The other problem came with the Beach Boys. The group were supporting the Beach Boys on a tour in spring of 1966, when "Daydream" came out and became a hit, and they got on with all the band members except Mike Love, who they definitely did not get on with. Almost fifty years later, in his autobiography, Steve Boone would have nothing bad to say about the Wilson brothers, but calls Love "an obnoxious, boorish braggart", a "marginally talented hack" and worse, so it's safe to say that Love wasn't his favourite person in the world. Unfortunately, when "Daydream" hit the top ten, one of the promoters of the tour decided to bill the Lovin' Spoonful above the Beach Boys, and this upset Love, who understandably thought that his group, who were much better known and had much more hits, should be the headliners. If this had been any of the other Beach Boys, there would have been no problem, but because it was Love, who the Lovin' Spoonful despised, they decided that they were going to fight for top billing, and the managers had to get involved. Eventually it was agreed that the two groups would alternate the top spot on the bill for the rest of the tour. "Daydream" eventually reached number two on the charts (and number one on Cashbox) and also became the group's first hit in the UK, reaching number two here as well, and leading to the group playing a short UK tour. During that tour, they had a similar argument over billing with Mick Jagger as they'd had with Mike Love, this time over who was headlining on an appearance on Top of the Pops, and the group came to the same assessment of Jagger as they had of Love. The performance went OK, though, despite them being so stoned on hash given them by the wealthy socialite Tara Browne that Sebastian had to be woken up seconds before he started playing. They also played the Marquee Club -- Boone notes in his autobiography that he wasn't impressed by the club when he went to see it the day before their date there, because some nobody named David Bowie was playing there. But in the audience that day were George Harrison, John Lennon, Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood, Spencer Davis, and Brian Jones, most of whom partied with the group afterwards. The Lovin' Spoonful made a big impression on Lennon in particular, who put "Daydream" and "Do You Believe in Magic" in his jukebox at home, and who soon took to wearing glasses in the same round, wiry, style as the ones that Sebastian wore. They also influenced Paul McCartney, who wasn't at that gig, but who soon wrote this, inspired by "Daydream": [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Good Day Sunshine"] Unfortunately, this was more or less the high point of the group's career. Shortly after that brief UK tour, Zal Yanovsky and Steve Boone went to a party where they were given some cannabis -- and they were almost immediately stopped by the police, subjected to an illegal search of their vehicle, and arrested. They would probably have been able to get away with this -- after all, it was an illegal search, even though of course the police didn't admit to that -- were it not for the fact that Yanovsky was a Canadian citizen, and he could be deported and barred from ever re-entering the US just for being arrested. This was the first major drug bust of a rock and roll group, and there was no precedent for the group, their managers, their label or their lawyers to deal with this. And so they agreed to something they would regret for the rest of their lives. In return for being let off, Boone and Yanovsky agreed to take an undercover police officer to a party and introduce him to some of their friends as someone they knew in the record business, so he would be able to arrest one of the bigger dealers. This was, of course, something they knew was a despicable thing to do, throwing friends under the bus to save themselves, but they were young men and under a lot of pressure, and they hoped that it wouldn't actually lead to any arrests. And for almost a year, there were no serious consequences, although both Boone and Yanovsky were shaken up by the event, and Yanovsky's behaviour, which had always been erratic, became much, much worse. But for the moment, the group remained very successful. After "Daydream", an album track from their first album, "Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind?" had been released as a stopgap single, and that went to number two as well. And right before the arrest, the group had been working on what would be an even bigger hit. The initial idea for "Summer in the City" actually came from John Sebastian's fourteen-year-old brother Mark, who'd written a bossa nova song called "It's a Different World". The song was, by all accounts, the kind of thing that a fourteen-year-old boy writes, but part of it had potential, and John Sebastian took that part -- giving his brother full credit -- and turned it into the chorus of a new song: [Excerpt: The Lovin' Spoonful, "Summer in the City"] To this, Sebastian added a new verse, inspired by a riff the session player Artie Schroeck had been playing while the group recorded their songs for the Woody Allen film What's Up Tiger Lily, creating a tenser, darker, verse to go with his younger brother's chorus: [Excerpt: The Lovin' Spoonful, "Summer in the City"] In the studio, Steve Boone came up with the instrumental arrangement, which started with drums, organ, electric piano, and guitar, and then proceeded to bass, autoharp, guitar, and percussion overdubs. The drum sound on the record was particularly powerful thanks to the engineer Roy Halee, who worked on most of Simon & Garfunkel's records. Halee put a mic at the top of a stairwell, a giant loudspeaker at the bottom, and used the stairwell as an echo chamber for the drum part. He would later use a similar technique on Simon and Garfunkel's "The Boxer". The track still needed another section though, and Boone suggested an instrumental part, which led to him getting an equal songwriting credit with the Sebastian brothers. His instrumental piano break was inspired by Gershwin, and the group topped it off with overdubbed city noises: [Excerpt: The Lovin' Spoonful, "Summer in the City"] The track went to number one, becoming the group's only number one record, and it was the last track on what is by far their best album, Hums of the Lovin' Spoonful. That album produced two more top ten hits for the group, "Nashville Cats", a tribute to Nashville session players (though John Sebastian seems to have thought that Sun Records was a Nashville, rather than a Memphis, label), and the rather lovely "Rain on the Roof": [Excerpt: The Lovin' Spoonful, "Rain on the Roof"] But that song caused friction with the group, because it was written about Sebastian's relationship with his wife who the other members of the band despised. They also felt that the songs he was writing about their relationship were giving the group a wimpy image, and wanted to make more rockers like "Summer in the City" -- some of them had been receiving homophobic abuse for making such soft-sounding music. The group were also starting to resent Sebastian for other reasons. In a recent contract renegotiation, a "key member" clause had been put into the group's record contract, which stated that Sebastian, as far as the label was concerned, was the only important member of the group. While that didn't affect decision-making in the group, it did let the group know that if the other members did anything to upset Sebastian, he was able to take his ball away with him, and even just that potential affected the way the group thought about each other. All these factors came into play with a song called "Darling Be Home Soon", which was a soft ballad that Sebastian had written about his wife, and which was written for another film soundtrack -- this time for a film by a new director named Francis Ford Coppola. When the other band members came in to play on the soundtrack, including that track, they found that rather than being allowed to improvise and come up with their own parts as they had previously, they had to play pre-written parts to fit with the orchestration. Yanovsky in particular was annoyed by the simple part he had to play, and when the group appeared on the Ed Sullivan show to promote the record, he mugged, danced erratically, and mimed along mocking the lyrics as Sebastian sang. The song -- one of Sebastian's very best -- made a perfectly respectable number fifteen, but it was the group's first record not to make the top ten: [Excerpt: The Lovin' Spoonful, "Darling Be Home Soon"] And then to make matters worse, the news got out that someone had been arrested as a result of Boone and Yanovsky's efforts to get themselves out of trouble the year before. This was greeted with horror by the counterculture, and soon mimeographed newsletters and articles in the underground papers were calling the group part of the establishment, and calling for a general boycott of the group -- if you bought their records, attended their concerts, or had sex with any of the band members, you were a traitor. Yanovsky and Boone had both been in a bad way mentally since the bust, but Yanovsky was far worse, and was making trouble for the other members in all sorts of ways. The group decided to fire Yanovsky, and brought in Jerry Yester to replace him, giving him a severance package that ironically meant that he ended up seeing more money from the group's records than the rest of them, as their records were later bought up by a variety of shell companies that passed through the hands of Morris Levy among others, and so from the late sixties through the early nineties the group never got any royalties. For a while, this seemed to benefit everyone. Yanovsky had money, and his friendship with the group members was repaired. He released a solo single, arranged by Jack Nitzsche, which just missed the top one hundred: [Excerpt: Zal Yanovsky, "Just as Long as You're Here"] That song was written by the Bonner and Gordon songwriting team who were also writing hits for the Turtles at this time, and who were signed to Koppelman and Rubin's company. The extent to which Yanovsky's friendship with his ex-bandmates was repaired by his firing was shown by the fact that Jerry Yester, his replacement in the group, co-produced his one solo album, Alive and Well in Argentina, an odd mixture of comedy tracks, psychedelia, and tributes to the country music he loved. His instrumental version of Floyd Cramer's "Last Date" is fairly listenable -- Cramer's piano playing was a big influence on Yanovsky's guitar -- but his version of George Jones' "From Brown to Blue" makes it very clear that Zal Yanovsky was no George Jones: [Excerpt: Zal Yanovsky, "From Brown to Blue"] Yanovsky then quit music, and went into the restaurant business. The Lovin' Spoonful, meanwhile, made one further album, but the damage had been done. Everything Playing is actually a solid album, though not as good as the album before, and it produced three top forty hits, but the highest-charting was "Six O'Clock", which only made number eighteen, and the album itself made a pitiful one hundred and eighteen on the charts. The song on the album that in retrospect has had the most impact was the rather lovely "Younger Generation", which Sebastian later sang at Woodstock: [Excerpt: John Sebastian, "Younger Generation (Live at Woodstock)"] But at Woodstock he performed that alone, because by then he'd quit the group. Boone, Butler, and Yester decided to continue, with Butler singing lead, and recorded a single, "Never Going Back", produced by Yester's old bandmate from the Modern Folk Quartet Chip Douglas, who had since become a successful producer for the Monkees and the Turtles, and written by John Stewart of the Kingston Trio, who had written "Daydream Believer" for the Monkees, but the record only made number seventy-eight on the charts: [Excerpt: The Lovin' Spoonful featuring Joe Butler, "Never Going Back"] That was followed by an album by "The Lovin' Spoonful Featuring Joe Butler", Revelation: Revolution 69, a solo album by Butler in all but name -- Boone claims not to have played on it, and Butler is the only one featured on the cover, which shows a naked Butler being chased by a naked woman with a lion in front of them covering the naughty bits. The biggest hit other than "Never Going Back" from the album was "Me About You", a Bonner and Gordon song which only made number ninety-one: [Excerpt: The Lovin' Spoonful Featuring Joe Butler, "Me About You"] John Sebastian went on to have a moderately successful solo career -- as well as his appearance at Woodstock, he released several solo albums, guested on harmonica on records by the Doors, Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young and others, and had a solo number one hit in 1976 with "Welcome Back", the theme song from the TV show Welcome Back, Kotter: [Excerpt: John Sebastian, "Welcome Back"] Sebastian continues to perform, though he's had throat problems for several decades that mean he can't sing many of the songs he's best known for. The original members of the Lovin' Spoonful reunited for two performances -- an appearance in Paul Simon's film One Trick Pony in 1980, and a rather disastrous induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000. Zal Yanovsky died of a heart attack in 2002. The remaining band members remained friendly, and Boone, Butler, and Yester reunited as the Lovin' Spoonful in 1991, initially with Yester's brother Jim, who had played in The Association, latterly with other members. One of those other members in the 1990s was Yester's daughter Lena, who became Boone's fourth wife (and is as far as I can discover still married to him). Yester, Boone, and Butler continued touring together as the Lovin' Spoonful until 2017, when Jerry Yester was arrested on thirty counts of child pornography possession, and was immediately sacked from the group. The other two carried on, and the three surviving original members reunited on stage for a performance at one of the Wild Honey Orchestra's benefit concerts in LA in 2020, though that was just a one-off performance, not a full-blown reunion. It was also the last Lovin' Spoonful performance to date, as that was in February 2020, but Steve Boone has performed with John Sebastian's most recent project, John Sebastian's Jug Band Village, a tribute to the Greenwich Village folk scene the group originally formed in, and the two played together most recently in December 2021. The three surviving original members of the group all seem to be content with their legacy, doing work they enjoy, and basically friendly, which is more than can be said for most of their contemporaries, and which is perhaps appropriate for a band whose main songwriter had been inspired, more than anything else, to make music with a positive attitude.

This song was created back in before she passed away and wasn't release until 2015 in memory of the History Mya Angelou Created through her poems and speeches to help the Youth understand life as it is. Ms JJ Entertainment choose to honor Mya Angelou for Black History Month and Valentine's Day.

After the success of last years final episode, the final Listener Mix of this year again kept the requests open until part way through the LiVE show and the result is this 34 track, three and a half hour long collection of banging SEGA party tunes all picked by you! This is the show that #GoLongOrGoHome was invented for - thanks everyone for your requests throughout 2021! Tracklisting: - RoBKTA: Club Needlemouse - Vanishing Apotos Horizon (Sonic Unleashed) (requested by Eleri) - Fighting Vipers 2 - L.S.D. -Remix version- (requested by Verytex) - Sonic the Hedgehog CD - Sonic Boom -Opening- (requested by Reno_gtk) - Iceferno - Streets of Wrath 2 - Machete (Stage 6-02) (requested by VGBeats) - CayenneGaramonde - MASHUP: Cycle I (Streets of Rage 3 + Streets of Rage Remake) (requested by Iceferno) - BGM1401 - Never Return Alive (Extended Mix) (requested by Jamie) - Sega Vintage Collection - Streets of Rage 3 (requested by steve_c) - The Musical Ghost feat. Swiblet - Persona 5 - Life Will Change [Electro Swing Remix] (requested by Rexy) - Yakuza Dead Souls - "JeweL" OF THE END (requested by Twinny) - SEGA Rally 2 - Searchin' For My Dreams (requested by Jon the VG Nerd) - Clockwork Knight 2 - Salsa de Pepperouchau -Fiesta de los Amigos- (requested by electricboogaloo) - OutRun 2 - Night Flight (requested by FloppyTheRobot) - elj_ - Out Run Medley [Jeroen Tel Style] (N163) (requested by Virtua) - Naofumi Hataya - We Are Burning Rangers (2 Deep Club Mix) (requested by skubman) - GaMetal - Battle Hymn of the Soul (Persona 3) - GaMetal Remix (requested by DragonMerc) - Lost Judgement - Unwavering Belief -Full Spec Edition- (requested by KC) - The Arkadian & Jason Z - Night Trap (requested by Greyfore) - Sonic Generations - BOSS BATTLE: BIG ARMS (requested by INeedFruit) - Sonic Rush - Back 2 Back (requested by acori) - Guifrog - Phantasy Star IV "Sakura Storm" OC ReMix (requested by Rexy) - Trey Nobles - Wave Ocean: Mariko Nanba & Tomoya Ohtani (Full Band Cover) (requested by Eleri) - Iceferno - Streets of Wrath - Streets of Wrath (Original Dub) (requested by Jamie) - Cinossu - Mega Drive Mega Boss Mega Mix (requested by Virtua) - Team Sonic Racing - Green Light Ride - Wall5 Remix (requested by acori) - OutRun 2 - Passing Breeze (Euro Remix) (requested by Iceferno) - Iceferno - Streets of Wrath 2 - Avenue of Blood (Stage 1-01) (requested by VGBeats) - Nightshade - Kurohagane Beta (requested by Verytex) - Super Monaco GP (Mega Drive version) - Theme of Monaco (requested by steve_c) - Etrian Odyssey Nexus - Tumult - Twilight of All Life (requested by DragonMerc) - TETREMIX - Tetremix -Dance Mix Ver.- (requested by Twinny) - F1 Challenge - Suzuka (requested by electricboogaloo) - tefnek & zircon - Streets of Rage 2 "Above Reason" OC ReMix (requested by skubman) - A NiGHTS REMIX ~ Another Dreams - Paternal Horn (Swea-T-shirt Mix) (requested by INeedFruit) - Sonic R - Number One (requested by Jon the VG Nerd)

On Episode 3, the question is asked; Are You Soul Searchin' OR Are You Soul Surfin', Mike gives us some quick bars of self reflection and self improvement. Removing oneself from the idea and principles of others allows us to avoid the perspectives of people becoming our reality. Stay true to your belief system regardless of who agrees or disagrees. It's Flower Fridays - make sure your soil stays pure with peace, LOVE and joy. Follow @Unpluggedic on Instagram for all content, merch, and daily gems. Rate, Review and Subscribe. Thank you for tapping in with me!