Podcasts about Secret Agent Man

Today on the Rarified Heir Podcast, we are talking to Michael Rivers, son of rock n' roll icon Johnny “Secret Agent Man” Rivers. Retired and in great health at age 82, Johnny Rivers has lived many lives as one of the groundbreaking musicians in the LA music scene since the early sixties. From session man to Sunset Strip headliner to #1 recording artist to the Monterey Pop Festival, record label owner and publishing mogul and beyond, Johnny Rivers has met and worked with everybody. From Alan Freed to Elvis Presley, from Roger Miller to PF Sloan, from Rickey Nelson to John Phillips, Johnny Rivers knew everyone. Michael was kind enough to join us as a guest today to give us a first-hand look into his father as both a dad and a celebrity. From having a charge account at the flagship Sunset Strip Tower Records to falling asleep in a booth at the ultra-exclusive On The Rox club above the famed Roxy nightclub on the Strip, Michael went with his dad everywhere. From recording sessions on Hollywood Blvd. to dinners at the Strip's most iconic vegetarian restaurant The Source, Michael was taken everywhere with his divorced dad, even places kids couldn't usually go. Not many of us remember the smell of the AMPEX tape machine at United Western Recorders in Hollywood like it was yesterday, but Michael can. We discuss how Johnny Rivers biggest hit, the theme song to the aforementioned “Secret Agent Man” came about to what it was like touring with his dad as first a tour manager and then a drummer in the 80s on Summer break. We also hear about how Johnny was a prudent businessman who bought property in Beverly Hills and Big Sur in the 1960s which he still owns to this day. If Gazzari's on the Sunset Strip, The Whisky A Go-Go and an unmade sequel to Easy Rider are up your alley, hang on, this episode is just around the corner. This is the Rarified Heir Podcast and everyone has a story.  

Interview by Kris PetersThe Superjesus have been a mainstay on the Australian rock scene for more than three decades.Their infectious music coupled with arguably one of the best live shows in the country have endeared the band to generations of music lovers since their inception in the late 1990s, with the band's debut album Sumo in 1998 spawning fan favourites such as Down Again, Saturation and Now and Then.The follow-up, Jet Age, magnified the growing popularity of The Superjesus, delivering the smash hit Gravity as well as Secret Agent Man before Rock Music rounded out the trifecta in 2003.A brief hiatus from the mid 2000s gave the band members time to reflect on their personal music ambitions before deciding the world needed more of their music in 2013. This produced an EP, Love and Violence (2016), as well as a double live album but despite The Superjesus quickly reclaiming their status amongst Australia's elite touring band's, no new music has been forthcoming.That changes this Friday, March 21, when The Superjesus (self-titled) comes out, fuelled by the success of six previous singles Money (We're Only In It For Love), Lights Out, We Won't Let Go Until It's Over, Something Good, a cover of Generation X's Dancing With Myself and beautiful ballad Diamonds. This is the new Superjesus, a more soulful, engaging version of the band we know and love where song writing is king.HEAVY caught up with frontwoman Sarah McLeod to find out more. We bring up a quote she made to HEAVY in October last year where she proclaimed "I shit you not, but it's the best stuff we've ever written", and ask if she still feels that way after the album has had more time to digest. A smile swept across her face before replying with a simple "yeah"."I guess maybe that's why I love it so much," she continued, "because I'm so connected to it. And I just feel like we've got better. I feel like we did a great job in the 90s, and we were happy with those records, but we had 10 years off, and we all went and did different music. We learnt stuff. Ruddy (Stuart, bass) was in all these different bands, and he came back with a whole library of new influences and so did I. And we're like, okay, we're the same people, but we're not really because we've learnt all this stuff. So why don't we bring in the cool shit that we've learned and make something different, but paying homage to who we were. And that's where we're at. And I think it's been really good for us. And I love it."In the full interview, Sarah expressed her excitement about the album, which has seen the release of six singles over the past 18 months. She highlighted her favourite track, Gangbusters, and explained the strategic decision to hold back some songs to build anticipation. She emphasized that while there is no external pressure, she feels a personal drive to deliver quality music, reflecting the band's evolution and commitment to their craft.Sarah shared insights into her songwriting process, noting a shift towards creating cohesive narratives rather than standalone lyrics. She discussed the challenges of balancing her solo work with that of The Superjesus, particularly in terms of lyrical content and audience resonance. The conversation also touched on the creative process, where Sarah likened songwriting to an alchemical journey that requires refinement to achieve simplicity. She said she believes that effective songs often stem from straightforward lyrics that engage audiences, a principle she strives to uphold in her work. We discussed the band's upcoming tour and what to expect musically, as well as the opportunity for local band's to open in each city and more.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/heavy-music-interviews--2687660/support.

Hosts Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot share favorite tracks that they loved as TV show theme songs. Plus, the hosts review the new album from Kendrick Lamar.Join our Facebook Group: https://bit.ly/3sivr9TBecome a member on Patreon: https://bit.ly/3slWZvcSign up for our newsletter: https://bit.ly/3eEvRnGMake a donation via PayPal: https://bit.ly/3dmt9lUSend us a Voice Memo: Desktop: bit.ly/2RyD5Ah Mobile: sayhi.chat/soundops Featured Songs:The Handsome Family, "Far from Any Road," Singing Bones, Carrot Top, 2003The Beatles, "With A Little Help From My Friends," Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Parlophone, 1967Kendrick Lamar, "squabble up," GNX, PGLang and Interscope, 2024Kendrick Lamar, "reincarnated," GNX, PGLang and Interscope, 2024Kendrick Lamar, "tv off (feat. Lefty Gunplay)," GNX, PGLang and Interscope, 2024Kendrick Lamar, "gloria," GNX, PGLang and Interscope, 2024Kendrick Lamar, "wacced out murals," GNX, PGLang and Interscope, 2024Mick Jagger, "Strange Game," Strange Game (Single), Polydor, 2022Johnny Rivers, "Secret Agent Man," ...And I Know You Wanna Dance, Imperial, 1966Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, "Red Right Hand," Let Love In, Mute, 1994Massive Attack, "Teardrop," Mezzanine, Virgin, 1998Gavin DeGraw, "I Don't Want To Be," Chariot, J, 2004Carole King and Louise Goffin, "Where You Lead I Will Follow," Our Little Corner of the World: Music from Gilmore Girls, Rhino, 2002RJD2, "A Beautiful Mine," Magnificent City Instrumentals, Decon, 2006The Coup, "My Favorite Mutiny (feat. Black Thought and Talib Kweli)," Pick a Bigger Weapon, Epitaph, 2006Norma Tenaga, "You're Dead," Walkin' My Cat Named Dog, Rhino, 1966Godfather of Harlem, "Just in Case (feat. Swizz Beatz, Rick Ross & DMX)," Just in Case (feat. Swizz Beatz, Rick Ross & DMX) (Single), Epic, 2019The High Strung, "The Luck You Got," Moxie Bravo, Paper Thin, 2005Blind Boys of Alabama, "Way Down In the Hole," The Spirit Of The Century, Real World, 2001Regina Spektor, "You've Got Time," You've Got Time (Single), Sire, 2013Quincy Jones, "Sanford & Son (The Streebeater)," You've Got It Bad Girl, A&M, 1973Aloe Blacc, "I Need a Dollar," Good Things, Stones Throw, 2010Bob Dylan, "Buckets of Rain ," Blood on the Tracks, Columbia, 1975See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Did David DeWolf's bold 2024 AI predictions hold up? And what's next for AI in 2025? Join Courtney Baker, Knownwell CEO David DeWolf, and Chief Product and Technology Officer Mohan Rao as they recap last year's forecasts and dive into fresh predictions for the future of AI. From advancements in AI-first enterprise products to the rise of agentic AI, our panel explores what's real, what's hype, and how businesses can prepare. Special guest Andrew Abela, author of Superhabits:The Universal System for a Successful Life and Dean of the Busch School of Business at the Catholic University of America, joins Pete Buer to discuss how AI can complement human virtues, foster better decision-making, and help us grow into our best selves. His insights on humanity and technology offer a powerful perspective on aligning progress with purpose. All that PLUS, in a brand-new segment "Secret Agent Man," Pete breaks down the emerging wave of agentic AI. Learn how AI agents could revolutionize team structures and workflows, and why executives need to start planning for these autonomous tools. Don't miss out on this exciting episode filled with retrospectives, bold forecasts, and actionable insights. Find out more about Knownwell's AI platform at Knownwell.com and start transforming your business today: www.knownwell.com  Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/z7Y4LKjZq2k   

GGACP salutes the absorbing and informative new book by our pal Thom Shubilla, "James Bond and the Sixties Spy Craze," by revisiting this memorable mini-ep from 2016, featuring James Bond fun facts and tantalizing 007 trivia. In this episode: Roger Moore shares the screen with Bernie Schwartz, Johnny Rivers scores a hit with "Secret Agent Man," Gilbert obsesses over Jewish Bond baddies (and Jewish Bond girls) and the boys bid a fond farewell to Napoleon Solo. PLUS: Hank Scorpio! Sammy Davis Jr's lost cameo! Six Degrees of Yaphet Kotto! Pussy Galore's flying circus! And Gilbert warbles “License to Kill”! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Interview by Kris PetersQueensland hard hitters Goatzilla have managed to strike that elusive chord that blends thrash metal and punk together in an almost cohesive summoning of the forces of music that is almost irresistible when done right.It is hard to believe the band are approaching their ten-year anniversary of life on this planet, with their infectious and witty brand of music infecting the masses ever since the surprise success of the single Drop Bear back in 2019.That song and the album it came from, Muthafukarsaurus, cemented Goatzilla as one of the bands to watch from the emerging pile of contenders, and the ensuing groundswell it created gave the band renewed focus and vision.So much so that it has been 5 long years since that album came out with Goatzilla opting not to rush things in the hope of quick success, instead deciding to take their time honing a sonic body of work that would linger long in the memories of those who bared their ears to it.The result is Alien Nation, which will be unleashed on August 16.Already, Goatzilla have proved the wait will be worth it on the back of lead singles Secret Agent Man and Alien Nation, but they provide only a glimpse into the musical psyche of Goatzilla 2024.Bass player Ben Zilla joined HEAVY to tell us more."The sound is always evolving and growing," he replied when asked if Alien Nation captures the complete Goatzilla sound. "This one is different from Muthafukarsaurus. It's still certainly heavy. It's got that heavy background; it's still got the punk roots - very much so. We're still very much a punk rock band, but bringing in more elements of metal as we're evolving. This is all stuff that's been written through COVID with the two Pete's coming in and throwing their stuff in, as well as Mick, our drummer, who brought the real… he's a good 15 years younger than us, and he brought some more modern metal vibes and sensibilities to it. We're really excited. It took a lot longer than we initially thought because of COVID and everything that went along with it. All the guitars, all the drums, and all the bass we recorded in home studios and Pete Jansen mixed and mastered everything himself. It was a big learning curve, but the results speak for themselves. We're really excited with what we've put together, especially having it on vinyl too."In the full interview, Ben discusses the musical direction of Alien Nation, the singles released and how they represent the album as a whole, how Alien Nation differs to Muthafukarsaurus, the themes explored, finding the balance between genres and how they know if they have gone too far, their current tour and remaining dates, what to expect from Goatzilla live and more.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/heavy-music-interviews--2687660/support.

The Scars and Guitars' new music show for July 2024 brings you a tonne of killer cuts! The feature album is Unicursal from Nocturnus AD!  Nocturnus delivers "Mesolithic" from *Unicursal*, followed by ZEAL & ARDOR's "Hide In Shade" from *GREIF*. 200 Stab Wounds brings "Gross Abuse" from *Manual Manic Procedures*, and Armored Saint offers "One Chain (Don't Make No Prison)". DEEP PURPLE presents "Lazy Sod" from *Equals 1*, while RICHIE KOTZEN's "ON THE TABLE" comes from his album *Nomad*. We have SIMONE SIMONS with "R.E.D." from *Vermillion* and AMORPHIS performing "Into Hiding" from *Tales From The Thousand Lakes (Live At Tavastia)*. BEAST IN BLACK's "Power of the Beast" and OCTOPLOID's "A Dusk Of Vex [feat. Jón Aldará; Edit]" from *Beyond The Aeons* add to the lineup. Kvaen's "The Ancient Gods" from *The Formless Fires* and ARTACH's "Frozen Factory" from *Sgrios* will be featured, along with Obscene's "The Reaper's Blessing" from *Agony & Wounds*. GOD DETHRONED offers "Rat Kingdom" from *The Judas Paradox*, and I, Cursed presents "Death Holograms" from *Death Holograms*.  Neaera's "All is Dust" from *All is Dust* and Crypt Crawler's "Shrine of Sacrifice" from *The Immortal Realm* are next. Hellbutcher delivers "Inferno's Rage" from *Hellbutcher*, and WOLFHEART's "Evenfall" from *Draconian Darkness* is also on the playlist. NAILS presents "Give Me The Painkiller" from *Every Bridge Burning*, followed by Krypt's "Burden of the Beast" from *Great Spawn of the Worms of the Earth*. Houkago Grind Time's "Cruel Grinder's Thesis" from *Koncertos Of Kawaiiness: Stealing Jon Chang's Ideas, A Book By Andrew Lee* will be featured, as well as Nocturnus's "Mission Malkuth" from *Unicursal*. Foreign Hands delivers "Shapeless In The Dark" from *WHAT'S LEFT UNSAID*, and Stress Test brings "Bastard Behavior". MISS MAY I's "FORGIVE AND FORGET FEATURING FIT FOR A KING" from *APOLOGIES ARE FOR THE WEAK (RE-RECORDED 15TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION)* will be played, along with ENEMY INSIDE's "What We Used To Be". THE ETERNAL's "Under The Black" from *Skinwalker*, MAJESTICA's "A New Beginning" from *A New Beginning*, and BLIND GUARDIAN's "Ashes to Ashes (Revisited)" from *Somewhere Far Beyond Revisited* are included. ORDEN OGAN's "Conquest" from *The Order of Fear* and WHITE STONES's "Vencedores Vencidos" from *Memoria Viva* are part of the show. Portrait offers "From the Urn" from *The Host*, while Manic Abraxas presents "Manic Abraxas" from *Skinformation*. Free Ride's "Space Nomad" from *Acido Y Puto* and Rivers of Nihil's "Where Owls Know My Name (INSTRUMENTAL)" from *Where Owls Know My Name (Instrumentals)* will also be played. Hail Darkness delivers "Cult of the Serpent Risen" and Castle's "100 Eyes" from *Evil Remains*. THE STABBING JABS presents "Radiation Love" from *THE STABBING JABS*, and PALMAR DE TROYA offers "BRACIT" from *2*. Atom Driver's "Occupants" and RISE OF THE NORTHSTAR's "Crank It Up" from *Showdown* are included. CORY MARKS delivers "(Make My) Country Rock" from *Sorry For Nothing*, and GOATZILLA presents "Secret Agent Man" from *Alien Nation*. SEETHER's "Judas Mind" from *The Surface Seems So Far* and SISTERS DOLL's "Don't Give Up On Us" will be played. The The offers "Linoleum Smooth To The Stockinged Foot" from *Ensoulment*, while TURMION KÄTILÖT presents "Schlachter feat. Chris Harms". HEALTH delivers "ASHAMED (FEAT. LAUREN MAYBERRY)" from *PAPER MAGAZINE*, and Moiii presents "Turtle Legs" from *Moiii*. AMORPHIS will perform "Black Winter Day" from *Tales From The Thousand Lakes (Live At Tavastia)*, and Nocturnus closes with "Netzach, The Fire Of Victory" from *Unicursal*.

Hosts Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot share favorite songs that they loved as TV show theme songs. Plus the hosts review the new album from Peter Gabriel.Join our Facebook Group: https://bit.ly/3sivr9TBecome a member on Patreon: https://bit.ly/3slWZvcSign up for our newsletter: https://bit.ly/3eEvRnGMake a donation via PayPal: https://bit.ly/3dmt9lUSend us a Voice Memo: Desktop: bit.ly/2RyD5Ah Mobile: sayhi.chat/soundops Featured Songs:The Handsome Family, "Far from Any Road," Singing Bones, Carrot Top, 2003Peter Gabriel, "Panopticom (Bright-Side Mix)," I/O, Real World, 2023Peter Gabriel, "Playing For Time (Bright-Side Mix)," I/O, Real World, 2023Peter Gabriel, "Road to Joy (Bright-Side Mix)," I/O, Real World, 2023Mick Jagger, "Strange Game," (Single), Polydor, 2022Johnny Rivers, "Secret Agent Man," ...And I Know You Wanna Dance, Imperial, 1966Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, "Red Right Hand," Let Love In, Mute, 1994Massive Attack, "Teardrop," Mezzanine, Virgin, 1998Gavin DeGraw, "I Don't Want To Be," Chariot, J, 2004Carole King and Louise Goffin, "Where You Lead I Will Follow," Our Little Corner of the World: Music from Gilmore Girls, Rhino, 2002RJD2, "A Beautiful Mine," Magnificent City Instrumentals, Decon, 2006The Coup, "My Favorite Mutiny (feat. Black Thought and Talib Kweli)," Pick a Bigger Weapon, Epitaph, 2006Norma Tenaga, "You're Dead," Walkin' My Cat Named Dog, Rhino, 1966Godfather of Harlem, "Just in Case (feat. Swizz Beatz, Rick Ross & DMX)," Just in Case (feat. Swizz Beatz, Rick Ross & DMX) (Single), Epic, 2019The High Strung, "The Luck You Got," Moxie Bravo, Paper Thin, 2005Blind Boys of Alabama, "Way Down In the Hole," The Spirit Of The Century, Real World, 2001Regina Spektor, "You've Got Time," You've Got Time (Single), Sire, 2013Quincy Jones, "Sanford & Son (The Streebeater)," You've Got It Bad Girl, A&M, 1973Aloe Blacc, "I Need a Dollar," Good Things, Stones Throw, 2010Jamila Woods, "Tiny Garden (feat. duendita)," Water Made Us, Jagjaguwar, 2023See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The party gets to know one another a little more and learns of each other's skills. Samm Burger is sent on a mission of espionage, Something he is not the best at.

We are heading over to Corinne's neck of the woods for our next movie: It's Four Christmases and takes place in the San Francisco Bay Area. It stars Reese Witherspoon as Kate, a successful, young, professional who is in a committed (but not super committed) relationship with Brad played by Vince Vaughn. A series of events grounds their vacation flight, forcing them to spend Christmas with their actual families and test the strength of their love and sanity.  In this episode: we marvel at how many people have Southern accents north of San Francisco, wonder what we would do for love and/or a good pressure cooker, and Corinne comes up with a banger original song called 'He's a Baby Man' (to the tune of Secret Agent Man) to describe Brad and all his questionable relationship etiquette. This movie made us laugh and cringe as we tagged along with the couple, for an entirely different kind of white Christmas. So join us as we cross the Golden Gate Bridge for Four Christmases.

Mikey chats with former Red Sox second baseman Marty Barrett. Mikey and Marty share stories from the 1986 World Series. Marty talks about playing in the longest professional baseball game ever. Mikey quizzes Marty on his 1986 teammates. Mikey reveals how Marty saved his life. Castiglioke goes undercover as a Secret Agent Man. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

David Haugh and Marshall Harris opened their show discussing whether the Bears have a backup quarterback controversy as undrafted rookie Tyson Bagent continues to shine and veteran PJ Walker struggles. Later, the conducted the Pick 6 and Extra Point segments, where they discussed the Cubs winning their series against the Royals and more.

BANNED ON YOUTUBE!Video of this episode: https://rumble.com/v2q34gx-secret-agent-man.htmlWe may never know what occurred behind the scenes on January 6, 2021. The Department of Justice has released documents that at least 40 FBI informants infiltrated the crowd that day and even more from other unknown alphabet government agencies. Today we revisit the riot and the new information that has come to light about the January 6 Capital Riots. Song used at end of video:SPILT - 1984 (audio)Taken from the album NO BALL GAMES.©2020 Jacaranda RecordsStereo Mixhttps://youtu.be/dAThA9Dh7c4• Banned.Video: https://banned.video/channel/the-soul-trap• Rumble: https://rumble.com/c/TheSoulTrap • Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSoulTrap • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_soultrap/ • Website: https://www.thesoultrap.com/ • Podcast: https://thesoultrap.buzzsprout.com/Support the show

In Episode 1014 of Set Lusting Bruce Jesse welcomes a Musical secret agent man, its Hughes, Tim Hughes! From being a John Lennon Fan, to having a record collection to rival any record collection!! Tim has a story that you'll never forget! Tune in to hear all this and so much more as we enter the Musical M-I:6 that is Tim Hughes's love of music! This time only on Set Lusting Bruce!!! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Inventive Devo guitarist Bob Mothersbaugh belongs to one of the band's two sets of brothers and one set of Bobs. His older brother is Mark Mothersbaugh, and he was Bob 1 to the late Bob Casale's Bob 2, Gerald Casale's younger brother. Although Devo became known for synths, its debut was a piledriving guitar album with Bob 1's playing up front. Bob 1 also sang the “Secret Agent Man” cover, co-wrote key early songs and contributed memorable guitar parts even as sequencers took over. How did that feel? What was David Bowie's involvement with Devo? What dark impact did the success of “Whip It” have on Bob 1? Have Mark Mothersbaugh and Gerald Casale, who complained about his band co-founder on his earlier Caropop appearance, made peace? Does Devo still have a future?

In Episode 1014 of Set Lusting Bruce Jesse welcomes a Musical secret agent man, its Hughes, Tim Hughes! From being a John Lennon Fan, to having a record collection to rival any record collection!! Tim has a story that you'll never forget! Tune in to hear all this and so much more as we enter the Musical M-I:6 that is Tim Hughes's love of music! This time only on Set Lusting Bruce!!! https://dlaignite.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Miss Heard celebrates Season 4, Episode 193 with Johnny Rivers' “Secret Agent Man”. You will learn how Johnny Rivers got his name and what show this song was a theme song to. You can listen to all our episodes at our website at: https://pod.co/miss-heard-song-lyrics Or iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify and many more platforms under Podcast name “Miss Heard Song Lyrics” Don't forget to subscribe/rate/review to help our Podcast in the ratings. Please consider supporting our little podcast via Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/MissHeardSongLyrics or via PayPal at https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/MissHeardSongLyrics #missheardsonglyrics #missheardsongs #missheardlyrics #misheardsonglyrics #misheardsongs        #misheardlyrics #JohnnyRivers #SecretAgentMan #SecretAsianMan   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iaR3WO71j4 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_Agent_Man_(Johnny_Rivers_song) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Rivers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Freed https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payola

In this episode…Donna, Dr Adam, & Jered Cargman in conversation! In honor of Donna's husband's birthday, we are replaying our conversation from 2022 where Jered joined Donna and Dr Adam! Donna and Jered share memories of their first meeting in 1965 for Donna's high school Prom, as well as their reconnecting and courtship many years later. Jered also shares his memories of being in the band The Fantastic Baggys with lifelong friend and composer, P.F. Sloan ("Secret Agent Man").

PopaHALLics #97 "Secret Agent Man"A phone rings in the White House basement—a secret agent's in trouble! Do they call superspy Elvis Presley for help? Sorry - we're mashing two  very different shows, "The Night Agent" and the adult cartoon "Agent Elvis." We'll review those and the streamers "Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris," "Shadow and Bone," "Kill Boksoon," and the novels "A Little Life" and "Boo." A little more conversation, a little less action .... Streaming:"The Night Agent," Netflix. Last-minute twists and two attractive leads make this highly improbable 10-episode spy thriller strangely addictive."Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris," Amazon Prime. Your life's miserable, your husband died in World War II, but you too can find hope in a Christian Dior dress! "Shadow and Bone," Netflix. Season two of the fantasy series based on Leigh Bardugo's novels find good challenging evil in an elaborately built world. "Agent Elvis," Netflix.  In this gonzo animated series, the King underwent experiments during his Army days in Germany. Now, when he's not shooting up TVs, he's fighting bad guys like the Russkies and Charles Manson."Kill Boksoon," Netflix. In this Korean action drama, one of the world's most skilled assassins discovers parenting a teenager is more difficult than killing people. Well, duh.Books:" A Little Life," by Hanya Yanagihara. This improbable bestseller "depicts the everyday experience of living with trauma, chronic pain, and disability, demonstrating the inherent intersections with one another" (Wikipedia)."Boo," by Neil Smith.  In this imaginative young adult novel, a nerdy 13-year-old and his classmate die and wake up in n a bizarre version of heaven. When they learn they were the victims of a school shooting and the perp might be in heaven too, they go looking for "Gun Boy."

For more than 60 years, John Cale has continued to make exciting, challenging and culturally relevant music, including his most recent release, Mercy. Hosts Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot talk with the Velvet Underground legend about his new music, collaborations and legacy. Plus, the hosts share some of their favorite spy songs and bid farewell to jazz saxophonist Wayne Shorter.   Join our Facebook Group: https://bit.ly/3sivr9T Become a member on Patreon: https://bit.ly/3slWZvc Sign up for our newsletter: https://bit.ly/3eEvRnG Make a donation via PayPal: https://bit.ly/3dmt9lU Send us a Voice Memo: Desktop: bit.ly/2RyD5Ah  Mobile: sayhi.chat/soundops   Featured Songs: John Cale, "STORY OF BLOOD feat. Weyes Blood," Mercy, Double Six, 2023The Beatles, "With A Little Help From My Friends," Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Capitol, 1967John Cale, "EVERLASTING DAYS feat. Animal Collective," Mercy, Double Six, 2023John Cale, "MARILYN MONROE'S LEGS (beauty elsewhere) feat. Actress," Mercy, Double Six, 2023John Cale, "TIME STANDS STILL feat. Sylvan Esso," Mercy, Double Six, 2023John Cale, "NIGHT CRAWLING," Mercy, Double Six, 2023John Cale, "MOONSTRUCK (Nico's Song)," Mercy, Double Six, 2023The Velvet Underground and Nico, "Femme Fatale," The Velvet Underground & Nico, Verve, 1967The Velvet Underground and Nico, "I'm Waiting for the Man," The Velvet Underground & Nico, Verve, 1967John Cale, "Dying On the Vine (Fragments)," Artificial Intelligence, PVC, 1985John Cale, "MERCY," Mercy, Double Six, 2023Johnny Rivers, "Secret Agent Man," ...And I Know You Wanna Dance, Imperial, 1966Tony Allen, "Secret Agent," Secret Agent, World Circuit, 2009The Fugs, "CIA Man," Virgin Fugs, ESP-Disk, 1967Gene Vincent, "Private Detective (feat. The Shouts)," Private Detective (feat. The Shouts) (Single), Columbia, 1964Rockwell, "Somebody's Watching Me," Somebody's Watching Me, Motown, 1984The Untouchables, "I Spy (For the F.B.I.)," Wild Child, MCA, 1985Lori & The Chameleons, "The Lonely Spy," To the Shores of Lake Placid, Zoo, 1982Desmond Dekker & the Aces, "007 (Shanty Town)," Action!, Lagoon, 1968The dB's, "A Spy In the House of Love," Like This, Bearsville, 1984Big Boys, "Detectives," The Skinny Elvis, Touch and Go, 1993Steely Dan & Tom Scott, "Aja," Aja, ABC, 1977Wayne Shorter, "Speak No Evil," Speak No Evil, Blue Note, 1966Poster Children, "She Walks," Flower Plower, Limited Potential, 1989Support The Show: https://www.patreon.com/soundopinionsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/johnny-rivers-mn0000203639/biographyJohnny Rivers Biography by Bruce EderJohnny Rivers is a unique figure in the history of rock music. On the most obvious level, he was a rock star of the 1960s and a true rarity as a white American singer/guitarist who made a name for himself as a straight-ahead rock & roller during the middle of that decade. Just as important behind the scenes, his recordings and their success led to the launching, directly and indirectly, of at least three record labels and a dozen other careers whose influence extended into the 1970s, 1980s, and beyond. Rivers was very much a kindred spirit to figures like Buddy Holly and Ronnie Hawkins, with all of the verve and spirit of members of that first wave of rock & rollers. He had the misfortune of having been born a little too late to catch that wave, however, and took until the middle of the next decade to find his audience. Born John Henry Ramistella on November 7, 1942, in New York, his family moved to Baton Rouge, LA, in 1948, and it was there that his musical sensibilities were shaped. His father, who played the mandolin and guitar, introduced him to the guitar at an early age, and he proved a natural on the instrument. In 1957, he went to New York and wangled a meeting with Alan Freed, who was then the most influential disc jockey in the country. This led to a change of name, at Freed's suggestion, to the less ethnic, more American-mythic Johnny Rivers (which may also have been influenced by the fact that Elvis Presley had portrayed a character named "Deke Rivers" in the movie Loving You that same year), and to a series of single releases under his new name. Johnny Rivers' official recording debut took place with an original song, "Baby Come Back," on George Goldner's Gone Records label in 1958, arranged by renowned songwriter Otis Blackwell. Neither this number -- which sounds a lot like Elvis Presley's version of Blackwell's "Don't Be Cruel" -- nor any of Rivers' other early singles, recorded for Guyden, Cub, Era, or Chancellor, was successful. He made his living largely performing with the Spades and cutting demos of songs for Hill & Range, primarily in Elvis Presley's style. It was as a composer that Rivers experienced his first taste of success off of the stage, when a chance meeting with guitarist James Burton led to one of his songs, "I'll Make Believe," finding its way to Ricky Nelson and ending up on the album More Songs by Ricky....(read the whole article on  the Allmusic website)

Parody of "Secret Agent Man" by Johnny Rivers about George Santos. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/lawrence-ross9/message

This week we explore John 1:29-42, in which John the Baptist is told how he will recognize Jesus. How do we recognize him? To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Next Sunday's readings are here.

FALL PREVIEW ALERT! September 10-16, 1966 This week Ken welcomes author of the new book, Primetime 1966-1967: The Full Spectrum of Television's First All-Color Season, Thom Shubilla. Ken and Thom discuss Ken's slaughter of Thom's last name, Batman '66, knowing the Fall Preview well, the year TV was born, shaking off radio, Westerns, the first TV season everything was in color, classy Miller High Life ads making Ken and Thom want to drink, commissioned art, murals, Joe E. Ross, It's About Time, how The Moon Landing both ruined and improved sci-fi, Sherwood Schwartz, The Monkees, The Jackie Gleason Show, "The Lost" Honeymooners, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Get Smart!, Mission Impossible, Secret Agent Man, Patrick McGoohan, Hollywood Palace, Ed Sullivan, Ken's love of Robert Loggia, T.H.E. Cat, a show of all wacky neighbors, Lost in Space, being a Ginger or a Maryann, Bewitched, I Dream of Jeanie, the long terrifying decline of Lucy, that one episode of Route 66, Big Eye paintings, The Green Hornet, Occasional Wife, That Girl, poorly translated JFK triangles, Green Acres, the truth about nerve deafness, F Troop, loving Larry Storch, heists, Irwin Alan, Time Tunnel, hating Milton Berle, Paul Revere and the Raiders, Burt Reynolds as Hawk and not as Marlon Brando, Larry Cohen's Coronet Blue, needing satisfaction on a show, The Fugitive, and how absolutely awful the Tammy Grimes show was.

One this episode of the regular crew is joined by Clay's friend Ben Lagrone. They talk about child birth, Clay's new coonskin cap, and the mystery Bengal's fan wearing a Bear Grease hat on national television. Clay goes into detail of the untimely passing of best coonhound, Fern. Which leads Gary "Believer" Newcomb to tell a rogue story of how he rode motorcycles all over Vietnam dressed in disguise and ended up in a motorcycle wreck. The crew has a lively discussion about the final episode in the Secret Agent Man series where they discuss the brilliance of human instinct. Clay ends by clarifying his social media biff with Steve Rinella. It's heartwarming, and you're not going to want to miss it! Connect with Clay and MeatEater Clay on Instagram MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube Shop Bear Grease MerchSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is the third and final episode of our Secret Agent Man series with undercover Ohio Wildlife agent RT Stewart. In part one we learned about the big picture mechanics of undercover stings and how RT was a pioneer in the early 1990s for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. We learned that humans don't do well with chronic stress and discussed the personal toll placed on undercover agents and their families because of it, On this third episode we're going to hear about some close calls where RT was almost found out and explore the idea of human instinct, having a sixth sense, and how that compares with pure wit. Many believe decision making is purely based on observable data, but it sounds like some many subconscious decision making mechanisms are wired into our DNA. We'll hear again from Dr. Matthew Sharps of the University of California in Fresno and author, Chip Gross.  In this final episode of the series, we'll explore some of RT's best stories of how he handled trouble, and how he used an uncanny wit and intuition to de-escalate situations. Connect with Clay and MeatEater Clay on Instagram MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube Shop Bear Grease MerchSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this 2nd episode in our Secret Agent Man series we're going deep into the trenches of the darkside with undercover Ohio wildlife agent RT Stewart to get the full story on Operation Redbud, which at the time, was the largest turkey poaching sting in US history. RT is going to take us on a tour in the Poach Coach and we'll hear how he videoed over 100 illegal turkey kills in two springs. How would you like to see that on VHS tape? He'll talk about the incredible owl hooting of his number one target, and take us right into the courtroom where the defense lawyers tried to discredit his character with accusations regarding drugs and alcohol. We'll hear from Darth Vader, Bill Clinton and get the details of the coordinated bust involving 26 men and over 275 wildlife violations in Morgan County, Ohio. If you skip this story, you're just plain yeller. I really doubt you're gunna wanna miss this one. Connect with Clay and MeatEater Clay on Instagram MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube Shop Bear Grease MerchSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode, Clay is down in Oklahoma chasing whitetails in the heat of the rut, but finds some time to sit down with Bryan Jump, Sherry and Alvin Grigg, Dave Gardner, & Brian Ringles. They discuss the most recent episode, "Secret Agent Man," following real life undercover game warden R.T. Stewart. The crew also finds time to discuss people's strong opinions on equine hoof care, the finer points of hog hunting and plott hounds, and why law enforcement officers ask you to come sit in their car. This episode will have you asking for more, you're not going to want to miss those episode 2 spoilers that Clay can't keep himself from dropping.  Connect with Clay and MeatEater Clay on Instagram MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube Shop Bear Grease MerchSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of the Bear Grease Podcast, we're going deep undercover in the rough country of Southeast Ohio to learn about the secret lives of wildlife poachers AND the life of an undercover wildlife agent by the name of RT Stewart. He worked 18 years for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, and in the 1990s, was one of the lead agents on the largest turkey poaching sting in US history. He's a decorated law enforcement officer, known for going deep undercover – even years at a time -- and was willing to do whatever it took to bust outlaws. In his career, he never had a single one of his target suspects not be convicted of crimes. If the bad guys had known him, they'd have feared him, but they didn't, because he was a ghost. We'll hear from author Chip Gross, who wrote the book “Poachers Were My Prey” about Mr. Stewart and we'll interview Dr. Mathew Sharps of California State University, author of “Processing Under Pressure: Stress, Memory, and Decision Making in Law Enforcement” about the psychology of undercover agents, and the personal cost that comes with living a lie. In this first episode of the series, we'll meet RT and he'll show the life of undercover agent – on part 2 – you'll hear about his biggest undercover job. You'll laugh, you'll be intrigued, and you'll cry on this one boys. We really doubt you're going to want to miss this one… Connect with Clay and MeatEater Clay on Instagram MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube Shop Bear Grease MerchSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I was reflecting on how important The Superjesus were to the 'scene' in the 90s and then reinventing themselves with an incredibly polished sound after 2000. Gravity, Down Again, Saturation, then later Enough to know and Secret Agent Man. It's so exciting to hear the news they are returning with new music in 2023. Sarah during the pandemic made a huge change in her life and moved to Brisbane - a new start right in the middle of lockdowns (and a week in a quarantine hotel!). These days she's balancing her life of rock n roll with acting, starring in 'Jane Eyre' as it tours around the country. I'm proud to say she's a mate, and always a great chat. The is Sarah McLeod, on The Rider with Becko

Tim Weiner is a national security journalist who made six reporting tours running with the muj in Afghanistan, 1987 (Soviet occupation) to 2001 (American occupation) and war/conflict/crisis reporting from Sudan, Pakistan, Liberia, Haiti, and the Philippines. He won the Pulitzer Prize for reporting on secret CIA/DOD programs and National Book Award for LEGACY OF ASHES. Signature song as rock and roll band leader: "Secret Agent Man." He is also the author of Enemies: The History of the FBI and The Folly and Glory. Legacy of Ashes can be found at: https://www.amazon.com/Legacy-Ashes-History-Tim-Weiner/dp/0307389006/ Today's sponsor: BUB's Naturals  https://www.BUBSNATURALS.com/ Use the code "TEAMHOUSE" for 20% your order! Pick up their collagen protein, MCT oil, and apple cider vinegar gummies today! BUBS Donates 10% of all profits to charity in Glens honor, starting with the Glen Doherty Memorial Foundation GO TO: https://www.BUBSNATURALS.com/?discount=TEAMHOUSE  or Use the code "TEAMHOUSE" at checkout for 20% off your order! FEEL GREAT. DO GOOD. Words that we live by. To help support the show and for all bonus content including: -2 bonus episodes per month  -Access to ALL bonus segments with our guests -Ad Free audio feed Subscribe to our Patreon!

Tim Weiner is a national security journalist who made six reporting tours running with the muj in Afghanistan, 1987 (Soviet occupation) to 2001 (American occupation) and war/conflict/crisis reporting from Sudan, Pakistan, Liberia, Haiti, and the Philippines. He won the Pulitzer Prize for reporting on secret CIA/DOD programs and National Book Award for LEGACY OF ASHES. Signature song as rock and roll band leader: "Secret Agent Man." He is also the author of Enemies: The History of the FBI and The Folly and Glory.Legacy of Ashes can be found at: https://www.amazon.com/Legacy-Ashes-History-Tim-Weiner/dp/0307389006/Today's sponsor:BUB's Naturals https://www.BUBSNATURALS.com/Use the code "TEAMHOUSE" for 20% your order!Pick up their collagen protein, MCT oil, and apple cider vinegar gummies today!BUBS Donates 10% of all profits to charity in Glens honor, starting with the Glen Doherty Memorial FoundationGO TO:https://www.BUBSNATURALS.com/?discount=TEAMHOUSE orUse the code "TEAMHOUSE" at checkout for 20% off your order!FEEL GREAT. DO GOOD. Words that we live by.To help support the show and for all bonus content including:-2 bonus episodes per month -Access to ALL bonus segments with our guests-Ad Free audio feedSubscribe to our Patreon!

Devo starts this with Jerkin' Back and Forth, Whip it, Gates Of Steel, Freedom Of Choice, (I Can't Ge No) Satisfaction, Secret Agent Man, Uncontrollable Urge, and Clock Out, the Ramones come in with Rockaway Beach, Blitzkrieg Bop, Here Today Gone Tomorrow, Sheena Is a Punk Rocker, California Sun, Do You Wanna Dance, Rock' n' Roll High School, Today The World Tomorrow The World, I Wanna Be A Good Boy, I Wanna Be Sedated, Judy Is A Punk, Lets Dance and Were A Happy Family.

  Aaron and Seamus discuss the deep state personage of James McCord and related issues from Jim Hougan's masterpiece, Secret Agenda: Watergate, Deep Throat, and the CIA. Special thanks to Seamus McGuinness for the episode art and Dana Chavarria for the sound engineering! Music: "Til the Mornin" by Mock Orange Aaron and Seamus discuss the deep state personage of James McCord and related issues from Jim Hougan's masterpiece, Secret Agenda: Watergate, Deep Throat, and the CIA. Special thanks to Seamus McGuinness for the episode art and Dana Chavarria for the sound engineering! Music: "Til the Mornin" by Mock Orange

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

Tommy, Dom, and Jeff talk about Freddie Freeman giving his now former agent the boot! The early Cy Young candidates are showing off their stuff as Sandy Alcantara throws a complete game. And could there be an enforceable pitch clock by 2024??

Welcome to Screaming Through the Ages where you can get your bi-weekly fix of a topic relating to the history and legacy of horror movies. In this episode I continue my chapter on Alfred Hitchcock up to 1950 by talking about his time at British International Pictures and Gaumont British. I cover The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), The 39 Steps (1935) and Sabotage (1936). You can follow the podcast on Twitter @ScreamingAges You can also join the Screaming Through the Ages Facebook group and interact with all the cool people there Please leave a review over on iTunes or your favorite podcast service and subscribe if you're enjoying the show. You can leave a voicemail for the show at (740) 297-6556. You can send an email to screamingthroughtheages@yahoo.com The show's official website is screamingthroughtheages.com Opening Track by https://pixabay.com/users/defekt_maschine-14798912/?tab=audio&utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=audio&utm_content=8411 (ipsyduckk) from https://pixabay.com/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=music&utm_content=8411 (Pixabay) Closing Track by https://pixabay.com/users/gioelefazzeri-16466931/?tab=audio&utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=audio&utm_content=1987 (GioeleFazzeri) from https://pixabay.com/music/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=music&utm_content=1987 (Pixabay)

Kenneth Earl is a retired Navy Master Chief Cryptologist who served 21 years in the Navy. He is a cybersecurity strategist with extensive federal government and military experience. Kenneth is also the author of ‘Illegitimate Sun: How a Naval Cryptologist Cracked the Code of Life Lessons' which tells his humble beginnings as a person of color in the Deep South to a career in international espionage. In this episode, Kenneth shares his inspiring story and several life lessons you can use to overcome challenges and live your dreams.   Talking Points: Cryptology and its importance in modern warfare How his mother inspired him to achieve his greatest potential in life. Life in the covert departments of the military Why buying a house isn't always the best financial decision   Quotes: “No matter what you do in life, no one can beat you at being you.” “When you think about the past, that brings depression. When you think about the future, it brings anxiety. When you think about the present, that's where your freedom is.” “The unexamined life is not worth living”   Find out more about Kenneth Earl: www.illegitimate-sun.com

I'm Bruce Hilliard, born in Seattle and raised by wolves and gorillas in a small timber town called Aberdeen Washington. Not Aberdeen Scotland, Maryland, South Dakota or any of the others. The Aberdeen that's best known for logging, fishing and mills. It has a huge correctional facility, more than their share of the homeless population and dead end thinking…and musicians. There was and always will be music in River City. I'm hopelessly hopeful.  I became interested in the singer/songwriter entertainment industry before kindergarten. It was the musical fun in black and white on the Mickey Mouse Club TV show. You know, with Annette, Cubby and Darlene. Not the Britney Spears/Justin Timberlake era. Back in the 60s the number one goal for most of my friends was to either go to Disneyland or tell me about it…what an awesome time they had while they were there. The Hilliards were never going to go to the happiest place on earth so when I was 10 I broke into my life savings and reallocated my Disneyland funds toward the purchase of an electric guitar. I learned Secret Agent Man, Gloria, blues, Led Zeppelin and how to make up my own songs. I've written over 100 songs and would really like to share a few of them with you tonight. Kerri is about a small town girl meeting a small town boy, on bicycles, on a sunny summer day and Kerri announcing to the world “someday I'll marry that boy.” If it sounds like it could be a true story, it is. Well 50 years and 6 children later…Kerri and Bill are still a small town girl and a small town boy. Sweetest Thing I've Ever Known Have you ever had a time when you looked at someone, or a situation or even a relationship of someone elses and said “That's so cool and can I please have some?” This is about relationships. Relationships may be the sweetest most precious thing in the world. The troubadour in this lyric wants one but all he has in exchange is one song for the sweetest thing I've ever known. Kaleidoscope Heart is my wonderful world of color song. I wrote it as a thank you for my photography and wardrobe. Most of the promotional photos you see are from the very photo session this song is about. I used color names from Home Depot paint for this “xanadu, limousine leather and melody” list of paint color names.  Roses and Strawberry Rain was inspired by a friend, now grown and a mother of two, that played with Little Ponies…the toy Little Ponies. I took the reign and made up a story about a little girl playing pretend with her hero and champion race horse, Strawberry Rain. Strawberry Rain wins the roses at the Kentucky Derby (or wherever little girls bet on horses). California For the young and hopeful, LA is the promised land. Once there was this young beautiful girl that let it be known that she was moving to California, broke everything off with her boyfriend who is pretending not to care…or does he? I'm Going Home was a song I wrote while remembering the days when I had a couple bucks in my pocket and a half a tank of gas, a hot sunny day on an ocean road and a crappy radio that sounded like a million bucks when it played the good songs.

On Episode 6 of the BFG we talk with one of the youngest members of our Discord who also happens to hail from the far East! Agent10132 stops in to talk Fanta soda, his school's ESports club, and the Batman: Arkham series! Check his links below and drop this kid all the follows! Intro- 0:30 Beers- 1:32 Friends- 5:16 Games- 17:20 Outro- 49:19 Agent's Links— Twitch: http://twitch.tv/agent10132 Discord: https://discord.gg/fJQsjv45KW Twitter: https://twitter.com/agent10132 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/agent10132/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgejXCv3ueOtrP9Xul3HlMQ ESports Club IG: https://www.instagram.com/sjcesportsclub/ ESports Club YT: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC82x-t6TDMocEmChFkKx7sg Fanta: https://www.fanta.com/ Come Find Me— Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/hertel3k Discord: https://discord.gg/6HeRjNn4sY Twitch: https://twitch.tv/hertel3k YouTube: https://youtube.com/hertel3k Twitter: https://twitter.com/hertel3k Instagram: https://instagram.com/hertel3k Xbox Gamertag: hertel3k Special Thanks— Krazy_1813: https://www.twitch.tv/krazy_1813 Discord Mods— TheTh3rdWill: https://twitch.tv/theth3rdwill Bert: https://www.twitch.tv/blindmiragettv ElmmerFuddGames: https://twitch.tv/elmmerfuddgames Khromazel Patreon Supporters: Joshua Brouse, WhiskeyStixx, thesobeRNurse, BreezIF, PrismSchism

In this latest theme episode, we surveil three songs by sneaky guys from two different Cold War eras. First, we stake out “Secret Agent Man” -- the 1966 hit by Johnny Rivers (1:54). Wherein he reveals the lonely but glamorous life of a spook, and we decode the spy scene and sound of the 60s. It's a surf-spy-hootenanny! Our next asset is “Wild Angel” by James Bond and the Agents (54:55): not about the spy game per se, but the band's alias is apropos, so let's go!. This “Back From the Grave” classic features fuzz, great backing vocals, fuzz, clanging percussion, a cool solo, fuzz, and lyrics that reverse garage tropes. Is it a honeytrap? Then, a communique from the 80s arrives in the guise of “A View To a Kill” by Duran Duran (1:25:55).  An actual Bond theme, and we read the dossier on the band and relive the famous sour note sung by Simon Le Bon in 1985. Get shaken, not stirred!

The Swingin' '60s Summer Series continues with "Danger Man," the 1960 Patrick McGoohan-starring precursor to the sci-fi classic "The Prisoner." It is also known for the theme song "Secret Agent Man." The Spy-Fi Guys watched two episodes: "Josetta" and "Whatever Happened to George Foster?" Does this series hold up? Tune in to find out. You can find the Spy-Fi Guys at the following social media links: https://www.facebook.com/thespyfiguys/

Check out our recorded livestreams over at https://youtube.com/channel/UCIio-XgcbsKcdPRaljufXYQ! Welcome to Episode 52: Secret Agent Man! This week's Geek Question of the Day is: If you became a secret agent/spy, what strategy would you use to hide your identity while under cover?  In our Roll for Credits segment, we review the fascinating 2018 Spy biopic, The Catcher Was A Spy, Starring Paul Rudd, Jeff Daniels, Mark Strong, Guy Pearce, and Paul Giamatti! I love movie plots that are so outlandish to almost be unbelievable... but are TRUE. You're not gonna believe this Moe Berg guy... And as always, geekery, video games, and chickens.   Thanks for listening, and hit us up on Twitter for your thoughts on the episode! Come watch a livestream of the podcast every Friday at 8:00 pm EST at https://www.twitch.tv/genepoolvarietyhour! Sean also streams old guys gaming after the podcast starting at 10:00pm after the podcast stream.  Hope to see you there! Oh, and we know all the Twitters! Gene Pool Variety Hour on Twitter at @GPVarietyHour... Sean: Headgamer on XBox Live @headgamer on Twitter @head_gamer on Twitch Connor: QuillMiester on Xbox Live @QuillMiester on Twitter @QuillMiester on Twitch

Remember the song from the ‘60s, “Secret Agent Man” with Johnny Rivers? The opening chorus went like this…I can't sing, so I'll just read the lyrics…you're welcome…There's a man who leads a life of dangerTo everyone he meets he stays a strangerOh, with every move he makes another chance he takesThe odds are he won't live to see tomorrowSecret Agent ManSecret Agent ManWell, looks like Russia has its own secret agent right here in the United States, and for four years he occupied the highest, most powerful seat in the land.His name was Donald J. Trump, and he had a lot of help from certain segments of the media in accomplishing his mission on behalf of Vladimir Putin.Take a listen to “Putin's Man in America” from Not Fake News.biz.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-lean-to-the-left-podcast--4719048/support.

In this episode your two favorite non-cat owning friends take a deep dive into the life of Lee Harvey Oswald and discuss the theory that Lee Harvey Oswald had secret double intelligence operative.

Follow us on Twitter and Instagram and don't forget to check out our Good Reads!You can also email us at thephoenixnestpod@gmail.com.The ladies of The Phoenix Nest would like to remind you to shop independent! Follow the link to shop our favorite local independent bookstore, Mostly Books!