Podcasts about while mike

Summary by Peyton Smith Hour 1, segment 1- Free healthcare....yay! Federal legislation is set to increase the number of assisted deaths in Canada, or MAiD.The ghoulishness of bill C-7.7,595 Canadian's had their lives ended in 2020. The only blame should be toward the medical system and the beurocracy.But people still trust this death machine.When therapy fails and screws up patients lives, in comes the angel of death.That's free healthcare, with all it's sick dark motives.Mike goes through all the horrible details in full.Absolutely stunning analysis and commentary. https://americanuckradio.com/breaking-news/doctors-helped-record-number-of-canadians-die/-------------------Hour 1, segment 2:- Mike gets this segment rolling with a story about his wife, and a skin condition she had.While Mike consulted with Dr Glidden about his wife's condition, he prayed to Jesus for her healing...and within a few days her condition was healed!How great thou art!-----------------(AUDIO)Mike discusses a weapons grade stupid Radio talk show host, Mike Graham.Weaponizing child sex abuse in a petty online dispute is among more than a few of his more idiotic moves.He is also a racist, through and through.Mike goes into the details.-------------------Radio hosts that do this sort of thing eventually get their just rewards, as the example of Ryan Jesperson demonstrates.--------------------(AUDIO)Larry Elder is running in the California gubernatorial recall election.This is a good thing, as Mike explains.His campaign refers to him as the "Sage From South Central "How will the left try and take him down?Will anything they try work?Mike gets into all the excitement in full.----------------Bruce Jenner showed up at CPAC, only to find out that he isn't truly loved.Hate the sin, but love the sinner, for it is only the grace of God that can salvage a person from such madness.No deals with the devil for the GOP. It just can't be done. Let us pray that they are toughening up and are primed to reject such perversity.https://americanuckradio.com/current-events/transphobic-abuse-hurled-at-caitlyn-jenner-at-cpac-conference-called-a-sick-freak-and-deadnamed/-------------------Enjoy all this, and more, in an exciting hour 1 from Mike.Hour 2, segment 1:-The Church of England apologizes for medieval expulsion of Jews, in an act of repentance.How nice.Since when does anybody announce an apology ahead of time?Is anybody alive who was responsible?Hardly.Mike unravels it all.https://americanuckradio.com/current-events/church-of-england-to-apologise-for-medieval-expulsion-of-jews/-----------------Greg Abbott says Democrats will be arrested upon their return to the lone star state.This is how government should work.Kudos to Governor Abbott. Lock the cowards up!https://americanuckradio.com/current-events/abbott-says-democratic-lawmakers-will-be-arrested-when-they-return-to-texas/----------‐------(AUDIO) University of Oxford is experimenting with a new HIV vaccine.Mike explains and analyzes this "stunner."https://americanuckradio.com/current-events/oxford-university-researchers-start-trial-for-hiv-vaccine/------------------President Trump releases letter from U.S. attorney who claimed AG Barr told him not to investigate the 2020 election results in Pennsylvania.Mike dissects this very interesting letter, and development in the continuing saga of the 2020 election.https://americanuckradio.com/breaking-news/breaking-president-trump-releases-letter-from-us-attorney-who-claimed-ag-barr-told-him-not-to-investigate-the-2020-election-results-in-pennsylvania/------------------Hour 2, segment 2:- Americanuck Radio was very proud to have our friend, brother, and Calgary Mayoral candidate Kevin J. Johnston back on the program.Kevin has been released from his illegal incarceration, and he's not backing down...not in the least!As much as Canada doesn't deserve him, he won't stop going forward.Kevin explains that he was put in a maximum security prison, ostensibly for assaulting AHS employees.The real reason is more to the fact that he was polling at the top of the heap in the Calgary Mayoral race.It's been a long time coming, but at last Kevin can explain exactly what happened in as much detail possible.Enjoy this exciting reunion conversation between Mike and Kevin in full!Keep up with Kevin's work below:http://www.FreedomReport.cahttps://l.instagram.com/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.kevinjjohnston.me%2F&e=ATMYmjI5HLdB89YAjfvroz6iDyJXFncSJXurBiNGoUKRRtuXGbw-hO53Yv0Rd1kf4ouYHVLN57v29bjb&s=1

Tony Covino is one part of  In Theory” an upcoming shape-shifting rock blues band, a collaborative group with two key players—Mike Mostert and Tony Covino.  While Mike plays guitar  and produces all the band’s songs, Tony is ‘the voice’ of In theory, The voice with somber despair and resounding rage, reminiscent of Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell. Mike and Tony were signed EMI artists in an earlier life and together have writer/singer/guitarist and producer credits on twenty different HBO, Showtime and NBC TV shows and movies. I caught up with Tony from his house in NY and we spoke about In Theory, The 2 new singles, The river and heroes, The legend of Muscle Shoals, Songwriting and a whole lot more. 

Full Episode Blog: Interviewing The Owner of the #1 Volume Mitsubishi Dealer In The US Are you looking for the best car sales tips to help you sell more cars, hold more gross, and make more money?  The top sales associates not only market and sell themselves, but they also sell cars in service. With the right automotive sales training, branding, subprime & special finance deals, and the service drive are the best ways to do so. The Millionaire Car Salesman Podcast Presents: Interviewing The Owner of the #1 Volume Mitsubishi Dealer In The US This week, the Millionaire Car Salesman Podcast focuses on exactly that.  Sean V. Bradley and L.A. Williams talk to the owner of the #1 volume Mitsubishi dealership in the US.  Mike Dorazio built his automotive empire on those principles.  With proper automotive sales training, branding, and focusing on special finance, Mike has made waves in the automotive industry. About Mike Dorazio Mike Dorazio is the owner of Platinum Central Pennsylvania.  Mike started Platinum eight years ago with one employee on a 35 car lot.  Since then, he has grown from the 13 cars he sold each month.  Now, Mike has grown Platinum to four locations and sells over 400 cars each month.   Mike, a veteran of the United States Marine Corps, started selling cars when he left the service.  Quickly working his way up, he was eventually recruited to another store.  And, at the age of 32, Mike became the GM of a car dealership.  Mike also spent a short stint as a partner of a Ford dealership before leaving the industry completely to work on the banking side of the auto industry.  Mike spent almost 10 years working for Westlake Financial before taking the leap and become an owner of a car dealership. While Mike has experienced tremendous growth, he isn’t slowing down.  Mike has plans on adding a 5th location in the near future.  He believes that while he has had many accomplishments, they are in the past.   Simply put, he is looking for many more accomplishments in the future. Show Notes: Car Sales Tips #1: Automotive Sales Training & Education Is Important You have to constantly educate yourself.  Additionally, you must surround yourself with the right knowledge, education, and people.  You are not the smartest person in the room.  And, once you understand that, then you have to learn.   Mike does not consider himself anywhere near the smartest person in the room.  He has had many accomplishments, but those are behind him.  In order to have more accomplishments, Mike knows he has to continue to educate himself and surround himself with the people who will make him better. The moment you think you know everything.  The minute you have a closed mind.  When you start thinking you know it all and become a dictator.  That is when you will start to fail. Car Sales Tips #2: Branding – You Have To Market Yourself Learn as much as you can possibly learn.  Additionally, absorb everything you can possibly absorb.  Additionally, look at yourself as an industry.  Mike tells his team all the time to push yourself on social media.  He started this company with 35 cars.  He was heavy on social media and promoted himself and he now sells over 400 cars per month.  If every sales person marketed themselves in that fashion, that they are the brand, they would sell more cars. Car Sales Tips #3: Do Not Let Your Surroundings Affect You Do not get affected by your surroundings.  Bad managers, bad operations, bad inventory, bad situations, they can all easily affect you.  However, you must not let it get to you.  Sales associates do not need to rely on any of this.  They only need to rely on themselves.  Especially if they are their own brand.  Car Sales Tip #4: Build Leverage Through Your Brand Building your brand will give you leverage.  You are building leverage with everyone around you.  But, you have to also bring that leverage with you.  When you come to the table, bring that leverage.   If you are renegotiating your pay plan, bring that leverage with you.  Also, if you are in a job interview, bring that leverage with you.  Most importantly, if there is something happening at work that you don’t like, bring that leverage with you.   If you want to get to the next level, you need to have a brand and leverage.  Whether you want to become a GSM, GM, owner, or dealer group owner, this is where it all starts. Working the Service Drive is One of The Best Car Sales Tips! You Need to Sell Cars in Service NADA says that service customers are 7 times more likely to purchase a vehicle from the same place they service their car at.  The problem is that sales associates do not see it as an opportunity.  Not only is it an opportunity to build a relationship, but it will eventually turn into a sale.  People need to shift their mind on the way they approach a customer.  It needs to be a relationship based approach. The Benefits of The Service Drive is About Relationships The benefit is the relationship is going to lead the customer into buying a car off of you.  Offer service customers a cup of coffee or a bottle of water.  Also, ask them about their car.  “I see you are driving a 2018 Outlander.  Have you seen the new 22 Outlander.  I am not trying to sell you one, but did you want to come sit in one.  They just came out.” The Service Drive is About Relationships A lot of times the sales department separates themselves completely from service.  Ultimately, it means the sales department is ignoring the customers that are seven times more likely to buy from you.  Ignoring the service department is a mistake that will prevent everyone from selling more cars. It’s not just ignoring the customer relationship either.  If you want to be a great sales associate, service is your biggest resource.  The stronger your relationship with the service department employees, the people having contact with the customer, the more opportunities you will have. Special Finance & Subprime Deals is Another One of The Best Car Sales Tips! You Don’t Have To Sell Price Everyone today is in the price game; the race to the bottom.  However, the niche that is not being taken care of is subprime.  This is where the most opportunity lies.  Not just for growth, but also for gross profit. Special Finance Deals Take Work, But Subprime Customers Are The Best Why is the subprime market not a primary focus at other dealerships?  Because it is hard.  Everyone wants the easy deal.  Additionally, they do not want the “nightmare” subprime deal.  However, anything worthwhile in life is hard.  The same is true in the automotive industry. The hard deals.  The ones you have to grind out to get done.  Those are the best deals.  Not only in the gross profit on that particular deal though.  But also with acquiring the most loyal customers.   The loyalty and gratitude from subprime customers after taking them through that journey is significantly greater than prime customers.  Moreover, they will be the biggest advocates of the dealership, referring everyone they know to you. Special Finance Customers Do Not Mean Special Treatment Mike’s whole business was built upon the subprime market.  They always go to Platinum for their vehicle needs.  Essentially, Mike and his staff treat all customers the same.  From 380 credit scores to 800 credit scores, everyone receives the same treatment. Other dealerships treat subprime customers as “second rate” customers.   Additionally, other dealerships will broom them off the lot.  They won’t follow up with them.  Nor will they call them back.  This further drives Platinum’s repeat customer and referral sales. More About the Millionaire Car Salesman Podcast's Hosts & Guests   Sean V Bradley | L.A. Williams | Mike Dorazio    Resources For More Car Sales Tips & Automotive Sales Training Dealer Synergy & Bradley On Demand: The Automotive Industry’s #1 Training, Tracking, Testing, and Certification Platform and Consulting & Accountability Firm The Millionaire Car Salesman Podcast: is the #1 Resource for Automotive Sales Professionals, Managers, and Owners.  Also, join The Millionaire Car Salesman Facebook Group today! The Against All Odds Radio Show: Hosting guests that have started from the bottom and rose to the top.  Also, join The Against All Odds Radio Show Guests & Listeners Facebook Group for the podcasted episodes. Join The Millionaire Car Salesman Club: on Clubhouse Win the Game of Googleopoly: Unlocking the Secret Strategy of Search Engines The Millionaire Car Salesman Podcast is Proudly Sponsored By: VinCue: In addition to be built by dealers for dealers, VinCue is an All-In-One Digital Platform.  At the end of the day, it can help your Dealership! AutoWeb: Visit AutoWeb.com/dealers for help in revolutionizing your business to help you sell more cars. Dealer eProcess: Specializing in responsive websites.  Without a doubt, DealereProcess.com is the auto industry’s leading custom website provider. CarNow: Sell more cars now!  Not only is CarNow.com. the market leader in tailored digital solutions, but they are built to help dealers sell more cars.

We did it! We made it to episode 100! To celebrate this momentous occasion Mike Noe rejoins the podcast to discuss the major changes that have taken place at the shop. So, say hello to Muddy Monster Comics and Collectibles. While Mike is on, we take a few minutes to discuss the major announcement of Marvel moving their distribution to Penguin Random House. Then, to put a bow on the 100th episode of the podcast, we each reminisce about a favorite issue 100. So, join the fun and be sure to congratulate Mike Noe on the store changes!

And now we're back to talking about the women of Trek! This week, we take somewhat of a meandering stroll through "Scorpion" and "Endgame," and examine two of Voyager's key female characters, Captain Janeway and Seven of Nine. While Mike and Johnson don't have the emotional connection to Voyager as they do TNG and DS9, they discuss their appreciation for these two characters, and how they've come to represent strong women in Star Trek lore. Mike then expresses his unbridled excitement at the prospect of talking about Enterprise next week. We would love to hear from you! You can reach us by emailing deepspacepride@gmail.com - drop us a note, comment, or question. Just don't be mean - though if you are, we might ignore you! You can also check us out on social media, which we promise to update once in a while: - Instagram: @deepspacepride - Twitter: @deepspacepride

And now we're back to talking about the women of Trek! This week, we take somewhat of a meandering stroll through "Scorpion" and "Endgame," and examine two of Voyager's key female characters, Captain Janeway and Seven of Nine. While Mike and Johnson don't have the emotional connection to Voyager as they do TNG and DS9, they discuss their appreciation for these two characters, and how they've come to represent strong women in Star Trek lore. Mike then expresses his unbridled excitement at the prospect of talking about Enterprise next week. We would love to hear from you! You can reach us by emailing deepspacepride@gmail.com - drop us a note, comment, or question. Just don't be mean - though if you are, we might ignore you! You can also check us out on social media, which we promise to update once in a while: - Instagram: @deepspacepride - Twitter: @deepspacepride

As we end the third quarter of the first trimester of the year, amid more poor sound quality for Mike, the Morning JaM assess their resolution objectives to see if they have achieved their KPIs. SPOILER: They haven't. Meanwhile, Jon is potentially taking an IQ test whilst Mike remembers his IQ wasn't enough to get him a job at B&Q. While Mike celebrates lockdown but bemoans people who still can't wear their facemasks quite right, Jon lets us all know about a little something that makes each and every one of us unique. Mike is living in London and is riddled with anxiety. Jon is living in Sydney and has a robust amount of self-confidence. Together, they are....the Morning JaM. The Morning JaM would love it if you contact them at hello@morningjam.co.uk, please let us know whether you think Jon should be taking other people's IQ tests and if you'd hire Mike. He will work for all currencies as long as it can be exchanged for Dogecoin. Thank you for listening! Theme tune is sampled from Walking Back to El Paso from texasradiofish

What does it mean to grieve the Holy Spirit? While Mike isn't terribly certain, he presents some challenging ideas. Some of those ideas come from what we talked about last week, which are the verses that precede this verse. Others may include those in the verses following.    Do you examine yourself to see if you line up with the will of God? Every place we miss the mark may be a place where we grieve the Holy Spirit, especially when we know better. Our problems often aren't that we don't know what to do. Rather we don't do what we know. Ask God to show you today how you can cooperate with as he works in the life of every person you know. What can you give away today that put you on mission with the Holy Spirit? What can you do to be more like Jesus?    Listen to God? Get to know Jesus better in the word of God and by attending a church. Everything we do to grow our knowledge of Jesus, seeking his wisdom can be used by Jesus to make himself known to others. Our job is to help others move one notch closer to Jesus.   And don't forget, if you'd like to practice, sign up now for our next Marketplace Mission Trip. You can find out more and sign up at MarketplaceMissionTrip.com. 

The jaBROnis are back with a jaBROni missing in action! While Mike is off in Morocco filming a movie, Topher jumped in the studio as a lonely jaBROni. Toph runs down the past week in wrestling, gives his thoughts and also gives out his jaBROni of the week! Follow the jaBROnis on Twitter   Subscribe to the jaBROnis on all podcast providers!     the jaBROnis is AVAILABLE on Spotify! Please RATE, REVIEW & SUBSCRIBE to us on Apple Podcasts   BODYSLAM.NET Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/YouTube  

In this episode meet Karen Lichey Usry, 1999 Gymnast of the Year! The story of her and her husband Mike Usry, former UGA football player, is one of love, athletics, 2 national championships, 1 touchdown, and a family of 4. Karin Lichey Usry is a former GymDog from 1996-1999 and was part of the undefeated and national champion 1998 and 1999 teams. In her days as a collegiate gymnast, she was the SEC Freshman of the Year in 1996 and the Gymnast of the Year in 1999, and the She won the Honda Sports Award as the nation's top gymnast in 1999. She earned first-team All-America certificates in all five categories 1998 and 1999 and earned a total of 11 All-America awards in her career. And she belongs to a very special club with a membership total of 1 – she is the only collegiate gymnast to have ever scored a perfect 40.0 in the all-around, meaning she scored a perfect 10 in the floor, vault, bars, and beam.3On Mike’s collegiate career: Mike Usry was a UGA football player, a quarterback. He was a highly recruited QB out of high school. Once he got to UGA, he was always the first one in the gym and worked hard to be at the top of his game. However, he was there at a time when Mike Bobo was the QB and later Quincy Carter, who had been a baseball player. While Mike did not get tons of time on the field, the moments that he had were memorable, which included a huge clutch play wherein he passed the ball to fullback Patrick Pass (a future eight-year NFL player) who ran the ball 40 yards for a touchdown!On how Karin met Mike: Before there was texting and iPhones, Karin and Mike were introduced thru mutual friends at a bowling alley in Athens. After they met, with a little courage and a landline (yes a real telephone!), Karin called Mike…and the rest was history!33N83W is a podcast curated for the alumni and fans of the University of Georgia. It’s my mission with every episode to remind you of all the reasons why you can be proud to be a bulldawg! I do this every episode by introducing you to the alumni and people who have made a difference and continue to inspire us. Listen to 33N83W on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, iHeartRadio, and Spreaker.

COVER YOUR ASP WEEK was a great success! Thank you to all the sponsors that helped make it happen: Title sponsor US Lawshield, CCW USA, SEAL1, Leadslingers Whiskey, GlockStore, Academi, Magpul, Shakespeare Pub, and Hyve Technologies! Thank you also to all the people that supported and participated in the event! While Mike and Joe are attending a CCW Conference, Wendy Hauffen hosts the show! Brad Premo, founder of Leadslingers Whiskey joins the show to share how he started the company and how to properly enjoy a whiskey. https://leadslingerswhiskey.com/ Beth Alcazar from USCCA and The Well Armed Woman joins the show to talk about Ambassador Academy and the DC Project. https://www.dcproject.info/ What kind of firearm does a well-armed woman carry?  Learn more about Wendy's Sig P238. COVER YOUR ASP WEEK has finally happened!  Learn more about how it went with Wendy & Dave! https://www.gunownersradio.com/cover-your-asp-week/ STUMP MY NEPHEW: Herb from University City asks: What is the Sig Sauer System (referring to their innovative action design on their 1975 P220)? MIKE DROP (by Wendy Hauffen): The Apathetic Activist -- The right to self-defense is a basic human right. Gun ownership is an integral part of that right. If you want to keep your rights defend them by joining San Diego County Gun Owners (SDCGO),  Orange County Gun Owners (OCGO) in Orange County, San Bernardino County Gun Owners (SBCGO) in San Bernardino County or Riverside County Gun Owners (RCGO) in Riverside. Support the cause by listening to Gun Owners Radio live on Sunday afternoon or on the internet at your leisure Join the fight and help us restore and preserve our second amendment rights. Together we will win. https://www.sandiegocountygunowners.com https://orangecountygunowners.com/ https://sanbernardinocountygunowners.org/ https://riversidecountygunowners.com/ https://www.firearmspolicy.org/ https://www.gunownersca.com/ https://gunowners.org Show your support for Gun Owners Radio sponsors! https://www.primeres.com/alpine https://dillonlawgp.com https://www.uslawshield.com https://www.seal1.net https://www.nationalconcealedcarryassociation.com https://www.blackhoundoptics.com

11.10: Omni Buses Omniverse In which Kris gives off school shooting vibes and brings the Powerpuff Girls to life. While Mike is confused by bounty hunter circus workers and contemplates the future. On The Buses mythology is explored, vintage emails are dispensed, while Solar Opposites and Raya and the Last Dragon are reviewed - All with a Manimal amount of insults. *Show first broadcast on Wed 10th March 2021 All recordings are issued under official license from Fab Radio International.

11.07: A Funny Thing Happened To Han Solo In Carbonite In which Kris gives his new plague mask a test drive and questions whether the mighty QT is really down with Direct Line? While Mike defends his Ray-Ban tweets and fall foul of some Ren & Stimpy style dentistry. Animated Gremlins and Mountain Dew trigger deep discussions, the Columnist is reviewed, Anything For Jackson is recommended, and Quackser Fortune does indeed, have a cousin in the Bronx. *Show first broadcast on Wed 17th February 2021 All recordings are issued under official license from Fab Radio International.

In this episode, I had the pleasure of having Mike Zeller talk to me about all things entrepreneurship and finding your purpose in life. If you're stuck and don't know where you should go from here, this episode is definitely for you. Mike Zeller helps high achievers uncover and pursue their life's work. Instead of living with the soul ache of missing out on their deepest work and wondering what could I have done? Where did I mess up? Or why do I not feel more fulfilled? Mike has three steps for doing that: 1.Find your zone of genius of where you kickass and avoid the areas your suckass. 2.Develop a pathway to monetize and build a sustainable business around your zone of genius. 3.Design your life around your zone of genius and your pathway to monetization. While Mike's businesses have done millions in revenue over the years, he's also made more than a million dollars in painful mistakes. And he wants to other entrepreneurs avoid the mistakes he's made. He's invested in or started more than 15 different businesses in a variety of industries, from real estate, fashion, automotive, to digital marketing, and high level entrepreneur masterminds. He's also a master NLP practitioner, which is the core methodology of Tony Robbin's. This has been very powerful for helping entrepreneurs and creatives get unstuck from emotional roadblocks, become more fully integrated and powerful in order to create and build unstoppable momentum. You can follow Mike on Instagram @michaelrzeller and check out his website: https://www.mikezeller.com/ for all his upcoming events and courses. You can also follow me @iamshaniakhan and @flpmarketing If you enjoy this podcast, please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes.  It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to continue bringing you amazing guests!

11.03: Tom Cruises' teeth In which Kris suffers a Marathon Man fail, and explains why Azelia Banks' pussy is now gold-plated. While Mike reveals the best Muppet Show guest ever, and suffers a mic fail with Mr Paws. The militia manage to taint The Punisher, Clerks 3 crawls nearer to reality and Songbird gets the kind of review that usually finishes off film careers. In terms of STARBURST Radio car crashes, this one is a doozy - An epic of cannibalism and dog action, culminating in a total meltdown over emails tech issues from one of the hosts, amidst a failing mental state. *Show first broadcast on Wed 20th January 2021 All recordings are issued under official license from Fab Radio International. [STARBURST Radio Quiz: Guess which presenter had just got back from the dentist and thought it was still a great idea to do the show despite being high on painkillers?]

11.01: Wonder Crabs 1984 In which Kris reveals an uncontrollable Danish penis, and announces six hours of Southland Tales. While Mike explains the two deaths of Tanya Roberts, and the origins of the pink flute. Wonder Woman 1984 is revealed, the candidates for the new Doctor Who are polled, the latest James Gunn News is dispensed, and everyone starts to feel the Multiverse burnout. *Show first broadcast on Wed 6th January 2021 All recordings are issued under official license from Fab Radio International.

Touchstone ventures back into the thriller genre, and says goodbye to a beloved character on this episode of Out of Touchstone. Known for her “bubbly” persona in a comedy-filled career, Goldie Hawn plays against type and headlines our first film, DECEIVED. The thriller also features the late John Heard as Hawn’s husband, who may or may not have a shadowy past that threatens their marriage. The hosts agree that the film has some genuine suspense, but also a very ridiculous conclusion. Lastly, we bid farewell to Jim Varney in ERNEST SCARED STUPID, his final Ernest P. Worrell film for the studio. While Mike and Chad both enjoyed the previous Ernest outing and the charm of the character itself, the franchise ultimately leaves Disney on a very low note with this Halloween dud.

Untitled. Self-titled. Regardless of how to define it, ‘My Classic Album’ ends 2020 looking at blink-182’s celebrated 5th album with special guest Timmy Francis from pop punk pros As December Falls. While Mike and Timmy were listening to this album in their formative years, blink-182 were going through a very experimental and transitional phase; one that would ensure the band were never quite the same again. In what way did ‘I Miss You’ inspire a whole generation of bands? What experience from producer Jerry Finn’s teenage years gave inspiration to TWO songs on the album? How close was Robert Smith’s appearance not making it on to the album at all?   All these questions and more to be answered on another edition of ‘My Classic Album’   PLUS: Hear ‘Afterglow’, the latest single from Timmy’s band As December Falls! For more information on the show: Head over to www.myclassicalbum.co.uk Like us on Facebook at 'My Classic Album with Mike Norris' Follow us on Instagram @myclassicalbumpodcast Or on Twitter @mca_podcast   Music Credits: 'This Is Rock' by Silvia Marchese ‘Afterglow’ by As December Falls

It's Thanksgiving and the boys are in the mood for stuffing. While Mike's busy giving his friends unflattering nicknames, Cam is offering advice on a topic he knows well: butt stuff. In the journal Mike hears from an old hookup with some unsettling news.

The week the Legendary Brew Crew bring Mike Potter of Black Brew Culture and Jon Renthrope, Owner and Brewmaster, of Cajun Fire Brewing to the social distancing virtual happy hour. Jon talks how he got into craft beer that ultimately lead him to opening Cajun Fire Brewing. While Mike talks about the ongoing mission of Blacktoberfest events and the beer collaboration with Black-owned breweries. Also they both talk about the collective projects Black Brew Culture and Cajun Fire Brewing have in the works for 2021. This episode features beer from Cajun Fire Brewing, Wilmington Brew Works, Escutcheon Brewing, Brewery Ommegang, Monument City Brewing and the Blacktoberfest collaboration brewed at Dirt Bag Ales. Grab and Drink and Pull up a Chair. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/brewsingbanter/message

The Keys to Scaling a Business the Right Way What You Will Learn: How mistakenly saving over an invoice led Mike to design the accounting software his business needed, leading to the birth of FreshBooks How the company that started with six team members in his parents’ basement now has millions of users in more than 160 countries Why Mike was reluctant to raise outside capital and instead self-funded the business for a long time Why Mike believes that accepting venture capital during the early days could have undermined the value of the business What important lessons on scaling a business Mike learned growing FreshBooks from just six employees to more than 400 What key organizational growth breakpoints Mike identified on the journey, and how the company had to adapt to each new breakpoint Why having shared values and alignment within your organization is the key to success, and why every problem in business is ultimately a people problem How Mike addresses the difficult situation of a team member not being in alignment with their role in the company Why Mike has chosen to dedicate time to his thought leadership efforts, and why he considers it to be “soul food for entrepreneurs” Why shifting from time-and materials-based billing to value-based billing can be a powerful game-changer for your business The Keys to Scaling a Business the Right Way William S. Burroughs famously said, “When you stop growing, you start dying.” We all want our businesses to keep growing, but sometimes we hit obstacles and roadblocks during the scaling process — and the solutions we used to get us where we are often don’t work to get us where we want to be. In this episode of Onward Nation, FreshBooks CEO and co-founder Mike McDerment shares how his business, which started out with six team members in his parents’ basement, has grown to millions of users in over 160 different countries. And — he shares key lessons on scaling a business he learned during that remarkable growth journey — lessons that can help you fuel the growth of your own business. Bootstrapping Rapid Growth Mike created the software that would become FreshBooks after growing frustrated when he accidentally saved over a past billing invoice. That’s when he decided to create a better tool for small business accounting. The tool proved successful — and Mike’s focus shifted to this new business opportunity. One of the important decisions Mike made early in the life of FreshBooks was to walk away from venture capital funding. At the time, Mike was concerned that the need to offer a return on investment could stunt progress in scaling a business — and so for years, FreshBooks was self-funded. Ultimately, this put the company into a great position now that it is in the pre-IPO stage because it allowed FreshBooks to remain more nimble without being beholden to outside investors during its critical growth period. While Mike believes venture capital isn’t always a bad idea, it wasn’t the right choice for FreshBooks. Scaling a Business Takes Alignment and Shared Values During FreshBooks’ remarkable period of growth, the company reached several key milestones and breakpoints. Each time, Mike and the team had to adapt to change and learn new, critical skills directly tied to scaling a business. For example, early on everyone reported directly to Mike — but eventually, the team grew enough that managers needed to be added. As Mike said during his interview, it was important to identify when these breakpoints happened and to adapt the business to continue scaling through them. And it is an ongoing process — as the business grows, the things needed to keep it moving change. Ensuring that everyone is aligned with your mission and values is critical, and if a team member isn’t in alignment with their role, it is important to address the situation honestly and clearly. As Mike said, every business problem is a people problem at its heart. Getting the right people in the right seats can help you overcome any obstacle. About Mike McDerment Mike McDerment is the co-founder and CEO of FreshBooks, the world’s #1 cloud accounting software for self-employed professionals. Built in 2003 after he accidentally saved over an invoice, Mike spent 3.5 years growing FreshBooks from his parents’ basement. Since then, over 10 million people have used FreshBooks to save time billing and collecting billions of dollars. A lover of the outdoors, Mike has been bitten so many times it’s rumored he’s the first human to have developed immunity to mosquitoes. How to Connect with Mike McDerment: Read Mike McDerment’s free book on value-based billing, “Breaking The Time Barrier” Learn more about Mike’s company, FreshBooks LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mike-mcderment-68895a1/ LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/freshbooks/ Facebook: www.facebook.com/FreshBooks/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/freshbooks Twitter: https://twitter.com/mikemcderment FreshBooks YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/freshbooks Additional Resources: Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13 Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/ Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/

While Mike takes a moment to get away from the news, why not remind yourselves what's been going on this year (as if you can forget) as we take a look at some of the best bits of The Thought Police since Kev joined back in July.   Topics include: Donald Trump, COVID-19, the problems with working from home, the woke crisis, terrestrial TV, the return of football, boring students, exam results, Brexit, who can be considered the best James Bond and loads more! Enjoy this selection of great hits from the greatest hitters in the game - the Thought Police. They'll be back next week!  You can follow the boys on Twitter. Mike is: @IROMG, Kevin is @TVKev and you'll find the podcast too: @ThoughtPoliceTP. Meanwhile if you'd like to send an email, the address is: thoughtpolicepod@gmail.com 

While Mike takes a moment to get away from the news, why not remind yourselves what's been going on this year (as if you can forget) as we take a look at some of the best bits of The Thought Police since Kev joined back in July.   Topics include: Donald Trump, COVID-19, the problems with working from home, the woke crisis, terrestrial TV, the return of football, boring students, exam results, Brexit, who can be considered the best James Bond and loads more! Enjoy this selection of great hits from the greatest hitters in the game - the Thought Police. They'll be back next week!  You can follow the boys on Twitter. Mike is: @IROMG, Kevin is @TVKev and you'll find the podcast too: @ThoughtPoliceTP. Meanwhile if you'd like to send an email, the address is: thoughtpolicepod@gmail.com 

Mike and Amber have formed a quick bond. While Mike wants to focus on his writing, it is nice to have someone to talk to. Especially after his creepy first night. The next morning, Amber helps Mike find some coffee and explains to him the day-to-day of fire watching. It seems like it'll be boring for the most part, but that's what Mike wants. Nothing but time to work on his book. But after three days pass, another weird interference comes over the radio. Is this a repeat of the first night..? Music:"Bittersweet" and "Ghost Story" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

In today's episode of Resourceful Agent Radio Show I chat with Mike Moll again, except this time he is in a different part of the world and has started a new company. Covid-19 essentially wiped out Mike's other business, Social Media House and instead of giving up he decided to pivot and create something new. "Market Me Consulting" was created out of pure necessity to shift and adapt to the new economic changes brought on by the Pandemic. While Mike may make it look easy creating new businesses on the fly and traveling the world while doing it, he has faced his own set of struggles but instead of giving up he keeps pushing forward. It's always a great conversation with Mike Moll on the show and you are not going to want to miss this one. Be sure to check this out on all platforms including iTunes, Spotify, YouTube, ResourcefulAgent.com and many more. You can also reach me on Instagram or Facebook @ResourcefulAgent .If you want to reach out to Mike Moll to discuss how he can help you with your business you can reach him on Instagram @marketmeco or @mikeajmollIf you are thinking about starting your own podcast I highly recommend using BuzzSprout for your hosting platform. They have several great tools to help you get started. If you sign up through this link you will receive a $20 gift card to Amazon!https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=724550

It's been a wild week back on planet earth as well as out here in the newsphere, cadets, with loads of rumors, possible leaks, and sneak peeks for the geeks! While Mike is outside the ship adjusting the solar panels, Alan Perry stops by to help go over all the interesting, weird, new, and possibly disturbing tech news that's fit to post! We fixed up a spare Time Manipulator we had lying around, cadets, and captured a very confused and confusing World War II flying ace ... https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/09/30/apple-v-epic-court-battle-to-be-decided-by-court-not-jury https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/09/28/judge-so-far-not-convinced-on-epics-antitrust-stance-in-fortnite-battle https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/10/03/first-benchmark-indicates-a14-is-major-upgrade-from-a13 https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/10/03/next-apple-tv-could-use-a12z-or-a14x-in-big-apple-arcade-push https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/09/29/ipad-pro-mini-led-backlight-expected-in-early-2021-macbook-later-in-year https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/09/29/leaker-says-iphone-12-will-include-64gb-options-distribution-begins-october-5 https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/09/29/ios-142-beta-code-hints-no-free-earpods-with-iphone-12 https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/09/28/airplay-2-and-homekit-support-coming-to-roku-in-2020 https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/10/02/apple-tv-review-tiny-world-gets-back-to-nature-with-paul-rudd-narrating https://macdailynews.com/2020/10/02/apple-tv-releases-official-trailer-for-the-snoopy-show/ https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/10/02/app-store-nearly-doubles-googles-play-store-revenue-in-q3-despite-boom-in-android-app-installs https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/10/01/apple-sues-recycler-for-allegedly-reselling-100000-devices-it-was-hired-to-scrap https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/10/01/uk-and-ireland-get-apple-maps-look-around-cycling-directions https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/09/28/norway-will-use-the-apple-google-api-to-replace-its-failed-covid-19-app https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/09/30/belgium-launches-covid-19-exposure-notification-app-using-apple-google-framework https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/10/01/new-york-new-jersey-exposure-notification-apps-tap-apple-google-api https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/09/30/google-announces-google-pixel-5-for-699-pixel-4a-5g-for-499 https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/09/30/google-unveils-chromecast-with-google-tv-nest-audio-speaker https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/10/01/google-paying-1-billion-to-publishers-for-content-in-new-news-showcase https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/09/29/widgets-are-not-stealing-your-data-because-they-cant https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/10/01/new-owc-thunderbolt-hub-expands-thunderbolt-4-connectivity

This week there are two episiodes of the podcast going up, both of them longer than normal. This one, episode ninety-nine, is on "Surfin' Safari" by the Beach Boys, and the group's roots in LA, and is fifty minutes long. 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 "Misirlou" by Dick Dale and the Deltones. 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/ ----more---- Resources No Mixclouds this week, as both episodes have far too many songs by one artist. The mixclouds will be back with episode 101. I used many resources for this episode, most of which will be used in future Beach Boys episodes too. It's difficult to enumerate everything here, because I have been an active member of the Beach Boys fan community for twenty-three years, and have at times just used my accumulated knowledge for this. But the resources I list here are ones I've checked for specific things. Becoming the Beach Boys by James B. Murphy is an in-depth look at the group's early years. Stephen McParland has published many, many books on the California surf and hot-rod music scenes, including several on both the Beach Boys and Gary Usher. The Beach Boys: Inception and Creation is the one I used most here, but I referred to several. His books can be found at https://payhip.com/CMusicBooks Andrew Doe's Bellagio 10452 site is an invaluable resource. Jon Stebbins' The Beach Boys FAQ is a good balance between accuracy and readability. And Philip Lambert's Inside the Music of Brian Wilson is an excellent, though sadly out of print, musicological analysis of Wilson's music from 1962 through 67. The Beach Boys' Morgan recordings and all the outtakes from them can be found on this 2-CD set. The Surfin' Safari album is now in the public domain, and so can be found cheaply, but the best version to get is still the twofer CD with the Surfin' USA album. *But*, those two albums are fairly weak, the Beach Boys in their early years were not really an album band, and you will want to investigate them further. I would recommend, rather than the two albums linked above, starting with this budget-priced three-CD set, which has a surprisingly good selection of their material on it.   Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript Today, there are going to be two podcast episodes. This one, episode ninety-nine, will be a normal-length episode, or maybe slightly longer than normal, and episode one hundred, which will follow straight after it, will be a super-length one that's at least three times the normal length of one of these podcasts. I'm releasing them together, because the two episodes really do go together. We've talked recently about how we're getting into the sixties of the popular imagination, and those 1960s began, specifically, in October 1962. That was the month of the Cuban Missile Crisis, which saw the world almost end. It was the month that James Brown released Live at the Apollo -- an album we'll talk about in a few weeks' time. And if you want one specific date that the 1960s started, it was October the fifth, 1962. On that date, a film came out that we mentioned last week -- Doctor No, the first ever James Bond film. It was also the date that two records were released on EMI in Britain. One was a new release by a British band, the other a record originally released a few months earlier in the USA, by an American band. Both bands had previously released records on much smaller labels, to no success other than very locally, but this was their first to be released on a major label, and had a slightly different lineup from those earlier releases. Both bands would influence each other, and go on to be the most successful band from their respective country in the next decade. Both bands would revolutionise popular music. And the two bands would even be filed next to each other alphabetically, both starting "the Bea". In episode one hundred, we're going to look at "Love Me Do" by the Beatles, but right now, in episode ninety-nine, we're going to look at "Surfin' Safari" by the Beach Boys: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "Surfin' Safari"] Before I start this story properly, I just want to say something -- there are a lot of different accounts of the formation of the Beach Boys, and those accounts are all different. What I've tried to do here is take one plausible account of how the group formed and tell it in a reasonable length of time. If you read the books I link in the show notes, you might find some disagreements about the precise order of some of these events, or some details I've glossed over. This episode is already running long, and I didn't want to get into that stuff, but it's important that I stress that this is just as accurate as I can get in the length of an episode. The Beach Boys really were boys when they made their first records. David Marks, their youngest member, was only thirteen when "Surfin' Safari" came out, and Mike Love, the group's oldest member, was twenty-one.  So, as you might imagine when we're talking about children, the story really starts with the older generation. In particular, we want to start with Hite and Dorinda Morgan. The Morgans were part-time music business people in Los Angeles in the fifties. Hite Morgan owned an industrial flooring company, and that was his main source of income -- putting in floors at warehouses and factories that could withstand the particular stresses that such industrial sites faced. But while that work was hard, it was well-paying and didn't take too much time. The company would take on two or three expensive jobs a year, and for the rest of the year Hite would have the money and time to help his wife with her work as a songwriter. She'd collaborated with Spade Cooley, one of the most famous Western Swing musicians of the forties, and she'd also co-written "Don't Put All Your Dreams in One Basket" for Ray Charles in 1948: [Excerpt: Ray Charles, "Don't Put All Your Dreams in One Basket"] Hite and Dorinda's son, Bruce, was also a songwriter, though I've seen some claims that often the songs credited to him were actually written by his mother, who gave him credits in order to encourage him. One of Bruce Morgan's earliest songs was a piece called "Proverb Boogie", which was actually credited under his father's name, and which Louis Jordan retitled to "Heed My Warning" and took a co-writing credit on: [Excerpt: Louis Jordan, "Heed My Warning"] Eventually the Morgans also started their own publishing company, and built their own small demo studio, which they used to use to record cheap demos for many other songwriters and performers. The Morgans were only very minor players in the music industry, but they were friendly with many of the big names on the LA R&B scene, and knew people like John Dolphin, Bumps Blackwell, Sam Cooke, and the Hollywood Flames. Bruce Morgan would talk in interviews about Bumps Blackwell calling round to see his father and telling him about this new song "You Send Me" he was going to record with Cooke. But although nobody could have realised it at the time, or for many years later, the Morgans' place in music history would be cemented in 1952, when Hite Morgan, working at his day job, met a man named Murry Wilson, who ran a machine-tool company based in Hawthorne, a small town in southwestern Los Angeles County. It turned out that Wilson, like Dorinda Morgan, was an aspiring songwriter, and Hite Morgan signed him up to their publishing company, Guild Music. Wilson's tastes in music were already becoming old-fashioned even in the very early 1950s, but given the style of music he was working in he was a moderately talented writer. His proudest moment was writing a song called "Two Step Side Step" for the Morgans, which was performed on TV by Lawrence Welk -- Murry gathered the whole family round the television to watch his song being performed.  That song was a moderate success – it was never a hit for anyone, but it was recorded by several country artists, including the rockabilly singer Bonnie Lou, and most interestingly for our purposes by Johnny Lee Wills, Bob Wills' brother: [Excerpt: Johnny Lee Wills, "Two Step Side Step"] Wilson wrote a few other songs for the Morgans, of which the most successful was "Tabarin", which was recorded by the Tangiers -- one of the several names under which the Hollywood Flames performed. Gaynel Hodge would later speak fondly of Murry Wilson, and how he was always bragging about his talented kids: [Excerpt: The Tangiers, "Tabarin"] But as the fifties progressed, the Morgans published fewer and fewer of Wilson's songs, and none of them were hits. But the Morgans and Wilson stayed in touch, and around 1958 he heard from them about an opportunity for one of those talented kids. Dorinda Morgan had written a song called "Chapel of Love" -- not the same song as the famous one by the Dixie Cups -- and Art Laboe had decided that that song would be perfect as the first record for his new label, Original Sound. Laboe was putting together a new group to sing it, called the Hitmakers, which was based around Val Poliuto. Poliuto had been the tenor singer of an integrated vocal group -- two Black members, one white, and one Hispanic -- which had gone by the names The Shadows and The Miracles before dismissing both names as being unlikely to lead to any success and taking the name The Jaguars at the suggestion of, of all people, Stan Freberg, the comedian and voice actor. The Jaguars had never had much commercial success, but they'd recorded a version of "The Way You Look Tonight" which became a classic when Laboe included it on the massively successful "Oldies But Goodies", the first doo-wop nostalgia album: [Excerpt: The Jaguars, "The Way You Look Tonight"] The Jaguars continued for many years, and at one point had Richard Berry guest as an extra vocalist on some of their tracks, but as with so many of the LA vocal groups we've looked at from the fifties, they all had their fingers in multiple pies, and so Poliuto was to be in this new group, along with Bobby Adams of the Calvanes, who had been taught to sing R&B by Cornell Gunter and who had recorded for Dootsie Williams: [Excerpt: The Calvanes, "Crazy Over You"] Those two were to be joined by two other singers, who nobody involved can remember much about except that their first names were Don and Duke, but Art Laboe also wanted a new young singer to sing the lead, and was auditioning singers. Murry Wilson suggested to the Morgans that his young son Brian might be suitable for the role, and he auditioned, but Laboe thought he was too young, and the role went to a singer called Rodney Goodens instead: [Excerpt: The Hitmakers, "Chapel of Love"] So the audition was a failure, but it was a first contact between Brian Wilson and the Morgans, and also introduced Brian to Val Poliuto, from whom he would learn a lot about music for the next few years. Brian was a very sensitive kid, the oldest of three brothers, and someone who seemed to have some difficulty dealing with other people -- possibly because his father was abusive towards him and his brothers, leaving him frightened of many aspects of life. He did, though, share with his father a love of music, and he had a remarkable ear -- singular, as he's deaf in one ear. He had perfect pitch, a great recollection for melodies -- play him something once and it would stay in his brain -- and from a very young age he gravitated towards sweet-sounding music. He particularly loved Glenn Miller's version of "Rhapsody in Blue" as a child: [Excerpt: The Glenn Miller Orchestra, "Rhapsody in Blue"] But his big musical love was a modern harmony group called the Four Freshmen -- a group made up of two brothers, their cousin, and a college friend. Modern harmony is an outdated term, but it basically meant that they were singing chords that went beyond the normal simple triads of most pop music. While there were four, obviously, of the Four Freshmen, they often achieved an effect that would normally be five-part harmony, by having the group members sing all the parts of the chord *except* the root note -- they'd leave the root note to a bass instrument. So while Brian was listening to four singers, he was learning five-part harmonies. The group would also sing their harmonies in unusual inversions -- they'd take one of the notes from the middle of the chord and sing it an octave lower. There was another trick that the Four Freshmen used -- they varied their vocals from equal temperament.  To explain this a little bit -- musical notes are based on frequencies, and the ratio between them matters. If you double the frequency of a note, you get the same note an octave up -- so if you take an A at 440hz, and double the frequency to 880, you get another A, an octave up. If you go down to 220hz, you get the A an octave below. You get all the different notes by multiplying or dividing a note, so A# is A multiplied by a tiny bit more than one, and A flat is A multiplied by a tiny bit less than one. But in the middle ages, this hit a snag -- A#. which is A multiplied by one and a bit, is very very slightly different from B flat, which is B multiplied by 0.9 something. And if you double those, so you go to the A# and B flat the next octave up, the difference between A# and B flat gets bigger. And this means that if you play a melody in the key of C, but then decide you want to play it in the key of B flat, you need to retune your instrument -- or have instruments with separate notes for A# and B flat -- or everything will sound out of tune. It's very very hard to retune some instruments, especially ones like the piano, and also sometimes you want to play in different keys in the same piece. If you're playing a song in C, but it goes into C# in the last chorus to give it a bit of extra momentum, you lose that extra momentum if you stop the song to retune the piano. So a different system was invented, and popularised in the Baroque era, called "equal temperament". In that system, every note is very very slightly out of tune, but those tiny errors cancel out rather than multiply like they do in the old system. You're sort of taking the average of A# and B flat, and calling them the same note. And to most people's ears that sounds good enough, and it means you can have a piano without a thousand keys.  But the Four Freshmen didn't stick to that -- because you don't need to retune your throat to hit different notes (unless you're as bad a singer as me, anyway). They would sing B flat slightly differently than they would sing A#, and so they would get a purer vocal blend, with stronger harmonic overtones than singers who were singing the notes as placed on a piano: [Excerpt: the Four Freshmen, "It's a Blue World"] Please note by the way that I'm taking the fact that they used those non-equal temperaments somewhat on trust -- Ross Barbour of the group said they did in interviews, and he would know, but I have relatively poor pitch so if you listened to that and thought "Hang on, they're all singing dead-on equal tempered concert pitch, what's he talking about?", then that's on him. When Brian heard them singing, he instantly fell for them, and became a major, major fan of their work, especially their falsetto singer Bob Flanigan, whose voice he decided to emulate. He decided that he was going to learn how they got that sound. Every day when he got home from school, he would go to the family's music room, where he had a piano and a record player. He would then play just a second or so of one of their records, and figure out on the piano what notes they were singing in that one second, and duplicating them himself. Then he would learn the next second of the song. He would spend hours every day on this, learning every vocal part, until he had the Four Freshmen's entire repertoire burned into his brain, and could sing all four vocal parts to every song. Indeed, at one point when he was about sixteen -- around the same time as the Art Laboe audition -- Brian decided to go and visit the Four Freshmen's manager, to find out how to form a successful vocal group of his own, and to find out more about the group themselves. After telling the manager that he could sing every part of every one of their songs, the manager challenged him with "The Day Isn't Long Enough", a song that they apparently had trouble with: [Excerpt: The Four Freshmen, "The Day Isn't Long Enough"] And Brian demonstrated every harmony part perfectly. He had a couple of tape recorders at home, and he would experiment with overdubbing his own voice -- recording on one tape recorder, playing it back and singing along while recording on the other. Doing this he could do his own imitations of the Four Freshmen, and even as a teenager he could sound spookily like them: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys [Brian Wilson solo recording released on a Beach Boys CD], "Happy Birthday Four Freshmen"] While Brian shared his love for this kind of sweet music with his father, he also liked the rock and roll music that was making its way onto the radio during his teen years -- though again, he would gravitate towards the sweet vocal harmonies of the Everly Brothers rather than to more raucous music. He shared his love of the Everlys with his cousin Mike Love, whose tastes otherwise went more in the direction of R&B and doo-wop. Unlike Brian and his brothers, Mike attended Dorsey High School, a predominantly Black school, and his tastes were shaped by that -- other graduates of the school include Billy Preston, Eric Dolphy, and Arthur Lee, to give some idea of the kind of atmosphere that Dorsey High had. He loved the Robins, and later the Coasters, and he's been quoted as saying he "worshipped" Johnny Otis -- as did every R&B lover in LA at the time. He would listen to Otis' show on KFOX, and to Huggy Boy on KRKD. His favourite records were things like "Smokey Joe's Cafe" by the Robins, which combined an R&B groove with witty lyrics: [Excerpt: The Robins, "Smokey Joe's Cafe"] He also loved the music of Chuck Berry, a passion he shared with Brian's youngest brother Carl, who also listened to Otis' show and got Brian listening to it. While Mike was most attracted to Berry's witty lyrics, Carl loved the guitar part -- he'd loved string instruments since he was a tiny child, and he and a neighbour, David Marks, started taking guitar lessons from another neighbour, John Maus. Maus had been friends with Ritchie Valens, and had been a pallbearer at Valens' funeral. John was recording at the time with his sister Judy, as the imaginatively-named duo "John & Judy": [Excerpt: John & Judy, "Why This Feeling?"] John and Judy later took on a bass player called Scott Engel, and a few years after that John and Scott changed their surnames to Walker and became two thirds of The Walker Brothers. But at this time, John was still just a local guitar player, and teaching two enthusiastic kids to play guitar. Carl and David learned how to play Chuck Berry licks, and also started to learn some of the guitar instrumentals that were becoming popular at the time. At the same time, Mike would sing with Brian to pass the time, Mike singing in a bass voice while Brian took a high tenor lead. Other times, Brian would test his vocal arranging out by teaching Carl and his mother Audree vocal parts -- Carl got so he could learn parts very quickly, so his big brother wouldn't keep him around all day and he could go out and play. And sometimes their middle brother Dennis would join in -- though he was more interested in going out and having fun at the beach than he was in making music. Brian was interested in nothing *but* making music -- at least once he'd quit the school football team (American football, for those of you like me who parse the word to mean what it does in Britain), after he'd got hurt for the first time. But before he did that, he had managed to hurt someone else -- a much smaller teammate named Alan Jardine, whose leg Brian broke in a game. Despite that, the two became friends, and would occasionally sing together -- like Brian, Alan loved to sing harmonies, and they found that they had an extraordinarily good vocal blend. While Brian mostly sang with his brothers and his cousin, all of whom had a family vocal resemblance, Jardine could sound spookily similar to that family, and especially to Brian. Jardine's voice was a little stronger and more resonant, Brian's a little sweeter, with a fuller falsetto, but they had the kind of vocal similarity one normally only gets in family singers. However,  they didn't start performing together properly, because they had different tastes in music -- while Brian was most interested in the modern jazz harmonies of the Four Freshman, Jardine was a fan of the new folk revival groups, especially the Kingston Trio. Alan had a group called the Tikis when he was at high school, which would play Kingston Trio style material like "The Wreck of the John B", a song that like much of the Kingston Trio's material had been popularised by the Weavers, but which the Trio had recorded for their first album: [Excerpt: The Kingston Trio, "The Wreck of the John B"] Jardine was inspired by that to write his own song, "The Wreck of the Hesperus", putting Longfellow's poem to music. One of the other Tikis had a tape recorder, and they made a few stabs at recording it. They thought that they sounded pretty good, and they decided to go round to Brian Wilson's house to see if he could help them -- depending on who you ask, they either wanted him to join the band, or knew that his dad had some connection with the music business and wanted to pick his brains. When they turned up, Brian was actually out, but Audree Wilson basically had an open-door policy for local teenagers, and she told the boys about Hite and Dorinda Morgan. The Tikis took their tape to the Morgans, and the Morgans responded politely, saying that they did sound good -- but they sounded like the Kingston Trio, and there were a million groups that sounded like the Kingston Trio. They needed to get an original sound. The Tikis broke up, as Alan went off to Michigan to college. But then a year later, he came back to Hawthorne and enrolled in the same community college that Brian was enrolled in. Meanwhile, the Morgans had got in touch with Gary Winfrey, Alan's Tikis bandmate, and asked him if the Tikis would record a demo of one of Bruce Morgan's songs. As the Tikis no longer existed, Alan and Gary formed a new group along the same lines, and invited Brian to be part of one of these sessions. That group, The Islanders made a couple of attempts at Morgan's song, but nothing worked out. But this brought Brian back to the Morgans' attention -- at this point they'd not seen him in three years. Alan still wanted to record folk music with Brian, and at some point Brian suggested that they get his brother Carl and cousin Mike involved -- and then Brian's mother made him let his other brother Dennis join in.  The group went to see the Morgans, who once again told them that they needed some original material. Dennis piped up that the group had been fooling around with a song about surfing, and while the Morgans had never heard of the sport, they said it would be worth the group's while finishing off the song and coming back to them. At this point, the idea of a song about surfing was something that was only in Dennis' head, though he may have mentioned the idea to Mike at some point. Mike and the Wilsons went home and started working out the song, without Al being involved at this time -- some of the rehearsal recordings we have seem to suggest that they thought Al was a little overbearing and thought of himself as a bit more professional than the others, and they didn't want him in the group at first. While surf music was definitely already a thing, there were very few vocal surf records. Brian and Mike wrote the song together, with Mike writing most of the lyrics and coming up with his own bass vocal line, while Brian wrote the rest of the music: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "Surfin' (Rehearsal)"] None of the group other than Dennis surfed -- though Mike would later start surfing a little -- and so Dennis provided Mike with some surfing terms that they could add into the song. This led to what would be the first of many, many arguments about songwriting credit among the group, as Dennis claimed that he should get some credit for his contribution, while Mike disagreed: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, “Surfin' (Rehearsal)”] The credit was eventually assigned to Brian Wilson and Mike Love. Eventually, they finished the song, and decided that they *would* get Al Jardine back into the group after all. When Murry and Audree Wilson went away for a long weekend and left their boys some money for emergencies, the group saw their chance. They took that money, along with some more they borrowed from Al's mother, and rented some instruments -- a drum kit and a stand-up bass. They had a party at the Wilsons' house where they played their new song and a few others, in front of their friends, before going back to the Morgans with their new song completed. For their recording session, they used that stand-up bass, which Al played, along with Carl on an acoustic guitar, giving it that Kingston Trio sound that Al liked. Dennis was the group's drummer, but he wasn't yet very good and instead of drums the record has Brian thumping a dustbin lid as its percussion. As well as being the lead vocalist, Mike Love was meant to be the group's saxophone player, but he never progressed more than honking out a couple of notes, and he doesn't play on the session. The song they came up with was oddly structured -- it had a nine-bar verse and a fourteen-bar chorus, the latter of which was based around a twelve-bar blues, but extended to allow the "surf, surf with me" hook. But other than the unusual bar counts it followed the structure that the group would set up most of their early singles. The song seems at least in part to have been inspired by the song "Bermuda Shorts" by the Delroys, which is a song the group have often cited and would play in their earliest live shows: [Excerpt: The Delroys, "Bermuda Shorts"] They messed around with the structure in various ways in rehearsal, and those can be heard on the rehearsal recordings, but by the time they came into the studio they'd settled on starting with a brief statement of the chorus hook: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "Surfin'"] It then goes into a verse with Mike singing a tenor lead, with the rest of the group doing block harmonies and then joining him on the last line of the verse: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "Surfin'"] And then we have Mike switching down into the bass register to sing wordless doo-wop bass during the blues-based chorus, while the rest of the group again sing in block harmony: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "Surfin'"] That formula would be the one that the Beach Boys would stick with for several singles to follow -- the major change that would be made would be that Brian would soon start singing an independent falsetto line over the top of the choruses, rather than being in the block harmonies.  The single was licensed to Candix Records, along with a B-side written by Bruce Morgan, and it became a minor hit record, reaching number seventy-five on the national charts. But what surprised the group about the record was the name on it. They'd been calling themselves the Pendletones, because there was a brand of thick woollen shirt called Pendletons which was popular among surfers, and which the group wore.  It might also have been intended as a pun on Dick Dale's Deltones, the preeminent surf music group of the time. But Hite Morgan had thought the name didn't work, and they needed something that was more descriptive of the music they were doing. He'd suggested The Surfers, but Russ Regan, a record promoter, had told him there was already a group called the Surfers, and suggested another name. So the first time the Wilsons realised they were now in the Beach Boys was when they saw the record label for the first time. The group started working on follow-ups -- and as they were now performing live shows to promote their records, they switched to using electric guitars when they went into the studio to record some demos in February 1962. By now, Al was playing rhythm guitar, while Brian took over on bass, now playing a bass guitar rather than the double bass Al had played. For that session, as Dennis was still not that great a drummer, Brian decided to bring in a session player, and Dennis stormed out of the studio. However, the session player was apparently flashy and overplayed, and got paid off. Brian persuaded Dennis to come back and take over on drums again, and the session resumed. Val Poliuto was also at the session, in case they needed some keyboards, but he's not audible on any of the tracks they recorded, at least to my ears. The most likely song for a follow-up was another one by Brian and Mike. This one was very much a rewrite of "Surfin'", but this time the verses were a more normal eight bars, and the choruses were a compromise between the standard twelve-bar blues and "Surfin'"s fourteen, landing on an unusual thirteen bars. With the electric guitars the group decided to bring in a Chuck Berry influence, and you can hear a certain similarity to songs like "Brown-Eyed Handsome Man" in the rhythm and phrasing: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "Surfin' Safari [early version]"] Around this time, Brian also wrote another song -- the song he generally describes as being the first song he ever wrote. Presumably, given that he'd already co-written "Surfin'", he means that it was the first song he wrote on his own, words and music. The song was inspired, melodically, by the song "When You Wish Upon A Star" from the Disney film Pinocchio: [Excerpt: Cliff Edwards "When You Wish Upon a Star"] The song came to Brian in the car, and he challenged himself to write the whole thing in his head without going to the piano until he'd finished it. The result was a doo-wop ballad with Four Freshmen-like block harmonies, with lyrics inspired by Brian's then girlfriend Judy Bowles, which they recorded at the same session as that version of “Surfin' Safari”: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "Surfer Girl [early version]"] At the same session, they also recorded two more songs -- a song by Brian called Judy, and a surf instrumental written by Carl called "Karate". However, shortly after that session, Al left the group. As the group had started playing electric instruments, they'd also started performing songs that were more suitable for those instruments, like "What'd I Say" and "The Twist". Al wasn't a fan of that kind of music, and he wanted to be singing "Tom Dooley" and "Wreck of the John B", not "Come on baby, let's do the Twist". He was also quite keen on completing his university studies -- he was planning on becoming a dentist -- and didn't want to spend time playing tons of small gigs when he could be working towards his degree. This was especially the case since Murry Wilson, who had by this point installed himself as the group's manager, was booking them on all sorts of cheap dates to get them exposure. As far as Al could see, being a Beach Boy was never going to make anyone any real money, and it wasn't worth disrupting his studies to keep playing music that he didn't even particularly like. His place was taken by David Marks, Carl's young friend who lived nearby. Marks was only thirteen when he joined, and apparently it caused raised eyebrows among some of the other musicians who knew the group, because he was so much younger and less experienced than the rest. Unlike Al, he was never much of a singer -- he can hold a tune, and has a pleasant enough voice, but he wasn't the exceptional harmony singer that Al was -- but he was a competent rhythm player, and he and Carl had been jamming together since they'd both got guitars, and knew each other's playing style. However, while Al was gone from the group, he wasn't totally out of the picture, and he remained close enough that he was a part of the first ever Beach Boys spin-off side project a couple of months later. Dorinda Morgan had written a song inspired by the new children's doll, Barbie, that had come out a couple of years before and which, like the Beach Boys, was from Hawthorne. She wanted to put together a studio group to record it, under the name Kenny and the Cadets, and Brian rounded up Carl, Al, Val Poliuto, and his mother Audree, to sing on the record for Mrs Morgan: [Excerpt: Kenny and the Cadets, "Barbie"] But after that, Al Jardine was out of the group for the moment -- though he would be back sooner than anyone expected. Shortly after Al left, the new lineup went into a different studio, Western Studios, to record a new demo. Ostensibly produced by Murry Wilson, the session was actually produced by Brian and his new friend Gary Usher, who took charge in the studio and spent most of his time trying to stop Murry interfering. Gary Usher is someone about whom several books have been written, and who would have a huge influence on West Coast music in the sixties. But at this point he was an aspiring singer, songwriter, and record producer, who had been making records for a few months longer than Brian and was therefore a veteran. He'd put out his first single, "Driven Insane", in March 1961: [Excerpt: Gary Usher, "Driven Insane"] Usher was still far from a success, but he was very good at networking, and had all sorts of minor connections within the music business. As one example, his girlfriend, Sandra Glanz, who performed under the name Ginger Blake, had just written "You Are My Answer" for Carol Connors, who had been the lead singer of the Teddy Bears but was now going solo: [Excerpt: Carol Connors, "You Are My Answer"] Connors, too, would soon become important in vocal surf music, while Ginger would play a significant part in Brian's life. Brian had started writing songs with Gary, and they were in the studio to record some demos by Gary, and some demos by the Beach Boys of songs that Brian and Gary had written together, along with a new version of "Surfin' Safari". Of the two Wilson/Usher songs recorded in the session, one was a slow doo-wop styled ballad called "The Lonely Sea", which would later become an album track, but the song that they were most interested in recording was one called "409", which had been inspired by a new, larger, engine that Chevrolet had introduced for top-of-the-line vehicles. Musically, "409" was another song that followed the "Surfin' Safari" formula, but it was regularised even more, lopping off the extra bar from "Surfin' Safari"'s chorus, and making the verses as well as the choruses into twelve-bar blues. But it still started with the hook, still had Mike sing his tenor lead in the verses, and still had him move to sing a boogie-ish bassline in the chorus while the rest of the group chanted in block harmonies over the top. But it introduced a new lyrical theme to the group -- now, as well as singing about surfing and the beach, they could also sing about cars and car racing -- Love credits this as being one of the main reasons for the group's success in landlocked areas, because while there were many places in the US where you couldn't surf, there was nowhere where people didn't have cars. It's also the earliest Beach Boys song over which there is an ongoing question of credit. For the first thirty years of the song's existence, it was credited solely to Wilson and Usher, but in the early nineties Love won a share of the songwriting credit in a lawsuit in which he won credit on many, many songs he'd not been credited for. Love claims that he came up with the "She's real fine, my 409" hook, and the "giddy up" bass vocal he sang. Usher always claimed that Love had nothing to do with the song, and that Love was always trying to take credit for things he didn't do. It's difficult to tell who was telling the truth, because both obviously had a financial stake in the credit (though Usher was dead by the time of the lawsuit). Usher was always very dismissive of all of the Beach Boys with the exception of Brian, and wouldn't credit them for making any real contributions, Love's name was definitely missed off the credits of a large number of songs to which he did make substantial contributions, including some where he wrote the whole lyric, and the bits of the song Love claims *do* sound like the kind of thing he contributed to other songs which have no credit disputes. On the other hand, Love also overreached in his claims of credit in that lawsuit, claiming to have co-written songs that were written when he wasn't even in the same country as the writers. Where you stand on the question of whether Love deserves that credit usually depends on your views of Wilson, Love and Usher as people, and it's not a question I'm going to get into, but I thought I should acknowledge that the question is there. While "409" was still following the same pattern as the other songs, it's head and shoulders ahead of the Hite Morgan productions both in terms of performance and in terms of the sound. A great deal of that clearly owes to Usher, who was experimenting with things like sound effects, and so "409" starts with a recording that Brian and Usher made of Usher's car driving up and down the street: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "409"] Meanwhile the new version of "Surfin' Safari" was vastly superior to the recording from a couple of months earlier, with changed lyrics and a tighter performance: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "Surfin' Safari (second version)"] So at the end of the session, the group had a tape of three new songs, and Murry WIlson wanted them to take it somewhere better than Candix Records. He had a contact somewhere much better -- at Capitol Records. He was going to phone Ken Nelson. Or at least, Murry *thought* he had a contact at Capitol. He phoned Ken Nelson and told him "Years ago, you did me a favour, and now I'm doing one for you. My sons have formed a group and you have the chance to sign them!" Now, setting aside the question of whether that would actually count as Murry doing Nelson a favour, there was another problem with this -- Nelson had absolutely no idea who Murry Wilson was, and no recollection of ever doing him a favour. It turned out that the favour he'd done, in Murry's eyes, was recording one of Murry's songs -- except that there's no record of Nelson ever having been involved in a recording of a Murry Wilson song. By this time, Capitol had three A&R people, in charge of different areas. There was Voyle Gilmore, who recorded soft pop -- people like Nat "King" Cole. There was Nelson, who as we've seen in past episodes had some rockabilly experience but was mostly country -- he'd produced Gene Vincent and Wanda Jackson, but he was mostly working at this point with people like Buck Owens and the Louvin Brothers, producing some of the best country music ever recorded, but not really doing the kind of thing that the Beach Boys were doing. But the third, and youngest, A&R man was doing precisely the kind of thing the Beach Boys did. That was Nik Venet, who we met back in the episode on "LSD-25", and who was one of the people who had been involved with the very first surf music recordings. Nelson suggested that Murry go and see Venet, and Venet was immediately impressed with the tape Murry played him -- so impressed that he decided to offer the group a contract, and to release "Surfin' Safari" backed with "409", buying the masters from Murry rather than rerecording them. Venet also tried to get the publishing rights for the songs for Beechwood Music, a publishing company owned by Capitol's parent company EMI (and known in the UK as Ardmore & Beechwood) but Gary Usher, who knew a bit about the business, said that he and Brian were going to set up their own publishing companies -- a decision which Murry Wilson screamed at him for, but which made millions of dollars for Brian over the next few years. The single came out, and was a big hit, making number fourteen on the hot one hundred, and "409" as the B-side also scraped the lower reaches of the charts. Venet soon got the group into the studio to record an album to go with the single, with Usher adding extra backing vocals to fill out the harmonies in the absence of Al Jardine. While the Beach Boys were a self-contained group, Venet seems to have brought in his old friend Derry Weaver to add extra guitar, notably on Weaver's song "Moon Dawg": [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "Moon Dawg"] It's perhaps unsurprising that the Beach Boys recorded that, because not only was it written by Venet's friend, but Venet owned the publishing on the song. The group also recorded "Summertime Blues", which was co-written by Jerry Capehart, a friend of Venet and Weaver's who also may have appeared on the album in some capacity. Both those songs fit the group, but their choice was clearly influenced by factors other than the purely musical, and very soon Brian Wilson would get sick of having his music interfered with by Venet.  The album came out on October 1, and a few days later the single was released in the UK, several months after its release in the US. And on the same day, a British group who *had* signed to have their single published by Ardmore & Beechwood put out their own single on another EMI label. And we're going to look at that in the next episode...

This week there are two episiodes of the podcast going up, both of them longer than normal. This one, episode ninety-nine, is on “Surfin’ Safari” by the Beach Boys, and the group’s roots in LA, and is fifty minutes long. 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 “Misirlou” by Dick Dale and the Deltones. 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/ —-more—- Resources No Mixclouds this week, as both episodes have far too many songs by one artist. The mixclouds will be back with episode 101. I used many resources for this episode, most of which will be used in future Beach Boys episodes too. It’s difficult to enumerate everything here, because I have been an active member of the Beach Boys fan community for twenty-three years, and have at times just used my accumulated knowledge for this. But the resources I list here are ones I’ve checked for specific things. Becoming the Beach Boys by James B. Murphy is an in-depth look at the group’s early years. Stephen McParland has published many, many books on the California surf and hot-rod music scenes, including several on both the Beach Boys and Gary Usher. The Beach Boys: Inception and Creation is the one I used most here, but I referred to several. His books can be found at https://payhip.com/CMusicBooks Andrew Doe’s Bellagio 10452 site is an invaluable resource. Jon Stebbins’ The Beach Boys FAQ is a good balance between accuracy and readability. And Philip Lambert’s Inside the Music of Brian Wilson is an excellent, though sadly out of print, musicological analysis of Wilson’s music from 1962 through 67. The Beach Boys’ Morgan recordings and all the outtakes from them can be found on this 2-CD set. The Surfin’ Safari album is now in the public domain, and so can be found cheaply, but the best version to get is still the twofer CD with the Surfin’ USA album. *But*, those two albums are fairly weak, the Beach Boys in their early years were not really an album band, and you will want to investigate them further. I would recommend, rather than the two albums linked above, starting with this budget-priced three-CD set, which has a surprisingly good selection of their material on it.   Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript Today, there are going to be two podcast episodes. This one, episode ninety-nine, will be a normal-length episode, or maybe slightly longer than normal, and episode one hundred, which will follow straight after it, will be a super-length one that’s at least three times the normal length of one of these podcasts. I’m releasing them together, because the two episodes really do go together. We’ve talked recently about how we’re getting into the sixties of the popular imagination, and those 1960s began, specifically, in October 1962. That was the month of the Cuban Missile Crisis, which saw the world almost end. It was the month that James Brown released Live at the Apollo — an album we’ll talk about in a few weeks’ time. And if you want one specific date that the 1960s started, it was October the fifth, 1962. On that date, a film came out that we mentioned last week — Doctor No, the first ever James Bond film. It was also the date that two records were released on EMI in Britain. One was a new release by a British band, the other a record originally released a few months earlier in the USA, by an American band. Both bands had previously released records on much smaller labels, to no success other than very locally, but this was their first to be released on a major label, and had a slightly different lineup from those earlier releases. Both bands would influence each other, and go on to be the most successful band from their respective country in the next decade. Both bands would revolutionise popular music. And the two bands would even be filed next to each other alphabetically, both starting “the Bea”. In episode one hundred, we’re going to look at “Love Me Do” by the Beatles, but right now, in episode ninety-nine, we’re going to look at “Surfin’ Safari” by the Beach Boys: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, “Surfin’ Safari”] Before I start this story properly, I just want to say something — there are a lot of different accounts of the formation of the Beach Boys, and those accounts are all different. What I’ve tried to do here is take one plausible account of how the group formed and tell it in a reasonable length of time. If you read the books I link in the show notes, you might find some disagreements about the precise order of some of these events, or some details I’ve glossed over. This episode is already running long, and I didn’t want to get into that stuff, but it’s important that I stress that this is just as accurate as I can get in the length of an episode. The Beach Boys really were boys when they made their first records. David Marks, their youngest member, was only thirteen when “Surfin’ Safari” came out, and Mike Love, the group’s oldest member, was twenty-one.  So, as you might imagine when we’re talking about children, the story really starts with the older generation. In particular, we want to start with Hite and Dorinda Morgan. The Morgans were part-time music business people in Los Angeles in the fifties. Hite Morgan owned an industrial flooring company, and that was his main source of income — putting in floors at warehouses and factories that could withstand the particular stresses that such industrial sites faced. But while that work was hard, it was well-paying and didn’t take too much time. The company would take on two or three expensive jobs a year, and for the rest of the year Hite would have the money and time to help his wife with her work as a songwriter. She’d collaborated with Spade Cooley, one of the most famous Western Swing musicians of the forties, and she’d also co-written “Don’t Put All Your Dreams in One Basket” for Ray Charles in 1948: [Excerpt: Ray Charles, “Don’t Put All Your Dreams in One Basket”] Hite and Dorinda’s son, Bruce, was also a songwriter, though I’ve seen some claims that often the songs credited to him were actually written by his mother, who gave him credits in order to encourage him. One of Bruce Morgan’s earliest songs was a piece called “Proverb Boogie”, which was actually credited under his father’s name, and which Louis Jordan retitled to “Heed My Warning” and took a co-writing credit on: [Excerpt: Louis Jordan, “Heed My Warning”] Eventually the Morgans also started their own publishing company, and built their own small demo studio, which they used to use to record cheap demos for many other songwriters and performers. The Morgans were only very minor players in the music industry, but they were friendly with many of the big names on the LA R&B scene, and knew people like John Dolphin, Bumps Blackwell, Sam Cooke, and the Hollywood Flames. Bruce Morgan would talk in interviews about Bumps Blackwell calling round to see his father and telling him about this new song “You Send Me” he was going to record with Cooke. But although nobody could have realised it at the time, or for many years later, the Morgans’ place in music history would be cemented in 1952, when Hite Morgan, working at his day job, met a man named Murry Wilson, who ran a machine-tool company based in Hawthorne, a small town in southwestern Los Angeles County. It turned out that Wilson, like Dorinda Morgan, was an aspiring songwriter, and Hite Morgan signed him up to their publishing company, Guild Music. Wilson’s tastes in music were already becoming old-fashioned even in the very early 1950s, but given the style of music he was working in he was a moderately talented writer. His proudest moment was writing a song called “Two Step Side Step” for the Morgans, which was performed on TV by Lawrence Welk — Murry gathered the whole family round the television to watch his song being performed.  That song was a moderate success – it was never a hit for anyone, but it was recorded by several country artists, including the rockabilly singer Bonnie Lou, and most interestingly for our purposes by Johnny Lee Wills, Bob Wills’ brother: [Excerpt: Johnny Lee Wills, “Two Step Side Step”] Wilson wrote a few other songs for the Morgans, of which the most successful was “Tabarin”, which was recorded by the Tangiers — one of the several names under which the Hollywood Flames performed. Gaynel Hodge would later speak fondly of Murry Wilson, and how he was always bragging about his talented kids: [Excerpt: The Tangiers, “Tabarin”] But as the fifties progressed, the Morgans published fewer and fewer of Wilson’s songs, and none of them were hits. But the Morgans and Wilson stayed in touch, and around 1958 he heard from them about an opportunity for one of those talented kids. Dorinda Morgan had written a song called “Chapel of Love” — not the same song as the famous one by the Dixie Cups — and Art Laboe had decided that that song would be perfect as the first record for his new label, Original Sound. Laboe was putting together a new group to sing it, called the Hitmakers, which was based around Val Poliuto. Poliuto had been the tenor singer of an integrated vocal group — two Black members, one white, and one Hispanic — which had gone by the names The Shadows and The Miracles before dismissing both names as being unlikely to lead to any success and taking the name The Jaguars at the suggestion of, of all people, Stan Freberg, the comedian and voice actor. The Jaguars had never had much commercial success, but they’d recorded a version of “The Way You Look Tonight” which became a classic when Laboe included it on the massively successful “Oldies But Goodies”, the first doo-wop nostalgia album: [Excerpt: The Jaguars, “The Way You Look Tonight”] The Jaguars continued for many years, and at one point had Richard Berry guest as an extra vocalist on some of their tracks, but as with so many of the LA vocal groups we’ve looked at from the fifties, they all had their fingers in multiple pies, and so Poliuto was to be in this new group, along with Bobby Adams of the Calvanes, who had been taught to sing R&B by Cornell Gunter and who had recorded for Dootsie Williams: [Excerpt: The Calvanes, “Crazy Over You”] Those two were to be joined by two other singers, who nobody involved can remember much about except that their first names were Don and Duke, but Art Laboe also wanted a new young singer to sing the lead, and was auditioning singers. Murry Wilson suggested to the Morgans that his young son Brian might be suitable for the role, and he auditioned, but Laboe thought he was too young, and the role went to a singer called Rodney Goodens instead: [Excerpt: The Hitmakers, “Chapel of Love”] So the audition was a failure, but it was a first contact between Brian Wilson and the Morgans, and also introduced Brian to Val Poliuto, from whom he would learn a lot about music for the next few years. Brian was a very sensitive kid, the oldest of three brothers, and someone who seemed to have some difficulty dealing with other people — possibly because his father was abusive towards him and his brothers, leaving him frightened of many aspects of life. He did, though, share with his father a love of music, and he had a remarkable ear — singular, as he’s deaf in one ear. He had perfect pitch, a great recollection for melodies — play him something once and it would stay in his brain — and from a very young age he gravitated towards sweet-sounding music. He particularly loved Glenn Miller’s version of “Rhapsody in Blue” as a child: [Excerpt: The Glenn Miller Orchestra, “Rhapsody in Blue”] But his big musical love was a modern harmony group called the Four Freshmen — a group made up of two brothers, their cousin, and a college friend. Modern harmony is an outdated term, but it basically meant that they were singing chords that went beyond the normal simple triads of most pop music. While there were four, obviously, of the Four Freshmen, they often achieved an effect that would normally be five-part harmony, by having the group members sing all the parts of the chord *except* the root note — they’d leave the root note to a bass instrument. So while Brian was listening to four singers, he was learning five-part harmonies. The group would also sing their harmonies in unusual inversions — they’d take one of the notes from the middle of the chord and sing it an octave lower. There was another trick that the Four Freshmen used — they varied their vocals from equal temperament.  To explain this a little bit — musical notes are based on frequencies, and the ratio between them matters. If you double the frequency of a note, you get the same note an octave up — so if you take an A at 440hz, and double the frequency to 880, you get another A, an octave up. If you go down to 220hz, you get the A an octave below. You get all the different notes by multiplying or dividing a note, so A# is A multiplied by a tiny bit more than one, and A flat is A multiplied by a tiny bit less than one. But in the middle ages, this hit a snag — A#. which is A multiplied by one and a bit, is very very slightly different from B flat, which is B multiplied by 0.9 something. And if you double those, so you go to the A# and B flat the next octave up, the difference between A# and B flat gets bigger. And this means that if you play a melody in the key of C, but then decide you want to play it in the key of B flat, you need to retune your instrument — or have instruments with separate notes for A# and B flat — or everything will sound out of tune. It’s very very hard to retune some instruments, especially ones like the piano, and also sometimes you want to play in different keys in the same piece. If you’re playing a song in C, but it goes into C# in the last chorus to give it a bit of extra momentum, you lose that extra momentum if you stop the song to retune the piano. So a different system was invented, and popularised in the Baroque era, called “equal temperament”. In that system, every note is very very slightly out of tune, but those tiny errors cancel out rather than multiply like they do in the old system. You’re sort of taking the average of A# and B flat, and calling them the same note. And to most people’s ears that sounds good enough, and it means you can have a piano without a thousand keys.  But the Four Freshmen didn’t stick to that — because you don’t need to retune your throat to hit different notes (unless you’re as bad a singer as me, anyway). They would sing B flat slightly differently than they would sing A#, and so they would get a purer vocal blend, with stronger harmonic overtones than singers who were singing the notes as placed on a piano: [Excerpt: the Four Freshmen, “It’s a Blue World”] Please note by the way that I’m taking the fact that they used those non-equal temperaments somewhat on trust — Ross Barbour of the group said they did in interviews, and he would know, but I have relatively poor pitch so if you listened to that and thought “Hang on, they’re all singing dead-on equal tempered concert pitch, what’s he talking about?”, then that’s on him. When Brian heard them singing, he instantly fell for them, and became a major, major fan of their work, especially their falsetto singer Bob Flanigan, whose voice he decided to emulate. He decided that he was going to learn how they got that sound. Every day when he got home from school, he would go to the family’s music room, where he had a piano and a record player. He would then play just a second or so of one of their records, and figure out on the piano what notes they were singing in that one second, and duplicating them himself. Then he would learn the next second of the song. He would spend hours every day on this, learning every vocal part, until he had the Four Freshmen’s entire repertoire burned into his brain, and could sing all four vocal parts to every song. Indeed, at one point when he was about sixteen — around the same time as the Art Laboe audition — Brian decided to go and visit the Four Freshmen’s manager, to find out how to form a successful vocal group of his own, and to find out more about the group themselves. After telling the manager that he could sing every part of every one of their songs, the manager challenged him with “The Day Isn’t Long Enough”, a song that they apparently had trouble with: [Excerpt: The Four Freshmen, “The Day Isn’t Long Enough”] And Brian demonstrated every harmony part perfectly. He had a couple of tape recorders at home, and he would experiment with overdubbing his own voice — recording on one tape recorder, playing it back and singing along while recording on the other. Doing this he could do his own imitations of the Four Freshmen, and even as a teenager he could sound spookily like them: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys [Brian Wilson solo recording released on a Beach Boys CD], “Happy Birthday Four Freshmen”] While Brian shared his love for this kind of sweet music with his father, he also liked the rock and roll music that was making its way onto the radio during his teen years — though again, he would gravitate towards the sweet vocal harmonies of the Everly Brothers rather than to more raucous music. He shared his love of the Everlys with his cousin Mike Love, whose tastes otherwise went more in the direction of R&B and doo-wop. Unlike Brian and his brothers, Mike attended Dorsey High School, a predominantly Black school, and his tastes were shaped by that — other graduates of the school include Billy Preston, Eric Dolphy, and Arthur Lee, to give some idea of the kind of atmosphere that Dorsey High had. He loved the Robins, and later the Coasters, and he’s been quoted as saying he “worshipped” Johnny Otis — as did every R&B lover in LA at the time. He would listen to Otis’ show on KFOX, and to Huggy Boy on KRKD. His favourite records were things like “Smokey Joe’s Cafe” by the Robins, which combined an R&B groove with witty lyrics: [Excerpt: The Robins, “Smokey Joe’s Cafe”] He also loved the music of Chuck Berry, a passion he shared with Brian’s youngest brother Carl, who also listened to Otis’ show and got Brian listening to it. While Mike was most attracted to Berry’s witty lyrics, Carl loved the guitar part — he’d loved string instruments since he was a tiny child, and he and a neighbour, David Marks, started taking guitar lessons from another neighbour, John Maus. Maus had been friends with Ritchie Valens, and had been a pallbearer at Valens’ funeral. John was recording at the time with his sister Judy, as the imaginatively-named duo “John & Judy”: [Excerpt: John & Judy, “Why This Feeling?”] John and Judy later took on a bass player called Scott Engel, and a few years after that John and Scott changed their surnames to Walker and became two thirds of The Walker Brothers. But at this time, John was still just a local guitar player, and teaching two enthusiastic kids to play guitar. Carl and David learned how to play Chuck Berry licks, and also started to learn some of the guitar instrumentals that were becoming popular at the time. At the same time, Mike would sing with Brian to pass the time, Mike singing in a bass voice while Brian took a high tenor lead. Other times, Brian would test his vocal arranging out by teaching Carl and his mother Audree vocal parts — Carl got so he could learn parts very quickly, so his big brother wouldn’t keep him around all day and he could go out and play. And sometimes their middle brother Dennis would join in — though he was more interested in going out and having fun at the beach than he was in making music. Brian was interested in nothing *but* making music — at least once he’d quit the school football team (American football, for those of you like me who parse the word to mean what it does in Britain), after he’d got hurt for the first time. But before he did that, he had managed to hurt someone else — a much smaller teammate named Alan Jardine, whose leg Brian broke in a game. Despite that, the two became friends, and would occasionally sing together — like Brian, Alan loved to sing harmonies, and they found that they had an extraordinarily good vocal blend. While Brian mostly sang with his brothers and his cousin, all of whom had a family vocal resemblance, Jardine could sound spookily similar to that family, and especially to Brian. Jardine’s voice was a little stronger and more resonant, Brian’s a little sweeter, with a fuller falsetto, but they had the kind of vocal similarity one normally only gets in family singers. However,  they didn’t start performing together properly, because they had different tastes in music — while Brian was most interested in the modern jazz harmonies of the Four Freshman, Jardine was a fan of the new folk revival groups, especially the Kingston Trio. Alan had a group called the Tikis when he was at high school, which would play Kingston Trio style material like “The Wreck of the John B”, a song that like much of the Kingston Trio’s material had been popularised by the Weavers, but which the Trio had recorded for their first album: [Excerpt: The Kingston Trio, “The Wreck of the John B”] Jardine was inspired by that to write his own song, “The Wreck of the Hesperus”, putting Longfellow’s poem to music. One of the other Tikis had a tape recorder, and they made a few stabs at recording it. They thought that they sounded pretty good, and they decided to go round to Brian Wilson’s house to see if he could help them — depending on who you ask, they either wanted him to join the band, or knew that his dad had some connection with the music business and wanted to pick his brains. When they turned up, Brian was actually out, but Audree Wilson basically had an open-door policy for local teenagers, and she told the boys about Hite and Dorinda Morgan. The Tikis took their tape to the Morgans, and the Morgans responded politely, saying that they did sound good — but they sounded like the Kingston Trio, and there were a million groups that sounded like the Kingston Trio. They needed to get an original sound. The Tikis broke up, as Alan went off to Michigan to college. But then a year later, he came back to Hawthorne and enrolled in the same community college that Brian was enrolled in. Meanwhile, the Morgans had got in touch with Gary Winfrey, Alan’s Tikis bandmate, and asked him if the Tikis would record a demo of one of Bruce Morgan’s songs. As the Tikis no longer existed, Alan and Gary formed a new group along the same lines, and invited Brian to be part of one of these sessions. That group, The Islanders made a couple of attempts at Morgan’s song, but nothing worked out. But this brought Brian back to the Morgans’ attention — at this point they’d not seen him in three years. Alan still wanted to record folk music with Brian, and at some point Brian suggested that they get his brother Carl and cousin Mike involved — and then Brian’s mother made him let his other brother Dennis join in.  The group went to see the Morgans, who once again told them that they needed some original material. Dennis piped up that the group had been fooling around with a song about surfing, and while the Morgans had never heard of the sport, they said it would be worth the group’s while finishing off the song and coming back to them. At this point, the idea of a song about surfing was something that was only in Dennis’ head, though he may have mentioned the idea to Mike at some point. Mike and the Wilsons went home and started working out the song, without Al being involved at this time — some of the rehearsal recordings we have seem to suggest that they thought Al was a little overbearing and thought of himself as a bit more professional than the others, and they didn’t want him in the group at first. While surf music was definitely already a thing, there were very few vocal surf records. Brian and Mike wrote the song together, with Mike writing most of the lyrics and coming up with his own bass vocal line, while Brian wrote the rest of the music: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, “Surfin’ (Rehearsal)”] None of the group other than Dennis surfed — though Mike would later start surfing a little — and so Dennis provided Mike with some surfing terms that they could add into the song. This led to what would be the first of many, many arguments about songwriting credit among the group, as Dennis claimed that he should get some credit for his contribution, while Mike disagreed: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, “Surfin’ (Rehearsal)”] The credit was eventually assigned to Brian Wilson and Mike Love. Eventually, they finished the song, and decided that they *would* get Al Jardine back into the group after all. When Murry and Audree Wilson went away for a long weekend and left their boys some money for emergencies, the group saw their chance. They took that money, along with some more they borrowed from Al’s mother, and rented some instruments — a drum kit and a stand-up bass. They had a party at the Wilsons’ house where they played their new song and a few others, in front of their friends, before going back to the Morgans with their new song completed. For their recording session, they used that stand-up bass, which Al played, along with Carl on an acoustic guitar, giving it that Kingston Trio sound that Al liked. Dennis was the group’s drummer, but he wasn’t yet very good and instead of drums the record has Brian thumping a dustbin lid as its percussion. As well as being the lead vocalist, Mike Love was meant to be the group’s saxophone player, but he never progressed more than honking out a couple of notes, and he doesn’t play on the session. The song they came up with was oddly structured — it had a nine-bar verse and a fourteen-bar chorus, the latter of which was based around a twelve-bar blues, but extended to allow the “surf, surf with me” hook. But other than the unusual bar counts it followed the structure that the group would set up most of their early singles. The song seems at least in part to have been inspired by the song “Bermuda Shorts” by the Delroys, which is a song the group have often cited and would play in their earliest live shows: [Excerpt: The Delroys, “Bermuda Shorts”] They messed around with the structure in various ways in rehearsal, and those can be heard on the rehearsal recordings, but by the time they came into the studio they’d settled on starting with a brief statement of the chorus hook: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, “Surfin'”] It then goes into a verse with Mike singing a tenor lead, with the rest of the group doing block harmonies and then joining him on the last line of the verse: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, “Surfin'”] And then we have Mike switching down into the bass register to sing wordless doo-wop bass during the blues-based chorus, while the rest of the group again sing in block harmony: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, “Surfin'”] That formula would be the one that the Beach Boys would stick with for several singles to follow — the major change that would be made would be that Brian would soon start singing an independent falsetto line over the top of the choruses, rather than being in the block harmonies.  The single was licensed to Candix Records, along with a B-side written by Bruce Morgan, and it became a minor hit record, reaching number seventy-five on the national charts. But what surprised the group about the record was the name on it. They’d been calling themselves the Pendletones, because there was a brand of thick woollen shirt called Pendletons which was popular among surfers, and which the group wore.  It might also have been intended as a pun on Dick Dale’s Deltones, the preeminent surf music group of the time. But Hite Morgan had thought the name didn’t work, and they needed something that was more descriptive of the music they were doing. He’d suggested The Surfers, but Russ Regan, a record promoter, had told him there was already a group called the Surfers, and suggested another name. So the first time the Wilsons realised they were now in the Beach Boys was when they saw the record label for the first time. The group started working on follow-ups — and as they were now performing live shows to promote their records, they switched to using electric guitars when they went into the studio to record some demos in February 1962. By now, Al was playing rhythm guitar, while Brian took over on bass, now playing a bass guitar rather than the double bass Al had played. For that session, as Dennis was still not that great a drummer, Brian decided to bring in a session player, and Dennis stormed out of the studio. However, the session player was apparently flashy and overplayed, and got paid off. Brian persuaded Dennis to come back and take over on drums again, and the session resumed. Val Poliuto was also at the session, in case they needed some keyboards, but he’s not audible on any of the tracks they recorded, at least to my ears. The most likely song for a follow-up was another one by Brian and Mike. This one was very much a rewrite of “Surfin'”, but this time the verses were a more normal eight bars, and the choruses were a compromise between the standard twelve-bar blues and “Surfin'”s fourteen, landing on an unusual thirteen bars. With the electric guitars the group decided to bring in a Chuck Berry influence, and you can hear a certain similarity to songs like “Brown-Eyed Handsome Man” in the rhythm and phrasing: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, “Surfin’ Safari [early version]”] Around this time, Brian also wrote another song — the song he generally describes as being the first song he ever wrote. Presumably, given that he’d already co-written “Surfin'”, he means that it was the first song he wrote on his own, words and music. The song was inspired, melodically, by the song “When You Wish Upon A Star” from the Disney film Pinocchio: [Excerpt: Cliff Edwards “When You Wish Upon a Star”] The song came to Brian in the car, and he challenged himself to write the whole thing in his head without going to the piano until he’d finished it. The result was a doo-wop ballad with Four Freshmen-like block harmonies, with lyrics inspired by Brian’s then girlfriend Judy Bowles, which they recorded at the same session as that version of “Surfin’ Safari”: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, “Surfer Girl [early version]”] At the same session, they also recorded two more songs — a song by Brian called Judy, and a surf instrumental written by Carl called “Karate”. However, shortly after that session, Al left the group. As the group had started playing electric instruments, they’d also started performing songs that were more suitable for those instruments, like “What’d I Say” and “The Twist”. Al wasn’t a fan of that kind of music, and he wanted to be singing “Tom Dooley” and “Wreck of the John B”, not “Come on baby, let’s do the Twist”. He was also quite keen on completing his university studies — he was planning on becoming a dentist — and didn’t want to spend time playing tons of small gigs when he could be working towards his degree. This was especially the case since Murry Wilson, who had by this point installed himself as the group’s manager, was booking them on all sorts of cheap dates to get them exposure. As far as Al could see, being a Beach Boy was never going to make anyone any real money, and it wasn’t worth disrupting his studies to keep playing music that he didn’t even particularly like. His place was taken by David Marks, Carl’s young friend who lived nearby. Marks was only thirteen when he joined, and apparently it caused raised eyebrows among some of the other musicians who knew the group, because he was so much younger and less experienced than the rest. Unlike Al, he was never much of a singer — he can hold a tune, and has a pleasant enough voice, but he wasn’t the exceptional harmony singer that Al was — but he was a competent rhythm player, and he and Carl had been jamming together since they’d both got guitars, and knew each other’s playing style. However, while Al was gone from the group, he wasn’t totally out of the picture, and he remained close enough that he was a part of the first ever Beach Boys spin-off side project a couple of months later. Dorinda Morgan had written a song inspired by the new children’s doll, Barbie, that had come out a couple of years before and which, like the Beach Boys, was from Hawthorne. She wanted to put together a studio group to record it, under the name Kenny and the Cadets, and Brian rounded up Carl, Al, Val Poliuto, and his mother Audree, to sing on the record for Mrs Morgan: [Excerpt: Kenny and the Cadets, “Barbie”] But after that, Al Jardine was out of the group for the moment — though he would be back sooner than anyone expected. Shortly after Al left, the new lineup went into a different studio, Western Studios, to record a new demo. Ostensibly produced by Murry Wilson, the session was actually produced by Brian and his new friend Gary Usher, who took charge in the studio and spent most of his time trying to stop Murry interfering. Gary Usher is someone about whom several books have been written, and who would have a huge influence on West Coast music in the sixties. But at this point he was an aspiring singer, songwriter, and record producer, who had been making records for a few months longer than Brian and was therefore a veteran. He’d put out his first single, “Driven Insane”, in March 1961: [Excerpt: Gary Usher, “Driven Insane”] Usher was still far from a success, but he was very good at networking, and had all sorts of minor connections within the music business. As one example, his girlfriend, Sandra Glanz, who performed under the name Ginger Blake, had just written “You Are My Answer” for Carol Connors, who had been the lead singer of the Teddy Bears but was now going solo: [Excerpt: Carol Connors, “You Are My Answer”] Connors, too, would soon become important in vocal surf music, while Ginger would play a significant part in Brian’s life. Brian had started writing songs with Gary, and they were in the studio to record some demos by Gary, and some demos by the Beach Boys of songs that Brian and Gary had written together, along with a new version of “Surfin’ Safari”. Of the two Wilson/Usher songs recorded in the session, one was a slow doo-wop styled ballad called “The Lonely Sea”, which would later become an album track, but the song that they were most interested in recording was one called “409”, which had been inspired by a new, larger, engine that Chevrolet had introduced for top-of-the-line vehicles. Musically, “409” was another song that followed the “Surfin’ Safari” formula, but it was regularised even more, lopping off the extra bar from “Surfin’ Safari”‘s chorus, and making the verses as well as the choruses into twelve-bar blues. But it still started with the hook, still had Mike sing his tenor lead in the verses, and still had him move to sing a boogie-ish bassline in the chorus while the rest of the group chanted in block harmonies over the top. But it introduced a new lyrical theme to the group — now, as well as singing about surfing and the beach, they could also sing about cars and car racing — Love credits this as being one of the main reasons for the group’s success in landlocked areas, because while there were many places in the US where you couldn’t surf, there was nowhere where people didn’t have cars. It’s also the earliest Beach Boys song over which there is an ongoing question of credit. For the first thirty years of the song’s existence, it was credited solely to Wilson and Usher, but in the early nineties Love won a share of the songwriting credit in a lawsuit in which he won credit on many, many songs he’d not been credited for. Love claims that he came up with the “She’s real fine, my 409” hook, and the “giddy up” bass vocal he sang. Usher always claimed that Love had nothing to do with the song, and that Love was always trying to take credit for things he didn’t do. It’s difficult to tell who was telling the truth, because both obviously had a financial stake in the credit (though Usher was dead by the time of the lawsuit). Usher was always very dismissive of all of the Beach Boys with the exception of Brian, and wouldn’t credit them for making any real contributions, Love’s name was definitely missed off the credits of a large number of songs to which he did make substantial contributions, including some where he wrote the whole lyric, and the bits of the song Love claims *do* sound like the kind of thing he contributed to other songs which have no credit disputes. On the other hand, Love also overreached in his claims of credit in that lawsuit, claiming to have co-written songs that were written when he wasn’t even in the same country as the writers. Where you stand on the question of whether Love deserves that credit usually depends on your views of Wilson, Love and Usher as people, and it’s not a question I’m going to get into, but I thought I should acknowledge that the question is there. While “409” was still following the same pattern as the other songs, it’s head and shoulders ahead of the Hite Morgan productions both in terms of performance and in terms of the sound. A great deal of that clearly owes to Usher, who was experimenting with things like sound effects, and so “409” starts with a recording that Brian and Usher made of Usher’s car driving up and down the street: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, “409”] Meanwhile the new version of “Surfin’ Safari” was vastly superior to the recording from a couple of months earlier, with changed lyrics and a tighter performance: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, “Surfin’ Safari (second version)”] So at the end of the session, the group had a tape of three new songs, and Murry WIlson wanted them to take it somewhere better than Candix Records. He had a contact somewhere much better — at Capitol Records. He was going to phone Ken Nelson. Or at least, Murry *thought* he had a contact at Capitol. He phoned Ken Nelson and told him “Years ago, you did me a favour, and now I’m doing one for you. My sons have formed a group and you have the chance to sign them!” Now, setting aside the question of whether that would actually count as Murry doing Nelson a favour, there was another problem with this — Nelson had absolutely no idea who Murry Wilson was, and no recollection of ever doing him a favour. It turned out that the favour he’d done, in Murry’s eyes, was recording one of Murry’s songs — except that there’s no record of Nelson ever having been involved in a recording of a Murry Wilson song. By this time, Capitol had three A&R people, in charge of different areas. There was Voyle Gilmore, who recorded soft pop — people like Nat “King” Cole. There was Nelson, who as we’ve seen in past episodes had some rockabilly experience but was mostly country — he’d produced Gene Vincent and Wanda Jackson, but he was mostly working at this point with people like Buck Owens and the Louvin Brothers, producing some of the best country music ever recorded, but not really doing the kind of thing that the Beach Boys were doing. But the third, and youngest, A&R man was doing precisely the kind of thing the Beach Boys did. That was Nik Venet, who we met back in the episode on “LSD-25”, and who was one of the people who had been involved with the very first surf music recordings. Nelson suggested that Murry go and see Venet, and Venet was immediately impressed with the tape Murry played him — so impressed that he decided to offer the group a contract, and to release “Surfin’ Safari” backed with “409”, buying the masters from Murry rather than rerecording them. Venet also tried to get the publishing rights for the songs for Beechwood Music, a publishing company owned by Capitol’s parent company EMI (and known in the UK as Ardmore & Beechwood) but Gary Usher, who knew a bit about the business, said that he and Brian were going to set up their own publishing companies — a decision which Murry Wilson screamed at him for, but which made millions of dollars for Brian over the next few years. The single came out, and was a big hit, making number fourteen on the hot one hundred, and “409” as the B-side also scraped the lower reaches of the charts. Venet soon got the group into the studio to record an album to go with the single, with Usher adding extra backing vocals to fill out the harmonies in the absence of Al Jardine. While the Beach Boys were a self-contained group, Venet seems to have brought in his old friend Derry Weaver to add extra guitar, notably on Weaver’s song “Moon Dawg”: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, “Moon Dawg”] It’s perhaps unsurprising that the Beach Boys recorded that, because not only was it written by Venet’s friend, but Venet owned the publishing on the song. The group also recorded “Summertime Blues”, which was co-written by Jerry Capehart, a friend of Venet and Weaver’s who also may have appeared on the album in some capacity. Both those songs fit the group, but their choice was clearly influenced by factors other than the purely musical, and very soon Brian Wilson would get sick of having his music interfered with by Venet.  The album came out on October 1, and a few days later the single was released in the UK, several months after its release in the US. And on the same day, a British group who *had* signed to have their single published by Ardmore & Beechwood put out their own single on another EMI label. And we’re going to look at that in the next episode…

Mike Zeller helps high achievers uncover and pursue their life's work. While Mike's businesses have done millions in revenue over the years, he's also made more than a million dollars in painful mistakes. And he wants to help other entrepreneurs avoid the mistakes he's made. He's invested in or started more than 15 different businesses in a variety of industries, from real estate, fashion, automotive, to digital marketing, and high-level entrepreneur masterminds. He's also a master NLP practitioner, which is the core methodology of Tony Robbins. This has been very powerful for helping entrepreneurs and creatives get unstuck from emotional roadblocks, become more fully integrated and powerful in order to create and build unstoppable momentum.

Welcome back Hit the Bottle with your host, Michael Wangbickler. They say, “You should never meet your heroes.” The people that you admire may disappoint you by not living up to your expectations when you encounter them in real life. The internet is full of horror stories about people meeting their celebrity idols and being crushed by the experience. Leadership comes at a price. While Mike has had the opportunity to meet his heroes (most of which are in the wine biz, naturally), it’s always been a dream come true. That was the case when he had the opportunity to sit down with Michael Mondavi late last year and chat about leadership in the beverage business. It’s an experience he won’t soon forget. The Mondavi name is synonymous with wine in the Napa Valley. The family has been truly instrumental in the ascendance of California wine over the past 100 years. For his part, Michael has been a leader and mentor to at least three generations of wine professionals. He’s been an idol of Mike’s for at least 20 years. So, you can imagine how geeked he was when Michael Mondavi agreed to be on the show. Leadership is one of those nebulous ideas that can be hard for some to grasp. The expression “born leader” is frequently bandied about, but we are of the opinion that leaders are made, not born. So, chatting with a true leader and hearing their perspective, is truly something special. This episode is precious to Mike, and we hope you find it equally valuable. Let’s get on with the show. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/htbpodcast/support

10.28 : The Mystery Meat Cut In which Kris regains his sense of history and makes a comedy comeback recommendation. While Mike continues with his Mubi musings and yearns for a Netflix tv keyboard. Aliens and Predators arrive at Marvel, a Bat Multiverse is born and the Holy Nolan is back on trial. It's the first live studio show in four months, and STARBURST Radio is as shambolic as ever... *Show first broadcast on Wed 15th July 2020 All recordings are issued under official license from Fab Radio International.

10.25 : Winona's Twofer and the Abs of Adam West In which Kris announces the return of Michael Keaton as Batman in a non throat slamming Flash movie and fails to get a rise from The Evil Dead. While Mike struggles with some severed heads and finds the wrong kind of flag in a beloved classic. The Tiger King make his comic book debut, What We Do in the Shadows returns for it's sophomore season and Proxima is reviewed as STARBURST Radio staggers through to week fourteen of lockdown. *Show first broadcast on Wed 24th June 2020 All recordings are issued under official license from Fab Radio International.

Ever wondered how to just get started? Mike Simmons' advice is to just do it! Mike is the producer and host of Just Start Real Estate, one of the top real estate podcast in the world, and the author of Level Jumping: How I grew my business to over $1 million in profits in 12 months. About five years ago, he did just that, exploding his real estate investing businesses, growing it to over $1 Million in such a short space of time. Mike is a real estate mentor, coach, and partner in 7 Figure Flipping – one of the nation's largest real estate mastermind groups. While Mike isn't involved in the commercial real estate business, his experience can certainly be translated into helping investors and entrepreneurs in any business!

No-one likes bugs, and while we can't entirely avoid them, there are some tried and tested techniques to squash those little pests. In today's show, we dive into some of these strategies. While Mike's initial reaction is denial and he runs the code repeatedly, there are other techniques as well, like writing tests, Googling, and reading the docs. These all have their merits and we delve into what they are. We also discuss how talking to a rubber duck or a toddler can help you work through a problem or even just how stepping away from the computer and hitting that mental refresh button can help you on your debugging quest. Along with this Mike and Dave, both share some of their debugging experiences and which tactic they are going to make greater use of. Be sure to tune in today!

10.24 : Lawrence of a Labia In which Martin reveals that Ewan McGregor has taken up Cricket and introduces everyone to Edward Penishands. While Mike signifies the decline of humanity due to to the Primark Tuxedo but is comforted by the arrival of his favourite agents in the 1930s. Lockdown rolls into week thirteen, Ema and Scoob! get reviewed and Artemis Fowl gets very reviewed. [WARNING: This episode contains an extremely honest movie review from a Mike Royce that has been cooped up for three months] #SodTony *Show first broadcast on Wed 17th June 2020 All recordings are issued under official license from Fab Radio International.

10.21: Cannonball Won?? In which Martin reveals Fowl play at Disney + and gets ready for the real space ship to arrive. While Mike searches for the invisible Snyder Cut fans and gets disappointed when a streaming service loses it's bottle. Space Force, Upload and Snowpiercer are reviewed, while Josh Trank returns with a confused gangster in tow. It's week ten of lockdown and STARBURST Radio continues to diligently waste your precious time... *Show first broadcast on Wed 27th May 2020 All recordings are issued under official license from Fab Radio International.

Mountain Man and owner of Dog Rock Resorts, Mike Abrams, denies the use of beard growth hormones as he prepares to reopen his mountain resort for dogs in New City, New York. While Mike professionally accepts all canines with no previous aggressions and provides the highest quality PetAirapy, he deals broken laptops and breaks camels' backs on the side. During his escape from a well unplanned date night, the organic beard grower reveals the key to telling twins apart is by looking behind their ears. QWTChrises.com ~ Patreon.com/QWTChrises ~ GoFundMe w/ Okizu “No Hair For Care” (gofundme.com/f/no-hair-for-care)

10.19: Swindon London In which Kris reveals a welcome sophomore season for the Doom Patrol and yet another boxset release for the mighty Twin Peaks. While Mike finally fulfills his zombie goal and decides that the New Mutants should just bloody well get on with it! On the 8th week of lockdown, Guns Akimbo is reviewed, The New Warriors find their Safespace and STARBURST approaches it's tenth anniversary. *Show first broadcast on Wed 13th May 2020 All recordings are issued under official license from Fab Radio International.

10.17: Corona Zombies In which Martin suggests a retro lifeline for cinemas and reveals a change of tactics from the Oscars. While Mike champions the unloved Rambo movie and encounters some very bad parenting on the way home. STARBURST Radio enters week six of the lockdown as a major war erupts between Universal and a bunch of major cinema chains. *Show first broadcast on Wed 29th April 2020 All recordings are issued under official license from Fab Radio International.

Ever look out the window at work or in school and wish you were out there doing something big, living out your dreams? That is what this episode is about. We meet a man who used to do that. Then decided that enough was enough.Adventurer and three time Guinness Book of World Record holder Mike Reid says you don’t have to be gifted or talented. You don’t need anything given to you. If you refuse to take ‘no’ for an answer, anyone can achieve their dreams. As a child Mike was bullied. He experienced a horrible divorce as a young child. He used to look at the Guinness Book of World Records and think that these are people he will never be. Growing up in inner city Philadelphia he experienced the invisible barriers that hold people from ever having hope or ever getting out of their situation. But, he realized that dreams take massive amounts of persistence and dedication.While Mike has many amazing stories of adventure, today we’ll focus on his first ever kayak across the Sea of Japan with an experienced kayak guide, who showed Mike that he was worth believing in. It’s a gripping tale that has many possible bad endings. However, they persisted and made it happen. That expedition can be seen at Japantokorea.asiaMike can be found on Instagram and Facebook @gnarlyadventures Music is found on the Free Music Archive and features the Vivisectors http://thevivisectors.com/

Who? What? Where? Those are the questions asked as out month of mystery movies continues with board game turned 1985 film Clue. Both Harley and Mike are back to drinking beers. Harley is drinking Carton Brewery's "All Together" which uses the money from the purchase to donate to hospitality workers during the pandemic. While Mike is drinking 21st Amendment's "Hell of High Watermelon" and wishing he was on a beach. Who was Harley when she played the board game? What makes this kooky comedy work? Were they're laughs all around? Plus the duo make a plea for everyone to PLEASE WATCH SUMMER HOUSE! Subscribe, rate, review, follow! Stay safe & healthy! Insta:@brewsonfilm

10.10: We Need to Talk About Dogging with Kevin In which Kris has a nuclear reaction to the English language and gets proto Cop Rocked. While Mike remembers when ‘straight to video’ was not a dirty phrase and explains by Bojack Horseman helped to explain the mysteries of living. On the last show before the STARBURST International Film Festival 2020, STARBURST Radio delivers a reprehensible show in which Ellen Pages’ digital nudity, piracy, and slavery with a smile, are just some of the no-go areas that wandered into... *Show first broadcast on Wed 11th March 2020 All recordings are issued under official license from Fab Radio International.

10.09: Colourful Metaphors In which Martin sings the praises of the other famous Kris and welcomes The Simpsons to Disney+. While Mike explains how James Bond was brought down by a virus and why Roddenberry ain’t no straitjacket. The Invisible Man is reviewed and seismic events on Doctor Who trigger more online hate than usual on the week leading up to the STARBURST International Film Festival 2020... [*Featuring exclusive podcast only bonus content, so stay with us after the end credits!] [WARNING: This episode contains an exceptionally high troll content!] *Show first broadcast on Wed 4th March 2020 All recordings are issued under official license from Fab Radio International.

10.06: Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emaciation of the DC Comics Box Office Takings) In which Kris reveals an animation revelation, and explains why, on Netflix, it’s finally Stockport’s time to shine. Martin gets in a very premature plug for STARBURST Issue 469 but refuses to recommend any of the stuff it features. While Mike is happy to take on the ‘lighthouse challenge’ and reveals where Dracula has set up his new gaff. STARBURST Radio returns from it’s Crimbo break with Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey and The Lighthouse Reviews, the return of the Monster Mash, Huey Lewis on life-support, and an unhealthy amount of discussion on the rules of Frankenstein. [*Featuring exclusive podcast only bonus content, so stay with us after the end credits!] *Show first broadcast on Wed 12th February 2020 All recordings are issued under official license from Fab Radio International.

While Mike is off philandering about, Ryan and Josiah sit down to brush off the cobwebs of ST segment elevated myocardial infarction (STEMI) patients. Learn a little bit about signs, symptoms, treatments, and some problems with the current paradigm.

While Mike waits for his guardian angel to call him back, he invites his childhood friend onto the pod to tell the dark and beautiful love story between her and her high school boyfriend.Trigger warning: this episode deals with heavy topics including suicide and substance abuse. If these are things that might be a trigger, this might not be the episode for you.*ONE CORRECTION TO THE EPISODE: It is the 14th anniversary of Mike's passingGET YOUR BEYOND MERCH HERE!BEYOND IS A FOREVER DOG PODCAST:https://foreverdogpodcasts.com/podcasts/beyondMusic and Theme Song by Henry KoperskiTheme Song Vocal performed by Katherine Thomas

While Mike selfishly celebrates his birthday in Scotland, Fucking Dan steps in as co-host so he and Kyle can tell each other horribly sad hate crime stories, including the shooting at gay bar Backstreet Cafe by Ronald Gay and the murders of Michelle Abdill, Roxanne Ellis, and Scott George by Robert Acremant.  In this episode: News(ish)- 4:12 || Main Topic (Hate Crimes)- 5:39 || Gayest & Straightest- 1:06:43 To get a bonus segment with gayta about hate crimes, go to www.patreon.com/gayishpodcast.

Last week, speaking coach Mike Pacchione walked through the speaking, or the communication styles, of the first three Enneagram types and how each type can leverage their gift and what to watch out for. Tune in today for part 2, as Mike and Ian cover how to tap into the strengths and avoid the pitfalls for types four through nine. And, don’t forget to download Mike’s tips for public speaking by Enneagram type.  Just click below for your PDF of the key points for each of the nine types. DOWNLOAD THE ENNEAGRAM AND PUBLIC SPEAKING PDF   About Mike Pacchione Since 2012, Mike has taught public speaking to nearly 10,000 people across the globe. (Yes, he gives presentations about presentations. It’s very meta.) His favorite thing in the world is helping someone with great ideas make those ideas come alive on stage. (Cue name-dropping) To that end, he’s helped Olympians such as Scott Hamilton, executives such as Donald Miller, Ryan Delk and Rachel Rodgers, online entrepreneurs such as Pat Flynn and Amy Porterfield, best-selling authors such as James Clear, and let’s not forget our dear friend Ian Cron. Mike also serves as the speaking coach for ConvertKit’s annual Craft + Commerce conference. While Mike is not at liberty to name the remainder of his clients, suffice it to say that if you have used a computer, credit card or search engine today, you’ve been in contact with one of his past clients. On a personal note: In 2016, he and his wife began helping a Congolese refugee family transition to life in the United States. It is some of his best and most challenging work. Ever think of how to explain voicemail to someone who’s never used a phone before? Neither had he. Drop him a line at mike@miketalks.co. If you’d like to see pictures of speakers (sometimes), him sometimes), his family (sometimes) and his dog (often), follow @mpacc on Instagram.

Have you ever thought about what makes a great speech or presentation? Whether you’re speaking to thousands this weekend, you're speaking to the Rotary Club, or you just want to be a better communicator in the workplace, your Enneagram type has a specific communication style that plays a part in your effectiveness or lack of effectiveness.  So how do you tap into those strengths and avoid the pitfalls? Our guest today, speaking coach Mike Pacchione walks us through the speaking, or the communication styles, of all nine types and how each of those nine types can leverage their gift and shares some of the things to watch out for. Mike’s also put together his great tips for public speaking by Enneagram type.  Just click below to review the key points for each of the nine types. THE ENNEAGRAM AND PUBLIC SPEAKING PDF DOWNLOAD NOW   About Mike Pacchione Since 2012, Mike has taught public speaking to nearly 10,000 people across the globe. (Yes, he gives presentations about presentations. It’s very meta.) His favorite thing in the world is helping someone with great ideas make those ideas come alive on stage. (Cue name-dropping) To that end, he’s helped Olympians such as Scott Hamilton, executives such as Donald Miller, Ryan Delk and Rachel Rodgers, online entrepreneurs such as Pat Flynn and Amy Porterfield, best-selling authors such as James Clear, and let’s not forget our dear friend Ian Cron. Mike also serves as the speaking coach for ConvertKit’s annual Craft + Commerce conference. While Mike is not at liberty to name the remainder of his clients, suffice it to say that if you have used a computer, credit card or search engine today, you’ve been in contact with one of his past clients. On a personal note: In 2016, he and his wife began helping a Congolese refugee family transition to life in the United States. It is some of his best and most challenging work. Ever think of how to explain voicemail to someone who’s never used a phone before? Neither had he. Drop him a line at mike@miketalks.co. If you’d like to see pictures of speakers (sometimes), him sometimes), his family (sometimes) and his dog (often), follow @mpacc on Instagram.

On The Gist, holding Scott Peterson accountable after the Parkland shooting. In the interview, George Will has led conservative thought for decades, in over a dozen books and a Washington Post column he’s penned since 1974. In his latest work, The Conservative Sensibility, he seeks to define just what “conservative” means. While Mike had him on The Gist, he got Will’s opinion on the lost dignity of the GOP, Elizabeth Warren’s policy proposals (“I think she has a firm grip on half a point”), and the fact that no Democratic candidate is all that close to true socialism.  In the Spiel, Biden and Warren’s new environmental plans. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices