Favoriting Bitslap with KBC: Playlist from September 29, 2009 Favoriting

KBC's avatar View KBC's profile Favoriting

Back in 1979, I made the decision to accept Dr Demento as my personal savior. Since then, with the help of his apostles Spike, Al, Stan and Black-Eyed Susan Brown, I have made it my mission to spread the Gospel of the Firesign and the Word of the Waller. Please join me and my fellow seekers as we find the Wisdom we crave and the Rapture we deserve. A new sermon every Tuesday (and NO collection plate!).

iTunes Feed Also available as an MP3 podcast. More info at our Podcast Central page.

<-- Previous playlist | Back to Bitslap with KBC playlists | Next playlist -->


Favoriting September 29, 2009: Grab Bag8

Listen to this show: MP3 - 128K | Pop-up listen Pop-up player!

Artist Track Album Comments
Jim Backus  DELICIOUS   Favoriting   Backus is best known as Mr Magoo, Thurston Howell III or Frank Stark, depending on which generation you call home. Here he is joined by Phyllis Diller (uncredited), who has a longer rap sheet than many entire casts you could assemble and is still going strong today at age 92. 
Andy Griffith  TO THE LOVELY JUANITA BEASLEY   Favoriting   Andy of Mayberry (actually Mt Airy, NC) made a number of recordings poking fun at his 'rube' charactor (the most famous about football) and spent years on the comedy circuit before success called him from Hollywood. At age 83, he's still quite active, having last appeared in Brad Paisley's video for 'Waitin on a Woman' in 2008. 
Allen and Grier  HIPPITY HOP   Favoriting   Jake Holmes and his soon-to-be ex-wife Katherine teamed up in the mid-50s for a great record of daffy things. As soon as i can find it amongst the wires, I'll digitize it and pass more stuff along. 
Andrews Sisters  MR BASS MAN   Favoriting   Features the all-time greatest bass man, Thurl Ravenscroft (the voice of Tony the Tiger and the vocalist on 'Mr Grinch') for a real mediocrity. I get the feeling everybody mailed this one in from different continents, but it still has a kind of warped charm to it. 
Ray Bolger and Verna Felton  YOU HAVE TO BE SLIGHTLY CRAZY [To be on the Radio]   Favoriting   A God-knows-where-it-came-from snippet of something much more important. One of the oldest pieces of oddness in my collection, I probably got it back to the 60s. Now you've got it. Pass it on. 

Music behind DJ:
Harry 'The Hipster' Gibson 

BARRELHOUSE BOOGIE   Favoriting

 

 
Firesign Theatre  MARE NOCHE'S BOMBA SHELTER   Favoriting   A commercial from 'Dear Friends' 
Tom Russel Band with Dave van Ronk  OUTCASTE [part 1]   Favoriting   From Tom's 1999 album, 'The Man from God Knows Where,' which recounts his family's journey from Norway and Ireland to the Wild West. Dave van Ronk, the 'Mayor of McDougal Street,' is the patron saint of folk singers. Well, he is now, having left us in 2002, but there is a piece of Sheridan Square (where Barrow St meets Washington St) that has been renamed in his honor. 
Brother George Underbush  GREEN GARDEN HOSE   Favoriting   Apparently his real name was Terry Fell (although I coundn't find the two names linked together anywhere) and he had a big enough hit with 'Truck Drivin Man.' Brother George, meanwhile had another biggie with 'Ted the Head.' Other than that, I got nothin. 
Cliff Ferre and Cafe Society Quartet  AIN'T IT A BEAUTY   Favoriting   Yes, I know, two songs about a garden hose is pushing it, but what do you want from me? Ferre made his (miniscule) fortune off double-entendre numbers like this (including the classics 'Rosie don't Bang on the Piano' which backed up 'Favorite Indoor Sport.') 
Dick Kent  FIVE FOOT NINE AND ONE-HALF INCHES TALL   Favoriting   A card-carrying member of the MSR stable, Kent and his gang of musical thugs (led by Rodd Keith) put your worthless poems to music (for a fee). Whoever wrote this is, hopefully, resting comfortably in an asylum somewhere. 
Rod Hart  CHICKEN OF THE COUNTY   Favoriting   Poking good fun at Kenny Rogers, this is, I assume, the same guy who had a minor hit during the CB infestation in 1977 with 'CB Savage' on an album called Breakeroo. However, getting him to admit any involvement with this song is another matter and I have come up empty. 
Chaps  RAWHIDE   Favoriting   From 1982. Written by Dimiti Tiomkin and Ned Washington, it was a big hit for Frankie Laine and provided a show-stopping moment in a very popular 1980 movie. See a clip at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5N35kQAPv0&feature=related 
Wild Man Fisher  REAL COOL COWBOY   Favoriting   Quite a resume for the Wild Man: Appeared on Laugh-In, Subject of a comic book, Duet with Rosemary Clooney, Linked musically to Linda Ronstadt, Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin and Tom Waits, Has a mention in Thomas Pynchon's novel 'Inherent Pig,' and to top it off a great documentary from 2005 called 'Derailroaded: Inside the Mind of Wild Man Fisher.' The smart money says there's probably lots more. Begs the question: What could he have accomplished with an ounce of ambition? 
Napoleon XIV  I LIVE IN A SPLIT LEVEL HEAD   Favoriting   Jerry Samuels, of course, gave us 'They're Coming to Take Me Away' and several other bizarre tunes. He was a DJ in the Philadelphia area and of course, once all those radio stations banned his record, his fortune was assured. Where is he now? He runs a company that books entertainment for rest homes in the Delaware Valley area. What goes around... 

Music behind DJ:
Tennessee Ramblers 

BEATY STEEL BLUES   Favoriting

 

 
Allen Sherman  HEADACHES   Favoriting   Allen does his typical thing to 'Heartches' (but he doesn't do the whistling). 
Allen Sherman  MAKIN COFFEE   Favoriting   A few months back, I got wind of a record Allen made for the Scott Paper Company and lamented that I'd love to get hold of it. Well, Podder (listener?) Rich Upton of Whereabouts Unknown USA was kind enough to send me all 6 tracks, which are apparently included in a boxed set of Allen's incredible bulk of work. A tip of the hat to Rich for sending them on so we can all enjoy them. A reminder: if you have something you think I should include here, let me know at kbcradio@hotmail.com. 
Allen Sherman  THAT'S HOW THE CHANGE IS MADE   Favoriting   Another from the Scott Paper collection ("Music to Dispense With"). We'll get to the others eventually. Thanks again, Rich! 
Morecombe and Wise  HAPPIEST XMAS OF THEM ALL   Favoriting   Eric Morecombe & Ernie Wise had an incredibly popular British TV series. They worked together from 1941 until Morecombe's death in 1984 (Wise died in 1999). The Morecombe and Wise Show ran from 1968 to 1983 and their Xmas shows were of such legendary stature that streetswould empty and crime would drop (like during the Super Bowl here). Heres a link to their tribute site: http://ericandernie.homestead.com/ 
R Crumb and Cheap Suit Serenaders  HULA GIRL   Favoriting   Yes, that's Crumb as in Mr Natural and Flakey Foont. He always had a fondness for old music and when his ship came in, he started making some. To my knowledge, they were the last band to put out a 78 RPM record ('Wisconson Wiggle' in 1985 or so) 
R Crumb and Cheap Suit Serenaders  GETTA LOADA THIS   Favoriting   Crumb stopped working with the band when he moved to France. These days the band tours infrequently, mostly under the direction of Bob Brozman. 
Real Tuesday Weld  BATHTIME IN CLERKENWELL   Favoriting   A band led by Stephen Coates, who claims the name came from some sort of surreal dream involving Tuesday Weld and Al Bowlley (YOU ask him - I'd be too scared). You can find a wonderful video version by Aleksy Budivskiy at www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1s4DbPS244) but it sounds different (less Mills Brotherly). 
Spike Jones & His City Clickers  JONES POLKA   Favoriting    
Rutles  PIGGY IN THE MIDDLE   Favoriting   From the mind-breaking mockumentary 'All You Need is Cash' which gave the Rutles a life of their own. They were even the subject of a tribute album. And of course, it goes without saying that 'Spinal Tap' was based on the Rutles, too. 
Beatles  LADY MADONNA   Favoriting Love  Before the digital remixes that came out a few months back, there was this gem from George and Giles Martin for Cirque de Soleil in Las vegas. They mashed up 130 or so songs for the project and to Beatle fans like me, the result is staggering. Don't expect a traveling version of the show, though. The entire theatre was gutted and rebuilt to the specs of the show. 
Tom Russel Band with Dave van Ronk  OUTCASTE [Reprise]   Favoriting   Wrapping up loose ends here. Russell's 1999 record 'Man from God Knows Where' was recorded in Norway and also include contributions from Iris DeMint and Delores Keane. His latest is 'Blood and Candle Smoke' 

Music behind DJ:
Tommy Dorsey 

WEARY BLUES   Favoriting

 

 
Harry Nilsson  CAST AND CREW   Favoriting   Sung over the closing credits of the 1968 movie 'Skidoo' which starred Jackie Gleason, Carol Channing, Groucho Marx etc and wasn't all that bad. For a plot synopsis, see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skidoo_(film) 

(C) 2024 WFMU. Generated by KenzoDB, written by Ken Garson