Don't Forget to Rotate, Disco Lady (mp3s)

Generals (Disco Version)

Generals

Take a look at the label to the left. You now know as much as I do about this single. You also know why I had to have it when I saw it at a record show.

Here's the General Tire theme in disco and non-disco versions. Why? We'd need to travel back in time to the 1970s to find the answer. Maybe you got a copy free when you bought a new set of radials. Maybe it was sent out to retailers to provide pleasant background music while customers waited for installation of their new all-weather tires. It obviously wasn't sent out to radio stations, as it has "Not for Broadcast" in large, nasty letters on both sides. Not that I pay attention to things written in large, nasty lettering.

Setting the whys aside, one listen to the disco General theme answers the question of which brand of tires Shaft prefers. I've included Side 2 for the sake of completion--it's a very easy listening, almost MUZAK take on the theme.

Program and Download Notes
I've noticed that EggDisk tends to be a bit slow before 12:30PM Eastern Time. If you're having problems downloading, try a little later in the day.

Tomorrow night's show will be about baseball, and will be a bit on the talky side. I'll be joined in the studio by Sean Lily and, perhaps, a special MVP guest from the world of comedy who just got back from performing in the Aspen Comedy Arts Festival. I've got some great baseball-related oddities to share as well, including Bruce Springstone and a disco tune about Pete Rose.

Another Hokey Pokey Disco (mp3)

Hokey Pokey Disco

In honor of my first contribution to this year's 365 Days Project, I'd like to present an update to the original 365 Days go-round. "Hokey Pokey Disco" was one of my favorite tracks from the first go-round, so when I came across another song with the same title, I had to own it.

It wasn't until the night before my radio show that I realized what I had.

This track comes from DISCO LUMMI STICK ACTIVITIES, released by Kimbo Educational Records in 1979. That's not the cover (I didn't get one with my copy) but an illustration of lummi sticks preparing for Kaiju. The original "Hokey Pokey Disco" came from DISCOROBICS, also released by Kimbo Educational Records in 1979. See a pattern here?

Indeed, this is the same guy who narrated the DISCOROBICS version, only this time he doesn't have the backup singers, so he has to sing it himself. While he may have outstanding diction and the speedtalking skills required to lay down disco dance moves to the beat, he does not possess the ability to carry a tune.

I bought a song based on a title and came up with a sequel. This is one of my favorite finds, and my thanks go out to Jason Cox for posting the first "Hokey Pokey Disco."

So Do We Get a Podcast, or What?
Yes, yes you do. The Super Secret Safe-Harbor Broadcast is now available for a week for your downloading and listening pleasure. This is NOT work-safe. Let me repeat, THIS IS NOT WORK SAFE. But it is fun.

It's a Bonus Week

There's extra fun this week as we celebrate the arrival of Spring. First, since this time of year is all about love, why not get yourself a copy of LOVE SCENES ADAPTED FROM D.H. LAWRENCE'S LADY CHATTERLY'S LOVER? Regular listeners will recall this as the centerpiece of this year's Valentine's show. You'll find it at the 365 Days Project for your downloading enjoyment.

There'll also be a regular MP3 release on Wednesday, so you get a bonus release this week. Nice.

There's also a bonus broadcast of Hear It Wow--the Super Secret Safe Harbor Show--tonight at Midnight Eastern time, plus the regular show in its usual Thursday time slot at 6PM Eastern.

Double the downloads, double the broadcasts, same low price (free). Now that's March Madness.

When Pea-Pickers Get Together (mp3s)

Down in the Valley/Medley
(The More We Get Together, Dear Evalina, Keep on the Sunny Side of Life, How Many Biscuits Can We Eat, For He’s a Jolly Green Giant)

How the Green Giant Found His Song (and almost lost his HO! HO! HO!)/Good Things from the Garden (as heard on TV)

Here’s a bit of pure fun from America’s favorite frozen vegetable company, Green Giant. A collection of happy songs with Tennessee Ernie Ford and a bit of drama with the Green Giant himself. There’s no copyright date on the record, but the musical style suggests the period from 1955-1962. There’s also no indication as to whether it’s a stereo or a mono recording, which may be an oversight but may also date it to a time before stereo became common in the home.

My best guess is that this was a mail-in premium, the sort of benevolent pro-frozen vegetable propaganda that children would enjoy as their minds hard-wired the Green Giant as the best source of tasty greens. All the songs feature Tennessee Ernie Ford on lead vocals, backed by the perky Green Giant Singers. Side 1 opens with “Down in the Valley,” then jumps to a quick medley of songs about valleys and food.

Side 2, sadly a bit more rough than Side 1, tells the story of how the Green Giant song came to be. Mr. Ford and the Jolly One are, it seems, friends enough that the Giant can lean on Mr. Ford for some free jingle-writing. The script by Bob Pride is as good as any Rankin-Bass children’s show, and as catchy, without being too heavy on the advertising message.

You’ll have the Green Giant’s theme stuck in your head by the end of it, but you’ll also be smiling. Maybe you’ll even get a hankering for some frozen peas.

Hidden in Plain Sight Secret Message Postscript
Congratulations for reading below the fold! As a reward, here’s some more information for you and you alone. The Super-Secret Safe-Harbor Broadcast of Hear It Wow will happen this Monday night at midnight, in all the usual places you’re used to hearing the show, be it over the air on 91.5 FM or through one of the convenient links on this blog. I’ll be playing two entire albums that I can’t get away with in my regular slot, plus Side 3 of THE SOURCE SUMMER MOVIE SPECTACULAR, and a couple of songs with filthy lyrics, if there’s time.

That’s 12-2AM this Monday, March 19. Sucks if you’re on the East Coast, but that’s still early for the rest of this country, and it’s morning in some other parts of the world. Can’t stay up? You know I’ll post the podcast, and you do need the beauty sleep. You look a bit peaked.

There’s also a show on Thursday at the regular time—Monday is a bonus broadcast for your adult listening enjoyment.

Are We Supporting Indpendent Music Yet?

Some reading for you on this first Monday of Daylight Savings Time. One of my fellow boggers chronicled the closing of Mojo Records on Mass. Ave. in Cambridge. You'll find it halfway down the page, and it's a good read. It's also a scenario that's played out far too often in Cambridge and Boston over the last few years, as Harvard, MIT, and Boston University carve up the available real estate for their unending expansions.

The typical scenario goes like this: well-endowed university buys piece of commerical real estate. Said university either kicks all the existining businesses out and razes the building or jacks the rents up so high that only national retailers and cell phone companies can afford to keep the storefront.

What's left is a momentary flourish of finds at Goodwill offset by an ongoing loss to consumers. There's a game I like to play with tourists in Harvard Square, called, "Find the locations from Good Will Hunting." You can't find any of them today, because shiny new office and retail space now stands in their former locations.

Support Independent Radio

I'm not one to come off with a lot of causes that I think you should support. I think we get enough of that in our daily lives, without someone like me, who's running an entertainment blog, breaking into the fun and asking you to send some money somewhere. So I'll understand if you skip this post, and I won't think any less of you for doing so.

But if you'll indulge me for a moment, I'd like you to do two things this year. First, make a pledge to WFMU. They're one of the sources that Hear It Wow taps to keep the freeform goodness flowing, and unlike WMFO, which is supported by the trustees of Tufts University, they're completely independent. No pledges, no station, no spiffy web site teeming with delicious downloads, no 365 Days Project II. There'll be a pledge box linked to their site on the blog until March 11, when the pledge drive ends.

I spend hundreds of my own $$$ on gas, albums, and CDs, and a lot of hours of time on the show and the site each week. It's all free for you and I like it that way, but if you ever feel like giving something back, this is a good time and a good way to do it.

The second thing I'd ask is for you to visit an independent record store in your area. In the last half-decade, I've seen a lot of beloved record stores in the Harvard Square area shut down, and the few that remain are under the pressure of ever-increasing rents and costs, as the City of Cambridge continues to try and turn the area into a strip mall, albeit a strip mall without parking spaces.

I'm not opposed to the Best Buys and FYEs of the world. If you want new music, they've got it, and maybe even a decent price. But the major retailers don't have the shelf space for anything that won't move X number of units a month, so if that's the only choice you have, you can forget about ever finding anything that's off the mainstream path. Since the departure of Tower Records from the Commonwealth, there's no place to get slightly obscure imports anymore (*cough*cough Newbury Comics, please pick up the slack *cough). If the independent record stores go, we'll just be one step closer to the Aguillerization of America, and that's a world I just can't live in.