BETTY BOOP "Boop-Boop-Be-Doop!"

Yes, I'm alive and well! This blog ain't dead yet. I've just been spending my free time on other pursuits.

You don't need me to tell you who Betty Boop is. But there's more to this perennially popular cartoon character than her famous flapper look and squeaky voice exclaiming her "boop boop be doop" catchphrase. Women in the Victorian era had to endure not just social/political restrictions (no swimming allowed!), but physical ones as well. I recently saw a museum exhibit of the almost bondage-like garb of the day: tight corsets, thick layers of clothes and padding, long skirts that killed thousands of women by getting caught in machinery, wheels, etc. By the 1920s, the fun-loving young women known as "flappers" threw all that mess out the window and started jitterbugging to the new sounds of hot jazz, smoking and drinking and engaging in other such un-lady-like activities, all while wearing little more than short dresses. They had one of the first extensively chronicled slang-uages, even preceding the jazz hep-cat culture. I would wager to say that the flapper was the first hipster.

The Fleischer Brothers studio wouldn't introduce Betty Boop to the silver screen until the 1930s, when the Great Depression was throwing a wet blanket over the flapper culture of the Roaring 20s. But Miss Boop kept the indomitable flapper spirit going, providing a link, via appearances by novelty jazz legend Cab Calloway, to the emerging Harlem hipster era that would come to define mid-century cool culture. In the pre-Code era, this risque, adult cartoon was often built around musical sequences, and this wonderful collection presents not just songs and musical segments from the cartoons, but even a couple of songs from Helen Kane, the original squeaky-voiced singer with the New Yawk accent that inspired the Boop character. Totally essential.

A helpful Amazon reviewer notes "not all tracks are Betty herself (voiced by Mae Questel). But, many of the non-Betty tracks are from Fleischer Studios cartoons. Her “hot” theme song, sung by male vocals, began several Betty Boop cartoons... Fanny Brice singing, “I’m An Indian,” plus Maurice Chevalier’s “Hello Beautiful”  from the cartoon “Betty Boop’s Rise to Fame” (1934) wherein Betty imitates those stars on those songs. That soundtrack is also included...there are two Helen Kane songs (“That’s My Weakness Now”, “Do Something”)...Cab Calloway’s two songs from “The Old Man of the Mountain” (1933) that finish this CD... I find the Fleischer versions better than Calloway’s official studio recordings for 78 rpm. The other Calloway recordings on this CD are also from Betty Boop cartoons..."

Plus, you get Louis Armstrong, and Calloway's signature hit "Minnie The Moocher," a version of which was just featured in the "Forbidden Zone" soundtrack we posted recently. In the song, Calloway references "kicking the gong around," meaning smoking opium. Did I mention that "Betty Boop" was originally an adult's cartoon?

And I'm still waiting for Cyndi Lauper to fulfill her destiny by making a Betty Boop-type record...

 BETTY BOOP "Boop-Boop-Be-Doop!"

Tracklist 

1	Betty Boop Theme	0:35
2	Sweet Betty/Don't Take My Boop-Boop-A-Doop Away/The Girl In The Little Green Hat	6:15
3	Highlight From 'Betty Boop's Little Pal'	1:28
4	Helen Kane: That's My Weakness Now	3:35
5	Fanny Brice: I'm An Indian	2:52
6	Maurice Chevalier: Hello Beautiful	2:19
7	Stopping The Show	3:15
8	Arthur Jarrett: Sweet Betty Theme	0:36
9	Cab Calloway: Minnie The Moocher	3:28
10	Betty Boop's Trial	5:44
11	Arthur Jarrett: Sweet Betty Theme	0:35
12	I'll be Glad When You're Dead, You Rascal You (with Louis Armstrong)	2:27
13	Music Goes "Round And Around	2:38
14	St. James Infirmary Blues	1:42
15	Helen Kane: Do Something	2:37
16	Chant Of The Weed (instrumental)	1:23
17	Highlights From 'I Heard'	4:18
18	Betty Boop Theme	0:47
19	The Broken Record	2:36
20	Hell's Bells (instrumental)	2:29
21	Cab Calloway: The Old Man Of The Mountain	3:00
22	Cab Calloway: You Gotta Hi-De-Ho	2:40
23	Betty Boop	2:31

The Mystic Knights Of The Oingo Boingo: "Forbidden Zone"

Back in the days of Los Angeles' wild-n-whooly pre-punk "Freak Scene", The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo were filling large theaters with their outrageous performances. And if you think that name sounds familiar, yes indeed, Danny Elfman would eventually inherit the group from brother Richard and pare it down to the hugely successful band Oingo Boingo, who would then in turn serve as the springboard for Elfman's even huge-er career as a soundtrack composer. Somewhere in the world right now, the theme to "The Simpsons" is playing.

But this was Elfman's first score, and possible his best, an utterly weird, wacked-out, and wonderful assortment of short instrumentals ("Factory" wouldn't sound out of place on The Resident's "Commercial Album"), and theatrical vocal numbers from Elfman (as the Devil); star Susan Tyrrell, an actual Oscar nominee who made the admirable decision to toss away movie-star life to make films with the likes of Andy Warhol and John Waters; and - yes! - Herve Villachaize, the little fella with the thick accent who played Tattoo on Fantasy Island, who can be heard in the "Finale."

Also featured: "Yiddishe Charleston", which sounds just like its title: a Jewish boogie-woogie; the Dr. Demento swing-era standard "Pico and Sepulveda," and the amusingly flatulent nonsense vocals of performance artists The Kipper Kids (one of whom is married to Bette Midler?!) sung over some vintage jazz novelties. All of which perfectly complements big brudder Rick Elfman's hysterically surreal, non-PC classic midnight movie. The year was 1977: Richard was retiring from the group to pursue a video career, and Danny was ready to steer it from its glam-era theatrical origins into New Wave rock band territory. Nothing here really sounds like Oingo Boingo, tho. Much to this album's credit, it doesn't really sound like anything you've heard before. 

Various versions of this soundtrack have been released over the years. This is the most complete.

The Mystic Knights Of The Oingo Boingo: "Forbidden Zone" soundtrack

"THE BANYAN TREE": Groovy '60s Soundtrack to A Lost Film

Hello, and welcome to another episode of "Mysteries...of the Mysterious." I am your host Mr. E. Train. Today, we shall explore the baffling riddle of a film from the late 1960s entitled the "The Banyan Tree." A film so obscure that it is not mentioned on IMDB, or anywhere else on the internet. Indeed, the only proof of its' existence is three curious 45 rpm records, six songs total. 

Alex Burton of Dallas' KRLD radio

And what swell, swingin' sides they are indeed. Up-beat go-go beats, snappy horn charts, Beach Boys harmonies, sitars...the Now Sound for the "Now Generation." How could anyone not love a band called The Pickle Platter doing "Chant of the Dead Temples." (What the hell was this film about anyway?!). Or the absurd title song: "Hey hey hey, Mr Holy Man!...send me on a trip, around my mind!"  It's safe to say that The Apple Corps, the Puget Sound and The Pickle Platter were not real bands, but studio concoctions.

If YOU have any idea who are the forgotten talents behind this music, let us know. Because the daughter of Dallas, TX radio man Alex Burton inherited these historical oddities from her fur-coat clad father, was suitably impressed, and put them all up on the youtubes in the hopes that maybe someone out there knows something about the film and these records and can fill us in.

The only clue is in on the record label: "Marty Young Productions." Apparently they were a small Dallas TX film production house formed in 1967 that made religious films, educational shorts, etc. The film probably had something to do with India.

"The Banyan Tree" (6 songs)

Not everything is on the internet. There are still things we do not, perhaps were not meant to know. Is this yet another mystery...of the mysterious?

THE BIG RUMBLE! Uncensored Scenes of the Nightmares of a Weirdo

(Back up, by request: Roky Erickson live, Jonathan Brandmeier, Bah Humbug, and CURL ACTIVATE 2: More '80s Hip-Hop Novelties.)
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Never before in the history of blogging has there been such a SHOCKING collection of '50s/'60s audio atrocities! You'll flip your wig (or your switchblade) when you...HEAR riotous rock'n'roll and rancid radio ads! HEAR bad-boy bikers blowin' rhythm-and-blues! HEAR their rockabilly "rumble" with rival gangs! These heathen hot-rodding hoodlums and harlots are on a one-way drag race to HELL!

Music For Maniacs, the blog that brought you such SIN-tillating compilations as "Voodoo Dance Doll," and the banned-in-Boston "Hubba Hubba!," are back with an all-new spine-tingling collection of virgin vinyl rips and recorded-off-YouTube sound selections, many of which have never been digitally available before! There are other similar collections of this sort of teen trash, but these songs have (so far as I know) not been previously compiled.

Starring in this festival of forgotten (forbidden?!) 45s: a teen-aged (and unrecognizable) Scott Walker, still going by the name Scott Engel; gay novelty act Sandy Beech; one Mike Minor, possible the only lounge crooner to tackle juvenile delinquency; a Frank Zappa production; both a song by the Cheers (featuring future game show host Bert Convy) and a cover of the Cheers' hit "Black Denim Trousers" (that I think I prefer to the original); Harold Lloyd Jr - yes, the son of the hanging-off-the-clock guy - who had a short, strange life; and since every psychobilly/Cramps-related comp features Link Wray's "Rumble," we're including a different Wray rumbler that might be an even better tune.

Volume 7 of our ongoing survey of mid-century sleazy-listening sounds is in limbo - on a hard-drive that has apparently crashed. A drive I bought to be a backup for my main drive!  Damn thing (a Passport) is less then a year old. Hoping it can be recovered. So we're jumping to Vol. 8.

As Oliver Reed sings:
"Black Leather, Black Leather, Smash Smash Smash!
Black Leather, Black Leather, crash crash crash!
Black Leather, Black Leather, Kill Kill Kill!"

"LOWBROW Vol. 8: The Big Rumble"

1 ad - "The Thrill Killers"
2 Link Wray - Rumble Rock
3 Jeff Daniels - Switchblade Sam [one of the more surreal, hysterical rockabilly boppers I've ever heard, describing some kind of orgy between Long Tall Sally, Stagger Lee, and, er, Charlie Brown?]
4 Oliver Reed - Black Leather Rock [from the film "(These Are) The Damned"]
5 The Shadows - The Rumble
6 ad - "High School Hellcats"/"Hot Rod Gang"
7 The Cheers - Chicken [presumably inspired by the "chickie run" scene in the James Dean film "Rebel Without a Cause"]
8 The Champs - Experiment In Terror [like Link Wray, those "Tequila" boys The Champs did in fact record more than one song]
9 The Diamonds - Daddy Cool
10 ad - "The Wild Rebels"
11 Bill Woods - Go Crazy Man
12 Alexander (Sandy) Courage - Hot Rod Rumble (Main Title)
13 Bob Peck - Sweet 16 [cool song Bob, but you're still the poor man's Tom Lehrer!]
14 Ray Smith - Rockin' Bandit
15 The Orange Groove - Street King [it's a shame we'll never know what geniuses made this brilliant quasi-Middle Eastern bad-boy oddity for a budget label]
16 Don Lonie Talks With Teenagers (excerpt)
17 Scott Walker (aka Scott Engel) - Good For Nothin' [Wow, before I came across this 45, I had no idea about the pre-Walker Brothers rockabilly past of Scott W.]
18 Homer Denison Jr - Chickie Run [hello, sound fx!]
19 Steve Karmen - 'Teenage Gang Debs' theme
20 ad - "Fiend For Flesh!"/"Road Rebels" [alas, these films, scarcely released in the first place, are considered lost]
21 Hal Blaine & the Young Cougars - Green Monster
22 Hells Angels (dialogue)
23 The Diamonds - Black Denim Trousers and Motorcycle Boots
24 The Rotations - The Cruncher [not "The Crusher"! but an early Zappa production]
25 Die Crazy Girls - Der Feuerstuhl (Leader Of The Pack) [is she saying "buzz off, buzz off" in this German Shangri-las remake?]
26 ad - "She Devils on Wheels"
27 Epitones - The Mighty Rumble
28 Sandy Beech - Leather Jacket Lovers [amazing that this outrageous s&m parody was released back in the '60s; how did they get away with it!? Er, well, maybe J. Edgar Hoover dug it, he was a pretty kinky cat...]
29 Harold Lloyd Jr w/Page Cavanaugh - Daddy Bird [from the terrible film "Frankenstein's Daughter"]
30 Mike Minor - Rumble In The Night
31 Hash Brown - The Rumble
32 ad - "Bury Me an Angel"
33 The Crickets - I Fought The Law [yep, 'twas a post-Buddy Holly Crickets that wrote and first recorded this classic; why was it not the hit that Bobby Fuller's version was? Perhaps  the reference to a "zip-gun", the homemade rubber-band-powered gun that punk kids used, was too controversial; changing it to "six gun" removed it to a safer Old Western past]
34 Vicki Young - Riot In Cell Block #9 [the Leiber and Stoller hit for The Coasters (dba The Robins) gets a female makeover]
35 Barry Green (aka Barry Blue) - Shake A Tail Suzie [a Suzuki 'cycles promo]

HI-FI SCI-FI: Vintage Monster/Space/Horror/Futurism Audio Oddities

Now up for your downloading pleasure, six (and counting) volumes of monstrous mix-tapes, perfect for these Halloween-y times we're living in. And what might their contents be? Compiler Cat A. Waller sez: "I'm afraid to say what's on them. Might get googled and busted. I'm kinda wimpy like that." Well, after checking out three volumes (so far) I can heartily recommend this witch's brew of vintage horror rock, more recent New Wave and novelty artists, and relevant sound (vampire?) bites and film dialogue, amongst other surprises.

Monstro Monster Mixes 

Still not enough for ya? "Hi-Fi Sci-Fi," the latest installment in our continuing exploration of mid-century arty-facts from the Golden Age of Cool, deals with every aspect of the fantastic: Outer Space! Monsters! Monsters from space! Not only is much of this stuff ripped from vinyl and, so far as I know, has not been compiled on other collections of vintage sleazy-listening sounds, but there's also a number of tracks recorded off of video: movie songs (and dialogue, sound fx, etc.) that were not released on record, but should have been. There will be more such movie musics in future volumes. So keep watching the skies!

Apart from the unknown garage rockers and novelty acts releasing 45s on regional labels, we also have a few big stars: Diana Ross & The Supremes, Bo Diddley, Louis Prima...and crooners. Crooners already rule, but when they sing straight-faced, sincere, utterly inappropriate 'love themes' to cheesy b-movies, they just get, er, 'rule-ier.' Bobby Rydell's finger-snappin' vocal version of "Telstar" must be heard to be believed. See also: "Journey to the Seventh Planet" on "Vol. 5".

Lowbrow Vol. 6: HI-FI SCI-FI 

01 The Crescendos - Countdown
02 Louis Prima - Fly Me To The Moon [from a private-press release by this king of Vegas lounge singers]
03 Gemini & The Planets - Copa City Promo, Miami, FL ["gyrating go-go girls dancing on a bed of nails"?!]
04 The Supremes - Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine [wouldn't it be nice to hear the oldies station play this theme song to a nutty Vincent Price film instead of "Baby Love" for the umpteenth time?]
05 Monty Johnson - Flying Saucers in the Air
06 The Sci-Fis - Science Friction
07 Ralph Young - Moon Doll [future half of very successful duo Sandler & Young croons the theme to "Nude On The Moon," a film about nudes on the moon.]
08 "Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster": Bob Crewe - Scramble All Jets
09 Big Maybelle - Egg Plant That Ate Chicago [rhythm and blues legend Maybelle recorded the original "Whole Lotta Shakin Goin On"; which is all well and good, but I prefer this]
10 "Annihilation"
11 "Beach Girls and the Monster" - suspense music [My title - like track 15, I don't know the names of the uncredited pieces of music]
12 Bo Diddley - Mummy Walk
13 "Evil Hand"
14 Frankie Avalon - Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
15 "Beach Girls and the Monster" - spooky bongos
16  "Beach Girls and the Monster" Kinsley The Lion & Elaine Dupont - Monster In The Surf
17 Astronauts - The Hearse
18 Teddy and Darrel - Gary Ghoul Boy [pioneering campy gay humor]
19 "I am Robert Robot, mechanical man. Ride me and steer me, wherever you can"
20 Bent Bolt & The Nuts - The Mechanical Man
21 "HAL is Operational"
22 Ray Cathode - Waltz In Orbit [featuring a pre-Beatles George Martin!]
23 Buchanan & Goodman - Frankenstein of '59
24 Carl Douglas - Witchfinder General [yep, the "Kung Fu Fighting" guy; I literally did LOL listening to this one]
25 "Werewolf in A Girl's Dormitory": Marilyn Stewart/ Frank Owens - Ghoul in School
26 Frankie Stein and his Ghouls - Three Little Weirds [This sounds like it may be the song "Jerk" from "Lowbrow Vol. 2," only w/added crazy sound fx]
27 Bobby Rydell - Telstar [This song had lyrics? Believe it or don't! The vocal version was often called "Magic Star."]
28 "Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster" - capture of the earth women 
29 Travis Wammack - Theres A UFO Up There
30 Orange Groove - A Bad Trip Back to '69 [I think this song appears on the 101 Strings album "Astro-sounds": probably more budget label shenanigans, like track 26]
31 Lex de Azevedo / Doug Stewart - Zero Population [An ultra-conservative's idea of a dystopian future, from "Saturdays Warrior," a Mormon rock-opera - yes, there really was such a thing. Lex de Azevedo had a long career w/Capital records, releasing the Mrs Miller albums!]
32 Charleton Heston - "Soylent_Green"
33 Columbia Playtime Orchestra - "Rocket Ranger Song"
34 David Rose - Forbidden Planet [The man behind the huge hit "The Stripper" is a long way from the burly-q house here]
35 Count Chocula, Frankenberry, and Boo Berry - Monster Adventures In Outer Space

artwork courtesy of Mitch O'COnnell
 

"Night Of The Living Dead" soundtrack

I think this speaks for itself, doesn't it?

The internets sez: "Since their meager budget did not allow for an original music score, producer Karl Hardman selected cues from the Capitol Hi-Q production music library which [director George] Romero masterfully edited into the film. The end result was spine-chilling. Although this same music had been used more than a decade earlier in low-budget efforts such as Teenagers from Outer Space, The Hideous Sun Demon and The Killer Shrews, it would become forever known as the soundtrack to Night of the Living Dead."

Choice bits of dialogue are also included in this collection.

Night Of The Living Dead OST

A1	–Spencer Moore	Driveway To The Cemetary (Main Title)
A2	–William Loose / Seely	At The Gravesite/Flight/Refuge
A3	–George Hormel	Farmhouse/First Approach
A4	–Ib Glindemann	Ghoulash (J.R.'s Demise)
A5	–George Hormel / William Loose / Seely / Ib Glindemann	Boarding Up
A6	–Philip Green / George Hormel	First Radio Report/Torch On The Porch
A7	–George Hormel	Boarding Up 2/Discovery: Gun N' Ammo
A8	–Spencer Moore	Cleaning House
B1	–Ib Glindemann	First Advance
B2	–George Hormel / Jack Meakin	Discovery Of TV/Preparing To Escape/Tom & Judy
B3	–George Hormel	Attempted Escape
B4	–George Hormel	Truck On Fire/Ben Attacks Harry/Leg Of Leg Effects [Electronic Sound Effects] – Karl Hardman
B5	–George Hormel	Beat 'Em Or Burn 'Em/Final Advance
B6	–Spencer Moore	Helen's Death/Dawn/Posse In The Fields/Ben Awakes Effects [Electronic Sound Effects] – Karl Hardman
B7	–Spencer Moore	O.K. Vince/Funeral Pyre (End Title)

Ultimate Xanadu 22

Don-O is the very busy culture-vulture who slipped us "Ultimate Ultimate Xanadu" last year, a sampling of the numerous cover versions of songs from the 1980 musical film "Xanadu". A film I still have not seen (the likes of Olivia Newton-John and ELO barely budge my interest-meter), but Don-O makes an interesting point in the debut ish of his new 'zine "Space-Age Ashtray" that "Xanadu" fits snuggly into the world of classic Las Vegas and mid-century Space-Age/tiki culture, the sort of stuff that sends my interest-meter skyrocketing. So, hmm...
 
He's back with 20 more "Xanadu" soundtrack covers ranging from solo acoustic to full-blown disco orchestrations. Along they way we encounter: an a capella choir, Marie Osmond and Andy Gibb, an Asian language cover, lo-fi live recordings, no-fi grungy rock, lots of Broadway-style warbling, and a vocal choir singing a medley of ELO hits, not all from "Xanadu." Take a hit of ultimate Xanax! Er, I mean:

Ultimate Xanadu 22

When Surfing In Space, Apply MOON-TAN LOTION

46 years ago today, humans walked on the moon for the first time, as millions watched on TV (the Soviets, via their own Luna 15 craft, were no doubt angrily shaking their fists at the screen!), and some even watched with their naked eye by telescope. One British Colombian astronomer actually watched without a telescope - he knew the night sky so well that he could tell which dot was Apollo 11. The actual landing craft and American flag is still there, also visible by telescopes, and, were you to land at Tranquility Base, you could even see Neil Armstrong's footprints. Not a whole lot of weather on the moon.

Apart from the Space Race, the Sixties also gave us surf rock, and trashy rock 'n' roll in general. Two great tastes that go great together! Seems like a good time to celebrate this most holy of unions, what with the amazing Pluto mission now happening, and surf music feeling so right in this summer heat. 

These are mostly guitar instrumentals, but wacky sci-fi sound fx, keyboards, horns, and even some orchestral arrangements all add plenty of variety. And so you don't o.d. on instros, there's a few vocal numbers as well. I've always loved the Steven Garrick and His Party Twisters song (the female singer reminds me of Rusty Warren) yet for some reason I still haven't listened to much of the rest of the album. A little twisting goes a long way. There's also some rockabilly, doo-wop, some great lounge crooning ("Journey To The 7th Planet"), and one of Brian Wilson's greatest bits of lunacy (yes, it was once thought that the moon - Luna - caused madness). And then there's Sandy "King of the Surf Drummers" Nelson's "Beat From Another World," 7 bewildering minutes of studio and tape effects + drum solo that is certainly unlike anything else I've ever heard. It's more avant-garde then most stuff that thinks it's avant-garde.

I kinda cheated this time and included some modern surf bands along with the oldies, e.g.: contempo groups covering songs from the Ventures classic "In Space" album, and the "Blob" and "Dr Who" covers. They're just too good. But no Man or Astro-Man - seeing as how their entire career is surf-in-space, they would be a bit too obvious, no?
 
And once again, as we usually do when we get all mid-century lowbrow, there's some audio ephemera thrown in. This time, it's: 'B' movie ads and dialogue, a children's record, and sci-fi sound effects. And, as per usual, the collection's title and artwork (cartoonist Bill Wenzell, in this case) are courtesy of vintage men's magazines.

Lowbrow Vol.5 MoonTan Lotion - A MusicForManiacs Collection

Do I have to write out the track list? It's 30 tracks and I'm tired!
UPDATE 7/22: Thanks to a reader with a suitably sci-fi handle,
Soylentwhitetrash, the tracklist is now in Comments.

"Female Trouble": The Soundtrack

By request from multiple requesters requesting requests...now back on-line:
RIAA: "Sounds For The Swing-Set," "Radical, Intense and Awesome", and "Schizophonia Suite." And just in time for summer: "Soul Surfin'."

Following the recent post of the soundtrack to the John Waters film "Pink Flamingos," blogger extraordinaire Jonny Zchivago slipped us the OST to Waters' 1974 classic "Female Trouble." Ingredients: some splendidly sleazy early rock, inc "Underwater," one of my fave surf oddities; Nervous Norvus hippin' the squares to that jive lingo; the singing debut of Divine; some slices of corny suburban cheese; and choice bits of dialogue from the film. As the great Nervous Norvus would say, dig-a-roonee:

"Female Trouble" Soundtrack + Bonus Filth!

01 Divine - Female Trouble Theme [original lyrics sung over an existing song...but what is the song?]
02 "Christmas at the Davenports"
03 Gene Autry - Jingle Bells
04 Ruby Wright with Cliff Lash and his Orchestra and the Dick Noel Singers - Merry, Merry, Merry, Merry Xmas
05 "The World of Heterosexuality"
06 Chuck Río & The Originals - Blue Kat
07 "A Meatball Sandwich"
08 Nervous Norvus - Dig
09 Bill Black Combo - Yogi
10 101 Strings Orchestra - Bridal March
11 "Retarded Brat"
12 The Frogmen - Underwater

Order now and we'll include these free gifts! Some songs not on the soundtrack, but inspired by the film that I've added to the file Jonny sent us:

- D. Sticker Ensemble - Massey Resource [sound collage of film dialogue vs Philip Glass (?)]
- Eartha Kitt w/Bronski Beat - Cha Cha Heels [a couple of disco/house stompers]
- Rosabel w/Jeanie Tracy - Cha Cha Heels
- The Cowslingers - Cha Cha Heels [trashy garage-rock]

Thanks and praise to Jonny Zchivago!
  

TRIBUTE TO PINK FLAMINGOS

Donald Featherstone, the appropriately-named creator of those plastic reproductions of our pink feathered friends, has just passed away at the age of 79. As if being the father of the world's most notorious lawn ornament wasn't eccentric enough, Featherstone and his wife were also known for always wearing matching outfits! Now that is just the sort of weird, goofy, good ol' American trash culture that John Waters immortalized in his 1972 film. 

If you haven't seen "Pink Flamings," perhaps the ultimate cult movie, I sure as hell ain't gonna tell you about it. Let's just say that even tho I only saw it once - and this was back in the '80s, when the earths' crust was still cooling and dinosaurs walked the earth - a mere glance at the song titles of the soundtrack recall images that are permanently seared into my brain. So let's pay tribute to Mr. Featherstone with the suitably trashy soundtrack of '50s/60s rock, r'n'b, and easy-listening oldies that Waters used to underscore his characters foul (not to mention fowl) behavior. Some of these songs are as insane as any crazed early rock (e.g.: "Chicken Grabber," "Surfin Bird") while others, like the perfectly presentable "Happy Happy Birthday Baby," are used as ironically innocent counterpoints to the on-screen depravity.

Plus! At no extra cost to you! Other "Pink Flamingos"-related audio oddities thrown into the file:

- Edith Massesy's single, which featured her "singing" a cover of the Four Seasons' "Big Girls Don't Cry," and a lovely original, "Punks (Get Off The Grass)." Massey had moved to the Venice Beach neighborhood of Los Angeles, and her thrift store was a popular hangout for local punks and weirdos, who recorded this with her in 1982.

- Divine "You Think You're A Man" (7'' version); S/He recorded a surprising amount but I just have this one catchy bit of '80s disco.

- The Illuminoids "Satan Said Walrus Eggs," a mashup from 2007 that mixes Massey's "Pink Flamingo" dialogue with the Beatles, over a stomping beat from Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. The Egg Lady meets the Egg Man, with special guest: Satan. One of the members of the Illuminoids was Howie Pyro, who took the name for his super-swell internet show "Intoxica" from one of the songs on this here soundtrack:

"Pink Flamingos" + Bonus Filth

1. The Swag - Link Wray & His Ray Men

2. Intoxica - The Centurions

3. Jim Dandy - LaVern Baker

4. I'm Not A Juvenile Delinquent - Frankie Lymon And The Teenagers

5. The Girl Can't Help It - Little Richard

6. Ooh! Look-A There, Ain't She Pretty - Bill Haley & His Comets

7. Chicken Grabber - Nite Hawks

8. Happy, Happy Birthday Baby - The Tune Weavers

9. Pink Champagne - The Tyrones

10. Surfin' Bird - The Trashmen

11. Riot In Cell Block #9 - The Robins

12. (How Much Is) That Doggie In The Window - Patti Page

The BAT Pack: A Halloween Mix

Rockin' soul, surf, lounge, jazz, comedy, novelties, outsider oddities, movie ads and dialogue clips...hey kids, it's a '50s/'60s lowbrow All Hallow's Eve! Inc. dusty vinyl corpses robbed from my tomb, er, record closet, that I attached electrodes to and ripped to mp3. Featuring such creatures as: Mort Garson on the Moog; schoolkids singing about stealing trick-or-treaters' candy bags; a song-poem called "Vampire Husband;" Lon Chaney Jr "singing" the theme to the classic cult film "Spider Baby;" a James Brown rip-off; visits to Japan (The Golden Cups) and France; two different songs called "Surfin' Hearse," and jazz drummer Philly Joe Jones doing a goofy Dracula bit inspired by Lenny Bruce. And then you've got Bobby Christian's infamous "The Spider and the Fly," described by Lenny "Nuggets" Kaye as the most demented record ever made. (And who am I to disagree?)

The BAT Pack

01 "Horror of the Zombies"
02 Guy Marks (as Bela) - Begin the Beguine
03 Lon Chaney - Song From Spider Baby 
04 "bloodbeast"
05 Bobby Christian and the Allen Sisters - The Spider and the Fly
06 Richard Rome - Ghost a go go
07 The Quads - Surfin' Hearse
08 Jan and Dean -Surfin' Hearse
09 "Lady Frankenstein"
10 Serge Gainsbourg - Docteur Jekyll & Mister Hyde
11 Helen O'Connell - Witchcraft
12 Bela LaGoldstein - Old Boris
13 the Ventures - Exploration in Terror
14 "Dr.Tarr's Torture Dungeon"
15 Arthur Prysock - (I Don't Stand) A Ghost of a Chance
16 Alvino Rey - The Bat
17 "Brain that Wouldn't Die"
18 Little Tibia and the Fibulas - The Mummy
19 Happy Monsters - Clap Your Tentacles
20 The Golden Cups - Spooky
21 Jack Marshall - The Teen-Age Surfing Vampire 
22 The Ramrods - (Ghost) Riders in the Sky
23 "Bloody Pit of Horror"
24 Nancy Dupree with Ghetto Reality students - Bag Snatchin'
25 Mort Garson as The Blobs - Son of Blob
26 Shelley Stuart & The Five Stars - Vampire Husband
27 Cre-shells - Dracula
28 "Frenzy of Blood"
29 Philly Joe Jones - Blues for Dracula
30 Guy Marks (as Boris) - Don't Take Your Love From Me

(FANGS a lot to Count Otto for a couple of these. Art by Shag.)