MA-20 - The Fallout Follies

Here's another entry in my continuing quest to find fun pop songs from every genre about atomic topics.

1 -   Talking Atom      Pete Seeger         1947

2 - The Fall of the Planet Earth     The Moonbillies         1960

3 -  Talkin' World War III Blues       Bob Dylan          1963

4 -  Mushroom Clouds     Love   1966

5 -  Handsome Johnny     Richie Havens      1967

6 -  Thank Christ For The Bomb (edit)     Groundhog 1970

7 - King Of The World Steely Dan 1973

8 - Atom Satillite Del Byzanteens 1979

9 - Face The Fire Dan Fogelberg 1979

10 - Uh-Oh Plutonium Anne Waldman 1982

11 - Two Suns In The Sunset Pink Floyd   1983

12 - I Hate You (from STAR TREK IV)   Edge of Ettiquette 1986

13 - After the War Gary Moore 1989

14 - The Bomb Song Corey Dwyer 1990

15 - Enola Gay Utah Phillips 1991

16 - Hot Frogs on the Loose Frank Small 1993

17 - Duct Tape John McCutcheon 2004

18 - Feed the Bomb Project Bluebird 2009

19 - Whistling in the Nuclear Wind Karl W Mahlmann 2011

Some songs are pretty awful (Track 2), some are pop treasures (Track 10), some are sarcastic (Tracks 12 or 17).  All are fun! 


 MA-20 - The Fallout Follies

See you Monday!

 

Memory Lane: STARLOG #11 - Jan 1978 - Salkind on Superman: The Movie

 

January 1978 was also a great month to get married!

 

My college roommate had this poster on his closet door.

Read the bottom ad on this last page.  Wasn't another name for Heaven, for most of us?  "STAR TREK Galore"!

Re-Post: MA-52 - Adventures of Superman - original MUTEL catalog recordings

I recently heard from a new friend asking about this release.  Previous posts of this release were victims of the Great Server Swap, so here it is again.

When I wrote to Vintage Soundtrak for information about their MUTEL music, I received a mimeographed list, several pages long, listing the various cassettes for sale.  That’s all I remember! I think the tapes were something like $20 each.

I originally learned about Vintage Soundtrak in a STARLOG article.  I’m not sure which issue, though.  Just this past week, I went page-by-page through STARLOG  issues 4-5, 7, 10-14, 17-21, 25-7, 29, 31, 33,  35-6, 38-9, 41-2, 51, 57, 61, 63-65, 67, 69, 71-224.  And I didn’t find it!

I sent money orders for two tapes.  I’m pretty sure they were at different times.  First I sent off for Season One, Volume Two, because I liked the selection titles.  When I popped that tape into my player and I got smacked in the face with “Mysterioso,” I was agog!  I love this kind of creepy, atmospheric stuff.

Remember, this was in the early 1980s, and the TV series, when shown, usually didn’t feature the B&W episodes.  Oftentimes the sillier color episodes were what you came across on the small screen.

Next, I ordered Season One, Volume One.  They sent me Season Two, Volume Two, with an apology that they were out of what I ordered but hoped the replacement was sufficient.  It was!

This is what the cassettes look like.

Now, the “catalog” they originally sent me had selection titles and brief one or two paragraph notations.  I’m happy I kept that catalog, because the cassettes arrived with no labeling except the stickers on the tapes themselves.

I made my own cassette-case inserts using info from the original mimeoed catalog.

 

Also this past week, I went through my “memory files” and folders of articles and clippings and other stuff, but did not find the catalog sheets from Vintage Soundtrak.  So, unless somebody else has better preservation skills, we may never know more about this firm, which evidently in the 1980s had possession of, or access to, the MUTEL discs.

And, as I mention in the notes for this release, at least one collector (who knows more about this stuff than I do), feels that these cassette-to-mp3 dubs have better sound quality than the Varese-Sarabande 2000 CD release.

So, here is my track list:

01. Mysterioso (2:13)

02. Wax Museum (1:32)

03. Build to Sting (0:18)

04. Frantic Rhythm (1:53)

05. Violin Scream (1:19)

06. The Getaway (0:57)

07. Fight (3:13)

08. Jump the Fence! (1:19)

09. Queasy (1:34)

10. Deserted Village (1:33)

11. Rip Through Fear (1:03)

12. Face at the Window (1:44)

13. Eerie Oboe (1:22)

14. Flute to Finale (0:53)

15. Night of Terror (2:29)

16. Sad Romance (1:20)

17. Monkey Mystery (1:18)

18. Airport (0:37)

19. Slow Carousel (0:46)

20. Radio Waltz (1:43)

21. Tango (2:09)

22. Silsby Pastorale (1:43)

23. Life and Death (2:28)

24. Romantic Interlude (1:54)

25. Blue Melody (1:41)

26. World of Tomorrow (3:10)

27. Menace (1:34)

28. City Desk (1:21)

29. Sword of Damocles (2:56)

30. Cat Burglar (1:28)

31. Atlantic Rollers (2:09)

32. Solemn Moment (1:31)

33. Sea Power (1:35)

34. Scotland Yard (2:59)

35. Prelude to Crime (0:24)

36. Crime Doesn't Pay (2:47)

37. Changing Moods I (3:01)

38. Changing Moods II (2:48)

39. Humorous In & Out (0:34)

40. Chameleon Moods (2:40)

41. Free for All (1:35)

42. Hope Abandoned (2:47)

43. Arctic Wastes (2:25)

So, combine this with MA-55 - Adventures of Superman - More Library Recordings from last September, and you will have everything I’ve got, as far as music goes, from the Adventures of Superman series.

Up, Up, and Away!

Memory Lane: STARLOG #5 - May 1975

While on a quest to find a *particular* item in STARLOG that I *was sure* was there *somewhere*, I pulled out my entire stack from the attic and went through about a hundred of them suckers, page by page.

I didn't find what I was looking for (more on that this Thursday), but along the way I took notes of nifty things to share with you guys.

The above image was a full-page (black-and-white) ad, on the inside front cover of the issue.  I remember noting the "Del Rey" logo as something new on paperback covers.

BTW, I did own every book listed from the middle of the page (Shannara) on downwards.  Even while I was reading Shannara, it seemed like a formulaic check-the-box Tolkien imitation.

See, I'm not the only one to fill space with puzzle pages! (I'm referring to SoonerCon Program Books of the past.)  You should be grateful that nothing is already filled in for you.  Don't you love a challenge?

See you Thursday!
 

MA-13 - Splitting Mad: More Nuclear Numbers

Here's an early number in my ongoing anthology of pop music that treats with nuclear power or conflict, inspired by the soundtrack album from The Atomic Cafe.

1     Fireball Boogie         Camille Howard               1948

2    Sh-Boom   The Chords               1953

3    Watch World War Three (on Pay TV)         Crown City Four              1960

4    The Sun Is Burning    Simon & Garfunkel                1964

5    I Come And Stand At Every Door  The Byrds               1966

6 Atomic Bombs Away Blues Creation 1971

7 Nuclear Blues Blood Sweat & Tears 1980

8 Your Attention Please Scars 1981

9 After the Rain   Comsat Angels 1982

10 99 Red Balloons Nena 1983

11 Party at Ground Zero Fishbone 1985

12 Protect And Survive The Dubliners 1987

13 Everyday Is Like Sunday Morrissey 1988

14 I Like Chinese Monty Python 1989

15 April 2031 Warrant 1992

16 Nuclear Supremacy Dayglo Abortions 1995

17 Jesus Hits Like an Atomic Bomb Chanticleer 2004

18 Bring Back the Bomb GWAR 2004

19 Brighter Than A Thousand Suns  Iron Maiden 2006

20 The Iranian Bomb Tal Gilad 2011

Concerning Track Two, "Sh-Boom," most folks don't know its thermonuclear origins.As the story goes, a group of guys were sitting in a car listening to the radio when a news bulletin announced the USSR's first successful H-bomb test.  While talking about this super-bomb, idle talk turned to what kind of sound such a detonation might make.  "Sh-Boom" (the sound) was their eventual answer, and soon this phrase became the the core of a song about the impact of sudden love, not a sudden H-bomb attack!

The song was first recorded on Atlantic Records' subsidiary label Cat Records by The Chords on March 15, 1954 and would be their only hit song. "Sh-Boom" reached #2 on the Billboard R&B charts and peaked at #9 on the pop charts.  It is sometimes considered to be the first doo-wop or rock 'n' roll record to reach the top ten on the pop charts (as opposed to the R&B charts). This version was ranked #215 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and is the group's only song on the list.

Now you too can go Sh-Boom!