Two Batches of Favorites

Right here we have an example of updating something -- all earlier posts (before January 1, 2015) of my music compilations have bad links, due to the dread "file-host shuffle."

The "45s & Favorites" bunch comprises both songs I bought as 45s during a long involvement with pop music's fringes; or songs I wish I'd bought.  A few of the songs are dubs from my own 45rpm records, while most are more recent rips from CDs or online sources I've tracked down.

If I could simply have all of these playing as background for a week, what a happy week it would be!  I like to load my 25-CD player with 'em and hit '"RANDOM."

1   Buy the World a Coke       The New Seekers

1970

2       Amazing Grace      Judy Collins 

3   House at Pooh Corner    Nitty Gritty Dirt Band

4 Anticipation Carly Simon

1971

5 Levon Elton John

6 Long Ago and Far Away James Taylor

7 Brown Sugar    The Rolling Stones

8 Legend in Your Own Time Carly Simon

9 Joy to the World - single version Three Dog Night

10 What the World Needs Now + Abraham Martin and John Tom Clay

11 Roundabout Yes

1972

12 Cover of The Rolling Stone     Dr. Hook

13 Back When My Hair Was Short - original version Gunhill Road

14 Woman Is the Nigger of the World John Lennon Plastic Ono Band

15 All The Young Dudes Mott The Hoople

16 Give Ireland Back to the Irish Wings

17 Sisters O Sisters Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band

18 Little Woman Love     Wings

19 I Saw The Light Todd Rundgren

20 Little Bit of Sunshine The New Seekers 1971

https://www.filefactory.com/file/2kopb5dwboog/MA-12.rar

01. Revolution - The Beatles - Beatles Remixers (VM) (3:24)

02. Hair - The Cowsills (3:29)    1969

03. I Guess the Lord Must Be in New York City - Harry Nilsson (2:45)   1971

04. Boogie - John Hartford (1:39)   1971

05. Fearless - Pink Floyd (6:04)   1971

06. I Woke Up in Love This Morning - The Partridge Family (2:40)   1971

07. Let Your Love Go - Bread (2:25)   1971

08. An American Trilogy - Mickey Newbury (4:55)   1972

09. The Weight (live) - The Band (5:16)   1972

10. Games People Play (LP Version) - The Spinners (4:40)   1975

11. Yesterday's Music - Blood, Sweat & Tears (4:12)    1975

12. Up Against the Wall Redneck Mother (live) - Jerry Jeff Walker (4:14)    1977

13. Baby Hold On - Eddie Money (3:34)    1978

14. Is She Really Going Out With Him - Joe Jackson (3:35)    1978

15. Straight On - Heart (5:14)      1978

16. Love Hurts - Suzi Quatro (2:44)     1978

17. I'm Alive - ELO (3:32)    1980

18. Don't Stand So Close to Me - The Police (3:59)    1980

19. You Gotta Problem - Toni Basil (4:28)   1982

20. Cherry Bomb - Joan Jett & The Blackhearts (2:35)    1984

21. Where's the Beef? - Coyote McCloud & Clara Peller (3:12)    1984

 

            Track 1 is a version of the Beatles’ “Revolution,” mixed from several sources, courtesy of “VM” of the Beatles Remixers Group.  In the notes for  BRG’s Tuned to a Natural E 4, he writes, “The promo shoo-be-doo-wah version of “Revolution” has always been my favorite performance of the song, if for no other reason than hearing Paul and George harmonize on it.  I also fell in love with George’s guitar part from LOVE.  Tempo adjusting the promo version by a small amount created the perfect sync.”

https://www.filefactory.com/file/3bs1sy7h1cnm/MA-74.rar

 Hope your brain and toes start tappin'!

See you Monday.

Memory Lane -- UFO Article from 1978 STARLOG

This brief article from the March, 1978 issue of Starlog treats with the ongoing plethora of flying saucer movies.

It covers a lot of ground in its two pages.

Of course, the glaring difference between movie saucers and sightings in real life is that (generally) in with the fictional kind you get some kind of explanation, even if a dumb one.

Oh, the aliens want our women? our water? our gold? our crystals?

If only they wanted our politicians!

By the way, James Oberg is a well-known space journalist and historian.

See you Thursday
 

MA-66 - Spy Craze

Welcome back to my musical compilations.

These songs reflect a smidgen of the impact on pop culture created by the popularity of spies and secret agents in recent pop culture.

You can probably trace the antecedents of 007, U.N.C.L.E., and the rest to Cold war anxieties.  After all, some secrets could be literally earth-shattering!

And the fascinating concept of sneaking around supposedly for a greater good was cast backwards in time to such TV characters as Honey West, or James West and his partner Artemus Gordon.  Were there any pup-culturally famous futuristic, sci-fi spies?  You tell me!

The present compilation covers songs from 1963 to 2012.  I hope you like it!

01. Special Agent - The Eagles (2:19)  1963

02. The Spy - The Original Checkmates (1:58)   1963

03. Agent Double-O-Soul - Edwin Starr (2:44)   1965

04. Would You Believe - George Kent (2:33)   1965

05. 007 - Stan Kenton (2:25)   1965

06. 99 - Barbara Feldon (2:49)   1966

07. Max - Barbara Feldon (2:22)   1966

08. I Spy for the FBI - Jamo Thomas (2:33)   1966

09. The Last of the Secret Agents - Nancy Sinatra (2:45)   1966

10. L’agent Secret - Petula Clark (2:13)   1966

11. Secret Agents - The Olympics (2:25)   1966

12. The Silencers - Vikki Carr (2:58)   1966

13. Come Spy with Me - Smokey Robinson (2:57)   1967

14. Undercover Man - The Edgar Winter Group (3:49)   1972

15. Secret Agent Man - DEVO (3:35)   1979

16. Love Secret Agent - Lew Kirton (4:18)   1980

17. I Spy - The Dooleys (3:07)   1980

18. Spies in the Night - The Manhattan Transfer (4:02)   1981

19. Goodbye, Mr. Bond - Blotto (5:42)   1982

20. Spy vs Spy - Toto Coelo (3:26)  1983

21. Secret Agent - Robin Gibbs (4:53)   1984

22. Hombre Secreto (Secret Agent Man) - The Plugz (1:47)   1984

23. Get Smart - The Kaos Killers (0:57)   1993

24. Secret Agent - Letters to Cleo (2:53)   1998

25. My Baby Loves the Secret Agent - The Detroit Cobras (1:59)   2003

26. Undercover Agent - The Caroloregians (2:42)   2008

27. I Wish I Was a Spy - Peter Bjorn & John (1:51)   2011

MA-66 - Spy Craze

Remember, maintain plausible deniability at all costs!

Man from U.N.C.L.E. Cards -- Then and Later

One of the accoutrements of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. was the toys and other items that we kids wanted.  And of course, it fell to toy makers and folks in the show’s publicity department to create stuff for us to crave!  Around my grade school, a “Man from U.N.C.L.E. card” became one of those items.

On the show …

In the Second Season’s “The Nowhere Affair,” U.N.C.L.E. agent Napoleon Solo takes a temporary-amnesia pill as he’s being captured by Thrush agents.  While under its influence, he checks his wallet and finds these clues to his identity:

And here are my reproduction of the calling card:

My  reproduction of his ID, with and without his name:

I always thought it was embarrassingly cheesy for a multinational spy organization to use a Dymo label maker for its agents’ IDs.  Of course, with our grown-up brains we realize that the cheesy party was MGM-Arena’s props budgeteer.

*          *          *          *          *

If you bought one of the “TV Action Figures” from Gilbert Toys (of Erector set fame), it came with its own ID card:

 Here’s a close-up of the card, and my own reproduction:

Ideal Toys had the license for U.N.C.L.E. Guns.  They were pretty cool!

 

Here is a close-up of the gun set card’s front and rear:

Those who wrote in to the studio or network with fan letters got a special treat.  You guessed it, it was an U.N.C.L.E. card!

Here are my own reproductions of front and back:

But the last item is perhaps the U.N.C.L.E. ID card I worked the hardest over.  I made it in about 1983 -- on my Commodore 64 -- one dot at a time!

Fellow agents, your current assignment is to go see the movie again!

See you next time.