MA-141 - Walpurgis Night-Mares

WELCOME TO THE MUSICAL MONTH OF MAY!

We start out by saluting April 30th, Walpurgis Night, with a witchy little collection of hexy music.

01 - Walpurgis Night - The Coffinshakers - 2007  (3:29)

02 - The Witch - Human Cabbage - 1981  (3:31)

03 - Creepy Dead Folk - The Flametrick Subs - 1995  (2:20)

04 - Ghosts - Comateens - 1981  (3:57)

05 - Devil Blues - Skip Manning - 1960  (2:32)

06 - Sister in the Graveyard - The Jackals - 1993  (3:13)

07 - Hexorcist World Premiere - Albee & Friends - 1974  (3:54)

08 - Wombat Twist - Glenn and Christy with the Adventures - 1962  (2:15)

09 - The Big Green - Igor & The Maniacs - 1960  (2:20)

10 - Inner Sanctum - Irene Daye with Charlie Spivak Orchestra - 1947  (3:11)

11 - Walking with a Ghost - The White Stripes - 2005  (2:47)

12 - The Zombie Stomp - Danny Ware - 1964  (2:23)

13 - Bells - Hour Glass - 1967  (2:24)

14 - Never Too Late for Linda - The Trips - 1985  (2:42)

15 - Jolly Green Giant - The Royal Guardsman - 1966  (2:00)

16 - The Witch - Adam and Eve - 1967  (3:54)

17 - Night of the Sadist - Zuma - 1966  (2:43)

18 - The Headless Horseman - Bing Crosby - 1949  (3:06)

19 - The Face of Dorian Gray - Robert Marlow - 1983  (2:47)

20 - Witchcraft - Salem Witchcraft - 1981  (3:08)

21 - The Stand - The Alarm - 1983  (3:15)

22 - You'll Be the Death of Me - The Monks - 1979  (2:31)

23 - Legend of the Ghost Stage - Fred Darian - 1961  (2:09)

24 - When the Birdmen Fly - Fun Things - 1980  (3:17)

25 - Turn Around - House of Lilly - 1973  (3:21)

26 - Ghosts - Mi-Sex - 1980  (3:42)

27 - I Married a Witch Main Title - Roy Webb - 1942  (1:00)

Some are more serious than others.  Track 7 is a "break-in" record; Track 24 is a real psychedelic trip; and Track 27 is a wonder-whiz of musical portmanteau-ism, packing musical references to Wagner, Berlioz, and Mendelsohn into its brief sixty seconds.  

https://www.filefactory.com/file/33xnbnwj9l8w/MA-141.rar

See you back here on Thursday, for our next installment of the Musical Month of May!  You spy mavens won't want to miss it!

Graffiti I Have Known

            Some graffiti is cleverer than others.  These are a few of the more silly or creative I’ve come across, reproduced to look something like the original.

 Madison Jr High, circa 1970:

This one was in the boys’ bathroom at the now-demolished Madison Jr High in Bartlesville, OK.

 *     *      *

Bit o’Italy, circa 1975:

Here’s an example of dialogue between two scribblers.  Yes, the would-be Lothario had indeed written this entreaty inside a stall in the men’s bathroom, hence the withering reply.

  *     *      *

Exit 222a, Tulsa, OK, circa 2000:

This call-and-reply was seen in the late 1990s at a now-gone truck stop at I-44’s Exit 222A in Tulsa, OK.

  *     *      *

I-40 West, between Shawnee and Okemah, OK:

This is one of my favorites, even though I don’t agree with the sentiment.

Well, that’s the end of the writing on the wall for this week!  AND the end of this year’s April Foolishness!  See you beginning Monday, May 4^th, for the Musical Month of May, with new music compilations every Monday and Thursday!
   

Summer Job at the Coke Plant

In the summer of the year of Our Lord 1975, I was home from my first year of college.  I was one of several high-school acquaintances and compatriots to get a job at “the Coke plant,” as we called it, on Highway 75 in Bartlesville.  It was actually called “the Oklahoma Beverage Company.”

            This was in the days of returnable glass bottles.  That meant that before the bottles could be filled, they had to be sorted, washed, and inspected—then inspected once more.

            Along with fellow Spartan John Walter, I worked swing shift, 3-11PM. The process worked like this:
·         The empty glass bottles, in wooden 24-bottle crates, would arrive stacked on a wooden pallet
·         We would pull the bottles by hand from the wooden cases to make sure only the specified type of bottle would go onto the washer conveyer belt.  (They were supposed to be already sorted by other poor schmucks.)
·         We set the bottles onto the wide conveyor belt.

·         The bottles were funneled into a single row about twenty across, where each row was lifted onto a big wheel
·         The bottles were tipped mouth first into holes in the wheel

·         Water and soap, etc blasted the bottles and washed them out
·         The bottles arrived on the other side, nice and clean
·         A conveyor belt lined them up single file, where they passed in front of a human inspector
·         The inspector removed defective bottles and allowed clean ones to pass
·         The bottles were filled and a separate machine capped them

 *****

            Here are some bottles culled before washing:

            A 10-oz Coke bottle perfect in every way, except for no labelling!  It missed being painted at the factory.

            What’s wrong with these?  Why, they were intended for the Canadian market!  Note the French language on these All-American bottles.  We couldn't fill them and sell them in Oklahoma, oh no!

           Another ex-classmate, Karen Thomas, was the bottle inspector.  I am happy to reveal that, out of tens of thousands of bottles which passed her gaze that summer, she only missed a couple!

            Yes, this Mr Pibb bottle got filled and capped even though it had no painted-on labeling.

            And the pièce de résistance of my little collection is this jewel.  Yes, it was sorted (by we poor bottle sorters), washed, filled, inspected, and capped ... with a CornNuts wrapper inside!

YES, my friends, these bottles were photographed in April, 2020.  I still have 'em!

            Some other time we’ll cover some other treasures from the Coke plant. 

Speaking of Jesus Christ Superstar ...

             On Easter Sunday, April 12, NBC mounted a big, spiffy version of Jesus Christ Superstar.  It was certainly competent, but I became miffed when I noticed that some lines were changed.

            I tuned out when the Mary Magdalene character started a song which waren’t in the original 2-LP version.

            I was also disappointed with Alice Cooper’s turn as King Herod.  I certainly hoped for a little more flash and pizazz from this performer, especially paired with this song. 

            Unfortunately for you, my chillun, this got me to remembering a much more inept performance of this Rock Musical ... at least the title role!

            It was early 1975, and Clark Memorial United Methodist Church in Oklahoma City was one of the churches I visited on Sundays, about 3 miles from the beautiful campus of Oklahoma City University.

            I was a college freshman, and dropped in on meetings of their Youth Group.  Turns out they had decided to perform Jesus Christ Superstar.  Now lost to the reaches of time is ... how I ended up in the title role. Unfortunately, these six photos are all I have ... no paper program, nor names of the other participants.

            This gal was Mary Magdalene.

            This happy camper was King Herod, and mighty pleased with his royal entourage, don’t you think?

            Yours truly making a triumphal entry on Palm Sunday.

            My big solo in the Garden of Gethsemane.

            Judas (black shirt and white tie) has just delivered the fatal kiss of betrayal.

            Here cameth the forty stripes less one.

            Now, my friends, you have proof of my delusions of godhood.  I can only plead diminished capacity due to extreme youth.  The real Messiah is alive and well ... and He loves you!

            See you next Monday for some less serious silliness, as April Foolishness continues!
   

Superman Goes to Pieces!

Yes, campers, in the November 1969 issue of World’s Finest, Superman’s filleted and auctioned off, bit by bit, to the highest criminal bidder!

This dramatic cover art by Curt Swan is ein bitschen deceitful.  Actually, Batman is behind the scheme to entrap a bunch of baddies by offering piecemeal Kryptonian parts.

The splash page intimates that even Robin isn’t in on the (obvious) deceit.

So after Supes supposedly croaks, Lex Luthor opens the bidding, having stolen “the body.”



Just think about this.  What good are super-ears if your brain and nerve endings aren’t set up to decode super-hearing?  And how will super hands give super-strength, if attached to ordinary human arms?  The mind boggles at how stupid either the story writer is, or the criminals in the story.

And, a few weeks later ... I ask you:  Would super lungs in a normal human body be likely to give super-breath, or perhaps simply explode the very mortal body which housed them? -- And so on ...



You ask, what happened next?



Oh no ... go buy the comic and find out for yourself, the ending of this stupefyingly boneheaded tale.


See you next time!