MA-14 - A Saucerful of Songs: Space-Age Pop Music

Here we have another wide selection of Exactly What It Says on the Tin.  These are the songs for this go-round.

1         Two Little Men In a Flying Saucer  Joe Loss & His Orchestra          1949

2         Rollicking Man From Mars  Scotty MacGregor           1955

3         The Fang   Nervous Norvus            1956

4         The Little Blue Man      Betty Johnson          1958

5         The Little Space Girl Jesse Lee Turner     1958

6         Flying Saucers Rock 'n' Roll       Love Brothers    1958

7 Martian Love Song Pete Seeger 1958

8 Santa Claus Meets The Purple People Eater Sheb Wooley 1958

9 Take us To Your President Conried-Pearce 1959

10 I'm The Little Space Girl's Father Jesse Lee Turner    1959

11 We Get Messages Jimmie Haskell 1959

12 Flying Saucers   The Mell-o-Tones 1960

13 The Fall of the Planet Earth The Moonbillies 1960

14 The Screemin' Meemies From Planet X Merv Griffin 1961

15 Fireball XL5 Theme Don Spencer 1962

16 That Martian Jubilee Rodd Keith 1964

17 Cockeyed Ballad Mollie Thompson 1966

18 Beautiful Zelda Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band 1968

19 Space Odyssey The Byrds 1968

20 The Moon Bug    Delsu and the Smarts1969

21 Spaceman Harry Nilsson 1972

22 UFO Larry Norman 1972

23 Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft Langley Schools Music Project 1977

24 Ain't No UFO Gonna Catch My Diesel Joe Dolce 1981

25 Flying Saucer Brave Combo 1995

26 Music Man from Mars Rodd Keith 1996

27 Alien Abduction Background 2000

28 Let Me Fly Your UFO Frank Smith 2005

29 Spaceman The Killers 2008

So, enjoy your aural trip to space.


 

Book Review -- Who Really Killed Kennedy by Jerome R Corsi

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Tinkly Stuff That Sounds Elegant

Here is a bunch of stuff from my tape-off-the-radio days.  I've been able to identify only a few of the pieces, but they are all harpsichord or related performances.  To my mind, this is one of the perfect background reading-or-studying kinds of music.

There are 19 tracks.  Tracks 3 and 4 are Bach's Prelude and Fuge in C Major, the first two pieces of Book One of The Well-Tempered Clavier.  Track 8 is Beethoven's Minuet in G, also known to some as the "think music" piece in the film The Music Man.  It's the "la-dee-dah, dee-dah, dee-dah" melody that his would-be band members are supposed to conceptualize in their heads before trying to play.

Other than those three selections, the names and composers of the other pieces are up for identifying!

Give 'em a listen.

If you like this sort of music, then this is the sort of music you will like! 

  

Music Review -- Golden Age by Max Raabe and The Palast Orchester

This is a great collection of pop music from the 1920s and 1930s (mostly -- see the Bonus Tracks).  The performances are top-rate; listen to a song or two with your eyes closed and you’ll expect to be opening them in a dive in some city’s lower side -- except this stuff is played too well.

            While some may feel that Band leader Max Raabe’s with is too dry, or his (metaphorical) eyebrow is too arched, this style of singing perfectly fits the selections we hear in this album.  I’d love to hear Raabe maybe do a couple of duets with a female vocalist, though.

            If you relish that decadent jazz known as “the music between the wars” (to steal a phrase), you will really enjoy this disc.  The old-style arrangements of more modern tunes, tracks 18 and 19, were lost on me because I’m not familiar with the “original” versions.

            A few of the tracks were recorded at live performances.  You can see a lot of these on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=max+raabe+and+the+palast+orchester+youtube&sm=3 .  There you will see some of the fun and humor that you may not feel in the CD.

            Give me Max Raabe and his Palast Orchester any day!

Here are the tracks:

1. Singin' in the Rain 

2. Cheek to Cheek 

3. Just One of Those Things 

4. Though You're Not the First One 

5. These Foolish Things 

6. Love Thy Neighbour 

7. Over My Shoulder 

8. Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf 

9. All God's Children 

10. Youkali 

11. Love Song of Tahiti 

12. Moon of Alabama 

13. Mein Kleiner Grüner Kaktus 

14. Tout Est Permis 

15. Tomorrow Is Another Day 

16. Dream a Little Dream of Me 

17. Cosi Cosa 

Bonus Tracks:

18. Oops!... I Did It Again 

19. Sex Bomb 

20. One Cannot Kiss Alone 

21. Für Frauen ist Das Kein Problem  

Their site is here:  http://www.palast-orchester.de/en/ .  Don’t ask me why they’re going aquatic!
 

And, here is the Amazon page for the release: http://www.amazon.com/Golden-Age-Max-Raabe/dp/B008FO81OK

Happy listening!  

Signing Off on a Very Self-Centered, Twisted Girl

It wasn't until I decided to take us through this issue of Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane -- issue #59 -- that I realized that she is consistently depicted as a delusional, manipulative bitch.

But is she really wacko?  ... The site Diffen.com explains the difference between sociopath and psychopath:

"Psychopathy and sociopathy are both anti-social personality disorders. While both these disorders are the result of an interaction between genetic predispositions and environmental factors, psychopathy leans towards the hereditary whereas sociopathy tends towards the environmental.

Psychopaths are born with temperamental differences such as impulsivity, cortical underarousal, and fearlessness that lead them to risk-seeking behavior and an inability to internalize social norms. On the other hand, sociopaths have relatively normal temperaments; their personality disorder being more an effect of negative sociological factors like parental neglect, delinquent peers, poverty, and extremely low or extremely high intelligence."
Wow ... the description of psychopathic behavior sure nails our girl:

• impulsive behavior
• risk-seeking behavior
• inability to internalize "normal: behavior

"On the nosie!" as somebody said in a Monty Python skis (I think).

The top of the last page of the comic is an ad for Cocoa Puffs.  Say, does "Gramps" still appear in Cocoa Puffs commercials on TV or in print?  I don't remember seeing him lately.

To my mind, the ad for the Lois Lane subscription seems targeted more towards the girls in the audience, as if to try and draw in more girl readers.  Make sense to me, in that there would be a natural cross-connection from boys reading other Superman titles towards reading this one.  But girls might be less likely to go for the title, unless the ads played up the heartbreak side of the stories?  After all, in the fine Schaffenberger panel seen in the illo, Lois appears like any wronged woman whose story might be featured in a tearjerker mag.  No Superman in sight here!

 Junior Sales Club of America wants you for a sucker in their pyramid scheme.

When I read these ads trying to get kids to try and sell greeting cards, I always counted the people at the top.  "Just 10 people ..."  Actually, the baby makes eleven ... but it probably has little disposable income.

Me, I was always too shy to think I would succeed at any of these schemes.

*                             *                          *                       *                          *                         *

Well, Folks, this has been a tour through issue #59 of Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane, from 1965.

As Heckle and Jeckle used to say, "See ya next week with a brand NEW show!"

 

The End of a Twisted Tale of Deceit

OK ... Lois Lane, who wants to get Superman to marry her, has witnessed Superman changing into Bruce Wayne after rescuing her.  But she doesn't know that Wayne is subbing for Superman while the real Supes is away somewhere.

So Lois throws herself at Bruce, hoping to snag him (and thus Superman).

Wearing a Superman mask, Superman outfit, and a flying belt ( the latter an accoutrement of the Legion of Super-Heroes), all Bruce has to do is fly into the warehouse to make the fur thieves surrender.  Lois hears about it, and tells her entire snag-a-Superman plot to sister Lucy.

Now, why do you suppose Lucy is shown only in profile, even though she's the closest thing to the reader in the panel layout?  I suggest that it's because Lucy Lane is ashamed of her sister's twisted scheme, and is metaphorically hiding her face in disgust.

Little does Lois know that the real Supes had alighted atop her apartment building moments earlier.  We "see" him looking in on Lois with Super-Vision ... but don't forget about those Super-Ears of his!  What do you think may happen when he finds out there's ANOTHER patented Lois-Lane-Superman-stalking scheme going on?

What's this?  Next day, Bruce Wayne proposes to Lois Lane!  And check out the last panels on the page as Lois gloats to herself that she is entering into this marriage through a trick ... and then Superman flies in to be Best Man!
 

In the first panel of this page, Lois looks genuinely emotionally conflicted.  Once again, high marks to penciler Curt Swan and inker George Klein.

Along about here, the reader realizes that Superman DID hear Lois brag to her sister about her plans, and that this rush wedding must have been planned by Superman and Bruce Wayne to force Lois's hand.  But then Lois rallies to scold Bruce on the deception, and gives up, apologizing.  What a psycho nut job!

Lois certainly deserves to be laughed at, for this sordid tale of machination and emotional hostage-taking.  The last panel is a gem of comic book art.

Even though it seems mean of our two heroes to laugh at Lois, admit it -- she deserved to be "taught a lesson."  Although I think the whole church wedding routine was over the top, this was only a comic-book story (they tell me).

The bottom half of the last page of the story is a dialectic on the homiletics of nomenclature.  You see, the caption in this advertisement calls the item in question a "a tootsie pop."  But, according to its denotation on the wrapper, it's a "Tootsie Roll Pop."

It's ads like this that sparked many a playground debate.  Which is it, "Tootsie Pop," a term also heard in advertisements on television; or the more loquacious "Tootsie Roll Pop," which is accurate to the labelling?

It's Tootsie Roll Pop, buddy!  A Tootsie Pop sounds like you stuck somebody's dirty ol' big TOE in your mouth!

We'll wrap this issue up soon.

Bruce Wayne -- Closet Furry!

 Yes, that COULD BE the headline if this story were in The Tattler.  And why?  Read on, dear readers ...

 

Lois has decided that Bruce is Superman and therefore must he secretly tricked into marrying her so that she will thereby get her hooks into Superman.  Now, after a swanky date where Bruce played chicken to a nonexistent threat and thus raised Lois's suspicions further, they are on their way home when Lois sees some shady characters whom she recognizes as crooks.

The baddies get the jump on them, tying Lois to a chair and tossing Bruce into the fur cooler.  What other choice does he have to survive, than to dress up in all of those animal skins.  LIKE A FURRY!

Bruce escapes by using a lockpick from his utility belt, and rescues Lois.  After they've  reported the criminals to the local precinct, somehow it's a lot easier for Lois to conjecture that Bruce Wayne's (hypothetical super-)powers saved him from the deep freeze than that HE PUT ON A COAT.

"She's cute! She's smart! She can dance! And she can kiss!" -- MAYBE MY FRIEND WILL MARRY HER?!?!?  Are we sure that Bruce (Batman) Wayne doesn't need a male supplement?!?!

Now, in the last panel in today's installment, Bruce has a better idea than switching to Batman to nap the escaped "flying furrito brothers."  What idea?

Tune in Friday to find out!

Bruce Wayne -- Fraidy Cat!

This is the kind of unrelenting commercialistic bombardment to which we kids were subjected in the 1960s.  The top two-thirds of the page is an ad for an 80-pg Giant featuring "Jimmy Olsen's Greatest Scoops."  How could any self-respecting American kid see the cover of a comic book like this one and not scream "SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!"  Isn't Curt Swan's art for this cover great?

Especially the grimaces on Jimmy and Superman's faces in the center panel, like two six-year-olds saying, "I say it's spinach, and the hell with it."  You can only express full resentment by crossing your arms while you scowl ... this is a scientific fact, you know.

And the bottom ad for Tootsie Rolls? Postmodern simplistic genius!   There was a TV commercial for Tootsie Rolls with the same theme.  It ended with a kid nodding his head and trying to grin around a mouthful of Tootsie Roll and a solo male tenor voice chanted that immortal jingle:  "Long time, long time!  Chewy chewy Tootsie Roll last a long time!  Mmmmm-mmmm!"

As our story resumes, Lois has decided that Bruce Wayne is really Superman, despite seeing a Batman outfit in Wayne's closet.  Under cover of writing a story about his philanthropic work, she intends to woo him and get him to propose, so she can thereby snare Superman, her idol.

At a "swanky" Wild West restaurant, Bruce sees a gunslingin' gal and hits the deck, worried it's a hit.

WAIT A MINUTE!  Wouldn't Batman (or even millionaire playboy Bruce Wayne) have dragged his date out of danger, too?  For once we have an unbelievable plot action taken by someone other than Lois!

Anyway, turns out the gal's shootin' iron is really a gun camera (I thought gun cameras were only on jets?).  And since Lois is certain that Bruce is Superman, she figures he's playing chicken so that no one will think he's as rough and tough as he really is.

Next thing we know, they're in each others' arms on the dance floor, and the lights are sparkling in their eyes, and moonlight becomes her, and moon and June and love and above ....

... Oops, I got carried away in the romance!  At any rate, come back Wednesday to see what happens when the lights come up and the music fades away.

 

Diamond in the Pocket

 ON TV commercials, the theme song for GI Joe was sung by a manly chorus, to the tune of "The Caissons Go Rolling Along."

Now, I myself never had a GI Joe.  But, a GI Joe footlocker wade a great case for all of my model-making supplies ... model glue, model paint and thinner, paint brushes, an Exacto knife, old model instructions, and the like.

Back in our story, Batman is unaware that the sneaky Lois Lane saw him change from Superman to Bruce Wayne (subbing for the Man of Steel during a Super-absence).  This knowledge didn't inspire a lifetime of noble help and friendly subterfuge in Lois, as it did with Pete Ross.

No, this is Lois Lane we're talking about here.  This "knowledge" immediately starts Lois to scheming how to ensnare Bruce Wayne, to as to latch onto his (she thinks) Super alter ego!

So, as the first step of her plan, Lois shows up on the doorstep of stately Wayne Manor, and invites herself in ...

Note that when Lois sees the Batman costumes, she immediately suspects a Super impersonation, but imagines it as running the wrong way from how it really is.  She figures Bruce has the Bat-duds around so that he (Superman) can imitate Batman.

Meanwhile Wayne twists his ankle and starts sweating up a storm.  Are these signs of human frailty to Lois?  Nah, just tricks to make her THINK that Wayne isn't Superman.

 Boy, what a potential these people have for future open and honest relationships, huh?

More on Monday, Folks!

Lois Gets Payback!

In this third story from Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane #59, we see a turnaround of sorts.  In the first two stories, Lois's stupid, wrongheaded, hateful, petty schemes almost led to millions of deaths and a lifetime in jail or perhaps a slow, agonizing death.

In this story, titled aptly  Superman and Batman's Joke on Lois Lane, we learn that our two favorite heroes, the knights of the cape and cowl, aren't above a few missteps.

But Lois SO DESERVES IT!

 

Start at the beginning and admire the Splash Panel.  Right away we know this has the potential for storytelling greatness, because the art is by the stupendously talented and craftsmanlike Curt Swan.

OK, I admist that it's a bit unbelievable that Lois, laying there on her belly after a supposed water rescue, has perfectly turned-out hair flips and (apparently) makeup.  This isn;t reality, this is comics -- and she looks MAHH-velous, baby!  Grrr-o-r-r-owl!

Ahem ...

So here we have Lois, supposedly washed up on a shore somewhere and unconscious after a Super-rescue, is nevertheless spying on her savior, who *gasp!* appears to be changing to his Secret Identity ... Bruce Wayne!

Of course, the next step is for Lois to plot how to marry Bruce Wayne so that she will in turn become Superman's bride.  Meanwhile, through Batman/Bruce Wayne's thought balloon, we learn that he rescued Lois while dressed as Superman as a favor to play a Kryptonian role while the real Man of Steel is elsewhere.

Our story begins as Lois investigates a tip that stolen money has been hidden in a lake at Metropolis Park.  She finds the loot (isn't that water awfully clear?) -- but cramps strike.  Let's assume that these are stomach cramps amd not lady cramps.  Didn't Mrs. Lane tell her and Lucy to wait a half hour after eating to swim?

Check out the first panel.  First off, notice that Lois's hair is appropriately fluttering around her head, giving a good depiction of underwater movement.  Secondly, notice the first clue to the Super-substitution:  Swan, the consummate artist, shows AIR BUBBLES streaming from the diving Superman figure.  That's your first indication that Lois's rescuer is human -- Superman wouldn't be holding his breath and exhaling as he swims.

Still, we see a Super-figure swoop from the water bearing Lois and the booty (the MONEY I mean).

In Panel Three we get a recap of the Splash Panel.  Lois sees Superman turn into Bruce Wayne, and immediately sets her cap on a scheme.  Deception? Playing with other peoples' lives?  Lying in love?  Check, check, and CHECKMATE.  Another Lois Lane plan for world domination is hatched!

  Now vide the next panel, a close-up of our  girl at her ditzy finest!

And the bottom two panels  let us readers in on the secret:  Superman has asked his buddy Batman to fly around (with an anti-gravity belt) and impersonate the Man of Tomorrow while he's gone on a space mission.

It's a good thing, Batman/Bruce reflects, that the wacky Lois Lane has her sights set on Superman, and not this rich bachelor millionaire...

Well, Thanks to his easily seen costume change, Lois has gotten EXACTLY that idea, buddy!  YOur life has just entered ... The Lois Zone!


...to be continued ...

 

So Much for Lois Lane's Return to Krypton!

Ain't that always the way? You go back in time to save Krypton, decide to cut in on Lara and marry Jor-El for yourself (after saving Krypton, of course), and the whole plan just gets shot to **** by some green-skinned alien creep shrinking the gol-darned city!

Boy, in that first panel, doesn't Jor-El look like one of Joe Jackson's “Pretty boys - on my TV screen / Teeth so white and hair so clean” ?

 But now we know what happened -- Krypton is doomed because of the removal of that Anti-Nuclear Ray Tower, built from the plans Lois brought from the future.  That darn ol' Brainiac seems to show up at such inopportune times.  After all, in Superman #141, five years earlier, we learned it was Brainiac's shrinking of Krypton that helped screw up Kal-El's romance with Lyla Lerrol.

WAIT A MINUTE!  Superman (Kal-El) is HERE ON KRYPTON (according to "Superman's Return to Krypton") at the same time that Lois is there (according to this story).  They're watching the theft of Kandor from opposite sides of the city, perhaps!  Why don't they bump into each other and settle down here on Krypton happily ever after? ... the mind boggles ...

WHEW!  Back to THIS tale ...

So, Brainiac's shrinking of Kandor also swept up the handy-dandy Anti-Nuclear Ray that Lois hoped would dampen Krypton's self-destruction.  Crestfallen, Lois decided to return to her Time Machine for one last go ... and, mirabile dictu, the sparkly snow that's falling seems to have recharged the batteries, or something like that. 

Oh, yeah, now that the Time Machine works, why not zip in on Lara and tell her that you're a conniving b*tch from the future?  Surely THAT will make her want to send her baby to your planet!

Isn't it interesting that, as drawn by Kurt Schaffenberger, Jor-El's lab looks like the Kent family home in Smallville?  There are the begonias, the picket fence, the green grass, the wooden siding on the house, the toy wagon and the wooden blocks ...

Am I the only person who notices these things?  BTW, it's a good thing that they don't have Law & Order: SVU on Krypton, or Benson-El and Stabler-El would throw Lois Lane into the Kryptonian slammer for a lo-o-o-ng time.  Don't you know that's child molestation, Lois dear?

Meanwhile, inside their rustic Sears-Roebuck (Kryptonian) house, Jor-El decides to demonstrate to Lara his new Phantom Zone Projector by shooting it randomly through the window --- WHERE THEIR SON IS PLAYING OUTSIDE, PEOPLE!  Hello!

Good thing it disintegrates that scheming Lois and not their dear baby boy!

[deep breath] ... and that, dear readers, is how Lois Lane ended up in the Phantom Zone in our story's opening.  Wasn't it a wild'n'wacky trip?

See you Monday!