Spy Vibe's collaboration with Cocktail Nation continues with Episode #6- now live and streaming! Spy Vibe is featured in a podcast segment every month, where I present classic spy films/series and share recordings from the Cold War. This month I introduce the pop-surreal masterpiece, The Prisoner (1967-1968). The series features Patrick McGoohan as Number 6, a man trapped in a strange village guarded by a mysterious white ball. His captors want the information in his head, but are the baddies after the secrets or is it his own side testing his loyalty? Tune in to listen to Episode #6 (The Prisoner) on Cocktail Nation. I've just returned from my third stay in Portmeirion, the village where the series was filmed, and I look forward to sharing my photographs soon. See my previous location photo shoots in the related links below.For more radio action, go to Episode #1 (Danger Man) and Episode #2 (The 10th Victim), Epsiode #3 (On Her Majesty's Secret Service), Episode #4 (Roger Moore/The Saint), andEpisode #5 (The Avengers). And tune in to Cocktail Nation -the number one lounge music radio show- every week for cool soundtracks, swingin' jazz, news and more. Related links: Interview: The Prisoner Guide, Review: The Prisoner Vol 2,Portmeirion Photography 1, Portmeirion Photography, The Prisoner London Flat,Alan Hayes Prisoner Audio Review, Interview: Ian Olgivy, Interview: Brian Gorman, Prisoner Supergrass, Prisoner XTC, Prisoner XTC 2, Prisoner DC Fontana.
Happy Friday, Spy Vibers! Let's kick off the weekend with The Shadows! Perhaps their most well-known recording was the song Apache,which rose to number one in August 1960 and stayed in the top charts for five weeks. The band started a great groove of instrumental records featuring cool, twangy guitars and their music helped to define the sound of British pop in the early 60s. The Shadows were, of course, SirCliff Richard's backing band, and you can see them perform Apache in the video clip below. I've also incuded a rare TV appearance of Cliff taking the lead guitar part- Listen for him apologizing to guitarist Hank Marvin for stealing the spotlight at the end of the performance! Spy Vibe trivia: drummer Brian Bennett released an album in 2016 called Shadowing John Barry, which included covers of Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, The Man With the Golden Gun, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, The Ipcress File, and Goldfinger. Want more Shadows? Stay tuned to Spy Vibe for their appearance in Gerry Anderson's Thunderbirds Are GO! Learn more about The Shadows. In other news, my episodes of the Cocktail Nation radio show from Australia are now live: Episode #1(Danger Man) and Episode #2 (The 10th Victim), Epsiode #3 (On Her Majesty's Secret Service) Episode #4 (Roger Moore/The Saint), Episode #5 (The Avengers). And coming soon- Episode #6 (The Prisoner). Enjoy!
Elvis Presley passed away forty years ago today. He was the hillbilly cat of the mid-1950s, who brought a hybrid of Blues and Country called Rock and Roll to the mainstream. Our music history is filled with legends who credit his Heartbreak Hotel single as their baptism into the world of electric guitars and dreams of stardom. Both Paul McCartney and Terry Gilliam (Monty Python) listed the song on their BBC Desert Island Discs. McCartney called Elvis their "messiah" and George Harrison said the song was a Rock and Roll epiphany. John Lennon said, "When I first heard Heartbreak Hotel, I could hardly make out what was being said. It was just the experience of hearing it and having my hair stand on end." And Keith Richards (Rolling Stones) and Robert Plant (Led Zeppelin) also sited the song as a turning point. I first discovered Presley about seventeen years after his rise to stardom. And even at that point, Heartbreak Hotel was the song that drove me to a life-long passion for playing electric guitar. Carefully picking out the riff and solo by ear, it was the first tune I learned. Neat family trivia: I learned recently that my maternal grandmother, a professional singer, was managed by Colonel Tom Parker in the early days! Despite Elvis' wide influence, however, I never really did become an Elvis fan per se. I was far more interested in The Beatles, the British Invasion, and the original Blues masters. But for many, he was the king of Rock and Roll. I suppose my distance as a kid might have been due to seeing him as a then-current cultural icon in the throws of his Las Vegas years of the 1970s. Where was that fiery young blues fan I heard in Heartbreak? His post-Army career (he served 1958-1960) in the 1960s was lucrative and filled with movie deals, but the years also marked the beginning of compromise. Like any powerful force that challenges the status quo, 1950s rebel-Elvis was acculturated and stripped of his potency by becoming a mascot to commercial and mainstream goals. It's interesting to note that even his final appearance on Ed Sullivan in 1957 had to be filmed from the waist up in order to censor his provocatively swinging hips. His string of films seemed to mark a trajectory from method-actor-wannabe in 1956 to posing onscreen with a fake guitar like a cartoon of himself by 1969. And by the time I saw him on television in the 1970s, that cartoon version had graduated to the full glitz of Vegas showbiz. Yet I've always found an interesting crossroads point in his 1968 Comeback Special. Although the program included some glitzy numbers, it also included segments of Elvis sitting around with jamming his band in intimate, "Unplugged" style. Elvis seemed to relax a bit and the rebel was allowed to reemerge. I loved their version of Jimmy Reed's Baby What You Want Me To Do. Elvis just seemed to throw himself into the guitar playing and the groove. My old guitar students will recognize the arrangement- this is where I got it, folks! Another highlight was when he did a take of One Night. The original lyrics, which lamented "one night of sin is what I'm now paying for" had been watered down early in his career to make the song more radio friendly to "one night with you is what I'm now praying for." But Elvis got carried away in the fun of the '68 jam and let slip some raunchier lines: "The things I did and I saw would make the earth stand still." Hey, this kind of personal confession was hot stuff in the old days! Even his guys shouted their encouragement when they hear what he'd done, just as they had, in fact, shouted, on the original recording. Watching the '68 Special, I always wondered if Elvis could have made a different decision about where to take his career after that. Maybe he could have reclaimed his edge and been a rebellious role model in the late 60s? Or at the very least, perhaps he could have enjoyed his days rocking out with Scotty Moore and his band, reminding us all that he could sing and play- and that he meant every word. He seemed to be at a crossroads. But Elvis didn't go down that road. Instead, the last scenes of his story were played out in Vegas rhinestone splendor, with his sad decline into addiction to prescription drugs, poor health, and an early death at forty-two. I believe Elvis had some good moments left in him after the '68 Special, and I don't want to take away from the enthusiasm his fans still felt for him, but this was the last time we'd see the leather-clad rebel who had started it all for so many fans and musicians back during the first wave of Rock. The '68 Special is currently out-of-print, but hopefully fans will be treated to a 50th anniversary edition next year? In the meantime, check out some clips below. In other news, my episodes of the Cocktail Nation radio show from Australia are now live: Episode #1(Danger Man) and Episode #2 (The 10th Victim), Epsiode #3 (On Her Majesty's Secret Service) Episode #4 (Roger Moore/The Saint), Episode #5 (The Avengers). And coming soon- Episode #6 (The Prisoner). Enjoy!
Sale alert: Spy Vibers can now pick up The Future Was Fab: The Art of Mike Trim for $10 at Bud's Art Books. If you ever found yourself swooning over the incredible miniature vehicles in Gerry Anderson's classic sci-spy adventure shows, this would be a great addition to your library. About the book: "Fans of British science fiction television—Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, Joe 90, UFO—will instantly recognize the work of designer and illustrator Mike Trim. Working with special effects director Derek Meddings, Trim designed many of the characteristic spacecraft, aircraft, and ground vehicles for these and other programs and feature films. He also created the dramatic images of the Martian invasion for Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds. All this and more in 150 captioned color plates." More info at Mike Trim and Bud's Art books. In other news, my episodes of the Cocktail Nation radio show from Australia are now live: Episode #1(Danger Man) and Episode #2 (The 10th Victim), Epsiode #3 (On Her Majesty's Secret Service) Episode #4 (Roger Moore/The Saint), Episode #5 (The Avengers). And coming soon- Episode #6 (The Prisoner). Enjoy!
