Rewinding comes to audio

 

SOUND ON A SPOOL (Aug, 1945)

The Satisfactions 1966

A clipping from the Toledo Blade, January 22, 1966 noting my dad's and his buddies' bands from Lake High School.

To see this clipping in its historical context, click here.

Suzuki Beane: like, beatnik kid (1961)

Suzuki Beane

Making a scene, Jan. 1966

1966 is still widely considered the prime year for guitar based garage rock -- professional, one hit wonder and amateur band alike.

Click here to see this article in its historic context.

Getting it wrong, Mar. 1964

The Ocala Star-Banner began carrying the classics Nancy and Li'l Abner in their comics roster on March 1, 1964.  To the average reader, the faces of the folks behind even their favorite strips may not be familiar.  Still, in 1964, while Capp's frequently televised face would have been vaguely familiar to an editor, apparently he couldn't make its connection to Li'l Abner rather than Bushmiller's inscrutible Nancy.





Click here to see this article in its historic context.

Music history with a bullet, Dec. 1974

Don't miss Billboard magazine on Google Books search:

The December 28, 1974 issue has great stuff including an article on bootlegs hitting major retailers, an interview with EMI's Sir Joe Lockwood, great ads and of course the listings of the hits of the week sliced and diced into so many categories about everyone gets a nod, while Wireless mics were untangling the rock stage.

Joke with food, Aug, 1968

First, think if you can remember ever getting a drink of any kind for 25 cents.  Then think if you can ever imagine a time when any 16oz size drink would be referred to as "jumbo"-size (without being sarcastic).



View the ad in historical context here.

Give me Liberty (and how long it will take to read it), 1945 (and 1976)

Liberty magazine helped its readers by giving them an estimated amount of time it would take to read an article.  This allowed for determining if one could read the entire article from one streetcar stop to the next, or if saving it for a planned rest stop would be more satisfying.

In the post-television world magazines such as Liberty were fast becoming antiquated and by 1976, Liberty itself recognized its nostalgic value outweighed its cultural relevance, reprinting "classic" articles such as this one originally from 1945.  Similarly, the comic strip Buck Rogers had become a nostalgic touchstone too, and in 1976 was soon to be re-vamped riding a post-Star Wars wave of sci-fi and (more nostalgic) movie serial-style action.

How many folks felt pressure to read the article within the serving suggestion?  How many insisted to their supervisor their eight minute coffee break could not possibly be over when the article clearly states a reading time of eight minutes and they still had a page and a half to go?

Three kings of the 60s, Nov 1967

Contrary to the copy this kit, sadly, was forgotten.

View this item in is holiday historical context here.

Good call Freeman-W, Jan. 1964

So a couple months after the Kennedy assassination, the Freeman-Washington Insurance Agency admen stuck a wet finger in the blowin' wind, divined the decade's oncoming turbulence, and fast-tracked a campaign touting their riot coverage.  Sure, riot coverage appears to be a joke here.  Prior to the 60s, riot-incurred damage would have most likely been a mere speck on the old actuary table, statistically safe from ever being paid out on a home owner policy.  How many home owners considered such coverage necessary by 1970?

No doubt sometime around 1968 insurance companies began to fear the tipping point was fast approaching where payouts were no longer offset by fear-mongered sales.  Of course, by then who needed funny print ads when the nightly news could promote sales for free?


For a more sober look at this item in historical context, click here.

Plus ça change, Apr. 1963

A Mr. Gibbs recently found Mr. Salinger's supply of spectacles and, on a lark, passed them out around Scandinavia.

View this article in historical context here.

Too sweet by half, Sept. 1923

Last August 17 our seven-year old boy became one of the 40 kids in the U.S. diagnosed with diabetes each day.  Having the autoimmune type of diabetes (Type 1, or Juveline Diabetes), his body no longer produces the insulin needed to take sugar from his blood to be used or stored.  Now our family acts as his pancreas; we constantly check and log his blood sugar readings, his carbohydrate intake and administer the insulin shots he needs throughout the day. 

While injecting insulin is not a cure, it is far, far better than the alternative faced prior to its introduction in the early 1920s.  While its delivery systems are becoming refined, and similarly, its chemical efficiency, the basics of successful Type 1 diabetic maintenance apparently have not had a "miraculous leap forward" since the Jazz Age, let alone a cure.  Always closer, but a cure is due, tout de suite.

There's always legal room for jello, Feb. 1920

Apparently, alcoholic jello shots were legal during prohibition since one couldn't "drink" them and they hadn't been invented when the laws were passed. However the jerk doctor who did invent them during the dry years wouldn't share.



To see this Popular Science article in historic context (and a lot about the science and pitfalls of do-it-yourself distillery), click here.

Motown's Burning Bush, May 2004

Kevin Pyle sent this to me a while back and reminded me it was too cool not to share:  The Metro Times Century of Sound -- a Detroit music family tree.  It's no surprise the tree looks more like fire given the number of hot names aflame, each flicker crackling another to higher, brighter, smokin' heat.

Just look at all the great stuff here in this small sample:  Andre "Baconfat" Williams is not far from the MC5, Brownsville Station, Grand Funk, Iggy Pop, Ted Nugent, Seger, Mitch Ryder as well nugget-hatchers the Woolies, Unrelated Segments and ? and the Mysterians...Rationals, well, I don't need to name 'em all off.



Find the whole thing at the paper's website here.

Don't forget to read other music-related items at MangMade Records, too!

So It Seems, Aug. 1952

While we're getting a few things sorted out, check out this Monday Cartoon Day post from The Fabulous Fifties blog which I wish to share and place here for safe keeping when I have time to circle back. It features a collection of Lou Cameron's So It Seems newspaper strips which, as noted there, have an EC Comics flavor to them (and apparent similar use of the LeRoy lettering system). I'm downloading and looking forward to receiving a hardcopy of Alter Ego #86 for Ger Apeldoorn's article on imitators of EC Comics' Mad.

Around the same time Kurtzman started Mad, comic artist Lou Cameron did
a short-lived satirical newspaper strip called So It Seems. The titles
seems to be a parody of the many 'interesting facts' panels that were
around, such as Ripley's Believe It Or Not and John Hix Strange As It
Seems, but it was more of a 'statement and sample' series, along the
lines of those that were later done for the magazine Mad.

Well blown me down! Popeye controversy, 1992

From the Mike Lynch Cartoons blog:

In 1992, London, who, at that point, was both writing and drawing the strip for six years, introduced a Home Shopping Club storyline for Olive Oyl. Thus begins the below controversial and, so far as I understand, final three weeks of the Popeye strip under London's direction. They're scanned from copies of proofsheets, so the quality is not great.

Charlie Brown, wishy-washy blogger, Mar. 1970

We have previously discussed the progression of fandom into the blogosphere (or the genesis of the latter in the former depending on your perspective). In this Sunday Peanuts strip we find good ol' Charlie Brown dipping a toe into the proto-blogging scene with a fanzine dedicated to his idol, the never-seen baseball player Joe Shlabotnik.

Shlabotnik can be viewed as Charlie Brown's alter ego, should Charlie Brown's future-self luck into playing big league ball despite ineptitude that rapidly reels back whatever distance a hopeful heart may take him.



Prior to the time of Charlie Brown's writing of the premiere issue, Shlabotnik had been sent down to the minor leagues and was presumably working at a car wash to supplement his income.



Substitute the word "print" with the phrase "upload" and the strip remains eerily hip and relevant 40 years later. Upon further reflection, given Charlie Brown's ink-pen disability, he no doubt would have been similarly challenged in sending a blog post to his PC's printer. Perhaps the strip remains technically timely and no change is necessary after all.



Charlie Brown dutifully details Shlabotnik's momentary lapses into mediocrity from his slavish dedication to sucking. As a fan operating as a niche journalist or historian, he pursues a true calling in publishing facts no one else cares about lest they be forgotten or misspelled. Misspelled like the autograph Shlabotnik once wrote on the ball he had hit into a superfluous bloop single. "I guess he was pretty excited about that bloop single..."



Hope springs eternal. Good ol' Charlie Brown.



Yep. Eerily relevant 40 years later.

*SIGH*


View this comic strip in its historical context here.

Billy, Billy, Billy, suh-WING, Billy! Aug. 1977

Dear Lord, could one ever get as happy as Billy Carter during the first year of his brother's presidency?  We're guessing the lucky reporters who got the gig following him around ran a close second.  Not only would they get to share in his amusements, they got to share his reckless pearls with the readers as well. 

And in popping these pearls, like peanuts, they couldn't stop at just one:  he's drinking peanut likker 'steada beer cause he can't find the damn bathroom; Jimmah would be a better president if'n he'd listen to him; and Bert "If-it-ain't-broke-don't-fix-it" Lance -- dipped in corruption colors at the time -- was the best man in Washington, bar none.  Barring none would also include his brother, of course.  Aw, hay-uhl.  Did Ah say that? 

Look at that smile, would you?  And that's even knowing when his wife sees him huggin' and kissin' wif Miss Peanut Lolita he'll "probably catch straight damn hell!"

See this article in its historical context here.

John, I thought you said "MASSAGE," Jan. 1963

AP Wirephoto shot of Hubert Humphrey saying "hotdog!" before the wind was taken from his sails and his blood stopped rushing.

The sea of black in the image gives one the impression of a "swinging" Humphrey, snapping his fingers while riding the Kennedy wave with his own "rat pack."

But alas, it is actually Speaker of the House John McCormack gesturing -- and not for the Madame of the House as Hubie was hoping for, but rather the cold shower of the press. Looks like George Smathers knew it was too good to be true: "Old Jawn" would never treat anyway.

See this article in historical context here.

Nix, nix on the Nixon kix, Nov. 1962

Here's the Associated Press dutifully reporting the infamous "won't have Nixon to kick around anymore" concession speech from Nixon's failed California gubernatorial run in 1962--including some shadowy, up-lit rapid fire photos.  Nixon really gave the press hell and it is funny. 

He takes them to task about covering his "flub" but not Brown's on the final day of the campaign.  Well come on.   Brown misspoke saying a Republican candidate was on the straight Democratic ticket, you said you were running for "Governor of the United States."  That's hilarious with no explanation required.

No doubt, some newsmen miss him everyday.

Click image to enlarge or view in its historical context here.