did I just dream it? #1
When I was a kid in the 70s I really loved The Six Million Dollar Man. Never got one of those Steve Austin action figures with the dodgy bionic eye, mind you.
I always had a vague recollection that, before they switched to the “Gentlemen, we can rebuild him” title sequence that everyone remembers, there was a title song. A title song sung by Dusty Springfield no less, but only for a couple of early episodes.
We’ll now, thanks to the magic of Youtube, I know that I didn’t just dream it.
always magic in the air
Here’s a summer reading recommendation from junkfood philosophy: Ken Emerson’s “Always Magic in the Air.” The story of the young New York songwriters of 1650 Broadway and The Brill Building. A book about music that really makes you want to listen to that music. It got me making playlists and compilations for months.
It’s become a cliche to say that there was a fallow period in rock/pop between Elvis being called up and the emergence of The Beatles. This book takes the pop music that came in-between seriously, and is full of interesting facts to delight and amaze you. Like, for instance, Neil Sedaka is a heterosexual.
Really.
Anyhow, I intend to post more on subjects inspired by this book, such as how criminally underated Hal David is, or how the British beat boom, although it’s often blamed (along with Bob Dylan) for finishing off this kind of song writing was really dependent on the New York writers.
(And don’t get me started on how Dylan’s career is founded in that New York songwriting/publishing world.)
In the meantime here’s Goffin & King’s baby sitter, Eva Boyd encouraging you to dance like a train. You know you wanna.
And since that clip can nolonger be embeded… Here’s Barry Mann and Carole King busking their way through You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling
let a man come in and do the popcorn
In Britain we knew the songs about these dances but we had no clue what the actual dances looked like. Now if only someone would show me how to do the Shing-a-ling.
show & tell
“What have you brought for show and tell today James?”
“I’ve brought Clyde Stubblefield, the original Funky Drummer, Miss!”
How cool is that?
