Hall, Oats, and Rapid-Fire Rockabilly - Hippie Love Turbo Radio Show - Code Word "Cowpea"

On this episode of Hippie Love Turbo, on KUCR 88.3 FM, I kept the talking to small rapid-fire tidbits rather than my normal rambling. Because of that, this post will just stick to the bullet points. But before we get into all that, I'd like to remind y'all that you can check out the latest episodes on the KUCR Archive page. All you have to do is click that little drop down menu and click on "Hippie Love Turbo." Intuitive, ain't it? Unfortunately, the episodes won't be there for long so listen while you can!

 Anywho, here's this episode's breakdown:

• After hearing Lee Cole's "Cool Baby" I mentioned that I found the song on the compilation Cool And The Crazy which was released in Germany in 1993. I questioned why rockabilly, or psychobilly for that matter, is popular in Germany. Check out this older Vice article that touches on the subject. What do you think?

• Later on, you heard The Devils play "The Devil Dance." The Devils eventually changed their name to The Bentleys and released one more single, "Now It's Gone." You can read a little more about the band here.

• Speaking of The Devils, the group was originally from Stroudsburg, PA, which happens to be the city where guitarist G. E. Smith grew up. Smith worked a ton with Hall & Oats and was featured on 5 of the band's top hits. However, if you're like me, you probably recognize him as the long-haired bandleader on Saturday Night Live, a position Smith left in 1995. There's a pretty extensive interview with Smith on The Television Academy's website where he goes over his career including his time with SNL. 

• Funny enough, I found another connection to Hall & Oats through The Loot. You heard their song "She's A Winner" which featured the guitar work of Caleb Quaye who, much like G.E. Smith, worked with Hall & Oats. It seems like Quaye and Smith might have worked together through Hall & Oats in 1979 but that's probably it. Besides Hall & Oats, Quaye is probably best known for his work with Elton John and their song "Thank You For All Your Loving"  which was written in the late '60s but remained unreleased until it appeared in the 2019 film Rocketman.

• As the show continued, I played The 'N Betweens' "Little Nightingale" and you heard me talk a bit about the band's history, most of which I found on a website named Brum Beat. The website covers various bands from the West Midlands and is worth poking around because it features fairly comprehensive biographies on some obscure groups, as well as, a few more popular artists.
  

And that's about it for this episode's rundown! Thanks for reading the blog and be sure to listen over the air on KUCR 88.3FM on Saturdays at 9pm PST or listen to an archived version of the show here. You can also listen through KUCR.org, Radio Garden, or Tune-In. 

You can check out this week's playlist below:

  

The Devils - The Devil Dance
The Groundhogs - Shake It
The Free - What Makes You
The Tidal Waves - Laugh
The Roks - Transparent Day
The Ripcords - Bus Stop
The Innkeepers - Wanted

Getting Off Sonia's Cloud! - Hippie Love Turbo Radio Show - Code Word "Ackee"

This episode of Hippie Love Turbo, on KUCR 88.3 FM, was filled with a wide range of garage and psych tunes, toe tappers, and head-shakers. If you happened to miss this episode you can listen to it on the KUCR Archive where it'll be up for a couple weeks before it gets replaced by newer shows. Listen while you can and, of course, you can always catch the playlist down below!

This promo features a model of a vintage cart machine that's still in use at KUCR!

The first song you heard on this episode was a cover of The Rolling Stones' song "Get Off Of My Cloud" by Spanish ye-yé singer Sonia. There's not much info about Sonia beyond her work in the 60s but there's a nice summary of her career on the blog Cuadernos de Rock en Español (Rock Notes In Spanish). Over the years, Sonia performed Spanish covers of a few English songs including: "Do Wah Diddy", which was made popular at the time by Manfred Mann, as well as, Cliff Richard's "Lucky Lips", and Billy J. Kramer with The Dakotas' "Bad To Me", which can both be heard on her Ouki-Kouki EP. If you like "Bad To Me" you may be interested to know that it was written by Lennon–McCartney and that there are various demo version bootlegs floating around.

As for "Get Off My Cloud", I had mentioned on the show that Mick Jagger and Keith Richards wrote the song as a response to the constant attention they received during their newfound fame. The band wasn't completely satisfied with the final result and chose not to perform the song for many years but ultimately it was one of their biggest hits in the US. You can read more about the song's history on American Songwriter.

Later in the show you heard The Fire's song "Father's Name Is Dad" and I mentioned a research article about early child development and how babies often remember words that have repeating sounds. This repetition may influence the ways language is developed and explain why certain words, such as mama, are often the first words children say. You can read more about the studies here and here.

And finally, towards the middle of the show, I played The Warlords "Real Fine Lady" and I talked a little about their hometown Bloomington-Normal, IL. In particular, I talked about David Davis' Mansion and how he was a friend of and campaign manager for Abraham Lincoln, in addition to a senator and Supreme Court justice.

As for The Warlords, their career was fairly short and their sole release supposedly had a low run of 100 pressings. It seems that the collector's market reflects the single's rarity as I've seen copies listed for sale in the thousands. For a more complete summary of the band, head over to the blog Downstate Sounds which also appears to be a radio show!

And that's about it for this episode's rundown! Thanks for reading the blog and be sure to listen over the air on KUCR 88.3FM on Saturdays at 9pm PST or listen to an archived version of the show here. You can also listen through KUCR.org, Radio Garden, or Tune-In. 

You can check out this week's playlist below:

  

The Warlords - Real Fine Lady
The Terry's - Love Only for Two

Tripping Out With Matchstick Men - Hippie Love Turbo Radio Show - Code Word "Quinoa"

This episode of Hippie Love Turbo, on KUCR 88.3 FM, leaned heavily on psych music, in particular stuff from across the pond. If you happened to miss this episode you can listen to it on the KUCR Archive. It'll be up for a couple weeks before it gets replaced by newer shows. Listen while you can!

We kicked off this episode with a popular psych song by Status Quo named "Pictures of Matchstick Men" and according to Francis Rossi, the band's singer, guitarist, and primary songwriter, Status Quo wasn't much of a psychedelic band before the song's release and he considered the group more akin to his mod contemporaries. In his 2004 book XS All Areas: The Status Quo Autobiography Rossi states:

Musically, the success of Matchstick Men sent us on a whole new path. Because it was looked on as this very sort of psychedelic, hippy-dippy type of song, we were now looked on by the people who had bought it as a full-on psychedelic group, which of course we weren't at all. I didn't even know how to spell 'psychedelic' back then.

Additionally, Rossi explains how he began writing the song while locked in his bathroom, where he often hid from his first wife during their tumultuous marriage. In an interview with Carl Wiser for SongFacts, Rossi cites Jimi Hendrix's version of "Hey Joe" as inspiration for the song's structure and states that the song is about his ex-wife and how he regretted marrying her early into their relationship. I have found countless articles mentioning that the song was written about L. S. Lowry's paintings but I haven't been able to locate any particular interview where Rossi makes such a claim. It seems that the song's ties to Lowry come from the fact that his works were often described as having "matchstalk" or "matchstick" men due to the unusually stiff subjects in Lowry's paintings. 

During the show, I mentioned that I read someone's interpretation of the song which argued that it's about a man that's haunted by Lowry's unusual paintings. However, there isn't much merit behind such a claim, being that the imagery Rossi alludes to doesn't match the descriptions of Lowry's paintings and that Rossi has clearly stated that the song is about his ex-wife. While Rossi might be referencing Lowry's "matchstick" men in the song, I would say it would be wrong to claim that the song is "about" Lowry's work. Of course, there is a sense of eeriness in Lowry's work and with Lowry himself, being that he was an unusual man with a mysterious aura, so it does make sense that someone would write a song inspired by his paintings or eccentricities.

As the show went on, you heard The Montanas' "Difference of Opinion" and I spoke about the band's industrial hometown of Wolverhampton, England which, like the settings of Lowry's paintings, was at one time known for being dingy. When Queen Victoria was 13, she had visited Wolverhampton and wrote in her diary that it was "a large and dirty town" with grass that was "blasted and black". As time passed, so did most of the industry, with large swaths of factories closing in the 20th and 21st century. 

As for The Montanas, they mostly had a sparkling clean sunshine pop-ish sound with their most popular song being "You've Got To Be Loved". The song was successful here in the states but didn't really catch on in the UK. At first, The Montanas played with a straight forward beat sound but as time went on, they began to add more strings, bounce, oohhs and awwws which led to the pop sound they are most famous for.

And that's about it for this episode's rundown! Thanks for reading the blog and be sure to listen over the air on KUCR 88.3FM on Saturdays at 9pm PST or listen to an archived version of the show here. You can also listen through KUCR.org, Radio Garden, or Tune-In. 

You can check out this week's playlist below:

 

Adam's Recital - There's No Place For Lonely People
Les Sparks - Souris
The Bad Seeds - A Taste of The Same
Village - Man In The Moon
The Mojo Men - The New Breed

The Youngers, Jazz Cafes and The Riverside Plaza - Hippie Love Turbo Radio Show - Code Word "Dandelion Greens"

This episode of Hippie Love Turbo, on KUCR 88.3 FM, was split halfway between garage rock bangers and psyched out dreamers with a sprinkling of Rhythm and Blues. For some reason most of the songs from this episode weren't on Spotify, so if you came to the website to find a particular tune be sure to peep the playlist at the bottom!

Towards the beginning of the show you heard a Japanese band The Youngers (ザ・ヤンガーズ ) perform their super fuzzy and bass thumping song I Don't Want To Let You Go. Although there's a bunch of information readily available on the web in Japanese, it appears that the group hasn't received too much coverage in English. Through the modern technical wizardry that is Google Translate, I have found that the band was similar to what we consider a modern boy band or at least something similar to a pop rock group such as The Monkees. Rather than forming naturally, the band was scouted by a "Jazz Cafe" or "Music Cafe" in Shinjuku City named La Seine. At the time there were several venues in and around Tokyo that served as hangout spots where you could eat and drink while listening to live "GS" (garage sound) bands that played beat, garage, and psych standards, as well as, western influenced originals. 

Ichiro Tominaga on Comedy Manga Dojo Digest

The Youngers was composed of 6 lads from around Japan, with the youngest member, vocalist Yoichi Suzuki (17) acting as a songwriter for their debut song My Love, My Love. Multiple sources claim that the group had an active fan club that was 2,000 members strong before they had even released their first single. Supposedly, their fan group was managed by Ichiro Tominaga (富永一朗), who was an early manga artist and well-known television personality.

As expected, The Youngers' most active fan base were among middle and high school aged girls and according to a poll conducted by the Tokyo radio station Nippon Cultural Broadcasting, the group was ranked the 8th most popular GS band. Like most other pop rock groups, the band eventually lost popularity as they got older and after briefly changing their sound to a more mature pop/adult contemporary sound, they called it quits. Various members continued to play music, however, they never seemed to achieve the same popularity as The Youngers.

If you happen to follow KUCR on Instagram, which you definitely should, then you probably saw a post featuring a CGI rendering of the Hippie Love mascot along with a Googie style KUCR sign. Well, I based that model off an old sign that used to sit in the parking lot of the Riverside Plaza during the 1960s. There's not much to add besides that but I thought it'd be fun to make a higher resolution version of the Instagram post available. Enjoy!

Well folks, that's about it for this episode's rundown! Thanks for reading the blog and be sure to listen over the air on KUCR 88.3FM on Saturdays at 9pm PST. If you can't catch the show live there's now a convenient way to listen via the KUCR archive.  Unfortunately, due to copyright laws, each episode can only stay online for a few weeks, so you have a limited time to listen before they're gone. Better than nothing, I say! Just follow the link and search for Hippie Love Turbo or click on the "All Shows" drop-down menu.

You can also listen through KUCR.org, Radio Garden, or Tune-In.

You can check out this week's playlist below:

 

Fe-Fi-Four Plus 2 - I Wanna Come Back  
The Countdowns - Cover Of Night
The Bells Of Rhymny - She’ll Be Back
Hot Coffee - Some Day You Will Die
The Youngers - I Don't Want To Let You Go
Casey Jones and His The Governors - Don't Ha Ha
Twin-Dells - Love 'Em And Leave 'Em
Thomas Hammond - Turn That Frown Up Side Down
The Rites - Hour Girl
Chris And Craig - Isha
Wilde Things - My Life Is Black

Charlie Booth, Larry Williams, and A New Way To Listen To The Hippie Love Turbo Radio Show - Code Word "Golden Lotus Banana"

Before we dive into this episode's summary, I'd like to tell y'all about a new feature on KUCR's website where you can listen to certain programs on demand. If you aren't able to tune into Hippie Love Turbo live then checking out the online archive is pretty much the only legal way to listen to the show. It's really simple and convenient! Just click the "All shows" drop-down menu and find "Hippie Love Turbo" or use the search function and you'll find some of the latest episodes that were played on air. Unfortunately, due to copyright issues, the episodes can only stay online for a limited time so be sure to listen while you can! 

Anyway, for this episode of Hippie Love Turbo, on KUCR 88.3 FM, we bounced around genres a bit more than usual with songs ranging from rockabilly to psych. It was a ton of fun finding music for this episode and sometimes it feels good to mix things up!

The first song you heard on this episode was a single by Charlie Booth and The Blue Velvets named Gonna Find Some Lovin'. The flipside of the record, Fishin' Fits, is definitely the weaker track of the two but it still has some charm. Gonna Find Some Lovin' is one of the few Charlie Booth tracks that's easy to find due to its availability on compilations. For the most part, Booth's music is somewhat difficult to find and while Booth didn't release a lot of tracks using his own name, he did run a label named Golden Eagle which put out some rock, blues, and soul records from '62 to '68. Collectables, a reissue label from Pennsylvania, released a compilation featuring Golden Eagle artists, however, it focuses on the label's blue releases and skips some of Golden Eagle's rock releases such as Vance Charles and The Sonics, Thomas Hammond, Reed Williams, and The El Campo Jades. Hopefully, one day someone will get the rights to release Golden Eagle's complete discography.

Next up you heard Larry Williams perform Short Fat Fannie and I mentioned how Williams was an influence on many beat bands including The Beatles who recorded covers of Williams' tracks Dizzy Miss Lizzy, Slow Down, and Bad Boy. Williams is often compared to Little Richard due to their close friendship and how Williams saw a boost in promotion after Little Richard stepped away from music in the late 50s to begin preaching. Around this time Specialty Records began to polish Williams' image in hopes of generating the same success they had with Little Richard and in some ways, they achieved their goal. All Music has a general biography on Williams which dives into some of his problems with addiction and his struggles to stay relevant over the years. Towards the end of his life, Williams released a funk/disco album titled That Larry Williams that didn't quite live up to the hype of his earlier releases and featured a reworked version of his song Bony Maronie. 

Speaking of reworked songs, I also mentioned that the final artist on this episode, Big Maybelle, released a cover of Question Mark and the Mysterians' 96 Tears that successfully transitions the song into a soul banger. I'll definitely be adding it to a future episode, so keep a look out for that!

And that's about it for this episode's rundown! Thanks for reading the blog and be sure to listen over the air on KUCR 88.3FM on Saturdays at 9pm PST. You can also listen through KUCR.org, Radio Garden, or Tune-In. 

You can check out this week's playlist below:

 

Louie and The Fat Men - Fat Man
Research 1-6-12 - I Don't Walk There No More
The Spirits - So Sad
The Solid State - Wait and See

Orgin of The Googly Eye - Hippie Love Turbo Radio Show - Code Word "King Coconut"

On this episode of Hippie Love Turbo, on KUCR 88.3 FM I played The Nashville Teens' cover of the John D. Loudermilk song Google Eye which made me wonder about the term Googly Eye and where it came from. Before we get into that though, I'd like to point out that the song is actually referring to a fish, which I think is maybe a Rock Bass but to be honest I'm not too sure.

Anywho, when I first read the song's title, I thought of those little plastic pill shaped eyes that rattle around when you shake them. The kind of thing that you'd glue to puff balls or cardboard tubes as a child. If you are anything like me you've seen them throughout your life but you've never really thought about their origin and, disappointingly, as while researching Googly Eyes I found that their history is mostly lost to time.

From everything that I've read, the term Googly Eye comes from an American comic strip by Billy DeBeck named Barney Google and Snuffy Smith or rather a 1923 song named Barney Google (with the Goo-Goo-Googly Eyes) that was preformed by Ernest Hare and Billy Jones and found inspiration from the comic strip. Over the years Barney and Snuffy have been seen in comics, live action films, as well as a few cartoon series. I also found that there is a type of doll that predates DeBeck's strip that are known as googly-eyed dolls. I don't know if the googly-eyed name was used during the initial production of the dolls or if the name became popular after DeBeck's comic strip because there appears to be conflicting accounts. 

However, as I continued my research, I found an even older example of "googly eyes" in the Los Angeles Herald from November 1906. The article reads:

Googly eyes, made by Henry Dusso at a young woman escorted by A. Ayllllo, 1409 South Main street, at Ord and New High streets, were the direct cause of a pair of black eyes which Pusso will wear when he appears in Police court this morning.

From everything that I've read, googly-eyed dolls came out around 1910 and even Kewpie dolls which could be considered a version of a googly-eyed doll, weren't conceived until 1909. The way the newspaper article uses the term "googly eyes" makes it appear as if the term was already used in normal conversation, so although it's the earliest use of the phrase that I could find it's most likely not the first time the words were used. If anyone can find an earlier usage of the term "googly eyes" I'd love to see it.

Besides talking about google eyes, I also mentioned how jeans from the 19th century are occasionally found in abandoned mines and how they can be sold at auction for some hefty prices. Of course, the reason I brought up blues jeans is because you heard a British band that's best known for their version of Hippy Hippy Shake, The Swinging Blue Jeans, play their song Make Me Know You're Mine.

And that's it for this episode! Thanks for reading the blog and be sure to listen over the air on KUCR 88.3FM on Sundays at midnight, or on Mondays at 10pm PST. You can also listen through KUCR.org, Radio Garden, or Tune-In.

You can listen to this episode's playlist below:

 

The Aardvarks - I'm Higher Than I'm Down
Steve Carpenter - Am I Lost
The Pastels - Cause I Love You
Yvonne Přenosilová - When My Baby Cries

Liberty Bells and London Fashion - Hippie Love Turbo Radio Show - Code Word "Yard-Long Beans"

On this episode of Hippie Love Turbo, on KUCR 88.3 FM we kicked the show off with a group from London known as The Carnaby. As I mentioned during the show, the band had ties to the street fashion scene in Carnaby Street and at one time were promoted by Gordon Mills who is known as the former manager of Tom Jones, Engelbert Humperdinck, and Gilbert O'Sullivan. 

At first the group was known for playing American influenced R&B before Mills convinced them to lean more towards the Mod sound which was popular in Carnaby Street. If you aren't aware, Carnaby Street served as a cultural hub for mods and hippies and it wasn't uncommon to see pop singers or members of various bands leisurely strolling around its fashionable shops. If you want to get a feel for how influential Carnaby Street was on 1960s fashion, I suggest checking out this short video about the time Barry Gibb was given a fashion award at John Stephen's (aka The King Of Carnaby Street) shop. Additionally, you can read more about the band, The Carnaby, on their official website.

As the show continued you heard another group known as State of Mind, from New Castle, Delaware. The best summary of the band's history is on the website Garage Hangover with my favorite part being the story behind the band's final performance. According to former member Paul Murtagh, following the departure of the singer and bassist, the remaining members chose to go forward with another gig even as their newest members weren't able to properly learn the material beforehand. Due to the new member's lack of practice, the band chose to lip-sync to their record rather than play live. It seems that the gig was a disaster because the group decided to stop performing soon afterwards. The situation sounds so silly yet relatable, especially when you consider how old the band members were at the time.

Liberty Bell Replica in Hemet, CA

 

Towards the latter half of the episode, you heard The Liberty Bells play their song Recognition which reminded me of something from my youth. I may have mentioned this before on another episode, but when I was a kid, I used to occasionally pass a Liberty Bell replica that sits in front of a Realtor's office in Hemet, California. It always seemed somewhat out of place but the story goes that the bell was commissioned during America's bicentennial. The replica was made in France and was featured in many local parades as it was pulled by miniature ponies on a custom-made cart. If you are ever in East Hemet you should try to find it. Currently it sits inside a plexiglass case. 

Interestingly enough, the actual Liberty Bell did reach the Inland Empire at one point in 1915 but it didn't quite make it to Hemet. Instead, the bell stopped in Colton during a Southern Pacific tour used to promote the rail line. Thousands of children from local schools stopped by to see the bell with the sounds of cannons, muskets, and whistles filling the air.

Well folks, that's about it for this episode's rundown! Thanks for reading the blog and be sure to listen over the air on KUCR 88.3FM on Saturdays at 9pm PST. You can also listen through KUCR.org, Radio Garden, or Tune-In. 

You can check out this week's playlist below:

 

State of Mind - Move
Dee and Tee - Something's Comin'
The Flares - Forever
Flat Earth Society - Feelin' Much Better
Emy Jackson and The Blue Comets - Namida No Go Go

Raking the Moon? That's Cool - Hippie Love Turbo Radio Show - Code Word "Golden Berry"

This episode of Hippie Love Turbo, on KUCR 88.3 FM  started with a series of garage rock tunes that you could shake your hips to before we slowed things down with some moody psych tracks. It's those hills and valleys, highs and lows, that keep this show rocking.

While we were on one of those "hills" you heard The Street Cleaners perform one of my favorite garage rock classics, That's Cool, That's Trash. If you are like me, you are probably more familiar with the Kingsmen version of the song, however, The Street Cleaners are actually the originators of the song. Of course, like a lot of other "bands" The Street Cleaners were just one of many pseudonyms used by the writing duo P.F. Sloan and Steve Barri. In fact, you might recognize another track by one of their "bands" The Fantastic Baggys titled Tell 'Em I'm Surfin' which was covered by Jan and Dean. 

The two songwriters started recording at a fairly young age with Sloan's first recording being sold while he was only 13. Though the two were both prolific, Sloan is more renowned due to his matured songwriting in the mid '60s with songs such as Eve of Destruction. If you are interested in reading more about Sloan and Barri check out this retrospective from NPR's Fresh Air and this LA Times article on Sloan's passing in 2015.

As the show continued you heard The Moon Rakers perform their Beatles-esque song You'll Come Back. Originally, the band was known as The Surfin' Classics, then The Classics, until they added another member that played a Wurlitzer piano, which was highly unusual for garage rock bands. The band's name comes from the 1955 Ian Flemming book Moonraker, however, nowadays people are more familiar with the 1979 film which came out during the resurgence of space themed science fiction caused by the popularity of Star Wars. Funny enough, the movie led to a novelization by Christopher Wood, titled: James Bond and Moonraker. So, if you are keeping track, there's 3 different works of fiction using the Moonraker name. The original novel, a movie based on the novel, and a novel based on the movie which is based on another novel. Funny stuff.

And quickly I'll mention that you heard Nancy Holloway perform Tu N'es Pas Venu which is a cover of a Wanda Jackson's Whirlpool. Although I said I'll play Jackson's version of the song in a future episode I thought it'd be a good idea to link to it now for those that don't feel like waiting around to hear it.

Well folks, that's about it for this episode's rundown! Thanks for reading the blog and be sure to listen over the air on KUCR 88.3FM on Saturdays at 9pm PST. You can also listen through KUCR.org, Radio Garden, or Tune-In. 

You can check out this week's playlist below:

 

The Street Cleaners - That's Cool, That's Trash
The Implicits - Give Me Justice
The Valli Boys - Night Hawk
Sharks and Me - Busses
The Moon Rakers - You'll Come Back
The Baroques - Mary Jane
The Snap Shots - You Made A Big Mistake
Nancy Holloway - Tu N'es Pas Venu
Wayne Dailey - Pain And Sorrow

Japanese Garage Sounds, David Bowie and The Shadows Four! - Hippie Love Turbo Radio Show - Code Word "Salsify"

On this episode of Hippie Love Turbo, on KUCR 88.3 FM  we drifted around the world of rock and roll in a vibrantly colored balloon. You heard freakbeat from Japan, garage from Canada and some psych from the UK. It was fun and I'm sure you loved it.

There were two Japanese songs on this episode with the first by The Dynamites, a group from a residential area in Tokyo named Asagaya. Originally the band performed at local clubs and US military bases as The Monsters before they changed their name sometime around 1967. According to various online sources, The Dynamites was one of several names presented to the group once they signed were signed to Victor Japan. The band was fairly short lived and ultimately only had one hit song, Tunnel Tengoku or Tunnel to Heaven, however, lead guitarist Fujio Yamaguchi continued his musical career for decades after The Dynamites' breakup. One of his more successful ventures was with a band named Teardrops which mostly played hard rock or southern blues influenced rock but also had a few tracks that flirted with reggae. There's a bunch of videos floating around with Yamaguchi playing guitar and singing at various clubs in Japan but this televised performance perfectly highlights his American influences and energetic playing style. If you can get a hold of it, there's a documentary about Yamaguchi's final performances named "皆殺しのバラード."

Additionally, lead singer Hiroshi Segawa, briefly sang in a band he helped form, named The New Dynamites, which doesn't appear to have released any recordings or at least any that I could find. However, I did manage to track down Segawa's solo album titled Pierrot which features an unusual mix between psych, country, and southern rock. The whole album feels like it could be on the soundtrack of some old American International Pictures film. The cover is also fairly bizarre with a blurry closeup of what appears to be Segawa in clown makeup. Strange stuff.

The other Japanese track you heard was Asamade Matani by The Mops with lyrics written by Yu Aku. During the show I mentioned the song was covered by Carmen Maki and how, much like Yamaguchi, Maki branched out to hard rock later in her career. If you want to check out how much Maki's work changed over the years, compare her sleepy pop songs like Town of Orphans to her late 70s work on the album Night Stalker which features Carmine Appice on drums and Earl Slick on guitar. More recently her song Tokiniwa Hahano Naikono Yoni appeared in Brad Pitt's Bullet Train (2022).

As the show continued you heard an obscure song by The Shadows Four named: I'm Begging You. There's hardly any information about the group online and what little I was able to find came from the liner notes of The New England Teen Scene, a garage rock compilation from 1983. According to the compilation, The Shadows Four were a house band for a venue named Shoreside 17 in Braintree, Massachusetts. I did find one tiny reference to Shoreside 17 in an old Melrose High School yearbook where a student mentions she'll never forget the venue before she explains how she likes to spend her free time going to dances and "Friendly's". As the liner notes continue it explains how the members of The Shadow Four also won the 1966 American Federation Award for musicians. Not sure what that means but it sure sounds fantastic. Good job guys!

Finally, towards the end of the show you heard You've Got a Habit Of Leaving by Davy Jones and The Lower Third. The original single omits the band's name but it reappears on various reissues. This Davy Jones, not to be confused with Davy Jones of The Monkees, eventually became known by a more famous name: David Bowie. In the year 2000, Bowie re-recorded You've Got a Habit Of Leaving with guitar work by a guitarist we mentioned earlier in this post, Earl Slick. For two decades the re-recording only existed in bootleg form until it saw an official release in 2021 on Bowie's posthumously released album Toy. I guess you could view the song as a bookend to Bowie's musical beginnings and his final works.

Anywho, that's about it for this episode's rundown! Thanks for reading the blog and be sure to listen over the air on KUCR 88.3FM on Saturdays at 9pm PST. You can also listen through KUCR.org, Radio Garden, or Tune-In. 

You can check out this week's playlist below:

 

The Shifters - Well Alright
Tony and The Bandits - It's A Bit of Alright
Peppermint Circus - Keeping My Head Above Water
The Move - Cherry Blossom Clinic (Peel Session Version)

Carol Fran, Hound Dog Taylor, The Purple Barrier and Hippie Love Truck? Hippie Love Turbo Radio Show - Code Word "Lotus Root"

This episode of Hippie Love Turbo, on KUCR 88.3 FM kicked off with a set of rhythm and blues and blues inspired rock. I don't dip my toes into the blues too much because I'm not much of an expert in that field but since rhythm and blues is the foundation of early rock and roll, I can always find a way to squeeze some into the show.

The first song of the night was a soul blues banger by Carol Fran titled I'm Gonna Try. Perhaps you know Carol Fran from her cover of Darrell Glenn's Crying In The Chapel, then again, you probably don't know Fran's version, as it was unfortunately overshadowed by Elvis' cover that was released soon after. Humorously, Fran eventually confronted Elvis over his use of Crying In The Chapel which lead to Elvis cutting her a hefty check right then and there. If you liked I'm Gonna Try, I'd suggest checking out more of Fran's early singles as they are some of her best works. Some of her greats include: Emmett Lee, Knock Knock, and One More Chance.

As the show continued, I dropped a few tidbits of info about various subjects but I didn't really get too in depth with anything. For example, I mentioned Hound Dog Taylor's extra fingers and how he may have removed one during a night of heavy drinking but upon reflection, I realize that shouldn't steal the spotlight from Taylor's interesting approaches to music and love of cheap guitars. There's a great article on Premier Guitar which explores Taylor's history and gets into some of the ways he achieved his signature sound.

After you heard The Turtles' Buzzsaw I talked about the differences between turtles and tortoises and how last year there was some hubbub about videos which depicted turtles and tortoises being "rescued" from various hazards which, when watched with a critical eye, appear to be total fabrications. You can read a little about the situation here and watch some video analysis by DanTheTurtleMan. In his videos, Dan explores some examples of these bizarre turtle abuse videos and how they often receive praise from uninformed viewers.

And finally, I spoke about The Purple Barrier, a group from Fulham, London, that eventually dropped the Purple from their name and unknowingly had a single recorded by session musicians while they were away on tour. According to the blog Cosmic Minds At Play, the phony tracks are on the Phillips singles for The Tide is Turning and A Place In Your Heart which have been hard to track down. Probably for a good reason.

That's it for this episode's rundown. Thanks for reading the blog and be sure to listen over the air on KUCR 88.3FM on Saturdays at 9pm PST. You can also listen through KUCR.org, Radio Garden, or Tune-In. 

You can check out this week's playlist below:

 

The Sound Track - Face the New Day
Mechanical Switch - Spongeman
The Beaux Jens - She Was Mine

San Bernardino's The Good Feelins and The Pattens - Hippie Love Turbo Radio Show - Code Word "Cassava"

This episode of Hippie Love Turbo, on KUCR 88.3 FM had some more obscure stuff as I've been finding myself getting lost in some out-of-print compilations and oddball bootlegs. As a result, a lot of tracks that you heard on this episode aren't on Spotify but that's just how it goes.

Speaking of obscure, one of the first bands you heard on this episode was The Good Feelins from San Bernardino. The group only released a couple singles, one under the name The Genteels, before their career was cut short due to members being drafted into the Vietnam war. In fact, they began playing with bigger acts such as The Animals and Rolling Stones as they secured a recording contract through Liberty Records and were even predicted to reach the Hot Top 100 by Billboard. 

On various compilations the group's name has been slightly altered, which adds to the band's mystery. For example, the track you heard on this episode, I'm Captured, was found on the compilation Who Needs Tomorrow? American 60s Garage Bands, which lists the group as "Good Feeling". While that may not seem like a big deal, when you are dealing with garage rock bands, sometimes even a misplaced apostrophe can mark the difference between two bands. 

Additionally, I think it's important to point out that The Good Feelins official website mentions the band's San Bernardino roots. I've seen a few websites refer to The Good Feelins as a Riverside band and to some people that distinction, although minor, would probably be appreciated. Most of the members knew each other from San Bernardino Valley College with the exception being their drummer, Mike Kravitz, who was only 17 at the time and still attending Pacific High School. You can read some contemporaneous articles about the band on their website which was difficult to find due to some dead links. 

As the show continued you heard The Pattens song You Should Know and I mentioned that there are some arguments to be made over who actually wrote the song with a Chicago based band, The Escavels claiming to be the song's originators. The Escavels' version was recorded a year prior to The Pattens version but was never released to the public until 2012. As noted by the blog A Bit Like You and Me, The Pattens B-side Jump is a cover of The Toggery Five's I'm Gonna Jump with the song's credits listed as Ren Shawel instead of the actual name of the songwriter Frank Renshaw. Whether or not there was plagiarism involved or simply mishandled credits is hard to say and we'll probably never know the whole story. However, it's fairly obvious that The Pattens versions are produced fairly well and I'm sure they would have gotten into some legal trouble if their single was more successful.

Anywho, there wasn't a ton of talking on this episode so I'll wrap it up here. Thanks for reading the blog and be sure to listen over the air on KUCR 88.3FM on Saturdays at 9pm PST. You can also listen through KUCR.org, Radio Garden, or Tune-In. 

You can check out this week's playlist below:

 

The First Garrison - Mama Say Blue
The Leather Boy - Soulin'
The American Four - Soul Food
The MidKnights - Pain
The Muffets - Lost
The Pattens - You Should Know
Glory Rhodes - Stay Out Of My Way