ATOMIC BOOGIE RADIO IS ON THE AIR !!!

ATOMIC BOOGIE RADIO IS ON THE AIR!!!! (Starting Sunday April 1^st at 7:00 PM central)

          Through the years, Bob Kronlage (creator of the comic strip “Kozmo of the Cosmos”) has amassed a huge record / CD collection, which he jokingly refers to as “The Audio Archive”. It’s chock full of great rock ‘n’ roll (50’s and 60’s masterpieces both legendary and obscure, 70’s punk, 80’s new wave) roots music (rhythm and blues, blues, bluegrass) and even comedy and novelty records. He always wished he had his own radio show so he could share his treasures with others. Now, thanks to streaming audio, he has his own “radio” station!

          It’s called “Atomic Boogie Radio” and it’s programming is called “The Atomic Boogie Show”, after the first radio show that ever played an Elvis Presley record!

The plan is to present five hours of new, theme based programming every Sunday night, starting this weekend!

          Here’s what’s up for starters;

APRIL 1^ST, 2012 (All times are Central)

7:00 ATOMIC PLATTERS (Part1)

Rock ‘n’ Roll, Rhythm & Blues, Country Western, Novelty Records & Public Service Announcements – all taking a jaw droppingly cavalier attitude toward imminent nuclear annihilation of the human race! ie; What are we to make of a serious public service announcement featuring world – class smart ass Groucho Marx stating, “You can survive a nuclear attack … but you’ll need a foist aide kit….” From the lavish boxed set of the same name. AMAZING STUFF!

8:00 PSYCHEDELIC CLASSICS

Two hours of insanely cool psychedelic music from the 60’s. Featuring The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, The Byrds, The Monkees, The Blues Magoos and tons of ridiculously great bands you’ve probably never heard of. Like taking a journey on the fabulon triptometer!!!!

10:00 ATOMIC PLATTERS (Part2)

 More of the above. It’s the end of the world as we know it, but they feel fine!

11:00 BEATNIK PARTY (Part 1)

Enjoy an hour of Be-Bop, Cool Jazz, vintage beatnik poetry readings (ranging from the sublime to the hilariously awful!) & even some hipster comedy routines. Featuring Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Bud Powell, Woody Herman, Lambert, Hendricks and Ross, Charlie Ventura, Slim Gaillard, Ella Fitzgerald, Dave Brubeck & Snakefinger! Like, cool, Daddy-o!

If you’re not available Sunday night, don’t panic! The shows will repeat continually, 24 - hours - a – day, all week! 

Here's the address http://loudcaster.com/channels/1245-atomic-boogie-radio 

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT !!!

Big Announcement (coming next weekend).
Well, you can't live with cartoonist Bob Kronlage 24 hours a day,7 days a week (I assume), but starting next Sunday night, you can do the next best thing! 
Check this weblog next weekend for the big announcement!

Mummenschanz

SOLID POTATO SALAD by The Ross Sisters

It may take as long as a couple minutes before this gets amazing, but trust me -- stick with it -- YOW!

Penelope Ashe and "Naked Came the Stranger"

Notorious author Penelope Ashe

Ms.Ashe, interviewed by McCall's Magazine in 1969, before she was destroyed by Newsday reporters.

 
Attractive, smart (as in fashionable and intelligent) upper middle class housewife Penelope Ashe became a literary sensation in 1969 with the publication of her adult novel Naked Came the Stranger. Ashe was the perfect person to become a pop culture sensation – a wholesome, pretty brunette suburbanite wife, possessing a mind spinning with hot, sexy, forbidden fantasies. The prior year Glenn Campbell had the hit “The Dreams of the Everyday Housewife”, elaborating on the pathetic notion that once a woman gives up her freedom to become a housewife she has nothing left in life but to fantasize about what might have been;
“She looks in the mirror and stares at the wrinkles that weren't there yesterday
And thinks of the young man that she almost married
What would he think if he saw her this way?

She picks up her apron in little girl-fashion as something comes into her mind
Slowly starts dancing rememb'ring her girlhood
And all of the boys she had waiting in line

Oh, such are the dreams of the everyday housewife
You see ev'rywhere any time of the day
An everyday housewife who gave up the good life for me.”
Let’s face it – popular songs become popular because they reflect what a large segment of the public wants to romanticize about. Ashes’ book, however, was promoted as revolutionary because it showed what the bored housewife of the time really thought about to while away her lengthy days around the house. (Just as a scandalous predecessor Peyton Place tore the patrician façade off of small town living.) Although (or because) it played against the old fashioned notion of the wholesome housewife who thinks only of pleasing her husband, there was a very large segment of the public who clearly wanted to wallow in Mrs. Ashes’ type of fantasies. The book became a huge best seller.
According to Wikipedia:

“(The novel told the story of) Gillian and William Blake, hosts of a popular New York City breakfast radio chat show, The Billy & Gilly Show, where they play the perfect couple. When Gillian finds out that her husband is having an affair, she decides to cheat on him with a variety of men from their Long Island neighborhood. Most of the book is taken up by vignettes describing Gilly's adventures with a variety of men, from a progressive rabbi to a mobster crooner.”
Ashe clearly relished all the attention – conducting interviews with the press and making the rounds of the talk shows of the day. Refreshingly, Ashe did not seem to take herself, or her book overly seriously. Had people been more attuned to it, they might have picked up on her foolish comments as facetiousness; “A writer’s got to impale his guts on the typewriter”, Penelope offered as advice to struggling writers. Indeed, she seemed smarter than her book, and somehow, she even seemed smarter than her own comments.  
By October 13, 1969, the book had sold 90,000 copies. It was on that date, though, at the height of her popularity, that Penelope Ashe was destroyed by an appearance on The David Frost Show.
After Frost introduced Penelope, the band played “A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody” and twenty four men walked on to Frost’s set. The men were Mike McGrady and 23 of his fellow Newsday reporters. “Penelope Ashe” had not written Naked Came the Stranger – it was written by these 24 men. McGrady resented the fact that horrendously written novels were being touted as valid works of literature just because they were popular, and they were popular only because they were full of explicit descriptions of sex.
McGrady wrote the first and final chapters of the book, and enlisted his fellow reporters to each pen a chapter – each a salacious, intentionally terribly written sex fantasy – the more ludicrous and un-erotic the better. As editor of the book, McGrady cleaned up a few blatantly inconsistent descriptions of the book’s heroine, but left in enough anomalies to make it obvious that the “author” was not even consistent in describing her main character. He collaborated with his cohorts to rewrite a few chapters because they were too well written.
They were originally toying with a title along the lines of “The Naked Stranger”, but felt that title lacked resonance. Eventually someone suggested Naked Came the Stranger. It had a mysterious quality. It had a pretension of poesy. Most importantly, one had to dwell on it for a while before its full naughty implication sank in – in the days of women’s lib, this woman was thoroughly enjoying her experiences. Yet, you could say the title on TV-- a child could hear it and not be corrupted. It was the perfect title for a potboiler. Surprisingly, the cover had a photo of a nude woman. While it was not full – frontal nudity, it was certainly full – dorsal nudity. The woman was shown from the back, kneeling on the floor, her rump resting on her feet. They could get away with this in 1969, but I doubt they could have a mainstream novel with a nude photo on the cover nowadays. I was going to just include a picture of it, then it dawned on me my mom is recommending my weblog to her friend in her sewing circle this week, so I decided I better not! (If you wanna see it, just look up the novel on Wikipedia.)
Not only did Penelope Ashe not write the notorious novel, Penelope Ashe didn’t even exist! While McGrady was hatching his scheme for this literary hoax, it dawned on him that his sister – in – law looked like a Jacqueline Susann type. She was a somewhat chic looking woman, who looked sporty enough to unashamedly make an industry out of her naughtiest ideas. Mrs. McGrady (sorry, I couldn’t find her first name anywhere on the ‘net – it was surprisingly hard to even find her photo) really played it to the hilt, and obviously had impressive improvisational skills to fool so many people. The men behind the book finally revealed the truth, because the popularity of the book proved Mike McGrady’s theory, and they felt a certain moral obligation to the public -- particularly out of concern that they were exploiting an unsophisticated segment of the book buying public.  
Yet, there is no such thing as bad publicity. For a while the hoax became quite a cause celebre, and the public continued to buy the book in large numbers. The authors were even made an offer to write a follow – up, but they had the good taste to decline.        

KOZMO GOES BLATANTLY COMMERCIAL

The MONKEES -- DAILY NIGHTLY

DAILY NIGHTLY
by MICHAEL NESMITH

Darkened rolling figures move through
Prisms of no color
Hand in hand, they walk the night
But never know each other

Passioned pastel neon lights
Light up the jeweled traveler
Who, lost in scenes of smoke filled dreams
Find questions, but no answers

Startled eyes that sometimes see
Phantasmagoric splendor
Pirouette down palsied paths
With pennies for the vendor

Salvation's yours for just the time
It takes to pay the dancer ]
And once again such anxious men
Find questions, but no answers

The night has gone
And taken its infractions
While saddened eyes
Hope there will be a next one

Sahara signs look down upon
A world that glitters glibly
And mountain sides put arms around
The unsuspecting city

Second hands that minds have slowed
Are moving even faster
Toward bringing down someone who's found
The questions, but no answers

MICKY DOLENZ-- Before They Made A Monkee Out Of Him!

"Mickey Braddock" as Corky in "Circus Boy".

MICKY DOLENZ born George Michael Dolenz, March 8^th 1945 to George and Janelle Dolenz. He went by Mickey until around 1964, when he dropped the “e”.

          In 1956 Micky acted in commercials for Kellogg’s cereals and Oscar Meyer Wieners.

          Monday the 17^th of September, 11 year old Micky appeared on NBC’s “The Today Show” to promote his own network TV show “Circus Boy” debuting Sunday the 23^rd. He worked under the stage name Mickey Braddock at this time and for the next several years. The series ran until Thursday September11th 1958. The show ran for two seasons, the first on NBC, the second on ABC. On February 9^th1957, before the end of the second season, Micky appeared before 14,000 youngsters Saturday February 9^th at Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles for Boy Scout Week.

          Thursday, November 27^th 1958 he appeared on an episode of Zane Grey Theater an anthology program. Micky played Ted Matson in The Vaunted.

          1959, Micky played a character on an episode of Playhouse 90 written by Rod Serling.

           In 1961, at age 16, Micky, who had just gotten his driver’s license won for best overall custom car, at the Rod and Custom Motorama car show.

           In 1962, Micky appeared briefly on The Steve Allen Show, as an audience member. He was interviewed briefly by Allen regarding his sign and t-shirt that read “Little Black Things Club”.

           1963 saw him form his first band, The Spartans, which featured Micky on vocals and guitar. The group lasted about six months.

           In 1964 he formed a new band The Missing Links, in which he also sang and played guitar. Humorously, the group was renamed Micky and the One-Nighters for one night. They performed with singer Eddie Hodges for several weeks at The Sugar Shack Club in Denver, Colorado. They also performed at Denver’s La Pitcher. Apparently, they were an oldies band. Also, in this year, he returned to acting, with two appearances on NBC TVs “Mr. Novack”.

          During this period, Micky recorded his first single, “Huff Puff / Don’t Do It” for the Challenge label. The single would not be released until 1967 to cash in on his Monkees fame.

          In 1965, Micky began attending Los Angeles Technical College, majoring in architecture. He also performed often as a singer at The Red Velvet Club, often on open mike nights. He also began seeking acting roles with an increased vigor. His agent got him try outs for two promising TV series before the end of the year. Of the two, the one he really wanted was about a wacky rock ‘n’ roll band. He wasn’t disappointed.

MIKE NESMITH -- Before They Made A Monkee Out of Him!

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          MIKE NESMITH born Robert Michael Nesmith December 30,1942 to Warren and  Bette Nesmith.

          In October of 1958, Bette Nesmith invented Liquid Paper correction fluid. In the 1970’s Mike will inherent her substantial royalties from the product.

          In 1959 Mike appeared in The Thomas Jefferson High School (Dallas, Texas) production of Oklahoma as Andrew Carnes.

          Mike became a member of his school’s choir as an extracurricular activity in 1960.

          In 1962, Mike enlisted in the Air Force and was stationed at Wichita Falls, Texas. On weekend leave, he saw songwriter Hoyt Axton perform at an Oklahoma nightclub. Nesmith was so moved by the performance he decided to take up the guitar and become a songwriter.

          In 1963 Mike enrolled in San Antonio College as a drama major. He formed a folk group comprised of various floating members, to perform at store openings, private parties etc.

          He released his first, now rather mysterious single, as Mike Nesmith. It has two original Nesmith compositions; “Wanderin’ / Well, Well”. It was released on Highness Records, and was probably a vanity pressing. Also that year, his composition “Go Somewhere and Cry” was released by Denny Ezba and the Goldens. It included Mike whistling and playing guitar on the record.

          In June, he headed a Hootenanny at Wonderland Shopping City, San Antonio Texas. He performed to an estimated audience of 3,000. Two hours of the event were broadcast on local channel twelve. Curiously, in an interview with the San Antonio Light newspaper, he stated he would be recording for Warner Brothers records in July. (Apparently, that never happened.)

           In the summer, Mike performed as a solo at Grey Gables Inn, Cape Cod Massachusetts. A tape recording of one of his club appearances at San Antonio, Texas reveals his set at this time included Woody Guthrie’s “Pastures of Plenty” and traditional songs: “Pick A Bale of Cotton”, “Winkin’, Blinkin’ and Nod”, and “Don’t Let Your Deal Go Down”, plus original compositions “Looks Like Rain” and “One In Twenty”.

           In the fall he formed a duet with John London. Their play list included Nesmith originals “Pretty Princess” and future Linda Rondstadt and the Stone Pony’s hit “Different Drum”.

           In early 1964, Mike & John won the San Antonio College “Headliner of the Year” talent show, and began a residency at the nightclub The Rebel. When school let out for the summer, Mike, John and their friend / manager Charlie Rocket formed a trio for performances at the Rubyait and PM Clubs. John and Charlie moved to Los Angeles, followed in short order by newlyweds Mike and the former Phyllis Barbour. Their new apartment’s manager had a daughter who was an associate of famed singer Frankie Laine. She set up some gigs and demo sessions for Mike and John. She also set them up on a grueling and financially disastrous tour of Texas school assemblies.

           Mike and John spent an unspecified (undoubtedly very short) period performing in Los Vegas, then at the Safari Hut in San Jose, California. With the addition of Bill Sleeper on drums, they released a single, as Mike, John & Bill, “How Can You Kiss Me / Just A Little Love”on the Omnibus label. They also record demos for Mike’s songs “All the King’s Horses” and “I’ve Been Searchin’”  

           Later in 1965, Mike, John & Charlie became an electric rock band, and Mike also continued pursuing his solo folkie career, now under the stage name Michael Blessing. Significantly, he left Frankie Laine’s management company for Bob Krasnow, who was associated with Colpix, a division of Columbia / Screengems, and will make Michael Blessing a label mate of David Jones. As Michael Blessing he records the Colpix single “The New Recruit / What Seems to be the Trouble Officer”.

           For $50 a week, he joins a large folk group, The Survivors, and meets group members Owens Murphy & Michael Castleman, future Monkees songwriters, and Nyles Brown, who will later get work as an extra on The Monkees TV series. It is also through the group that he met publisher Randy Sparks, who will publish several Nesmith compositions throughout the year.

            In the fall, The Survivors had a month long residency at the Duke of York in Manhattan Beach, California.

            He made a few appearances as Mike Nesmith, backed by a rock band for Frost Brothers’ Dept. Store in San Antonio Texas.

             Tuesday, November 9^th, Michael Blessing’s second, and final single “Until It’s Time for Us to Go / (and a reissue of) What seems To Be The Problem Officer” was released. The following week “Michael Blessing” appeared on TV on the syndicated “Lloyd Thaxton Show”.

            Also some time in 1965, Mike’s composition “Mary Mary” was released on record by the prestigious Butterfield Blues Band. 

            Interestingly, contrary to legend, none of The Monkees got their auditions from "cattle call casting". Davy and Mike were both already under contract to the Colpix division of Columbia / Screen Gems, based on their potential merits as performers, prior to The Monkees. Micky got an audition through his agent. Stephen Stills was seriously considered for a part, but turned it down as "not being my bag." He recommended his similar looking friend, dishwasher Peter Tork. Monkees producer Bob Rafelson later recalled that he had to make a considerable effort to track down Peter, whose current dishwashing gig really didn't link him to show business in any traceable way. 

           Still, they all had to do screen tests to earn their parts.

PETER TORK -- Before They Made A Monkee Out of Him

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Peter Thorkelson age 14

        

Peter Tork Peter Thorkelson, born Feb 13,1942 to John & Virginia Thorkelson.

          Per Mike Nesmith, ”Peter was a much more skillful player than I was by some order of magnitude. He wasn’t a singer, nor was he a songwriter. What I was able to do was write tunes – I could sort of pull those out of a hat.” – which, on the surface of things, led people to assume Mike was the only member of the band with any instrumental talent.

          However, in reality, Peter began studying classical piano at age nine. Around the age of 14, he was given a ukulele by famous folk singer Tom Glazer. Peter picked up the instrument, and quickly moved on to guitar, bass guitar and banjo, as well as various woodwind instruments.

          In 1962, he attended Carlton College in Northfield, Minnesota. He was the school radio station’s DJ and took part in various folk ensembles before flunking out. He then set his sights on becoming a folksinger in New York’s Greenwich Village.

          In 1963, Peter Thorkelson adapts the stage name Peter Tork and begins establishing himself as a folksinger around New York’s bohemian hotbed Greenwich Village. He briefly was a member of a group called Casey Anderson and the Realists. He also formed a partnership with Bruce Farwell, as Tork & Farwell. They were occasionally joined by Carol Hunter and were billed as Tork & Farwell + 1. He made regular appearances at about a dozen local coffee houses, often for “pass the hat” tips.

         For a few months in early 1964, Peter briefly formed a group with Stephen Stills called The Buffalo Fish. Later that year Tork became guitarist and banjo player for the Warner Brothers’ Records folk group, The Phoenix Singers. (They recorded for WB before Peter joined, so he is not on their records.) He toured with them for seven months, including a performance at that most prestigious of all gigs -- Carnegie Hall. Other acts on the bill that night include Johnny Cash, Phil Ochs and legendary bluesman Mississippi John Hurt. In October he made his television debut, as a member of that band, on Canada’s “Let’s Sing Out!” program. Shortly after he appeared with them in Denver, for a Lyndon Baines Johnson reelection fundraiser, he had “a falling out” with the group and was fired. He returned to Greenwich Village and his folk gigs at various cafes.

          By mid 1965, Tork decided to leave New York to seek fame and fortune on the West Coast. Outside of Las Vegas, his ’37 Chevy blew a rod and he had to hitchhike to Los Angeles. He moved in with his friend Susan Haffey, a waitress at The Golden Bear Club at Huntington Beach. Peter became a performer there, and more profitably, a dishwasher and bartender.