We're all about the history of rock & roll at BoomtownAmerica.com!
Every week, we present “ROCK REMEMBERED,” a deep dive into the hidden history of rock & roll, the stories behind the artists and songs that changed the world. Join host, “Boomtown Bill” Cross each Wednesday at 7 pm (Eastern) with an encore broadcast on Saturday at noon (Eastern). Join us this Wednesday as we share "Commercial Jingles That Became Huge Hit Records!"
As we age, most of us are aware that our vision ages right with us, making nighttime driving a bit more challenging than when we were young. The experts say there are a few easy ways to “lighten” the load of driving after dark.
1.) Reset the illumination levels of your dashboard and any in-car screens – You should lower these levels. The brighter the interior of your car, the harder it will be to see things outside your car.
2.) Keep your windshield and your headlights clean – Yeah, we know that should be obvious, but it should be mentioned.
3.) Don’t shut off the caffeine too early – The number of crashes that involve drowsy drivers is alarming, so maybe have that after-dinner cup of coffee after all.
4.) Put the brights on almost always – Except, of course, when there’s on-coming traffic. The more of the road you can see, the safer you’ll be.
If you’re in the market for a new vehicle, you can check out its safety ratings here at iihs.org/ratings. Be safe out there. We need all the listeners we can get!
Of all the songs Janis Joplin recorded in her brief, but spectacular career, one of the best-known and most fondly remembered is “Mercedes Benz.”
Few remember now that Janis was also interested in poetry and often attended poetry readings. Her tongue-in-cheek paean to consumerism began as a quick poetry jam between her and songwriter Bob Neuwirth in a bar in Port Chester, NY. They built their short poem around a line written by poet Mike McClure.
About an hour after the poem was completed, she performed it live during her show that night at the Capitol Theater in Port Chester, inventing an acapella melody on the spot.
It was promptly forgotten until she had finished recording her second solo album, “Pearl.” With the pressure of the major session work behind her, Joplin stepped to a microphone while the tapes were still rolling and announced she was about to sing “a song of great social and political import.”
She quickly ran through her little “Mercedes Benz” performance. One take. She also recorded a quick birthday message to John Lennon that included her rendition of Roy Rogers’ theme song, “Happy Trails.” Those would be the last two songs she ever recorded.
Only three days later, she would be dead of a drug overdose.
When Columbia released “Pearl” posthumously, producer Paul A. Rothchild decided to include “Mercedes Benz.”
The song quickly caught the fancy of FM deejays. Radio listeners also fell in love with the tune.
Today it has been covered by more than 30 other recording acts.
(And yes, we know the car in the photo is a Porsche! It belonged to Janis. She did not own a Mercedes-Benz.")
Baby Boomers were not just the first generation to grow up with television, we were first to experience the magic of Saturday mornings. Back in those dark days of no cable and no home video, TV programming aimed at kids aired for only about one hour before school in the morning and maybe another hour after we came home from school.
But on Saturday mornings, there were at least 4 hours of uninterrupted programming aimed just at us! If you were fortunate to grow up in a big city, you had your choice of three network affiliates and at least 1 UHF station. In smaller towns, you had a minimum of one station that would dedicate its Saturday mornings to pleasing us kiddies.
Because made-for-TV cartoons were in their infancy, the networks were often broadcasting older (and better) theatrical cartoons like Bugs Bunny and Mighty Mouse. Local stations also broadcast theatrical fare like Popeye and the earlier black & white Looney Tunes. As there weren’t any reruns of older children’s shows, there was also a huge market for first-run syndicated kid-vid like The Adventures of Superman and Sgt. Preston of the Yukon.
Westerns had been popular with kids during the 1930s and 40s, so with the advent of television, most of the gun-totin’ he-men who rode the range of the Saturday matinee (and their trusty stallions) made the jump to TV including Roy Rogers, Gene Autry and Hopalong Cassidy. But those hombres all were outstripped by a buckaroo who came from radio to TV – the Lone Ranger. Starting in 1949 and running for years and years after, the Lone Ranger’s TV adventures helped ABC establish their Saturday morning line-up.
The rise of 24/7 children’s channels on cable TV along with home video and now, on-demand streaming content from the likes of Disney and others, have made the ritual of Saturday mornings a thing of the past.
But if you’re feeling nostalgic, next Saturday, get up at the crack of dawn, pour yourself a big bowl of Sugar Smacks or Cap’n Crunch, plop yourself down in front of your TV and pop in a DVD on any of your favorites of yesteryear – they’re nearly all available in some form or other.
Hi-Yo Silver, awaaaaaaaay!
As kids, we all loved the Disney film, The Absent-Minded Professor (1961). What you may not remember was that Hasbro introduced a toy in 1962 called “Flubber” based on the miraculous compound invented by Fred MacMurray in that film.
It was made from synthetic rubber & mineral oil and had all of the qualities one would want from a toy. It bounced like crazy, could be molded into a wide variety of shapes, you could stretch it or break it into pieces, and it was inexpensive, usually within the reach of our allowances.
Just one problem. Hasbro forgot to actually test it with kids over a long period of time. Turns out, Flubber made kids sick. Its toxic substances caused sore throats, rashes, and other nasty reactions. It also picked up dirt and heaven-knows-what-else from the surfaces it was applied to.
Hasbro was forced to pull Flubber off toy shelves quickly and the fad was over as fast as it had begun. Fortunately for the company, those times were far less litigious and there weren’t a lot of lawsuits that could have put the company out of business.
They just had one final problem. What to do with tons of this toxic toy that came back to the factory? You couldn’t bury the stuff at sea. It was lighter than water and would float to the surface. You couldn’t burn it because that would cause huge clouds of toxic smoke.
So, the company buried it beneath a building on Delta Drive in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. More than 50 years later, residents claim that on hot summer days, the smell of Flubber still fills the air, and the stuff can still be seen oozing through the cracks in the pavement.
Parents of millennials will get a sense of déjà vu because Nickelodeon experienced somewhat similar problems when they tried to market Gak as a kid’s toy in the '90s.