New Stream: Bob & Ray

Audio streaming continues, thanks to the Internet Archive.  Bob and Ray used to be scattered all over that site, like a finely-marbled cheese.  Then came a purge-- and my impression is that their vast, dispersed B&R archive didn't come through unscathed.

But no matter.  This week's stream is from what seems to be a complete collection of "Bob & Ray Present the CBS Radio Network", which ran for 15 minutes, 5 days a week from June 1959 to May 1960.  We'll be playing that, in one-month installments, every week or so until it runs out. 

New Stream: The Last Hours of Kennedy Radio

Click on a link to the right to enter a lost world; the last hours before our future was stolen from us.
JFK's final tour includes the following stops:

- He fights for national health care, Madison Square Garden, May 20, 1962. (17m)
- Steel executives take a beating in his press conference of April 11.1962. (20m)
- He answers the Birmingham church bombing with a call for civil rights, June 11, 1963. (13m)
- WBAP radio covers his Ft Worth visit on November 21, 1963 (aircheck) (2h 33m)
- The Presidential party arrives at Love Field, Dallas. (25m)
- WLW, Cincinnati OH: November 22, 5 AM to 1 PM (BIG aircheck) (7h 27m)

The WLW aircheck is a real time machine.  The station's format could be described as "AM News and Music", and it runs through its regular November 1963 Friday morning lineup, until things go haywire.  The reason the music sounds weird is probably because the aircheck was made at the slowest reel-to-reel speed of 1 & 7/8 inches per second.  It sounds wobbly as heck, but evocative in a way, especially with the Percy Faith nightmare music at the end.

I'm including Love Field as a separate file, linked here.  It was compiled from two different sources, radio and TV; the latter had the best account of Jack and Jackie breaking away to shake hands with people who were supposed to be fenced out-- the sounds of laughter and airhorns, the announcer saying, "They're coming right up here!"

And of course the President's travel plans for after the motorcade, and a big meeting on Vietnam later this weekend.

Stream: Bob & Ray Present the CBS Radio Network, Part 1

The first month or so of their radio surreality on CBS.  6 hours of 15-minute programs, from the Internet Archive.

Program notes:
- The audio difficulties during Smelly Dave's appearance are on the original tape.  It's not the internet connection. 

Radio Soup, now playing!

10 hours of longer-form audio.
Links and playlist to your right.

davyforce: Jerry vs Jerry

I had to edit this post after looking at it for a while.  The Jerry v Jerry bit by davyforce is actually more whacked than his collaboration with Coldcut.  It's definitely more energetic.

(More of Mr force's work may be viewed on the fine DVD, "TV Sheriff and the Trailbuddies".  Picture quality is a lot better too; all those Jerry Springer headlines-- "Holiday Hell-feast", "I want your lover", "I'm having a transsexual affair"-- start cutting and pasting on their own like bunnies!)

Video links by YouTube.  Sorry about the ads.  Adblocker works pretty well.

Lennon Month, stream #2

This stream includes more of his literary high burplee.
5.75 hours on the links to your right, with a playlist.

Technical notes:
- "India" (track #81) had a gap at 2:23 which has been repaired.
- "Roll Over Beethoven" (#6) had been censored, with the lyric "drive her further" completely cut out.  Somehow, they managed to excise it while leaving the time signature intact.  In honor of that, I didn't attempt a smooth-over where it goes a little haywire but still seems to stay on the beat.
- On a somewhat similar note, families are advised of adult content on You Gotta Save Yourself (Track #34, identified on the playlist as "air_1999.2").  We apologize, and are trying to determine where John learned such language.

Sources of this month's stream:
- John Lennon Birthday airchecks, multiple years, provided by collectors.
- YouTube.
- The amazing Internet Archive site.
- Geoff Houghton














peace

Device Orchestra: USSR Anthem on Electric Toothbrush & Steam Cleaner

Link to YouTube

Stream updates

Lennon Month will probably get some kind of refreshed stream in a week, at mid-month.  Here's some of what it will contain:

Be Bop A Lula
Dick Cavett, Bag
Eight Days a Week (alt)
Everybody's Got Something to Hide (alt)
Everyone Knows It's a Case of the Blues
Help, end titles
Hide Your Love Away
I Am the Walrus (inst)
I'm Only Sleeping wktape
I'm So Tired
John's mix
Little Boy Bad
Love
Lucy's Story
Magical Mystery wktape
Power to the People
Revolution (acoustic)
rock instrumental
Soldier of Love
Strawberry Fields (alt)
Strawberry Fields (another alt)
Sun King wktape
The Ballad of John & Yoko
The Edgehill Country Club
The mike's not on!
The Word
Ticket to Ride
Two of Us (silly alt)
Xmas 1966
Yes She Does
You Gotta Save Yourself
You're a Stranger in my Arms (excrpt)

October is John Lennon Month

CutUpSound presents
John Lennon Month.

Thx to DJ Extraordinare Daniel Flessas and audio wizard Tom Hollywood for their extreme assistance.  And Geoff Houghton, who did the longer mixes.

Tune-in the 6-hour exstream by clicking on one of the links to the right.

The playlist is over there too.

NASA JPL: Marsquake

First audio of a non-Earth geological event.

Link to YouTube.

Lord Buckley: Governor Slugwell

The original version of this had a gap at 1m 14s: The Gap
I restored the audio: No Gap
And it's missing the part at the beginning where the lady asks him if he wants the fan on.  I regretted trimming that, but it helps distinguish this version from the original.
He doesn't want the fan on

Governor Slugwell (no gap)

Worst New Flavor of the Year

Brexit: Scottish judges rule the prorogation of Parliament is unlawful:

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-49661855

Update Sep 24: The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom has unanimously declared the suspension of Parliament is illegal and of no effect.  Parliament has not been prorogued!  Amateur rogues, only.

Howard Roberts: Five Gallons Of Astral Flash Could Keep You Awake For Thirteen Weeks

The music albums produced by Bill Szymczyk for ABC Records had a certain quirkiness to them.  Howard Roberts' "Antelope Freeway" included an audio collage depicting late 60s/early 70's AM radio, heard in the cab of a semi on the road to Saint Joe.

link

Was "the Droopy voice" artificially produced?

Never thought of this before--I mean, why not assume it was naturally-produced, and Bill Thompson was just folding over his larynx in some way to get that distinctive thirsty-scratchy kind of rasp.  (Originally known as Fibber McGee and Molly's Wallace Wimple, and also appearing as Disney's forest ranger J Audobon Woodlore.)

But it's a difficult-- even impossible-- voice to approximate, much less copy.  It starts way up in the sinuses-- you can tell from how it resonates, "n"s come through pretty clearly-- but the sinuses also sound like they're stopped up.  In other words, we shouldn't be hearing much at all, like he's talking through a sponge.  It should not be a clearly-articulated stream of words.  But it is.  In fact, it has a charming, mellow sound.  How did he do it?  

Impressions (like John Stewart's) stand out because of how much they don't sound like Droopy; they just can't combine the depth of resonance with that adenoidal effect. The sheer difficulty is reflected in the repeated failure of MGM Studios to find someone else to voice The Droop.  None of the non-Thompson Droopies are even close. Anyone can do a little Milquetoasty whine like that.  Besides, Droopy didn't whine.  He was actually pretty stoic.

Bill Thompson was a great voice man.  People still say "That ain't the way I heered it!" without even knowing it was originally his line.  And for years I thought it was Percy Helton as Mr Smee in Peter Pan.  







(Being able to do a Percy Helton impression is quite an accomplishment in itself.)

But it seems reasonable that Thompson, as a radio-struck kid in the 1920's, dreamed of making a living with his voice, and probably sent away for one of those Ventrilo "throw your voice" things in the comic books.





A Ventrilo-like device:

Or, he might have used a swazzle or "Punch Whistle":

Named for Punch the puppet.  A reed suspended in a sleeve, placed in the mouth to produce whistles or whistling speech.  

My theory is, he had a Ventrilo on the back of his tongue where it'd obscure his sinuses, and found some way to talk around it, sounding more or less like a normal person.

We'll probably never know.  But don't try it at home.  

CURTIS8516: Mall Music Muzak - Mall Of 1974

Today's weird Internet find: 38 minutes of actual 1970's shopping mall muzak, rescued from videos, records and Spiro Agnew's cassette collection.

link to the Internet Archive

This might be the best: The Fountain of Life overflows with reverb,  Fascinatingly decrepit and flatulent.  Kind of like the 70's. 

Vic Berger: Daytime TV & Advertising

He did some insanely funny and perceptive bits with altered video during the 2016 presidential campaign.  The Christie one is especially great.  (Link to YouTube)

Daytime TV and weird kid's programs, from last year:
(You Tube)

CNN random cut & paste

These interesting 2-headline C&P were on CNN's website today.