Professor Mikey’s OLD SCHOOL

WWII RADIO XMAS

Hello and happy holidays from the war zone! This edition is mostly about the audio which you can click on above. Subscribers can download it as a podcast.As we get further away in time from the second World War, we tend to lose track of what life felt like during wartime. America's entry into World War Two began 17 days before Christmas on Dec 8, 1941. For the next five holiday seasons "peace on earth" went on hiatus. What you’ll hear is not a history of World War Two, or a sugar plum romp through precarious yuletides. Most of this originated at Christmas time and was constantly by interrupted by breaking bulletins. It is a sound montage that features the newscasters and entertainers of the time communicating with their vast unseen audiences. It is a dark time. For much of the world, 1941 marks the third year of a war that has seen the German occupation of many European countries. War does not take a holiday. On the radio, it’s bombs and jingle all the way, starring Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, the Andrews Sisters, Abbot and Costello, Fats Waller, Benny Goodman, Judy Garland, Francis Langford, Dinah Shore, Glenn Miller, and the men and women of the greatest generation. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit professormikey.substack.com/subscribe

Jim Morrison’s Death at 50

That’s me, chatting with John Densmore, drummer of The Doors. He spent at least one Morrison death anniversary in court where he had dragged surviving bandmates Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger. They wanted to license “Light My Fire” for a TV commercial. Densmore reminded them Jim didn’t want it that way.In death as in life, Jim Morrison was the source of controversy and chaos as well as music that haunted the charts. That is why the 50th anniversary of the singer’s last bath in Paris passing as quietly as the scream of a butterfly seemed almost too peaceful. In Père-Lachaise Cemetery, they gathered almost reverently to leave memories via incense and candles. On other anniversaries the celebrations were part fight and mostly party. Not as loud and unruly as the brawling drunken poet whose antics set a new creature level for self-destruction amidst beauty. The Lizard King weaponized his intellect and talent. Tales of lunacy and debauchery built upon themselves and expanded until the poet himself vomited it all toward the toilet.Word on the street had it that the Morrison family’s lease on the Jim’s burial site was supposed to expire on July 6, 2001, and France wanted him gone, dug up like a bad seed and transplanted in the mindless USA. That was yet another urban myth marching in the Soft Parade. Jim can stay with his historic homeys forever, the grave has a perpetual lease. Notes one official, “It’s there and it will stay there.”On the tenth anniversary of his death in 1981, Rolling Stone’s cover featured a Greek godlike portrait of Morrison with the headline “He’s hot, he’s , and he’s dead.”Morrison predicts EDM and Live DJsTen more years passed, the stoned immaculate one was remembered again, this time by a thousand blotto fans. A riot went on outside the chained cemetery gates. An insane clown carload of young mourners rammed the entrance with their speeding vehicle. Once inside, they set it ablaze, certain that Morrison might be seen smiling through the smoke.“I think there’s a whole region of images and feeling inside us that rarely are given outlet in daily life and when they do come out, they can take perv. erse forms. It’s the dark side. The more civilized we get on the surface, the more the other forces make their plea. We appeal to the same human needs as classical tragedy and early Southern blues. Think of it as a seance in an environment that has become hostile to life: cold, restrictive. People feel they’re dying in a bad landscape. People gather together in seance in order to invoke, palliate, and drive away the dead, Through chanting, singing, dancing, and music, they try to cure an illness, to bring harmony back into the world.” —Jim Morrison, explaining The Doors The four-year career of The Doors is well documented. There are a handful of studio albums and Oliver Stone’s motion picture The Doors (1991), a milder love bead remembrance of the 20th Anniversary, wherein the roadhouse changeling was channeled by Val Kilmer.Morrison died of unknown causes July 3, 1971. He was already in the ground when his demise was announced on July 5. The first reports maintained the new poster child for the 27 Club had suffered a heart attack, perhaps brought on by endless abuse. There’s also a strong rumor of bad heroin on the streets of beautiful Paris that summer of a half-century ago.Time passes slowly for James Douglas Morrison. His hold on bad attitude rock lingers strong. The Doors were the first American band to accumulate eight consecutive gold LPs. Latest numbers have them selling 33 million albums in the U.S., 100 million worldwide. Morrison once predicted on American Bandstand that in the future people might pay to watch a DJ playing music on turntables. The Doors logged over 460,000 plays on Spotify last year. Père-Lachaise opened in 1804. With it’s 5,000 trees on 110 acres, July 5, 2021, was pretty tame. Tourists might have woke up that morning and got themselves a beer but they were respectful at Morrison’s grave. As long as they were there, many visited the final resting spaces of Molière, Eugène Delacroix, Jacques-Louis David, Georges Bizet, Frédéric Chopin, Honoré de Balzac, Marcel Proust, Georges Seurat, Oscar Wilde, Sarah Bernhardt, Isadora Duncan, Gertrude Stein, Colette, Edith Piaf, Marcel Marceau, Richard Wright, and many others. The estimated number of mere mortals buried there runs between 300,000 and one million. Amidst all those coffins is one restless Door, who broke on through to the other side. Links: The Doors of PerceptionNBC News: Hundred gather at Morrison graveside in ParisTotonto Sun: The Lizard King, Mystery of Jim Morrison’s 1971 Death Endures.The Hollywood Reporter: Fans honor Jim Morrison at Paris cemetery.pop culture: Mystery still surrounds Doors singer’s Death 50 years later.USA Today: A look back at Jim Morrison's profound and puzzling mind.NME: Fans pay tribute to Morrison on the 50th anniversary of his death. The SUN: What really happened to Jim MorrisonGrunge: why Ed Sullivan banned the DOORS after one performance.Rolling Stone: Read Jim Morrison's Unreleased Autobiographic Poem 'As I Look Back'People Jim Morrison's Sister Reflects on Assembling Revelatory New Book of the Late Legend's WritingLouder: 15 Peculiar FactsWeird Scenes Inside a GoldmineOfficial Doors Website1969 Rolling Stone InterviewMorrison Hotel Gallery This is a public episode. 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Top 12: June 9, 1966

Caught between the summer of “Satisfaction” and the Summer of Love, the spirit of ‘66 iis well reflected by the music that came blasting from the radio. Radios in LA, in Chicago, in London, and in Saigon.The music that is selling is a mixed bag. This is evident in both a classic of indecision, “Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind?” the second single from the Lovin’ Spoonful, and the seventh and last Top Ten song from the son of the Nutty Professor, Gary Lewis. His “Green Grass” is probably the last grass song that is not about marijuana.Five out of the dozen are soul classics that will reappear in movies, TV shows, and commercials for the next half century. The Chiffons’ “Sweet Talking Guy” and Robert Parker’s ‘Barefootin’” will be danced to forever. The Capitols' “Cool Jerk” is a novelty that still packs a surprise. Can you dig it?And then there is “When a Man Loves a Woman” from Percy Sledge. This was its 10th week on the charts, after spending time at #1 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and the R&B singles. It was the first Number 1 recorded at the famed Muscle Shoals recording studios. Percy knows he’s going to be singing this, his signature song, for the rest of his life.  And every time he sings it, he has the depth and the feeling of a man whose heart is overflowing with the wonder of love.Sidebar.  As you may remember, Michael Bolton had a run at this song in 1991. He won a Grammy, and it was the 7th time in history that a cover of a #1 song had reached #1.James Brown recorded a lot of songs with dope beats, but “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World” is in a class of its own. JB co-wrote the song and it wouldn’t be nothing without Betty Jean Newsome. She would later claim sole authorship, as well as a fuzzy memory possessed by the hardest working man in show business when it came to dividing up the royalties. Rolling Stone called the lyrics “Biblically chauvinistic” because man takes credit for everything from the electric lights to toys for baby boys and girls. This song is so well known, prepare for the unexpected. It’s a classic, so why not have the Godfather of Soul perform it with the “King of the High C’s,” one third of the Three Tenors, the late great Luciano Pavarotti.June is busting out in 1966. The hits just keep on coming.  The Mamas and the Papas awake from “California Dreamin”’ and it’s a day that can’t be helped:  “Monday Monday.”  The Mindbenders remind us there’s a British Invasion still going on with “A Groovy Kind of Love.”Simon and Garfunkel score a summer hit with a song that takes place in a deep and dark December. And Frank SInatra was less than fond of his hit, although he managed to spend the bread. Thel less than politically correct Ol’ Blue Eyes told his friends he believed the song was about a hookup.In the top position after 5 weeks of release, The Rolling Stones unleashed a song of darkness, death, and anger. “Paint It Black” is about a lost love, gone too soon. Released in a year this country would lose 6,000 of the 385,000 military personnel stationed in Vietnam, many took it as more than a rumor of war. Mick said it had nothing to do with the conflict in Southeast Asia.  But when the song was heard in Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket (1987), it was anything but a major malfunction. Soon after it appeared as the theme song for the CBS military drama Tour of Duty (1987-1990), the connection had been cemented.The upcoming performance video was shot for the variety show Hollywood Palace, featuring Brian Jones perfectly at ease with a sitar in his lap. It was the summer of 1966. If you saw a red door you wanted it Painted Black.TOP 12, June 9, 1966This Week Last Week TITLE –•– Artist (Label)-Weeks on Chart (Peak To Date)1 3 PAINT IT, BLACK –•– The Rolling Stones (London)-5 (1 week at #1) (1)2 4 DID YOU EVER HAVE TO MAKE UP YOUR MIND –•– The Lovin’ Spoonful (Kama Sutra)-6 (2)3 5 I AM A ROCK –•– Simon and Garfunkel (Columbia)-6 (3)4 1 WHEN A MAN LOVES A WOMAN –•– Percy Sledge (Atlantic)-10 (1)5 2 A GROOVY KIND OF LOVE –•– The Mindbenders (Fontana)-9 (2)6 10 STRANGERS IN THE NIGHT –•– Frank Sinatra (Reprise)-6 (6)7 6 MONDAY, MONDAY –•– The Mamas and the Papas (Dunhill)-10 (1)8 8 IT’S A MAN’S MAN’S MAN’S WORLD –•– James Brown (King)-7 (8)9 9 GREEN GRASS –•– Gary Lewis and the Playboys (Liberty)-5 (9)10 12 BAREFOOTIN’ –•– Robert Parker (Nola)-8 (10)11 13 SWEET TALKIN’ GUY –•– The Chiffons (Laurie)-6 (11)12 17 COOL JERK –•– The Capitols (Karen)-7 (12) This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit professormikey.substack.com/subscribe

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018) / Sukiyaki Western Django (2007)

Granted, Retrofit has been on a bit of a Western kick this week. Thanks to all who shared “My Baby Loves a Western Movie Poster.” We had lots of responses and got that much closer to viral Nirvana. This week marks a special time in the Retrofit Drive In that appears every Friday or Saturday. In this installment we feature the conclusion to the 1935 WTF serial The Phantom Empire. If you haven’t been following it for the past 12 weeks you can go back to the archive where all the previous 11 chapters are still flickering. Singing cowboy Gene Autry has fixed up his Radio Ranch where he can broadcast from home in his underwear. Every radio personality’s dream. But dang it all to heck, he discovers a secret Depression era society living a couple of miles down under his privy, and it’s messing with his signals. Something to do with the metal thoughts generated by the robots. Anyway, Chapter 12 wraps this up with “The End of Murania.”I’m also breaking a cardinal Retrofit rule. Stay out of the 21st Century. But having the ability to screen one of the most fabulous Westerns of all time, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018) has made me bend that little rule. The Coen brothers are freaking geniuses and their portrayals of the frontier in this anthology is wacky but honest.  Watch the first story, the tale of Buster himself. It’s ten minutes long and you will be grinning from here to Abilene when the last shot is fired. If you leave the movie after that, you miss an Oscar worthy performance by Tom Waits, “The Gal Who Got Rattled,” and “Meal Ticket.” God bless the Coens, when they take on the Retro past, they leave us with precious memories, like this one from O Brother, Where Art Thou (2000).For those who have come seeking cheese, there’s plenty in the cult delicacy Sukiyaki Western Django (2007). The Genjis and the Heikes are feuding samurai style once again, so it’s a great backdrop for a prostitute to hire a gunman to settle a few scores. Quentin Tarantino is part of an international cast in this Japanese Western directed by Takashi Miike. The budget was $3.8 million, the box office was $2.73 million, but give it time. It’s a blast.The international Western theme carries through in the animated “Cowboy Jimmy,” made in 1957 when the country where it was drawn was called Yugoslavia. It is so cool!Happy trails!Professor MikeyFeature: THE BALLAD OF BUSTER SCRUGGS (2018)Serial: THE PHANTOM EMPIRE Conclusion: Chapter 12 “The End of Murania”Feature: SUKIYAKI WESTERN DJANGO (2007)Cartoon: COWBOY JIMMY (1957) This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit professormikey.substack.com/subscribe