When Denro and I were at the Boston Super Megafest concert, we were given our choice of two photo prints, and these were my picks. The microphone in this one is from channel 7 in New York, and it looks like it was taken in ’65. I’ll see if I can get a fix on the exact date.
And this is a somewhat curious pic of Paul, maybe also from ’65, with his left eye looking like mine did after surgery.
Margo Guryan’s highly prized and praised 1968 album, “Take a Picture”, is pretty in pink! Sundazed Music has issued a limited, 100-disc, pressing of the original LP on gorgeous, translucent pink vinyl.
http://www.sundazed.com/shop/product_info.php?products_id=1838
Here’s a video of me putting needle to groove on virgin vinyl, side 1, track 1, playing the first minute of Margo’s “Sunday Morning”. The disc was taken from the original analog 2-track master tape, and the sound quality is, like Margo herself, stunning.
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Margo spent the summer of ’59 at the Lenox School of Jazz, here in good, ol’ Massachusetts, with an illustrious group of instructors, including Bill Evans, John Lewis, Milt Jackson, Jim Hall, Max Roach, and Gunther Schuller. Here are a few photos from that magical summer. Click to enlarge, as usual.
(Note to Morris: Recognize some of the people with Margo?)
I cut off the video above at exactly the point where the song really kicks in for me. I love the way Margo sings, “Come hold me in your arms…” Here’s the whole track.
Many cover versions of “Sunday Morning” have been recorded. Margo has no particular favorite, but one that I know she likes is by Glen Campbell and Bobbie Gentry.
Since the Bangles and the Go-Go’s, the world has been in need of a top-flight 60’s retro girl band, and The Like sounds like it to me. The drummer is Tennessee Thomas, whose dad is Pete Thomas, drummer for Elvis Costello and the Attractions. A tip o’ the toupee to my nephew Alex for the tip-off.
Oopsie! Shame on me for failing yesterday to note the birthday of Charles M. Schulz, who would have been 88.
The two completed strips on Sparky’s drawing board were for December 27 and 28, 1956.
© UFS
There were two magazines that started in the 1950’s that became nothing less than social forces in the 60’s — Mad and Playboy. They held equal fascination for boys, but Playboy had an age limit, and for some boys even Mad wasn’t allowed in the house. The lucky ones had friends who bought Mad, with older brothers who could get Playboy.
Playboy’s cultural impact was pervasive in the Sixties, particularly in the James Bond films. Even the comics weren’t immune from its influence. Mort Walker has been accused of treating women as sex objects in Beetle Bailey, and I would cite this strip, from June 6, 1965, as an example of how Walker pushed the limit of syndicated comic strip censorship. I’m surprised the characters do more than just walk on the beach, because as depicted the scenario borders on being akin to a Playboy cartoon.
© King Features Syndicate
Hope you had a good Thanksgiving. It was Noel Neill’s birthday, and she’s 90!
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