Category: Music

Mr. Brown You’ve Got A Lovely “Daughter”

The interracial Star Trek kiss between Captain Kirk and Lieutenant Uhura is a famous moment in 60’s TV. Petula Clark reversed the genders in her own famous 60’s interracial TV moment, and thereby raised an even bigger ruckus. The director of the show, Steve Binder, tells what happened in this Archive of American Television interview. Thanks to my twinster Jean for spotting this.

[flv:/Video/2008/APR/BinderPetula.flv 440 268]

And here is the scene itself, from Petula, April 9, 1968. Binder also directed the famous Elvis comeback special later in ’68, and ten years later he directed yet another legendary hour of TV, the Star Wars Holiday Special!

[flv:/Video/2008/APR/BelafontePetula.flv 440 330]

On Friday, not far from here, in Boston, UK PM Gordon Brown will be giving the only speech of his visit to the United States. Mr. Brown, could you please request that Her Majesty The Queen grant British-born Pet the well-deserved title of Dame? Speaking of the PETition, there’s a new one worth noting. A request that the Beatles’ manager, Brian Epstein, be formally commemorated.

Alive On Departure, but…

This week, with thousands of American Airlines passengers inconvenienced by FAA mandated inspections of possibly defective wiring, it’s important to keep in mind how important airplane safety is, and how relatively common crashes once were…

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2008/APR/DOA.mp3]

This song was a huge cult hit in the first months of 1971, the same time that Alice Cooper’s “I’m Eighteen” from Love It To Death was on the charts. Alice was tongue-in-cheek enough that I could tell his macabre bent was all in fun, but D.O.A really gave me the creeps. It still does! I probably first heard it on WKBW, out of Buffalo, NY.