Two documentaries with a DogRat **** rating are available, for now, free with ads on YouTube.
Good ol’ Freda, about Beatles Fan Club UK secretary/president Freda Kelly.
https://youtu.be/bsaICbLWlD0
The Wrecking Crew Movie, about the legendary Los Angeles studio musicians of the 1960’s.
Yesterday there was a celebration of Petula Clark’s career. Highlights are presented at the start of the video.
After a review of past revues, Petula offered some memories.
In celebration of Prue’s birthday, here is an item from The New Yorker during her first few months in the Big Apple. The author took a rather bemused tone regarding the proceedings. I heard from Prue today and she’s okay, avoiding Covid in Spain.
One of the tracks featured in the HBO Watchmen series is Desmond Dekker’s hit “Isrealites,” produced by Leslie Kong.
Debuting on May 17, 1969, the single cracked the Billboard Top 10 at #9. I heard it on WRKO-AM radio in Boston. I love YouTube videos like this one, with a budget record player. It sounds fantastic, and proves the magic is in the grooves, not the gear.
The reference in the song to the groundbreaking 1967 movie Bonnie and Clyde presages the premise of Jimmy Cliff’s The Harder They Come.
One thing I didn’t need was another streaming video service, but I got talked into giving HBOmax a try. Over the past three days I’ve watched the nine episodes of HBO’s Watchmen sequel.
The series pushes hard on culture war issues. The presentation owes a lot to the stylistic influence of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. Some hardcore Watchmen fans have complained the series doesn’t remain true to Alan Moore’s original vision, but it carried me through from one episode to the next. HBO has made the soundtrack available on YouTube, and it’s worth scrolling through the playlist for tracks that may be of interest.
My DJ roots are showing once again. Years before “Radar Love,” Golden Earring, from Holland, had the British Beat sound nailed in 1965.
Here’s the big hit that got a lot of play in the college cafeteria jukebox. With a somewhat changed lineup, the band certainly got their sound — and their look — right for the 70’s.
