Archie Bunker

In the days before home video recording technology existed, you had records like these. I have a bunch of them featuring popular television shows of the 60's and 70's. (I plan on featuring more here in the future.) You can find them cheap and in pretty good condition. I bought this All In The Family LP 4 or 5 years ago at a flea market. I don't remember what i paid for it, probably seven or eight bucks. It features the theme songs and clips from the show's first season, 1971.
Honestly, I just bought the damn thing to hang the cover on the wall. I only listened to it once before busting it out again to burn these selections.

Here's the inner paper sleeve.
Its a fold-open sheet with photos and bios of all the main cast members.
(Am i the only one who thinks that Edith is kinda hot in this picture?!)


Back in the old days if you wanted to see your favorite show, you sat home and watched it when it aired. There were no VCR's, no DVD's, no Tivo. If you missed it-- too bad. That's why these records were made, and why they actually sold. You could put on your All In The Family LP, sit back, close your eyes, and picture Archie sitting in his chair yelling at Meathead.
Ahh, simpler times...

If someone made a CD of a contemporary TV show today, nobody would buy it. They wouldn't be able to give them away. Everything comes out so fast these days. If you miss an episode, no big deal, you can go to Best Buy and get the episodes on DVD when the season is over. But in the golden age of television, this was what you got. Record-albums.


Also, from my personal collection of Archie Bunker memorabilia is this gem. It's basically just the printed text version of the record. It's also from the first season of the show, so a lot of the same gags and "Archie-isms" are included. If you find a copy, I'd recommend picking it up. It makes for a great bathroom book.



(Update- July 2010. It seems that some of my DivShare hosted files have unexpectedly disappeared. This is now someone else's crummy scan that i found online.)

Here are the tunes.

First is the theme song. The long version, with ALL the lyrics. Not the shortened version that you are used to hearing.




Next up is a short bit where Archie is being his usual bigoted self, and Lionel gets in a serious dig at his expense. You can almost see the smirk on Lionel's face when he delivers the punchline...
It ends with the show's closing theme song. That awesome jazzy piano bit.
When you see re-runs today they usually don't play the whole thing- if they play it at all. Here's the whole long version.
Enjoy.


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Santa Claus, go straight to the ghetto

When i started this blog a week or so ago, It was all about sharing random songs from my collection. From vinyl only. There wasn't supposed to be a theme or a schedule. Infact, i wanted to do exactly the opposite- No theme at all, with no regard for when the next post was going to happen. The more random, the better....
Then all of a sudden Christmas time started happening and before i knew it, i started in with songs to fit the theme.....

Themes can be fun though. Maybe i'll do 'Black History Month' in February....
'Paint it black', 'Black magic woman', 'Back in black' ... Or perhaps songs all performed by black artists. Or even songs by black artists with the word 'Black' in the title. 'Say it loud, i'm black and i'm proud' , by James Brown comes to mind.
I could easily find 28 on any of these themes... Of course they wouldn't all be from vinyl records though, which was my original intention.
OK, i'm officially off-topic here.

New years resolution= More Chaos. More Vinyl.

At any rate, here's one from 'James Brown's Funky Christmas' album, (Which i have on CD.) Fitting, since the Godfather passed away on Christmas day in 2006.
Diggin on a little Soul-Brother-Number-One seemed like a no-brainer to me.
This album is pure James Brown. Funky, just the way we like him. Sure, it's Christmas themed (17 songs worth) but you could rock it in June and still get the party jumping.
Try that with Silver Bells or Frosty The Snowman... I don't think so. Dudes would think you were a total creep.

This one's called "Santa Claus, go straight to the ghetto."
Enjoy.



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Alcoholics Unanimous

One of my favorite Christmas records is this gem i picked up a long long time ago.
Alcoholics Unanimous 'Santa Claus D.W.I. / Santa forgot the booze.' Released in 1989 in a limited edition of 500, On White vinyl. (Nerdy punk stuff, i know, but i like it.)
I didn't buy my copy until '99 or '00, and i paid like five bucks for it. The last time i saw one on ebay it was $9.00, straight from the ex-guitar player of the bands store, so you can still get them.



The following is a blurb from the Steel Cage Records website about the band.
Kinda makes me want to pick up this CD....

In 1987 Thee Whiskey Rebel and Intoxica (also co-founders of Rancid Vat) launched Alcoholics Unanimous with the intention of starting a band that would play nothing but drinking songs. For the past two decades they’ve done just that. This retrospective CD features rare & previously unreleased tracks from the band's configurations in Portland, OR and Philadelphia, PA as well as their imfamous North Carolina chapter, featuring Jeff "Mad Dog" Clayton of ANTiSEEN. 20 Years Of Tanked Up Tunes also contains five brand new tracks recorded by AU's present lineup (based in their current home of San Marcos, Texas) featuring Vat guitar player Maker’s Mark Von Diehl and The Bacardi Kid, son of Reb and Intoxica, on drums.
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Santa Claus D.W.I.
Enjoy

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Frosty the dope man

I don't have a whole lot of christmas music in my collection, but what i do have isn't your standard Bing Crosby/ Peanuts soundtrack crap. The most traditional Christmas album i have is Elvis.
You can keep the sappy stuff.
There's more than enough of that shit on the radio, television, stores, resturaunts, etc this time of year. And i'm pretty sure i'm not alone in thinking that it's a little bit annoying to say the least.....
But i do enjoy the occasional unusual holiday tune.
Here's a good example of what i mean.

From my copy of Dr Demento's 'Dementia Royale' LP, i give you "Frosty The Dopeman" By Mark Zydiak





And if it's strange christmas tunes that you want, check out
THIS LINK for a whole lot more.




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No Presents For Christmas

Technically i don't 'own' this one in a physical format, but i 'found' it the other day while perusing the wild world of interwebs. I'm a sucker for oddball non-traditional christmas music and i couldn't resist passing it on.

"No presents for christmas" was a single by King Diamond released in 1985. Other than that, i don't know a whole lot about it. It is what it is.
Enjoy.

Chief Whoopin Koff

The B-side to the Fireballs second record from 1960. A nice pre-surf rock twangy guitar instrumental.
A little bit of quick google research told me that even though all the Fireballs stuff has been re-issued several times over the years, "Chief Whoopin Koff" was almost always omitted from these releases.
Is the title considered offensive to Native Americans in this overly sensitive politically correct era we live in--?
That sucks if it is the reason, because it's a great song.

Trying the DivShare player here.
I haven't decided which delivery method i like better.

Big Boy Pete

This is more of a test than anything.
I just put this blog together tonight, Inspired by some of the others i follow. everything here is subject to change. I'm just kind of getting the feel for how everything works... With the codes, links, etc...
I'm not sure where i'm going with this just quite yet.
I got stacks of records that need listenin to, and a vinyl-mp3 turntable....
We'll see what happens.


I have a couple of Olympics 45s, but this tune is my favorite.
Lyrically speaking, Big boy Pete is kind of a Stagger Lee/Leroy Brown type number where a couple of bad asses duke it out in a bar. Good old fashioned rock and roll subject matter. And of course, one of the best punk rock bands ever, The Mummies, did an amazing version of it too..



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