Start the week with a smile.
Spankers - Everyone's A DJ

The Hungarian Prog Rock masters.
Omega - Az Üzenet (Message)



Here is the English Version:
Omega- Something's Goin' On

I still own Who Are You? on vinyl. 

I'm currently listening to Brewer & Shipley's fifth album Rural Space from 1973. I love me some of this duo's late '60s and early '70s output and I think they're a highly underrated act. I guess a lot of folks will know their hit counter-culture anthem "One Toke Over the Line" and maybe the album Tarkio which that song came from, but there's a lot more to the duo than that. Are there any other Brewer & Shipley fans on here? I'm definitely expecting Rob Allen to be a fan.




I also watched The Runaways movie this afternoon with my gf. I knew that Joan Jett, Cherie Currie and Lita Ford were the major players in that band, but I only had a very basic knowledge of their career prior to watching this film. I have to say, I enjoyed it quite a bit -- the mid-70s period detail and costuming was especially well done. I though the script was pretty reasonable and the acting was very good, with Kirsten Stewart (who I've long considered to be an appalling actress) actually making a very convincing Joan Jett. Likewise, Michael Shannon really nailed Kim Fowley's hyperactive personality and demeanor. I can't say I'll be rushing out to buy any of the band's back catalogue, but as a celluloid slice of rock 'n' roll history, I thought it held up well.

I'm afraid I don't know much Brewer & Shipley beyond "One Toke". But this version is even more interesting than the original:



For those outside the US who might not know the context - The Lawrence Welk Show was a music variety show that was already considered laughably old-fashioned when it was on the air. My great-grandmother liked it. It's widely speculated that Welk had no idea what the song was about.

In other news, Metafilter had this today:



"The Way They Were" Punk and New Wave 1976 - 1978. Channel 4 UK programme first broadcast circa 1984 / 1985-ish. Hosted by the late Tony Wilson, it's a compilation of performances by bands taken from his previous TV shows in the late 70's, such as So It Goes.

Line-up:

Sex Pistols - Anarchy in the UK (1st television appearance)
Elvis Costello - Allison (1st television appearance)
Buzzcocks - What Do I Get? (1st television appearance)
John Cooper Clarke feature
Iggy Pop - Interview & The Passenger (This brought on the cancellation of the program)
Wreckless Eric - (I’d Go) The Whole Wide World (1st television appearance)
Ian Dury - Short interview and a couple of poems
Penetration - Don’t Dictate (Presumptive 1st television appearance)
Blondie - Rip Her to Shreds (1st television appearance)
The Fall - Psychomafia, Interview, Industrial Estate (1st television appearance)
The Jam - In the City, Bricks and Mortar (Presumptive 1st television appearance)
Frustrating interview with some trying-too-hard punk girl when a perfectly functioning Devo is standing right behind her.
The Tom Robinson Band - Glad to be Gay (1st television appearance)
Johnny Thunders succinctly stating what I took eight paragraphs to write about Malcolm McLaren on Tuesday.
Elvis Costello & The Attractions - Watching the Detectives
XTC - Neon Shuffle (Presumptive 1st television appearance)
Quick word from Jonathan Richman about William Blake
Nick Lowe - Endless Sleep (abbreviated) (Presumptive 1st television appearance)
Siouxsie and the Banshees - Make Up to Break Up (1st television appearance)
Cherry Vanilla soundbite
Magazine - Motorcade (1st television appearance)
Devo one liner. That’s more like it, Video
The Clash - What’s My Name, Garageland (Presumptive 1st television appearance)
Polystyrene interview
Sham 69 - Angels With Dirty Faces (1st television appearance)
Tony Wilson says “Good night”
Joy Division - Shadowplay (1st television appearance)

Discussion: www.metafilter.com/142193/The-Way-They-Were

Ha ha...I love that clip! Clearly Welk (and quite possibly Gail Farrell and Dick Dale too) had absolutely no idea what the word "toke" was referring to.

However, for all his squareness, Welk wasn't actually a million miles off base when he described the song as a "modern spiritual." For starters, it's clear from the lyrics of a number of Brewer & Shipley songs that one or possibly both of them had some kind of faith or belief in Christianity, and that they saw no contradiction between that and their hippie ideals. In addition, the song "One Toke Over the Line" is clearly a gospel song in terms of structure and feel, but a gospel song for laid back hippies puffing on a joint. So, from that point of view, the song really is something of a "modern spiritual" (at least, modern in terms of 1971). I bet Brewer & Shipley were popular with the Jesus movement back in the day.

Birthdays...Billy Grammer