How Good It Is

Apologies for the delay; once again I've been at a podcasting conference and I got in from Boston a little later than I expected to. This one was geared entirely toward educational podcasts (and yes, I do consider this show educational, though it's probably more in the "edutainment" corner), and I picked up a lot of information I'm hoping to take to my school and see what we can do about getting something launched with my students.

Aaaaanyway, I don't have a lot of backstory to add to this one, other than that two separate requests for this came in through the Listener Survey (it's still open; scroll down if you're still interested in playing along), and because the surveys are anonymous, I have no idea who put the requests in. But thank you so much for your input!

No, wait, I lied. I do have another thing to add. When I was doing the research for this song, I discovered that most people don't know that it's performed by King Harvest, which makes sense since they broke up before the song was a big hit. But when you do the Google searches, some of the wrong guesses will pop up in your results. Some people think it's Van Morrison, which is a pretty good guess actually, but he never covered the song. Neither did Elvis Costello, which is also a popular guess but not an especially good one. But the best guesses are the ones who kinda-sorta remember King Harvest but haven't quite nailed it. That would be the nonexistent artist Kink Harris. It's gotten to the point where you can do a search for "Kink Harris Dancing in the Moonlight" and get accurate hits to the song.

Click here for a transcript of this episode.

Click here to become a Patron of the show.

A near-fatal beating inspires a song that describes a world of total joy, and the song fails twice before it becomes a hit for a band that had already broken up.

Holy Moly! The show is back!

For those of you who don't follow the show on Facebook or Twitter, I'll be posting the pictures here in another couple of days, outlining the New Studio Project. My return to the Podcast Zone was delayed a little bit by a faulty cable I needed to replace, plus I was getting into a weird funk. But fortunately I got a mental boot in the butt by Greg Yates over at the No Head Trash Nation Podcast. I met Greg a few weeks ago when I was in Orlando and, while he considers himself a relative newbie to podcasting, I'm constantly finding myself saying "Yeah, this guy knows his stuff." "Holy cow, he's right." He and I spoke face to face for about twenty minutes and I'm practically ready to follow him into a burning house. Anyway, Greg's a smart guy and you should check out his show.

But first, you've been waiting forever for this show! And here it is! The songs in this show were actually selected several months ago, and I lost the list. (That does seem to happen to me a lot, doesn't it.) It turned up when I was cleaning out a computer bag, and I took it as a sign from above. Or from my computer bag, whatever.

At any rate, you probably know that most of the songs I talk about today are covers, but I'm pretty sure I still have a couple of surprises for you. Go check it out.

Click here for a transcript of this episode.

Click here to become a Patron of the show.

Once again we're taking a look at popular songs that you may not have realized were covers of other recordings. Some of the stories, I believe, have a deeper history than you think.

What do you think? You like that picture? I PAID for that stock photo, like some kind of honest guy.

Despite this being perhaps The Hollies' biggest hit in the US, it still managed not to make it to the Number One position on the Billboard Hot 100. It was kept out of that position by Gilbert O'Sullivan's "Alone Again (Naturally)" for both of the weeks that it spent at #2 with a bullet. And for all that time on the charts (11 weeks altogether), that's a pretty popular song, considering that nobody understands the words. At least, not until you've seen them. Then they totally make sense. Plus, I'd be willing to bet that it's not about what you think it's about.

Below is the link for this week's show for your downloading and/or listening pleasure.

Click here for a transcript of this week's episode.

Click here to become a Patron of the show.

It was probably The Hollies' biggest hit (in the US, anyway), and it still managed not to make it to Number One.

The Summer of 1969 was also the Summer of Woodstock. Hundreds of thousands of people made their way to Max Yasgur's farm in Bethel, New York (they couldn't get a permit for the town of Woodstock, but the posters had already been made, and you know how it goes...) for a few days of Peace, Love and Music.

Woodstock proved to be like nothing else, before or since. Attempts to replicate its feeling, or its scale, or anything else about it gets washed away by nostalgia and the sense that someone's trying to make a buck off of it. And, of course, they are. They were trying to make a buck off the original show, too--in fact, the organizers were hoping to raise money to build a recording studio. That didn't work out because financially the show barely broke even. But the film and record rights put them back in the black several months later.

Several acts were barely known at the time of the show, including Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young (performing for the second time ever), and Sha-Na-Na, which opened for Jimi Hendrix. Most of them have found a place in the rock and roll firmament following the show (e.g. Melanie was a relative unknown; Richie Havens, who opened the show, was barely known, Santana had been around for ten years but hadn't broken through yet); others were pretty much unheard-of afterward (Keef Hartley Band? ).

In the wake of the show were three things that gained lasting fame, and they all happened around the same time, in early 1970. The first was this:

The other two? We talk about those in this week's episode. I'm no spoiler.

Speaking of which, if you want to see the telegram sent to the band in today's trivia question, look under the spoiler button below this week's episode.

Finally, this is the text of the telegram related to the trivia question for this episode. See if you can find the hidden message!

If you've heard the episode and you want to see what I'm talking about, click the button to show the art. If you haven't heard it yet, go back and listen first. It's OK, we'll still be here for you.

The Summer of 1969 was also the Summer of Woodstock, and all the tropes that came with it. But it also yielded two hit songs.

Click here for a transcript of this episode.

This is the penultimate of my special episodes concentrating on the Summer of 1969, and this time around it concerns one of the more horrific crimes of the 20th Century--the Tate-LaBianca murders during the weekend of August 8 and 9.

The murders were incredibly savage, and intended to strike terror into the hearts of Californians, but the hidden agenda behind them was that they were meant to be a model for African-Americans to use as part of the uprising that, according to Charles Manson, was coming very soon, as predicted to him by The Beatles, when they seeded their self-titled album (usually just called "The White Album") with clues.

Manson's plan was to commit the murders, which would show Blacks "how to do it," then he and his family would hide in a deep hole in the ground while the ultimate race war, which he called "Helter Skelter", took place on the surface. Then, when the White race was wiped out and the Blacks realized that they hadn't been in charge in so long that they had no idea what to do next, that's when Manson and his followers would emerge from the hole and take over.

Crazy? Of COURSE it's crazy. Before 1968, all Manson cared about was staging orgies. Then he heard this album and it short-circuited the wiring in his head.

So this week we look at a bunch of songs that Manson took as clues to the messages that The Beatles were sending to him, and just how badly he'd gotten it wrong.

Your podcatcher software, as usual, should have the show by now, but if you're extra-macho about these things, feel free to listen or download from right here:

And, as usual, please tell your friends about the cool podcast you're listening to! Thanks so much for your support!

Click here to become a Patron of the show.

This week is the 50th anniversary of the Tate-LaBianca murders, committed by Charles Manson and his cult "Family". Manson said it was inspired by The Beatles, specifically the White Album.