Cool Beans, Patti Smith, The Misfits, Hemorroid Cream Commercials... Is This Appropriate For a Sunday?

You know, I'm really groovin' on this four day weekend thing. I've had a chance to add more tracks to the station... everything from alternative standards like Patti Smith to lesser known bands like Jets From Brazil. Judging from emails & feedback, I feel the stations' got a good pulse & mix going here. If there's a song you feel is "missing"... don't worry, it's coming. The uploading & digitizing process can sometimes be a little... cumbersome.

Let's tap into a little history first. We're goin' way back for the first three;

- 1970; Beans is a long way down the road from the Talking Heads. Chris Frantz has been getting a little bored with the bands music. He's been playing with them for over a year in an all-cover band called Beans. He leaves the group & tells his friends he's off to the Rhode Island School of Design... where he'll meet other students like David Bryne & Tina Weymouth.

- 1971; Patti Smith has her first poetry reading at St. Marks Place. She's been in New York for six years and has been making a living (barely) as a writer for magazines such as Creem, Rock Scene & Rolling Stone. One of the poems selected for that evening was entitled "Oath", which begins, "Jesus died for somebodies sins, but not mine." Years later & throughout her career, she would use that sentence as her opening for her groundbreaking single "Gloria", which would also appear on her first album, Horses.

- 1971; David Bowie arrived in the States for his first American tour, in support of his album The Man Who Sold the World. But because he didn't possess a valid work permit, he couldn't play, although he got some publicity anyhow by wearing dresses during public appearances in California and Texas.

- 1982; The Misfits first album Walk Among Us was released. With such tracks as "Nike A Go-Go", "I Turned Into A Martian" and others that the band says is "calculated to chill the blood", it makes for a very interesting listen. By this time, alternative music & especially punk has literally splintered into hundreds of pieces. Between hardcore & underground, new wave, the revitalization of heavy metal, DIY record labels popping up everywhere, and a new cable television channel called MTV, the music industry doesn't know which end is up.

- 2004; Johnny Cash's family shot down a proposal by songwriter Merle Kilgore to license the song "Ring of Fire", recorded by Cash in 1963, for hemorrhoid cream commercials. I'm not kidding! Today, it seems there are a number of commercials that feature popular tunes. It almost seems common-place. However, my stomach still churns at the thought of this concept...

Now... for those of you paying attention, you may be asking, "What the heck does Johnny Cash have to do with alternative and/or punk music?" I'm glad you asked! Believe it or not, Johnny Cash was very influential to many artists over the years, including ones in the rock genre. Iggy Pop, for starters, names him as one of his biggest influences. Not just for his music & song writing ability, but also for his attitude. People didn't call him "the man in black" for nothing.

I received some nice comments & kudos regarding yesterday's blog on why I do what I do. On that same wave length, I'll leave you today with one final thought & quote. It was originally written by George Melly that appeared in a publication back in 1970 called Revolt Into Style... and I quote, "Each successive pop explosion has come roaring out of the clubs in which it was born like an angry young bull. Watching from the other side of the gate, the current establishment has proclaimed it as dangerous, subversive, a menace to youth and demanded that something be done about it..."

Peace out,
Dave