Coming up: "Walt Disney's Disneyland"


Out Sept. 12. Available for pre-order now from Amazon.

Details:

Walt Disney dreamed for decades about opening the ultimate entertainment venue, but it wasn’t until the early 1950s that his handpicked team began to bring his vision to life. Together, artists, architects, and engineers transformed a dusty tract of orange groves about an hour south of Los Angeles into one of the world’s most beloved destinations.

Today, there are Disney resorts from Paris to Shanghai, but the original Disneyland in Anaheim, California, which has been visited by more than 800 million people to-date, remains one of America’s most popular attractions. From the day it opened on July 17, 1955, Disneyland brought history and fairy tales to life, the future into the present, and exciting cultures and galaxies unknown to our imaginations.

This bountiful visual history draws on Disney’s vast historical collections, private archives, and the golden age of photojournalism to provide unique access to the concept, development, launch, and enjoyment of this sun-drenched oasis of fun and fantasy. Disneyland documents Walt’s earliest inspirations and ideas; the park’s extraordinary feats of design and engineering; its grand opening; each of its immersive “lands” from Main Street, U.S.A., to Tomorrowland; and the park's evolution through the six decades since it opened. It is a treasure trove of Disney original documentation and expertise, with award-winning writer Chris Nichols drawing on his extensive knowledge of both Disneyland and Southern California history to reveal the fascinating tale of “the happiest place on Earth.”








New music releases Aug. 24, 2018; Candi Staton; Neil and Liam Finn

Candi Staton - Unstoppable

Neil and Liam Finn - Lightsleeper



Pop Culture Roundup: Ditko; superhero shot glasses; Funko Pez; Justice Society; Soulful Tees

For a recluse, Steve Ditko sure answered a lot of fan mail.



DC Comics is pretty indiscriminate in its licensing, it seems. Classy!


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Funko is coming out with a line of cartoony Batman Pez dispensers.


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When Batman and Superman crashed a meeting of the Justice Society.


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Looking for some groovy, pop cult t-shirts? Mr. B's Soulful Tees shop on eBay UK has you covered.





Video Find:Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich perform "The Legend Of Xanadu"

"The Public Image is Rotten" doc and box set celebrate PiL

John Lydon's post Sex Pistols groups is 40 years old this year and the subject of a new documentary and box set. Here's a preview of the film and details on the box.





Box details:

A career boxset coming in the form of a 5CD/2DVD is released to coincide with the career-spanning documentary film about Public Image Ltd titled The Public Image Is Rotten.
This box set ‘The Public Image Is Rotten (Songs From The Heart)’ features the PiL Singles Collection, B-sides, Rarities and Radio Sessions, 12” Mixes, Unreleased Mixes and Tracks + a Live concert from New York Ritz in July 1989. The DVD includes PiL promo videos + some live footage from the BBC’s Top Of The Pops and Old Grey Whistle Test. Just in case that wasn’t enough, we’ve also included two live concerts, the first Tallinn Rock Summer Festival in Estonia 1988 and the 2013’s Enmore Theatre in Australia.

Disc: 1

  1. Public Image
  2. Death Disco
  3. Memories
  4. Flowers of Romance
  5. This is Not a Love Song
  6. Bad Life
  7. Rise
  8. Home
  9. Seattle
  10. The Body
  11. Disappointed
  12. Warrior
  13. Don't Ask Me
  14. Cruel
  15. One Drop
  16. Reggie Song
  17. Out of the Woods
  18. Double Trouble

Disc: 2

  1. The Cowboy Song
  2. Half Mix / Megga Mix
  3. Another
  4. Home is Where the Heart is
  5. Blue Water
  6. Question Mark
  7. Selfish Rubbish
  8. USLS1
  9. Turkey Tits
  10. Pied Piper
  11. Criminal
  12. Poptones (BBC, John Peel Session 1979)
  13. Careering (BBC, John Peel Session 1979)
  14. Chant (BBC, John Peel Session 1979)
  15. Cruel (BBC, Mark Goodier Session 1992)
  16. Acid Drops (BBC, Mark Goodier Session 1992)
  17. Love Hope (BBC, Mark Goodier Session 1992)

Disc: 3

  1. Death Disco (12")
  2. This is Not a Love Song (12")
  3. Flowers of Romance (instrumental)
  4. Rise (Bob Clearmountain Mix)
  5. Seattle (US Remix 12")
  6. The Body (US Remix Extended 12")
  7. Disappointed (12")
  8. Happy (US Remix 12")
  9. Warrior (Extended 12" Mix)
  10. Lollipop Opera (from This is PiL)
  11. Shoom (from What The World Needs Now...)
  12. Death Disco (Original Monitor Mix)
  13. This is Not a Love Song (12" Remix)

Disc: 4

  1. Annalisa ("New Mix" - Townhouse 1979)
  2. Albatross ("Monitor Mix" 1979)
  3. Careering (Live Paris 1980) (Previously Unreleased)
  4. Banging The Door (Alternative Mix, Townhouse 1980) (aka The Door)
  5. Vampire (Unreleased Track - Townhouse 1981)
  6. Nineteen Eighty One (Original Version, Townhouse 1981)
  7. Bad Night (Unreleased Track - Park South 1983)
  8. Things in E (aka Ease) (Alternative Laswell mix 1985)
  9. Can you Feel the Fours (Unreleased Instrumental - Farmhouse 1987)
  10. Spy Thriller Open and Revolving (Alternative Mix - Farmhouse 1987) (aka Spy Thriller)
  11. Kashmir (Unreleased Renovations Mix 1987) (Instrumental)
  12. Cajun (Unreleased Bill Laswell Instrumental 1988)
  13. Worry ("Ruff Mix" - Advision 1988)
  14. Think Tank ("Outtake" - Eldorado 1991)

Disc: 5

  1. Warrior (with intro)
  2. Happy
  3. This is Not a Love Song
  4. Home
  5. Round
  6. Brave New World
  7. Same Old Story
  8. The Body
  9. Open & Revolving
  10. Rise
  11. Disappointed
  12. Public Image
  13. Seattle
  14. World Destruction

Disc: 6

  1. Public Image
  2. Death Disco
  3. This is Not a Love Song
  4. This is Not a Love Song (live in Tokyo)
  5. Bad Life
  6. Rise
  7. Home
  8. Seattle
  9. The Body (uncensored)
  10. Disappointed
  11. Warrior
  12. Don't Ask Me
  13. Cruel
  14. Covered
  15. One Drop
  16. Reggie Song
  17. Out of the Woods
  18. Lollipop Opera (unreleased)
  19. Double Trouble
  20. Bettie Page
  21. The One
  22. Public Image
  23. FFF
  24. Seattle
  25. Home
  26. Bags
  27. Rise
  28. Hard Times
  29. Religion
  30. Rules & Regulations
  31. Angry
  32. Open & Revolving
  33. Holidays In The Sun
  34. The Body
  35. World Destruction

Disc: 7

  1. Death Disco - BBC, Top of the Pops 1979
  2. Poptones & Careering - BBC, Old Grey Whistle Test 1980
  3. Flowers of Romance - BBC, Top of the Pops 1981
  4. Rise - BBC, Top of the Pops 1986
  5. Home & Round - BBC, Old Grey Whistle Test 1986
  6. Disappointed - The Late Show 1989
  7. Four Enclosed Walls
  8. Albatross
  9. Deeper Water
  10. Memories
  11. Reggie Song
  12. Disappointed
  13. Warrior
  14. Flowers of Romance
  15. One Drop
  16. Death Disco
  17. This is Not a Love Song
  18. Public Image
  19. Out of the Woods
  20. Rise
  21. Open Up


Time Capsule: Hank Aaron Night button, 1968


Video Find:Esther & Abi Ofarim sing "Cinderella Rockefella"

Pop Focus: The Byrds go Country, 1968




In 1968, when the rest of the pop music world was recovering from psychedelia, the Byrds went country.

The group's album, "Sweetheart of the Rodeo," embraced classic country sounds, with lots of pedal steel and twanging Telecaster guitars, along with a little banjo and mandolin thrown in for good measure.

New member Gram Parsons, recruited into the band after the departure of David Crosby, contributed lead vocals on several tracks and two original, destined to be classic, tunes: "Hickory Wind" and "100 Years from Now."

The Byrds, famed for their hit version of "Mr. Tambourine Man," routinely included a Dylan cover or two on their LPs and, for this one, recorded two songs from his "Basement Tapes," a collection of demo recordings Dylan made with the Band during his post-motorcycle crash hiatus from public performance: "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere" and "Nothing Was Delivered."

Tunes by country legends such as Merle Haggard ("Life in Prison") and the Louvin Brothers ("The Christian Life") along with a banjo-driven version of Woody Guthrie's "Pretty Boy Floyd," helped round things out.

The album, released on Aug. 30, 1968, failed to do much business on the charts but succeeded in alienating both rock fans, many of whom weren't open to the album's country sounds, and the country music establishment, who viewed the band as dilettante interlopers.

Following the release of the album, the group played a disastrous set at the Grand Ole Opry where they were the subject of constant heckling and suffered a hostile interview with the legendary Nashville disc jockey Ralph Emery, who called the group "mediocre." McGuinn and Parsons had their revenge by writing a tune lampooning Emery, "Drug Store Trucking-Driving Man," that was included on the next Byrds LP, "Dr. Byrds and Mr. Hyde."

Parsons' stay with the Byrds didn't last beyond this album, but he continued to follow his country muse - stealing Hillman away to become a member of his Flying Burrito Brothers, and later recording a pair of excellent, seminal country rock albums, "GP" and "Grievous Angel," both featuring the unbeatable blend of his smooth country voice with the harmonies from Emmylou Harris.

"Sweethearts of the Rodeo" wasn't the first attempt at blending rock and country. After all,  country was part of rock from the start. Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and other first-generation rockers created the genre by melding country, blues and r&b. Dylan had a deep love of country that creeped into much of his work. Even the Beatles, in their BBC recordings and live performances played the occasional country tune. And, from the country side, Buck Owens and others in the Bakersfield scene blended rock'n'roll guitars into to their honky tonk sound. Parsons, too, worked to fuse country and rock before his stint in the Byrds, with the album "Safe at Home" with his short-lived International Submarine Band.

Still, "Sweetheart of the Rodeo" is rightly hailed as a pioneering country-rock and went on to inspire a raft of country and rock'n'roll artists, ranging from Poco and the Eagles to the Outlaw Country movement and Steve Earle to alt country bands such as Uncle Tupelo and the Jayhawks.

McGuinn and Hillman recently celebrated the album's 50th anniversary in performances backed by Marty Stuart and his band and plan a wider tour, playing the LP in full. Here's our own little celebration with images and videos of the time.







New comics Aug. 22, 2018: Batman; Fantastic Four; Dracula, Star Wars; Legion of Super-Heroes









Coming Up: The Action - Shadows & Reflections: Complete Recordings 1964-1968


Out Oct. 26. Pre-order from Amazon now.

Details:

Sixties Mod band The Action only released six singles in their lifetime - or seven, if you count a pre-Action single by The Boys - but their legend has grown exponentially since their demise in 1968. The Action was the first band signed by Beatles producer George Martin after he left EMI to set up his own company AIR Productions. In due course, he produced the band's five singles issued on Parlophone between 1965 and 1967 as well as tracks intended for a never-released album.

SHADOWS AND REFLECTIONS is far and away the most comprehensive tribute to The Action so far assembled, boasting all their known recordings in the studio and live on radio/TV. Many of the original Parlophone single mixes have never been reissued in their original form on compact disc - until now. The fresh discovery of multi-tracks and rehearsal tapes has led to a whole disc's worth of previously unheard mixes and performances. The box set includes numerous photos of The Action in their heyday, with 16,000 words of sleeve-notes by David Wells and a 36-page booklet within a handsome 4-CD 'digibook'. Includes all previous material issued from the band's BBC sessions and post-Parlophone period, suitably remastered by Alec Palao.


Pop Pic: William Shatner and DeForest Kelley - male models

Via Marshall Julius: