Waiting for Sugar

Some pop songs become standards that defy the ages. “Sugar Sugar” was a Number One hit on both sides of the atlantic in 1969 for a group of session men who were no doubt only paid for their studio time.

JK released his “heavy” instrumental version of the tune under the name of Sakkarin also on RCA in 1971. This again made the charts, peaking at 12 in the UK. You can hear that and the original bubblegum version on UToob. It was only recently after a rare visit to the local ye olde seconde hand record shop that I tracked down a copy of JK’s/Sakkarin’s frankly average follow up “Hang on Sloopy”. This one has a bit more vocals and a bit less drums and lead guitar, so it doesn’t immediately grab you like the “Sugar Sugar” instrumental. I don’t recall it getting much radio play and it is so obscure it isn’t even on UToob. Although already by 1971 JK was no stranger to “protest” songs the “b” side “What you think is just a joke (is America today)” still seems odd coming from a man who would go on to have a popular TV show praising all things American.

Actually, I’m getting off-topic. The whole purpose of this post was to say that I think Mark Vidler’s Go Home Productions’ mix of John Cale’s piano from the VU’s “I’m waiting for the man” (and a snatch of his vocal from “The murder mystery”) with “Sugar Sugar” here was one of his most inspired tracks and after 5 years still remains on heavy rotation at Magic Robot Towers.

PS: If you’re curious about the DJ/Producer  Mark Vidler and other  Go Home Productions now would be the ideal time to visit his site and hear some other groovy musical mashup/mixes.

Need to read

Stu the Human comics are extremely scarce in this dimension. They are reasonably easy to obtain on Duckworld despite the comics (and the subsequent film) failing to meet expectations. After all, what sane water fowl could believe in such a far-fetched premise as a talking hairless ape.

Here are some other comics on my “wants” list. The Sentry is potentially the most powerful hero in the Marvel universe. He also appears in some of the most ridiculously bonkers stories since the Superman/Captain Marvel/Marvelman days in the 1950s.

“Tales to Stupefy” was a short-lived companion comic to Suspense and Astonish. A fire in a warehouse destroyed all known issues of No 13 days before its release.

The writer of “Gonad” depicted what life would really be like for Barbarians sleeping rough in forests for years at a time. A 3D Scratch-n-sniff limited edition was planned but never issued.

Alcoholics Illustrated was either 35c or available free if you sent in 500 Shotz Beer ring-pulls.

The Second Comics Code of 1960 (repealed 1961) banned any violence whatsoever from comics. “Tales to Mildly Amuse” reworked artwork from earlier issues of “Stupify” to comply with this new code.

“Space Action” only lasted a few issues after DC entered litigation claiming they owned the right to the word “action”. Fawcett was sueing Atlas/Timely at the same time saying they owned the rights to the word “captain”.

It has been suggested that as Newton Comics may not have paid Marvel for some of the artwork they subsequently printed that technically just by reading those comics you were committing a criminal offence.

There is a world of comics you’ve never heard of out there. “Fantastiske Fire” bears similarities with another comic you may have come across. The cover is re-coloured/re-drawn. Here, Sue goes by the name of “den usynlige piken”.

The Wham-O Giant Comic Book of 1967 claims to be the world’s largest comic book at the American/Imperial measurements of 14″ x 21″. I suspect our own “The Big One” which ran for 19 weekly issues in 1964/1965 may have been ½” bigger all round as it was printed on the same presses as broadsheet newspapers.

I didn’t know “beat off” was American slang for masturbation. Evidentally neither did the writer of this 1968 Archie Comic.

If you saw a magazine containing an article entitled “How to get in and out of bed” could you resist buying it?

So, I missed all these magazines and would love to read them. If you have any of these issues or similar unwanted and pushed under the armchair cushion let me know………..

PS: If you want something slightly comic-related to listen to whist Googling obscure words/subjects try this.

Bakers Dozen

The Interweb is a really really big place so thanks for visiting my little bit of it. You’re just in time for episode thir…..12½…I’m not superstitious…touch wood…of the mp3 file containing music that no-one likes except me. Hmmm, perhaps you’d better carry on Googling……or you could even click on the link in the “Comments” area below. Like Record Shops, free cyberlockers might not be around much longer …..

I bought this book three years ago but have only just got round to looking at it. If most “proper” record shops had closed by 2009 there must be very few left now. And I suspect even Amazon is beginning to struggle to shift CDs. They no longer get as much money from me. I do still have the benefit of a nearby Second-hand Record Shop though. I think I’ll pop in on Saturday to see if he has any LPs by (the late) Dory Previn or any Judge Dread singles. A while back I got an LP which contains possibly the most annoying song ever made.

 PS: So, could this really be the most annoying song ever made? Or is it this “song”?

PPS: I was going to write something about Davy Jones who died recently but there are countless others more qualified than I to do that. The Monkees were a ground-breaking band who managed to succeed despite the four conflicting personalities that were thrown together into the 1960s pop pressure cooker. The 1980s comeback tours were a triumph and the later low key solo concerts were always entertaining. Perhaps it will take the death of the youngest member of the band to produce a re-evaluation of their fab music.

Davy Jones    1945 – 2012

I’ve just held a personal minute’s silence and Davy asking “What number is this?” and the band replying “7A !!!!!!” popped into my head……………….

Nuff Said 30

Interesting Modern Stuff

I couldn’t actually find any interesting modern stuff so perhaps you could paste your favourite picture in the convenient space provided on the screen. (You should find some sellotape in the cupboard or possibly in the second drawer down).

And then again…..At least modern stuff is relatively affordable. I’ve recently been sent a few pages from an old Tandy Catalogue from 25 years ago. Everything within looks completely naff and monsterously overpriced. Over £900 for a dot matrix printer that is still only “near letter-quality”! Almost three grand for a computer with a mere 20Mb hard disk! Sad to say I once had one with a similar specification.The portable CD player looks like it is housed in the same box as their £14.99 cassette players…..

extracts from a Tandy Catalogue 1986-1987

Car Radio

Whilst replacing the broken radio/cd player in the car my mind wandered back to the days when they weren’t an integral part of the dash but an expensive bolt-on extra. When I bought cheap second hand cars in the 1970s invariably the previous owner  kept the radio. I’d resort to chopping chunks out of the dashboard to ram mine in place or I’d just nail one underneath the dash and chuck an antique speaker somewhere in the back. Wire coat hangers were invaluable. An electric aerial would have cost more than I’d paid for the car. As my current car is 7 years old I’ve no idea what you get these days. Probably we’ve gone back to just leaving a gap in the dashboard where people can put their idevice ??? 

Thirteeen and a half ?….Fifteen ?…..Twenty One Guineas ?? Blimey !!