Today is Marc Bolan’s birthday. The father of glam rock would have been 63 today if he was still among us.
Below, the complete footage of Bolan’s interview on the Russell Harty Plus television program. Might be the best interview I’ve ever seen with him. At the end he says “I don’t think I will live that long.”
You could say that I’m obsessed with recordings of vintage drum machines. I just love the clunky sounds and the freedom granted to the human players who know there’s a steady pulse no matter how far out their own playing gets. So knowing this, Dangerous Minds pal Ian Raikow was kind enough to point out the below specimen by the wonderful Lee “Scratch” Perry in his crazed Black Ark period and this tidbit of info:
“...the story goes that this recording features the very first drum machine to arrive on the island. Programmed by Familyman Barret and his brother…”
This and other truly mind-blowing dub-plate experiments from ‘73-‘76 are available on the grand new compilation Sound System Scratch
Toyota Proto, 1957
Nissan Prince Sprint 1900 Prototype, 1963
Toyota EX-II, 1969
Mazda RX-500, 1970
Pink Tentacle currenlty has a great post on Japanese concept cars from 1957-2009. I’m not so sure about the Toyota EX-II from 1969, tho… Yikes!
See a few more concept cars after the jump…
Here’s a fun look at the history of computer graphics from an early ‘70s perspective. I’m sorta digging the music and the “futuristic” trippy designs. Enjoy!
(via HYST)
“I’d lost my heart to a long-hair named Flowers.”
For more Woodstock heartbreak visit Golden Age Comic Book Stories here
A pack of drug and art addled young Germans run amok in a recording studio on a major label’s dime Even better, a pair of sisters, one of them a popular mainstream singing star, travel around Europe making weird tapes on a portable tape recorder and then lavishly package the treated results as a triple LP set in an elaborate and expensive silver and gold foil sleeve circa 1970 in Germany? I’m so there.
More tripping and flipping after the jump…
Of all the wonderful prog bands I was introduced to in 7th grade by a friend’s older brother (doesn’t it usually work like that?) I’m most thankful for Henry Cow. In place of the D&D imagery most prog bands employed, the Cow were of a distinctly leftist, worldly bent. Dead serious and as likely to quote Schoenberg, Webern and Messiaen as they were to freely improvise an entire set, this was powerful and stern stuff. As is proclaimed on the sleeve their 3rd LP, 1975’s In Praise of Learning, “Art is not a mirror, it is a hammer”. Yeah ! Being comprised of some of the strongest, most idiosyncratic players in all the U.K. : guitarist Fred Frith, Drummer Chris Cutler, Keyboardist Tim Hodgkinson, reed player Lindsay Cooper and vocalist Dagmar Krause, each of whom deserving of multiple posts of their own devoted to their massive amounts of notable great works, they were one of the first bands signed to Virgin records and toured with the likes of Faust and Captain Beefheart during their relatively breif run in the mid-70’s. I seriously doubt that any hardcore Cow fans don’t aleady know about the following beautiful footage, the only known to exist of the band, playing most of the aforementioned LP live in a field somewhere in Switzerland in 1976 as released as part of a lavish box set
Much more vintage live Henry Cow after the jump…
The Black And White Minstrel Show was a hugely popular variety program that ran on British TV from 1958 to 1978. Yes, you read that correctly. This throwback to an era in which men performing in black face was perfectly respectable entertainment was a big hit in England right up to 1978. Good gawd almighty.
One hundred years after the “Nigger Minstrel” entertainment tradition had begun in London’s music-halls, the convention was revived on television in the form of The Black And White Minstrel Show. This variety series was first screened on BBC Television on 14 June 1958 and it was to stay on air for over the next two decades. The Black And White Minstrel Show evolved from the “Swannee River” type minstrel radio shows. The Black And White Minstrel Show harked back to a specific period and location—the Deep South where coy White women could be seen being wooed by docile, smiling black slaves. The black men were, in fact, White artists “Blacked-up.” The racist implications of the premise of the programme were yet to be widely acknowledged or publicly discussed. But it was this which largely led to the programme’s eventual demise. ” Museum Of Broadcast Communications
This clip is from the last episode of The Black And White Minstrel Show which aired in 1978.
More fun with Negroes after the jump…
As is (tragically) the case with the Velvet Underground, there is precious little sync-sound footage of Iggy Pop and the Stooges in their heyday, although there was a fair amount of silent Super-8 film that was shot. (A guy I know purchased an old film projector at a flea market that came with silent footage of Iggy onstage circa 1973, believe it or not. He later sold it to Vh1).
This incredible footage of the Stooges comes from the Cincinnati Summer Pop Festival of 1970 (AKA Midsummer Rock Festival). Appearing on a bill with Grand Funk Railroad, Alice Cooper, Mountain and Traffic, the group performs “T.V. Eye” and “1970” as Iggy leaps into the crowd—probably inventing crowd-surfing in the process—smearing peanut butter all over his chest. It’s one of the greatest rock and roll moments of all time and resulted in the iconic photograph above. Thank the gods that this footage exists, too.
Note the square announcer’s reaction: “That’s… peanut butter!” Years later Stiv Bators of the Dead Boys took credit for bringing the tub of peanut butter from his home in Dayton, OH and putting it into the Iggster’s hands.
