Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Freddie Mercury’s eyeball jumpsuit
Pop stars and their packages
Rock Stars and their Mustaches
 
(via Cherry Bombed)

 
While most of my rock and roll friends were hanging out at the nocturnal punk rock Meccas of CBGB and Max’s in 1977/78, suburbanites were braving the harsh city streets and wallowing in nostalgia on Broadway. For a couple of years Beatlemania was a hit on Times Square for an audience that preferred the warm and fuzzy past to the bleak reality of New York at a moment when the city was frayed at the edges and the center was barely holding.

The four musicians who comprised the cast of Beatlemania came from nowhere, basked in the glory of reflected stardom for a few years, and ended up being marginal footnotes in the history of rock and roll. But, it must have been a blast while it lasted.

I wonder how the dead ringer for Paul, Mitch Weissman, dealt with his life after Beatlemania. The rest of the faux Beatles, none of whom looked like the originals, probably adjusted to lives of relative anonymity. But Mitch, what about Mitch? There’s a website that has some photos of Mitch today here. He seems to have morphed into the Paul of our nightmares.

Update 8/9: Mick Stadium, the fellow who uploaded these videos to Youtube, reveals the source of the Beatlemania clips:

A friend recently gave me stack of VHS tapes found @ a Flea Market, all labeled as “Beatlemania” related. Turns out they belonged to Mitch Weissman (Paul in the Original Cast) who had taped all of their ‘70s TV appearances as they aired. I’ve uploaded the best of the lot for your enjoyment. P.S. Weissman lives in LA and is getting his tapes back (which he says were auctioned in a storage unit selloff.)

 
More after the jump…

 
Sad to hear that prolific German experimental music pioneer, Conrad Schnitzler, one-time student of Joseph Beuys, early member of Tangerine Dream and founder of Kluster, has died.

Via Ric Leichtung at Altered Zones:

On August 4th, Conrad Schnitzler passed away from stomach cancer. Member of Kluster and Tangerine Dream, Schnitzler played in an invaluable role in the shaping of kraut and electronic music. Having studied under Stockhausen, Conrad composed more than 90 albums of solo material, and completed his final work, “00/830,” just four days before his death. In preparation for his departure, Schnitzler sent strands of his hair to be buried around the world and created the Global Living Project. In his words:

Since some time, I globalize me.
Why just living in one country,
why just sleeping in one country,
why just being buried only in one country,
now that we think and live globally.

I would like to be at beautiful places in the world,
without to move me from my place here.
I send my DNA (my hair) to different places in the world.
This means I’m all over the world.
I’m everywhere, even when I’ll be dead.
Nobody must come to my grave in Berlin.
My friends can visit me in the whole world now.

So if friends want to give me a place…., welcome.
I’ll send a DNA sample to bury me.
I am in the whole world at home now. I love this feeling.

Friends, family, and fans can pay their respects to Conrad at 9 different sites, including the Green Lagoon in Spain, Norway’s Lysefjord, and Mt. Fuji.

Below, Schnitzler’s “Magic Party”:
 

 
“Collection A #5 Take off”
 

 
Boing Boing’s Xeni Jardin, currently traveling in Japan, met up with Yoko Ono and conducted a great interview with the artist/humanitarian, who had just been awarded the 8th Hiroshima Art Prize. The Hiroshima Museum of Contemporary Art is displaying “The Road of Hope: Yoko Ono 2011,” until October 16, 2011.

Xeni Jardin: A few days ago, you were in Hiroshima accepting an award for your your legacy of art in the service of peace. You were a young girl here in Japan when the event happened. What was that day like?

Yoko Ono: Yes, I think I was 12. It was a shock of course, but at the time, initially we didn’t know what happened. I heard about it from somebody in the village. It’s a very, very different kind of bomb, they said, we have to immediately stop the war. It didn’t make sense to me at all, in any way. We didn’t understand.

Xeni Jardin: At what point did the magnitude or the nature of what had happened become more clear to you?

Yoko Ono: Well, every day, from then on. They were reporting in newspapers and magazines what happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and it was just—it was something that you just could not understand. It was just so bad.

Xeni Jardin: Trying to grasp the full scope of what had happened must have been something that unfolded over many years for you, your family, and for all of your fellow countrymen and women.

Yoko Ono: Well you see, it was because of Pearl Harbor, and so the rest of the world was very, very cold to us when the bombs dropped. Like, “Oh, they deserved it.” That kind of thinking.

And of course in those days, the idea of what an enemy is, and what is fair to do to enemies were very different. For America to have bombed civilians was something that most people accepted. But women and children, old and young, they all suffered. If it had happened not to Japan but in a Western country, maybe the West would have felt differently about it. But that’s how it was. And the Japanese people, especially the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, they had to endure the whole thing without any kindness or compassion from the world. Despite the meanness directed at them, even after the bombing, they stood up and survived, and they created a normal situation out of the ashes of that horror, which I believe is amazing.

The whole of Japan helped them. I learned when I was in Hiroshima, for instance, that many trees were sent from other towns throughout Japan, to be planted there to renew the bare ground. People throughout the country tried to help, but Hiroshima and Nagasaki had to stand up on their own, as well, of course.

And in a very strange way, even though they were victims and martyrs of a terrible thing, now they are not victims. They are the people who created a strong, strong recovery. They show to the world that this is what we can do, instead of all the myths that were created about those places — the myth that you could never enter those places after what happened, and that you couldn’t return into those cities. Just walking in there is dangerous.

But now, they’re two beautiful cities again. And the world sees that.

Read more of Xeni Jardin’s interview with Yoko Ono at Boing Boing.

Below, a fucking fierce Beatles/Yoko jam session in an outtake from Let It Be:
 

 
A soul/jazz/reggae mix of “Light My Fire” covers set to some vintage grind and go-go.

1. Ananda Shankar
2. Soul Sam
3. Andre Brasseur
4. Massive Attack
5. Bo Baral
6. Spanky Wilson
7. Young Holt Unlimited
8. Boogaloo Joe Jones
9. The Soul Merchants

For more versions of “Light My Fire” and a truly impressive collection of some your favorite hit songs done by artists that may surprise you, check out Versions Galore. The curator of the site, Leopold Stotch, is doing an amazing job of putting together an archive of covers that will blow your mind.
 

 
Highlights of Debbie Harry hosting a certain late Saturday night show from 1981. The clip includes what is now believed to be the first appearance of a rap act on national US TV - the Funky Four Plus One More.

The Videodrome Discothèque is pleased to present these excerpts from the rarely seen 10th episode of the ill-fated 6th season of a certain rather popular late-night weekend entertainment program.

Fronting a marvelous one-off band, Ms. Harry offers up fabulous versions of both “Love T.K.O” (made famous by Teddy Pendergrass) AND Devo’s “Come Back, Jonee”. Chris Stein plays on both, with Clem Burke joining in for “Come Back, Jonee”.

Also included: a sketch featuring Debbie & Joe Piscopo, as well as the performance of Debbie’s special guests, The Funky Four + 1 More.

 
Via The Videodrome Vault
 

 
I like this Roland TR-808 Drum Machine flash drive for $39.99 over at Alkota Beats. You can pre-order ‘em now, but they won’t be available until October 1, 2011.

If you have no use for a flash drive, you might be interested in, however, the Roland TR-808 Drum Machine pillow on Dawanda‘s website. The pillow by Softmachines retails for € 99.00 or $140.00.

 
(via Mister Honk)

 
And it’s directed by Drew Barrymore. It’s a beautiful looking four-minute recreation of West Side Story based in LA, featuring Chloe Moretnz (Kick Ass) and Tyler Posey (Teen Wolf) as star crossed lovers caught in the middle of a turf war, and it’s got a suckerpunch ending that is actually quite moving (a very rare feat for a pop promo). The song ain’t too shabby either:

Best Coast - “Our Deal”
 

 
To see the making of Best Coast’s “Our Deal” go here and you can find their album Crazy For You here.
 

John Dwyer, the Linda Lovelace of rock and roll.
 
Thee Oh Sees’ Castlemania is a real contender for my top ten records of 2011.

My introduction to TOS was at SXSW in 2009 when they performed an exhilaratingly demented show at Emo’s. Frontman and group mastermind John Dwyer attacked his guitar like a man wrestling an alligator while inhaling his microphone with the gusto of a amphetamine-crazed porn star auditioning for Deep Throat 3D . It was one of the most riveting and ridiculous live shows I’ve ever scene. And the band was as tight as a baby’s scrotal sac.

Castlemania consists of 16 tracks of garage rocking mayhem and twisted psychedelia sure to please the hearts and souls of fans of The Fugs, Velvets, Holy Modal Rounders, Zappa, Beefheart, Roky Erickson, The Troggs and The Archies.

Here’s a taste of Thee Oh Sees’ Castlemania.
 

 
A video to give you the jitters, “Meat Step Lively”  from 2009’s Help after the jump…

 
If you love Reggae, if you love music, then you’ll love this excellent 3-part documentary - Reggae: The Story of Jamaican Music. Originally shown on the BBC in 2002, parts of this documentary have been on YouTube over the years, but now some kind soul has uploaded the whole series for our delight. How wonderful. Enjoy.
 

 
Parts 2 & 3, after the jump…