a blog about the sixties (because they didn't just end with the '60s)
COMING SOON TO A SCREEN NEAR YOU! The Tell It Like It Was A-Go-Go featuring Trini Lopez, Johnny Rivers, and Billy Lee Riley! Yeah, that’s a joke for those of us old enough to remember the live albums from those artists recorded at the Whiskey A-Go-Go in Los Angeles. [CONTINUE READING]
MY ATTENTION remains focused on Tell It Like It Was, my new publication on Medium. And Tell It Like It Was remains focused on music—mostly music of the ’60s but we will get into the rock & roll and rhythm & blues before and after that decade eventually. [CONTINUE READING]
MY APOLOGIES for neglecting regular readers of my blogs for the past few months. Fortunately, there is a good reason for this that has nothing to do with those silly rumors circulated by the VRC that I had run off and joined a progressive commune in Vermont left over from those hippie-wannabe days of yore. [CONTINUE READING]
I STUMBLED AROUND the Internet looking for the name of the artist who did the poster for the 1968 movie The Green Berets. I found the Dangerous Minds website which not only identified the artist as Frank McCarthy, but had an entire page devoted to his art: “The Kick-Ass Poster Art Of Frank McCarthy” by Paul Gallagher includes four dozen pieces of art by McCarthy! [CONTINUE READING]
WHEN THE SINGLE The Ballad Of The Green Berets was released in January 1966, I was 14-years-old (“one hundred men will test today”). Being a good, patriotic American lad, I went out and bought it on the same trip to the record store that I picked up the Byrds’ latest record, Set You Free This Time / It Won’t Be Wrong (“but only three win the green beret”). [CONTINUE READING]
OPEN CULTURE bills itself as “the best free cultural and educational media on the web.” They have recently published two pages where artist Todd Alcott uses his computer and his love for old magazines and paperbacks to create “new’ cover designs that look like old magazines and paperbacks. [CONTINUE READING]
AUSTIN IS NOTORIOUS among Texas cities for being so damn liberal. This state of affairs has baffled many people over the years and one of them asked this question on Quora: “What caused Austin, TX to be more liberal than the rest of Texas? [CONTINUE READING]
THE ROUND PLACE IN THE MIDDLE is a website devoted to several topics, one of which is movies—mostly older movies. Blog host/chief-cook-and-bottle-washer John Ross seems to love every kind of movie ever made and writes eloquently and enthusiastically about them. [CONTINUE READING]
ON JANUARY 29, 1966, one of the strangest hit records in popular music made its debut on the Cash Box Top 100. It wasn’t the strongest day for new singles debuting on that survey: the week’s highest-charting new entry was the Dave Clark 5’s At The Scene (#58). [CONTINUE READING]