Compiled by Albie The Good, your average desert-dwelling, Bible-believing, Christian Beatnik and Incurable Bookworm... Thoughts about stuff... oh, and things too. :)
Albie's Note: I love old DELL Comics and most everything about them, including those "Info-Pages" we skimmed past when we read comics the first time as kids. Recently, while perusing the great COMICBOOKPLUS website, I came across some Info-pages from old issues of THE UNTOUCHABLES and MICHAEL SHAYNE, PRIVATE DETECTIVE, that were a little heavier than the usual "make-your-own-log cabin" kinda stuff!
These were uh... the "hard-boiled" Info-Pages. Informative they were, however...
Albie's Note: Although I was born in 1964 when it was already canceled, and never saw it once growing up, I have been curious for years about FRACTURED FLICKERS. By all accounts this early example of what today would be called "digital dubbing" was a little-seen laugh riot from one of my true heroes Jay Ward [J Troplong Ward, September 20, 1920 – October 12, 1989] creator of Bullwinkle and George Of The Jungle. Now the whole shebang is available on DVD, and yes it is HEE-lair-ee-ous!
Hosted by the great Hans Conreid [a familiar voice to any Bullwinkle or Dudley Do-Right fan] FLICKERS featured silent film footage overdubbed with newly written comic dialogue and music. Here Harry Houdini's actual 1919 serial "The Master Mystery" is given the FLICKERS treatment, and the ensuing hilarity takes us to a simpler, more unpretentious time in American humor. Enjoy.
Read the Wikipedia article on this great show HERE!
Albie's Note: One of the odder American Top Ten hits of the 1960s [a decade known for wonderfully odd fare to begin with-- just sayin'] was this classic "Early American Jazz"-style number from a young English keyboardist called Georgie Fame (born Clive Powell, 26 June 1943 and still swingin' today, I'm told.)
Written-- no doubt-- to cash in on the brief Bonnie and Clyde craze going on at the time, the song is notable not just for a really unusual, downright coolness in it's jazzy musical approach [Fame may have been part of the so-called British Invasion, but his models and heroes were obviously more along the lines of Mose Allison and Hoagy Carmichael than the more usual hoarse old bluesmen!] but also for a real historical honesty in the lyrics! It's a song about sociopaths, after all, and ol' Georgie, to his credit,doesn't romanticize these hoodlums one bit, which makes the song even more refreshing today than when I first heard it years ago on AM oldies radio as "a mere boy and a beardless youth."
In any case, here it is: a #1 hit in England, #7 in the USA...
Check it out!
The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde
Bonnie and Clyde
Were pretty lookin' people But I can tell you people,
They were the devil's children! Bonnie and Clyde
Began their evil doins' One lazy afternoon
Down Savannah way They robbed a store
And hightailed out of that town Got clean away in a stolen car
And waited till the heat died down.
Bonnie and Clyde,
Advanced their reputation And made their graduation
Into the banking business "Reach for the sky!"
Sweet-talkin' Clyde would holler As Bonnie loaded dollars
In the "Dewlap Bag." Now one brave man,
He tried to take them alone They left him lyin' in a pool of blood And laughed about it all the way home.
(instrumental)
Bonnie and Clyde got to be public enemy number one Runnin' and hidin' from every American lawman's gun
They used to laugh about dyin' But deep inside them they knew That pretty soon they'd be lyin' Beneath the ground together Pushin' up daisies to welcome the sun and the morning dew.
Actin' upon
Reliable information A Federal deputation
Laid a deadly ambush When Bonnie and Clyde Came walkin' in the sunshine A half a dozen carbines Opened up on them
(firearm noises)
Bonnie and Clyde, They lived a lot together
And finally together
They... died.
"Depart from evil, and do good; seekpeace, and pursue it."
Albie's Note:I immediately thought of posting this old comic when I read my on-line pal Oscar'sBLOG about western writer Luke Short [actually Fred Glidden November 19, 1908 – August 18, 1975] This one is a real treat if you have certain interests.... I mean, here we have an adaptation of a pulp story by Short and fine early comic art from John Buscema [1927-2002] all packaged together by the most successful publishing house in comics history: Mighty DELL!
The original story is one I have never been able to find called "Test Pit." Apparently it was printed originally in the pulp Western Story Magazine back in 1938. I am a big fan of Short's fiction so I would love to read the novella behind this comic classic, but so far I have never found it collected anywhere. I would to read Short'ss pulp version and compare the two... but just having this one is great enough! I think you'll agree with me it's a great story, and one that would have made a fine movie in the right hands.
Interestingly, DELL actually printed dozens of these comic one-shots from the fiction of western writers like Short, Zane Grey,Max Brand and Ernest Haycox. They are worth looking around for, and the REALLY cool thing is that you can often find these comics dirt cheap even today!
[I have read that DELL basically kept doing these westerns in the "four color" line because they concurrently held the rights to the paperbacks of the same titles... the idea was to get rural and hinterlands kids started on these sagebrush authors early. I bet it worked well... Heck, like I say, I have been trying to find TEST PIT for years because of the comic treatment!]
Albie's Note: One of the odder albums of the early sixties was Eden's Island by a sort of early hippie beach bum named Eden Ahbez. Ahbez (15 April 1908 – 4 March 1995) was already famous-- in a novelty sort of way-- for being the writer of Nat King Cole's gargantuan 1948 hit "Nature Boy" and had guest starred on several major TV shows with that very claim to fame. Ahbez has often been called the "first hippie" as he was sporting a long-haired, bearded "prophet look" as early as the mid-40s. Really, though, I think he can be placed pretty safely among the Beatniks of the 40's and '50s just as well-- as ably illustrated by this bit of spoken word poetry form the aforementioned 1960 album. The album was recorded by the great Bob Keane for his own Del-Fi Records and released September 1960 to just about no fanfare of acclaim whatsoever. I tried out the album after it came to CD in the late 1990s because Keane is a personal hero of mine-- both for his great west coast body of recorded music and his cool attitude toward life in general. He is most famous today for recording Ritchie Valens, Bobby Fuller, and many SoCal surf groups, but he had a famous open-door policy at his home based studio that attracted all kinds of nuts.
Enter Mr. Ahbez!
Released with an announcement that Ahbez would walk coast to coast to promote his record, starting in Los Angeles, the album is actually a really good one [at least I think so-- you are welcome to judge for yourself-- the whole thing can be heard on Youtube] and is aided immensely by Keane's expert production to become a marvelous summer mood enhancer. Here-- without further adieu-- is the sixth track, "Full Moon."
Full Moon
To live in an oil shack by the sea (And breathe the sweet salt air) To live with the dawn and the dusk The new moon and the full moon The tides the wind and the rain... To surf and comb the beach And gather sea shells and drift-wood And know the thrill of loneliness And lose all sense of time And be free To hike over the island to the village And visit the marketplace And enjoy the music and the food and the people And do a little trading And see the great ships come and go And, man, have me a ball And in the evening (When the sky is on fire) Heaven and earth become my great open cathedral Where all men are brothers Where all things are bound by law And crowned with love Poor, alone and happy I walk by the surf and make a fire on the beach And as darkness covers the face of the deep Lie down in the wild grass And dream the dream that the dreamers dream I am the wind, the sea, the evening star I am everyone, anyone, no one.
Albie's Note: I may be an ol' Baptist, but these here Mormon kids are funny! If you've never seen the comedy sketch showSTUDIO C from Brigham Young University [new episodes air weekly on the BYU-TV channel, natch] you really oughtta check it out. My 11 year old son, Gideon and I have become HUGE fans. In my humble opinion, it has all the talent and great writing of say, classic Saturday Night Live, and it is done entirely without objectionable material.
Plus, they even-- at least this once-- did a western!
