Funny people, doin' their thing

Joan Rivers, on "Ed Sullivan Show," in the '60s:

Heavy-osity, man! Just dig it!

The Vanilla Fudge, on the Ed Sullivan show, performing "You Keep me Hangin' On:"

Guitars. guitars, guitars ....

The Ventures, on a great, but abbreviated, version of "Caravan":



The Ventures perform "Wipeout," "House of the Risin' Sun," and "Telstar," in a Japanese concert in the mid-'60s:



Next, the Ventures play "Pipeline" and "Diamond Head":



They follow that up with "The Cruel Sea", "Walk, Don't Run," and "Apache":



Then, it's "Slaughter On 10th Avenue," "The Bumble Bee," and "Bulldog:"



Here's an old Nokie Edwards, plucking out "Slaughter On 10th Avenue," in concert, with camera work that allows you to see his fingerpicking technique (and fingernails)!

Rockin' Blues, and More ...

The Blasters do "One Bad Stud" in a 2004 show in Italy:




Another take of the song, at an April 2010 show (in glorious black and white):




Yardbirds, with Eric Clapton, in 1963 perform "Louise":



Jeff Beck, with the Yardbirds, is very hot in this version of "Jeff's Boogie":



And in this demonstration, an unidentified guitarist shows how Beck did it:



Here's another, live "Jeff's Boogie:"




The Animals do "House of Risin' Sun" in 1963:



The Animals, performing "Boom Boom," in '65:



Next, an Animals performance of "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood," from 1965:



Those same Animals perform "Bring it on Home to Me":



The Animals look back at the "House of Risin' Sun" controversy and the Alan Price crackup:



"We Gotta Get Out of This Place," performed by the Animals, live:



Eric Burdon & the Animals do "Tobacco Road":



Janis Joplin at Monterey Pop Festival in '67, doing "Ball and Chain":

Pickers all ....

Merle Travis performs "Lost John":



Merle performs "Bugle Call Rag":



Merle on "Cannonball Rag":



Roy Bookbinder plays "Travelin'Man" and pays homage to the song's composer, Pink Anderson, at a 1987 folk festival:



Chet Atkins performs "Mr. Sandman," on TV in 1954. This is one of the best performance videos I have seen in terms of the camera showing the guitarist's hands.



Chet Atkins and Jerry Reed do a duet on "Jerry's Breakdown" on TV in 1975:



Les Paul and Mary Ford play "How High The Moon" (26 tracks at once!):

Swingin' Cats: Basie et al ....

Count Basie and his orchestra perform Freddie Green's "Corner Pocket" in 1964 TV appearance:




"Corner Pocket" again, in 1962 concert rendition:



And now, Count's downsized band plays "Basie Boogie," from 1950:

Hockey Night In Canada

Hockey Tonight (Hockey Night In Canada pre-game theme song:



The vintage opening of the Hockey Night In Canada show, with the original, classic theme song and Jack Dennett's voice-over at the end:



The vintage sign-off version of the theme song, including a visual tribute to the Leafs (perhaps to commemorate their moving from Maple Leaf Gardens to the Air Canada Centre?).



Roughneck Philly Flyers chase frustrated Soviets off the ice, in 1976:



Don Cherry has his desk-striking habit electronically enhanced so that each strike sounds like a piano key, or keys. It seems uncannily accurate - and it is hilarious.

You Tube Oddities

Worst band in the world butchers Clapton's "Cocaine":



Yoga girl expressing herself ...



More of the same, except this time on TV:

John Lennon and Plastic Ono Band in Toronto, 1969

John Lennon brings the Plastic Ono Band to the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival Festival at Varsity Stadium in 1969.


See it and hear it:

John tentatively cuts loose on "Blue Suede Shoes."
 
Digging into the Beatles back catalog, he follows that up with a shaky "Money":

And then with a creaky "Dizzy Miss Lizzie."

Then finding his voice, John does a rather grabby number from the Beatles White album, "Yer Blues."
 
John next introduces "Cold Turkey." A quite stirring rendition notwithstanding the distraction created by Yoko's bleating accompaniment.

John closes out his portion of the show (Yoko would go on to do two numbers solo) with "Give Peace a Chance."

Now read about it:


Live Peace in Toronto 1969 is a 1969 live album recorded by John Lennon and Yoko Ono, as the Plastic Ono Band, at the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival festival. Lennon after being asked by local promoter John Brower if he and Yoko would accept an invitation to emcee the show on short notice instead decided to make his post Beatle debut at this festival. Featuring Eric Clapton on guitar (fresh from the break-up of Blind Faith), Klaus Voormann on bass and future Yes drummer Alan White (who a few months later would provide the drums on the percussion-driven Plastic Ono Band single, "Instant Karma!") on drums, the line-up is filled out by Lennon on lead vocals and rhythm guitar and Ono on vocals. The album was credited to Plastic Ono Band, a conceptual grouping that included Lennon and Ono and whoever happened to be backing them up at that particular moment. Both Lennon and Ono would use the nomenclature for several of their future solo albums.
The album is technically a soundtrack recording, being part of the audio portion of D.A. Pennebaker's documentary movie Sweet Toronto. Lennon and Ono made a deal with Pennebaker to license their portion of the show for record, in exchange for rights to include their appearance. Unfortunately the deal fell through, with Lennon and Ono changing their minds about the inclusion (Lennon had been ill the day of the concert, and it showed on camera), and the movie was never originally released. (Showtime ultimately presented the performance during the 1980s, and the full movie appeared later on home video and DVD.)
As initially released on LP and later cassette tape, 8-track and on video cassette, side one of Live Peace in Toronto 1969 comprised John's set, which included his two Plastic Ono Band singles for the year, "Give Peace A Chance" and a preview of the yet-to-be released at the time of the show "Cold Turkey;" "Yer Blues" from The Beatles; and some favoured covers of 1950s rock and roll. Side two comprised Yoko's set, including the b-side to "Cold Turkey," "Don't Worry Kyoko," and featuring her trademark caterwauling stage act, which was not quite as well received as Lennon's performance. The album ends with Lennon, Clapton, and Voorman leaning their guitars against the amplifiers to create a sustained roar of solid feedback, while Yoko continues screaming as the rest of the band leaves the stage.
Unlike many Lennon and Beatles albums, the individual guitars are clearly distinguishable in the stereo mix, with Lennon's toward the left channel and Clapton's toward the right. Also, the movie mix of the soundtrack offers stronger vocals by Ono during "Yer Blues", and Clapton during "Give Peace A Chance". By contrast, Lennon's guitar is hardly audible on the movie.
Admitting he could not remember the recorded lyrics ("I've forgotton all those bits in between, but I know the chorus"), Lennon improvised words to "Give Peace A Chance":

Everybody's talkin' about

John And Yoko, Eric Clapton, Klaus Voormann,

Penny Lane, Roosevelt, Nixon,

Tommy Jones and Tommy Cooper and Somebody!.

Live Peace in Toronto 1969, though not making the British charts, was a US hit album, reaching #10 and going gold. The original LP came with a thirteen-month 1970 calendar. Tape versions of the album included a mail-in coupon for the calendar.
The album was released to quash any bootleg versions that Lennon was sure would leak onto the market. EMI were reluctant at first to issue the album, after two commercial failures in a row (Unfinished Music No.2: Life with the Lions and Wedding Album) from Lennon and Ono. (Their first effort, Two Virgins, was distributed by Track Records, and had also failed commercially.) The album's success came as a pleasant surprise, changing EMI's perceptions.
Yoko Ono supervised a remixing of Live Peace in Toronto 1969 for its 1995 CD reissue. While the earlier fadeout between sides was eliminated for compact disc, the original ending to the album (a cut-off closing announcement) was eliminated. The CD booklet included a reproduction of the calendar, updated to 1995.
Currently the album is available from audiophile label Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab (UDCD 763) and from the iTunes Music Store. The booklet for the Mobile Fidelity release, which was issued in 2006, includes an updated calendar for 2006.


The Toronto Rock and Roll Revival was a one day, twelve hour music festival held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on September 13, 1969. It featured a number of popular musical acts from the 1950s and 1960s.^[1] The festival is particularly notable as featuring an appearance by John Lennon and Yoko Ono, as the Plastic Ono Band, which resulted in the release of their Live Peace in Toronto 1969 album. The festival was also the subject of the D.A. Pennebaker film, Sweet Toronto.


The Toronto Rock and Roll Revival was held at Varsity Stadium, of the University of Toronto, before an audience of approximately 20,000. The originally listed performers for the festival were Whiskey Howl, Bo Diddley, Chicago, Junior Walker and the All Stars, Tony Joe White, Alice Cooper, Chuck Berry, Cat Mother and the All Night News Boys, Jerry Lee Lewis, Gene Vincent, Little Richard, Doug Kershaw and The Doors. Kim Fowley was listed as the Master of Ceremonies.^[2] Screaming Lord Sutch was later added to the bill, as were the Toronto area bands Nucleus and Milkwood, the latter of which included Malcolm Tomlinson.^[3] The appearance of John Lennon, Yoko Ono and The Plastic Ono Band was not publicly known in advance.
As recounted by co-producer John Brower:^[4]

The festival was produced by John Brower and Kenny Walker, who had also produced a 2 day festival in June of 1969 at the same facility. The Rock and Roll Revival was notable for its almost having been cancelled the week of the show when poor ticket sales prompted the backers George and Thor Eaton of Canadian department store fame to pull out. Upon hearing this news, Kim Fowley, who was in Toronto early that week with Rodney Bingenheimer to promote for the festival, suggested that Brower call Apple Records in London and invite John and Yoko to come over and be the emcees. Fowley correctly surmised that given Lennon's love of the music of Chuck Berry, Little Richard and Gene Vincent he would be prompted to accept the invitation. Lennon however went Brower one better by suggesting that they wouldn't want to come unless they could play. Brower accepted that offer and quickly arranged plane tickets for John and Yoko, Klaus Voormann, Alan White and Eric Clapton along with Beatles road manager Mal Evans and Yoko's assistant Anthony Fawcett.

Media outlets in Toronto, including CHUM radio, refused to believe Brower and ticket sales remained stillborn until Detroit promoter and radio personality Russ Gibb played nightly the tape recording of Fawcett reciting the names to Brower for the plane tickets. This caused a last minute stampede into Toronto from Detroit and once wire services reported the entourage had boarded their flight in London CHUM radio went on the air with the news and the stadium sold out during the afternoon of the event. Also notable was the escort into Toronto for both The Doors and John and Yoko by The Vagabonds motorcycle club, whose 80 members rode 40 in front and 40 in back for both artists' limousines from the Toronto airport to the university stadium in the city center.

It was at this festival that audience members first lit matches and lighters to welcome a performer on stage. Fowley came up with this as a means to ease John Lennon's stage fright. Fowley appeared on stage just before introducing the Plastic Ono Band and had everyone get their matches ready whereupon Lennon and company took the stage to a spectacular show of lights. This has since become a tradition in rock and roll, but was first experienced here.

Brower and Lennon attempted to produce a world peace festival in 1970, but failed to agree on details and were overwhelmed with both political and internecine opposition.

It was at this festival that the Alice Cooper "chicken incident" took place; a chicken was reportedly thrown on stage and thrown back into the audience by lead singer Alice, a photo of which was sent by wire around the world. Various reports ranged from Alice biting the chicken's head off before returning it to the crowd to Alice's own claim that audience members in the front of the crowd tore the poor bird to pieces in a frenzy of rock and roll pandemonium.

An unauthorized Doors recording from the Toronto performance features Doors guitarist Robbie Krieger playing the melody and chorus from The Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby" in the middle of his guitar solo on "Light My Fire." The Doors closed the festival and Morrison begins their song "The End" by telling the audience he was honored to be on the same stage as the "illustrious musical geniuses" who had preceded the group that day.

Various mutually supportive performances occurred at the festival. The Alice Cooper Band was the backing band for Gene Vincent,^[5] while members of Nucleus were the backing band for Chuck Berry.^[6] In addition, appearances at the festival served to revitalize the careers of certain performers from the 1950s. For example, according to one reviewer, in relation to Little Richard's performance:

...he and his extremely tight band proceeded to tear through his classics at breakneck speed. With sweat gushing down his heavily made up face, he jumped on the piano and drove the young crowd crazy, exhorting them to get up and dance to blazing numbers like 'Rip It Up', 'Good Golly Miss Molly', and 'Jenny, Jenny'. By the time he finished racing through the closing notes of his 'Long Tall Sally' finale, he was sopping wet with his shirt torn to shreds by the crowd below. In 30 frenetic minutes Little Richard had just made his comeback."^[7]

The Doors, as the headlining act, closed the show. The band's appearance at the 1969 festival would be their last appearance in Toronto, prior to the 1971 death of Jim Morrison.


 

A music-video paradise: '60s

Ugly Ducklings perform "Nothing":



The Hollies, in a televised 1969 concert, perform "Hey, Carrie Anne":



The Hollies cover "Just Like A Woman":



Next, the Hollies perform a medley of their hits, including "Bus Stop" and "On A Carousel":



The Hollies follow up with a rockin' acoustic version of "Quit Your Lowdown Ways":



In another Dylan cover, the Hollies perform "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight."



Another Hollies take on a folk tune: "Help Me, Brother:"



The Hollies close out the '69 concert with Stop, Stop, Stop:



The Hollies perform "Bus Stop" live in 1966:



Hollies, in a live version of "Carousel":



Another "Carousel," from 1968, during Graham Nash's last days with the band:



Same '68 concert, "Jennifer Eccles":



Hollies, 1968, on "Carrie Anne":



The Hollies perform "Look Through Any Window," in 1966:



Another performance of "Look Through Any Window" (looks live, but it isn't):



In 1973, the Hollies perform "Carrie Anne," with Tony Hicks handling the lead vocals, with former lead singer Allan gone.



Three years later, in 1976, they do "Carrie Anne," now with lead singer Allan back in the band:



In 1983, with Graham Nash rejoining them for a reunion, the Hollies do "Carrie Anne":



Spencer Davis Group does "I'm A Man":

Swingin' '50s Popsters

Vic Damone on Hollywood Place in 1966, introduced by "Bewitched" star Elizabeth Montgomery and singing "Falling In Love with Love" and "I Cried For You":



Judy Garland, on her early '60s TV show, singing "The Man Who Got Away":



Bobby Darin, swingin' hard on "Mack the Knife" (from a TV appearance - set looks like Flip Wilson Show):



Here's Darin, doin' "Mack" to close out his own TV show. Note the precision footwork:



Darin, again on his own show, singing "This Could Be the Start of Something Big":



And here's Darin on "The Jack Benny Program," performing "As Long As I'm Singin'":



Andy Williams does a trio with Bobby Darin and Vic Damone on Williams' TV show in 1965:




Margaret Whiting sings "It Might As Well Be Spring":



Nat King Cole, swingin' on "It's Only A Paper Moon," live on TV:




Sammy Davis Jr imitates Nat King Cole during a duo with Nat, on Nat's live TV show:



Julie London, with "Cry Me A River," on TV:



Another TV version, with a nice embelllishment of the original minimalist arrangement:

The Beatles at Maple Leaf Gardens, Aug. 17, 1966

John and Paul at the Gardens, in Toronto, Aug. 17, 1966:

Here's my actual stub from the afternoon show...

 

.... and here's what some other stubs from that concert looked like.  Note that the first one is for the afternoon performance while the second and the third are for the evening show.

A fine article that captures the spirit of the time, including the actual set list!

Fans remember Beatles gig in T.O.

By CASSANDRA SZKLARSKI

August 11, 2006

http://jam.canoe.ca/Music/2006/08/11/1748269-cp.html

TORONTO (CP) - The year was 1966, Edith Manea had just turned 17 and the greatest band in the world - the Beatles, of course - were about to play their last concert ever in Canada.

Short of cash, but desperate to see her heroes, Edith and her twin sister marched themselves down to Maple Leaf Gardens, turned on the waterworks and unleashed a sob story at the box office involving lost tickets.

It worked. Moments later, they stood mere metres from the Fab Four, screaming along with thousands of other young fans.

"I was not about to be left out," states Manea, now a 56-year-old mother of two grown sons who goes by her married name, Ippolito.

"We waited until people in the front were fainting and being carted off and we just took a seat and we sat in the very front. I took photographs right up beside Paul McCartney singing Yesterday. I have photos of that," she recalls proudly on the eve of the concert's 40th anniversary - Aug. 17.

At the time, no one knew that the performance would be the Beatles' farewell to Canada. John, Paul, George and Ringo would play their last concert ever as a group in San Francisco on Aug. 29, 1966, and announce thereafter that they would focus solely on studio recordings.

A two-day convention to commemorate the final tour takes place next month in Toronto. Original drummer Pete Best and John Lennon's onetime companion May Pang are expected to attend, and a never-before-heard Toronto bootleg from that '66 show will be on display.

Incredibly, Beatles expert Peter Miniaci says neither the matinee nor evening concerts sold out that day, the only Canadian stop on the tour. Amid controversy and waning fan frenzy, the Gardens sold just 15,000 of its 18,000 tickets for the matinee and 17,000 tickets for the evening show.

Miniaci, who runs Toronto's Beatlemania Shoppe, blames the leftover seats on Beatles fatigue, which by Revolver and Rubber Soul had settled even in Brit-pop crazy Toronto.

"It was the third time that they came to Toronto," says Miniaci, noting the band had also visited in 1964 and 1965.

"People in '66 thought OK, we saw them in '65, they've been here, they're gonna come again, right? Little did they realize that that was the last time. I'm sure there's a bunch of people now reflecting, 'I should have went to that '66 show. I could kick myself.' "

Those who did go to the show paid a mere $5.50 for a floor seat or $4 for a seat in the rafters.

Inside, it was bedlam.

Just like every other Beatles show, the audience was packed with screaming teenage girls, all clamouring for a glimpse of their mop-topped idols, says Ippolito.

A row of uniformed security officers ringed the stage, arms linked. In addition, 200 police officers had reportedly been assigned to escort the boys, and hundreds more were on standby.

The bare-bones stage was littered with white pieces of paper, presumably love notes tossed in desperate adulation, recalls fan Stephen Long, who was in the third row.

The stage set-up, meanwhile, was "laughable" says Ippolito.

"Nowadays they have these huge speakers. Then, they just had these little wee box speakers and little regular mikes. There was nothing fancy about their set-up."

Throughout it all, there was screaming.

Long, who brought along a handheld tape recorder to the show, is thought to have made the only full Beatles bootleg from a 1966 concert. It will be played publicly for the first time at the Toronto Beatles Celebration on Sept. 16 and 17, says convention organizer David Goyette, but he warns "it's mostly screaming."

Ippolito concurs.

"It was about 25 minutes of total screaming," she says, adding that the musicianship left a lot to be desired.

"I didn't think they were hitting the notes, they didn't remember the lyrics, it was so noisy. (But) they were fantastic."

She says Lennon especially put on a lacklustre performance, a comment that doesn't surprise Paul White, head of A&R for Capitol Canada at the time.

"I would never say they went through the motions but (the 1966 show) was a bit of a letdown from previous years," says White, the man credited with launching Beatlemania in North America when he released Love Me Do in Canada in February 1963.

"I think that was when the group was starting to run down and become four individuals, more than a group called the Beatles."

The real fun was had backstage, says the now-73-year-old White.

"Well, that was a bigger madhouse than the actual show because you had all the people in town that they knew from the record label and then musicians that they'd met along the way," says White, who recalls Ronnie Hawkins and most of his band, the Hawks, as "always around."

"And there were groupies, of course, but that's enough said about that."

Despite the Beatles' phenomenal following and unprecedented celebrity, a look at their four-page 1966 concert rider is a study in modesty by today's outlandish standards.

The contract, signed by then-promoter Bob Eubanks (later host of the Newlywed Game), simply asks for adequate police security and a spartan stage set-up.

Among the requests are "four (4) floor stand Hi-Fi microphones," "a first-class sound engineer" and "not less than two (2) super trouper follow spotlights."

Backstage, the minimal demands include "four cots, mirrors, an ice cooler, portable TV set and clean towels and two (2) cases of soft drinks."

Miniaci laughs when he considers how times have changed for today's rock gods.

"Here they are, they walk in, the four of them plus three other guys. And then you see some of these celebrities and actresses and singers, they get like, 50 people, and it's just an interview at Much(Music)," says Miniaci.

Most interesting, the rider stipulates that "artists will not be required to perform before a segregated audience" - a real possibility in the racially turbulent times of the United States.

Politics and controversy definitely had a way of following the lads from Liverpool.

In the weeks leading up to the Toronto concert, a firestorm erupted after a U.S. magazine published quotes in which Lennon said the Beatles were more popular than Jesus. On the day of the Toronto show, Lennon stated his support for Americans who fled to Canada to escape the Vietnam draft.

While Ippolito says ongoing controversy didn't seem to diminish fan ardour at the show, White says times had definitely changed for the Beatles by 1966.

"I remember that it was sort of the end of an era because, not that Beatlemania ever really died away, but sort of the fever from the early shows was not quite there this time 'round," says White, adding he wasn't surprised that they announced an end to touring soon afterwards.

"So many other things had come along to replace them and they were going in different directions themselves."

"We suspected that things were going to have to end sometime."

Miniaci suggests the Beatles put an end to live performances in part due to the frustrations of touring.

"A lot of people think it was a combination that they were losing their popularity, they were going really weird and psychedelic, they were letting their hair grow long in '66 and then John came out with some controversial statements and stuff," he says.

But technological limitations also kept them from playing their increasingly challenging songs, he says, noting the '66 tours featured material from '64 and '65.

"They couldn't do any of the psychedelic songs (on Revolver), like Tomorrow Never Knows and She Said She Said," he explains.

"It was very primitive back then. They were getting frustrated and they should have just hung in there, because a year or two later you had all these great bands like the Who and the Yardbirds and (Jimi) Hendrix touring with much better equipment and stuff."

Toronto was one of five cities that the Beatles visited on each of their three North American tours. The others were Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and New York.

To this day, Ippolito says nothing compares to the experience of Beatlemania in Toronto.

"There hasn't been anything like it, that I can recall, in terms of excitement in the city, except for the World Series," says Ippolito, a devoted fan who once snuck into the Beatles' Toronto hotel room in 1964, absconding with a spoon, a cereal box, a linen napkin and several cigarette butts.

"When the Beatles came, the whole city was buzzing. It was in papers all the time, CHUM (radio) was talking about it all the time, it was just huge."

"I'm so glad, I'm lucky I was a part of it."

-

On the Web: www.torontobeatlescelebration.comr

-

The Beatles played their last Toronto show almost 40 years ago on Aug. 17, 1966.

The set list for the gig at Maple Leaf Gardens:

-Rock And Roll Music

-She's A Woman

-If I Needed Someone

-Day Tripper

-Baby's In Black

-I Feel Fine

-Yesterday

-I Wanna Be Your Man

-Nowhere Man

-Paperback Writer

-I'm Down

In Toronto, BeatleMania marked Fab Four's visit 40 years ago

CASSANDRA SZKLARSKI

Fri Aug 11, 2006

TORONTO (CP) - In the 1960s, Beatlemania undeniably took over the world - but in Toronto, the obsession with the Fab Four was more like BeatleManea.

Manea for the Manea twins, a pair of Toronto sisters who loved the Beatles so much that they themselves gained notoriety for several bold encounters with the famed band.

"I just wanted to be in their airspace, basically," the now-56-year-old Edith Manea explains on the eve of the 40th anniversary of the Beatles' last Canadian date - Aug. 17.
"I just wanted to get beside them. I didn't want to be one in a million, I just wanted to have some sort of a contact."

The starstruck relationship began when Edith and Herta Manea fell in love with the Beatles at the age of 14. They learned the band was to perform in Toronto on Sept. 7, 1964, and immediately sprang into action. Getting tickets to the show was the easy part. Orchestrating one-on-one time with the boys at the swank King Edward Hotel would take some planning.

"My sister and I (went) to the hotel, all summer, every opportunity, and we scouted it," says Manea, who now goes by her married name Ippolito and was featured on a 90-minute Beatles documentary called The Scream Heard Around The World.

"We looked for every nook and cranny we could hide - stairwells, anything. We knew the joint inside out."

Then, the night before the concert, the pair put on their best dresses, snuck out of their house and returned to the King Edward. They found police had cordoned off parts of the street to keep screaming fans from getting too close to John, Paul, George and Ringo.

Edith says she planted herself right in front, behind a giant officer. When the mop-tops arrived, she didn't hesitate.

"I ran through the police legs and I grabbed George's arm and I went 'George!' " she laughs.

"And there was such a skirmish, I looked over my shoulder and saw Paul coming in. I literally crawled out from the skirmish and ran over to Paul, took both his hands and just said, 'Paul, hi.' And he looked at me and said, 'Hello there, luv."'

"I stood frozen in that spot and Paul walked away, got into the elevator and the police let go and everybody ran to me and they were kissing my hands and touching me and it was great."

The next day, they went to the concert and afterwards, made a beeline for the hotel. Luckily, they had a stolen hotel key that allowed them to roam the halls without suspicion. They found the band's newly painted room with ease.

"The Beatles had already left. (We) got into the room and we just took souvenirs," says Ippolito, who also orchestrated elaborate encounters with the boys in the subsequent tours of 1965 and 1966.

"We got a teaspoon, we got an empty cornflakes box, we got a linen napkin and some matchbooks and cigarette butts."

But after all that trouble, Ippolito laments that her mother threw the treasures in the garbage.

"She was disgusted we would keep something like that," she says.

Dylan at Newport, 1965, and more .....

Dylan, backed by Paul Butterfield Blues Band, at 1965 Newport Folk Festival, doing "Maggie's Farm," in a concert that infuriated acoustic folkies:



Like a Rolling Stone, from the controversial Newport set:



Dylan's excoriating 1966 interview with a Time magazine reporter:



And a 1965 press conference:



The electric Dylan, in 1966 Newcastle concert, performing "Like A Rolling Stone":

Kick-Ass TV Music

Police Squad theme song. Over-the-top, but great:



And here's a shorter version:



Barney Miller theme, an early version ...



... and a later version (the one I remember):



And then there's Maude!



And the theme song for the show that spawned "Maude," "All In The Family":



And here's Carol O'Connor, singing the "All In The Family" closing theme, accompanied in kick-ass fashion by composer Roger Kellaway:

Guitars, guitars and more guitars

John Pizzarelli wails on "After You've Gone":

Just commercials ....

Jello instant pudding's TV debut ....

Jello Instant Pudding Jingle Lyrics

       F               Dm       Gm                   C7

You say you don’t have time to cook

            F          Dm       Gm       C7

Come over here and take a look

            Bb        Bdim    F/C      D7

It’s smooth, it’s cool, it breaks the rules

            G9                   C6       C7#5

Chocolate, cherry, sweet strawberry

F                   F/A        Bb6/Bb         Bdim/B   C7 C#7 Gm E6  F6                                      

Who says you couldn’t have instant puddin’ with J-e-l-l-o

The Blues Ain't Nothing But A Pain In Your Heart

Muddy Waters, performing "I Got My Mojo Working" at the Newport Jazz Festival, 1960:



Howlin' Wolf, in a crisp performance of Dust My Broom:




T-Bone Walker w/ Jazz At The Philharmonic - Live in UK 1966, with band including Dizzy Gillespie. Introduction by Norman Granz:



Albert King plays "Blues Power," in a great live performance:

Walter Cronkite Announces JFK Assassination

Toronto, that's people city: CITY-TV theme song

A mix of great TV shows from way back

First up, it's the Patty Duke Show:




Second, it's the Many Loves of Dobie Gillis:



Then there are a bunch of second- and third-tier shows that I liked. For instance, the Highway Patrol:



Then, it's Ripcord:



Now, here's Whirlybirds:



My dad regularly watched Combat. It had a good theme song and I liked Vic Morrow:



I didn't watch 77 Sunset Strip, but its theme was interesting:



Run, Buddy, Run lasted about two seconds, but I watched it. It had a pretty great theme song:



My sister Barb loved George Maharis of "Route 66." Here's the intro:

Leafs win the Stanley Cup in 1967

Here are the Game 3 highlights from the first and second overtime: