I was a regular listener to his show in the early-mid '80s and continue to torture my wife by singing such songs as Barnes & Barnes' "Fish Heads," and "They're Coming to Take Me Away..." by Napoleon XIV. She responds by leaving the room and yelling: "They're not coming fast enough!"
Love this deep dive and I'll have to check out Andrew Smith's piece too! And I thought the Weird Al "biopic" starring Daniel Radcliffe was, for the most part, hilarious and bat-shit crazy!
Napoleon XIV passed away just this past March (at 84), I just noticed. I had that single (with the reversed flip) at the time....yep, Warner Bros.! "They're not coming fast enough!" is hilarious! Andrew and I (his idea) purposely wanted to coordinate our posts to go hand-in-hand. Great cross-pollination of readers, but also avoids a bloated e-mail (we had originally discussed a collabbed piece with both bios). Glad you liked! I'd like to see that Weird Al biopic!
I haven't thought about Dr Demento and Loss Leaders in OH MY GAWD DECADES. I LOVE THIS. My antique teen brain is reeling(no Steely Dan jokes). Thank you.
We were reading Dr. D for months, if not years, before the world even knew who he was! Thank you for reading, enjoying, and commenting, Wendy....and, most of all, for remembering!
Great piece. The Dr. Demento Show was easily the most important radio show I listened to in the 1970s, in terms of my musical education. I interviewed him about 20 years ago for a feature I was writing about Weird Al, and he could not have been kinder or more generous with his time — though I was far more nervous about speaking to him than I've ever been about interviewing any of my other musical idols!
Thanks for sharing, Dan! Both Barry and Al have the most "unplanned" and serendipitous careers of any I can think of (certainly in the rock/pop music arena)! Great to hear the good Doctor was kind and generous. I don't know a soul who would guess he'd be anything other!
Were you aware, at all, of Barry's pre-Al Warner Bros. gig? The extra decade I have on you (plus, my ready access to all manner of their late-'60s thru '70s Burbankian product) helped me be exposed to his print past.
Well, that I'm sure he did, and his master's likely spoke volumes to the WB execs (namely Cornyn, I'm guessing, who likely hired him directly), with his radio career possibly not a blip, yet, on the scene. I do know that Barry has said that had his DJ career (even before his DD persona blossomed) not taken off, he likely would've simply pursued a career in academics to some degree.
Again, I'm astounded by the off-chance nature of it all, including Al's gumption in just passing a cassette to a guy, and that guy having the guts to actually air it! Such simpler times, then, without having to go through a phalanx of suits to get everything OK-ed!
Loved this! Brought back memories of having to make sure I was by the radio in time for his show every week when I was in high school, 1973-5. Dr. D lived not too far from me in Highland Park (L.A.). What a curious fellow. Had no idea about his background. Appreciate your research into this crazy and creative man in the top hat. Thank you! 🎩
Thank you so much, Louise, for dropping by, enjoying, and commenting! I graduated high school (Bellaire High in Houston, TX) the year you entered! While you're in the neighborhood, please feel free to root around the FRONT ROW & BACKSTAGE Archive collection. Histories of songs is kinda what we're all about! If I may...........
Plus, our good friend, Stephen Michael Schwartz, who has graciously provided 20 articles (in his own words, with exclusive song files and photos!) about his '70s decade in the Hollywood record biz! He was 20 when he recorded his RCA Records album in 1974, and he's written songs with David Pomeranz, Jay Asher, and Hall of Famer, Jeff Barry! Stephen's complete collection of articles can be found here: https://bradkyle.substack.com/t/stephen-michael-schwartz
Subscribed! The "autopsy" collection (love the name) as well as SM Schwartz's articles look intriguing. They give a lot of the production-side and other background of groups/singers. Although I deal with the history referred to in lyrics, I might find some interesting tidbits here for my own Substack, Social Issues in Song.
Thanks for subscribing, Louise (and for the compliments)! Happy to have you behind the velvet rope line, FRONT ROW & BACKSTAGE! We've got a small army of past and current record industry folk on board, including several professional songwriters and musicians!
I'm sure they (and all our readers) will find your "Social Issues in Song" of great interest and entertainment. I hope they'll enjoy and subscribe here: https://louisehaynes.substack.com/
Love this! Had a bunch of the Loss Leaders and always appreciated the commitment WB made to educating listeners via those writeups. wow what a different era.
Amen, Tom, and thanks! And, I feel that much more blessed and fortunate to also have had the extra exposure (to go with the many rock mags of the day I consumed) to "Circular," not only to be inspired by HOW Barry wrote (along with his "Loss Leaders" input), but the extra, behind-the-scenes peeks WB gave us with that promo-only piece!
Thanks, Patrick! Happy to share kudos with the mighty Andrew Smith of "Goatfury Writes"! Check out this, his latest piece on young Master Yankovic: https://goatfury.substack.com/p/weird-al
Sadly, I have entered the real of dog-daddom, and I've brought all the dad jokes with me. We also have all sorts of dad-ish nicknames for our little furbabies.
WoW!! I could never have imagined there was a Barry Hansen before there was a Dr. Demento!! I recorded his show religiously every Sunday night and possibly have those cassette tapes still in a giant Campbell soup tin somewhere. (I called it « Cream of Tapes! »-I must have written about that some where’s on the ‘Stack!!)
Favorites from those tapes
Another One Rides the Bus
PacMan Fever
Ode to Billy Joel (I still know all the words)
I don’t wanna get drafted-Zappa
Dead Puppies
My Ding-a-ling
Take off (To the White North)
Theme from Dr. Who
Where did Robinson Crusoe go (With Friday on Saturday Night
Any Spike Jones (I CAN take the way he sings AND I love to hear him talk!!!)
The Punk Polka
There are so many more. I also once got my whole 2nd grade class to sign a petition to get “Another One Rides the Bus” onto The Funny Five. I think it worked!!!
Wow, great stuff, Britta! I think most of us remember those Dr. D classics! Another of the it's-not-on-Google, I-know-it-'cause-I-lived-it things that I'm driven to empty my head out onto the 'Stack before I'm called away to the Great Beyond (gee, hope they have a gift shop)!
I thank Andrew Smith for reminding/asking/cajoling me to, really, complete his Weird Al matching-set of Barry'n'Al! I love how we coordinated our pub dates to, then, add the other's link to our articles! Make sure you give the Goat-master🐐 a bleat of thanks, Britta, and thank you again!
At the time, it was a well-kept secret....not that it needed to be. He was just doing a job, and the suits thought little of giving Barry proper or regular credit. It had nothing to do with his new-found emergence as a radio personality (nothing was ever quite that subversive back in that day!).
Now, it's just the 2-fers that are confirmed online (his Wiki), while his "Circular" output seems to still be, largely, an internet secret (which is why I'm delighted I had a rare "front-row seat" to that promo piece for several years)!
To join with an occasional credited "Circular" piece (like the one I featured in the article), I'm really only drawing an inference that his writing gig for WB didn't merely stop at liner notes for the "Loss Leaders" line! After a while, it became easy to align the two, simply because of his unique writing style! He was, quite literally, the very print voice for Warner Bros. Records in the early- to mid-'70s!
That singular influence (coupled with his eventual on-air spread and popularity) shouldn't be overlooked or minimized from an early rock-history influence POV! Now, if only someone (I'll be happy to!) sit down and quiz the man, directly, on his "Circular" involvement! I'm convinced, though.
Seriously, this is fantastic history; thank you for writing this. The "loss leaders" ads are amazing (I may have mentioned I ended up building a big chunk of my music collection from BMG).
Thanks, Nick! This was one of a few things I lived through and experienced that simply can’t be replicated through Google! When I noticed Dr. D’s Wiki mentioned his Loss Leaders involvement, I didn’t want to read it….and, I didn’t. I just wanted to empty my head of my personal memories of the two-fers as I experienced them in real time!
In fact, there’s nowhere else I’m aware of that has even a whisper of his writing and involvement in WB’s Circular! So, I’m happy to be the lone font of knowledge and awareness of that little rock history factoid anywhere on the ‘net (apparently)!
And, by “BMG,” I take it you’re referring to the record club? BTW, I’m glad you’re in our corner, Nick! It’s cool to have your knowledgeable input!
Yes, BMG record club. It always strikes me as a little bit funny because my first club experience was with a book club (I was maybe 12) and I had the classic bad experience-- I didn't stay on top of it, got sent a club selection I didn't want and generally got bad value from it.
But BMG ended up being quite good. I bought a lot of CDs from them and averaged around $5 a disk (the good price was $1.99 a CD plus $2.79 shipping and handling. Funny that I still remember). A different business model than the loss leaders, but both offered good prices for the back catalog.
I think I had several forays into the Columbia House land of penny discs, both vinyl and CD! Even in the '70s, when promos were flowing fast and free! Such the vinyl freak I was, I guess I felt I had to dip my toe into that water, too!
In fact, the BMG Club used to be dubbed the RCA Record Club, as the German outfit, Bertelsmann Music Group always (for a long time, anyway) owned RCA. So, at some point, they switched names of the Record Club from RCA to BMG, always, of course a Columbia Record Club competitor.
I've always found it fascinating (as those names have come up!) that Columbia Records and RCA Records (in the retail record biz we usually think of '70s thru '90s, non-Club) were separate and bitter competitors! For a couple decades, now, CBS Records and RCA Records have merged to form BMG! Blows my mind (CBS actually bought BMG earlier this century, and they are sometimes referred to as Sony BMG).
And, you're right, of course, Loss Leaders and the record clubs were vastly different animals! What I should also write about is the CBS Records "Playback" series in the early '70s. I even had one of the Columbia Records artists buy one of her "Playback" discs (7", 33 1/3rpm with info booklet) from me on eBay at the turn of the century! I guess she didn't have a copy! Ms. Allee Willis....a massively successful hit songwriter, she had a single solo album on Columbia around 1971 or '72. Worth looking up...her songwriting career since then, if nothing else!
This is so cool! Am I the only one who finds the WB promo career more interesting than Dr. Demento?? As for the loss leaders, the only one I got was Troublemakers, which was near the end of the program, if not the end - a foray into punk and new wave that had an excerpt of the famous final performance of the Sex Pistols, including Johnny Rotten's classic line: "Did you ever get the feeling you've been cheated?"
I think we're the only two! The most I found his radio career was interesting....of course, it was cool what he'd unearth, and the opportunities he provided for the Weird one, and so many others, but a casual observer of his was all I ever was (of course, through it all, like you, I was kinda like, "I know something you don't know!" around my friends when we'd listen together!
Yes, I remember Troublemakers.....rarely did WB use the 2-fers as a vehicle for the rare or collectible (like they did with the Pistols track). What I loved, though....on so many of them, they plundered the vast vaults of the Warner Bros. studio's music and film library to include little interstitials between songs....like a minute-snippet of Liz and Richard from "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?". They also had some Bette Davis clips from her "Beyond the Forest": "What a dump. Hey, what's that from? 'What a dump!"
With those clips being on vinyl, I'd be free, then, to play them on the radio during some of my stints at various stations! Which, of course, I did!
How true about the bonding with my brother, too. A slight digress, I was working at ‘Melodyland’ (record store) and the guy that I worked with could recite and DID recite the entire script to... ‘The Further Adventures Of Nick Danger 3rd eye. It was amusing the first time but by the 11th time in two weeks, it wore off its novelty.
Loved your pick of topics!
Btw, my favorite sampler was (I may get this close) ‘The Garden of Eden’ and it was released by Electra.
I don't recall that sampler, although I can't really recall many Elektra samplers (they were likely single albums, though; few, if any, could keep up with the Warners 2-fers!). "Nick Danger," I'm sure, was a fave one to memorize for my bro and me. I know I put onto a cart the "More on music" chorus sting on the Gap album for my pre-taped, half-hour show on the N. Texas State KNTU-FM campus station, school year '74-'75! I'm glad you love my pick of topics! I love writing about my pick of topics!✏📝
What an unsuspected exprise!! I was not a Demento listener but I knew many who were, for syndicated shows I listened to ‘The King Biscuit Flower Hour’ mainly because it came on the radio at a favorable time. I still have 5 Sampler albums 1 Harvest 4 Warner Brothers and they fun to listen to as a full album.
OK, Mr. Pyramid....you just outed yourself as an (at least) one-time owner of the Credibility Gap's 1973 album, "A Great Gift Idea" (and of course, on Warner/Reprise)! My brother and I couldn't get enough of that album (your "unsuspected exprise," and my brother and I bonding, for once, over classic bits like Denver Devereux, Jr., "Well, that was exciting, won't we?", "goes anywhere you take it!", and of course, that Carson parody)!
For the uninitiated, the Gap had members who later turned up as Lenny & Squiggy and Spinal Tap....do your homework (if you're unaware of these folks' careers!), or do I have to write an article? The Inverted one is exempt from tonight's homework! If I can find any clips online, I may just be moved to write about the Gap, after all!
Great comment, IP! One of the many "sideline" things I collected in my 2,000 LP collection, was virtually any label's sampler/compilation album. I probably had that EMI/Harvest one, as well as my 2 dozen Loss Leaders, and a lot more. As for the Loss Leaders, in particular, you're right....as a singular listening experience, it was more than just a bunch of tracks...I mean, for the first and only time on a record, you would actually hear things like Joni follow Alice, or Zappa lead into James Taylor, etc! Amazing!
I heard him sometimes as his syndicated show did make it to Toronto (although I don't remember which station had him) but he was too weird for me. He was an institution and I had no idea of his "legit" background!
I think Barry, himself, would chuckle a bit at his Warner tenure being called "legit," although certainly with tongue planted firmly in cheek (it was nothing but legit, and an enviable resume add)!
I'd-a killed to have worked in what turned out to be (in about '74, I think) their 3300 Warner Blvd. address in The Valley! In fact, when I moved to L.A. from Houston in early '80, I dropped by to see if I could get hired....as anything!
I was a regular listener to his show in the early-mid '80s and continue to torture my wife by singing such songs as Barnes & Barnes' "Fish Heads," and "They're Coming to Take Me Away..." by Napoleon XIV. She responds by leaving the room and yelling: "They're not coming fast enough!"
Love this deep dive and I'll have to check out Andrew Smith's piece too! And I thought the Weird Al "biopic" starring Daniel Radcliffe was, for the most part, hilarious and bat-shit crazy!
Napoleon XIV passed away just this past March (at 84), I just noticed. I had that single (with the reversed flip) at the time....yep, Warner Bros.! "They're not coming fast enough!" is hilarious! Andrew and I (his idea) purposely wanted to coordinate our posts to go hand-in-hand. Great cross-pollination of readers, but also avoids a bloated e-mail (we had originally discussed a collabbed piece with both bios). Glad you liked! I'd like to see that Weird Al biopic!
I haven't thought about Dr Demento and Loss Leaders in OH MY GAWD DECADES. I LOVE THIS. My antique teen brain is reeling(no Steely Dan jokes). Thank you.
We were reading Dr. D for months, if not years, before the world even knew who he was! Thank you for reading, enjoying, and commenting, Wendy....and, most of all, for remembering!
Great piece. The Dr. Demento Show was easily the most important radio show I listened to in the 1970s, in terms of my musical education. I interviewed him about 20 years ago for a feature I was writing about Weird Al, and he could not have been kinder or more generous with his time — though I was far more nervous about speaking to him than I've ever been about interviewing any of my other musical idols!
Thanks for sharing, Dan! Both Barry and Al have the most "unplanned" and serendipitous careers of any I can think of (certainly in the rock/pop music arena)! Great to hear the good Doctor was kind and generous. I don't know a soul who would guess he'd be anything other!
Were you aware, at all, of Barry's pre-Al Warner Bros. gig? The extra decade I have on you (plus, my ready access to all manner of their late-'60s thru '70s Burbankian product) helped me be exposed to his print past.
No, not at all. I'd just figured that he was a record collector who'd talked his way into the Warners gig!
Well, that I'm sure he did, and his master's likely spoke volumes to the WB execs (namely Cornyn, I'm guessing, who likely hired him directly), with his radio career possibly not a blip, yet, on the scene. I do know that Barry has said that had his DJ career (even before his DD persona blossomed) not taken off, he likely would've simply pursued a career in academics to some degree.
Again, I'm astounded by the off-chance nature of it all, including Al's gumption in just passing a cassette to a guy, and that guy having the guts to actually air it! Such simpler times, then, without having to go through a phalanx of suits to get everything OK-ed!
Loved this! Brought back memories of having to make sure I was by the radio in time for his show every week when I was in high school, 1973-5. Dr. D lived not too far from me in Highland Park (L.A.). What a curious fellow. Had no idea about his background. Appreciate your research into this crazy and creative man in the top hat. Thank you! 🎩
Thank you so much, Louise, for dropping by, enjoying, and commenting! I graduated high school (Bellaire High in Houston, TX) the year you entered! While you're in the neighborhood, please feel free to root around the FRONT ROW & BACKSTAGE Archive collection. Histories of songs is kinda what we're all about! If I may...........
https://bradkyle.substack.com/p/earthquake-1977-fleetwood-macs-1
https://bradkyle.substack.com/p/audio-archaeology-the-birth-of-disco
The entire Audio Autopsy collection (catch 'em all!): https://bradkyle.substack.com/t/audio-autopsy
Plus, our good friend, Stephen Michael Schwartz, who has graciously provided 20 articles (in his own words, with exclusive song files and photos!) about his '70s decade in the Hollywood record biz! He was 20 when he recorded his RCA Records album in 1974, and he's written songs with David Pomeranz, Jay Asher, and Hall of Famer, Jeff Barry! Stephen's complete collection of articles can be found here: https://bradkyle.substack.com/t/stephen-michael-schwartz
Enjoy, and thanks again, Louise!
Thanks, Brad,
Subscribed! The "autopsy" collection (love the name) as well as SM Schwartz's articles look intriguing. They give a lot of the production-side and other background of groups/singers. Although I deal with the history referred to in lyrics, I might find some interesting tidbits here for my own Substack, Social Issues in Song.
Keep up the good work!
Thanks for subscribing, Louise (and for the compliments)! Happy to have you behind the velvet rope line, FRONT ROW & BACKSTAGE! We've got a small army of past and current record industry folk on board, including several professional songwriters and musicians!
I'm sure they (and all our readers) will find your "Social Issues in Song" of great interest and entertainment. I hope they'll enjoy and subscribe here: https://louisehaynes.substack.com/
And, thanks again!
Love this! Had a bunch of the Loss Leaders and always appreciated the commitment WB made to educating listeners via those writeups. wow what a different era.
Amen, Tom, and thanks! And, I feel that much more blessed and fortunate to also have had the extra exposure (to go with the many rock mags of the day I consumed) to "Circular," not only to be inspired by HOW Barry wrote (along with his "Loss Leaders" input), but the extra, behind-the-scenes peeks WB gave us with that promo-only piece!
Good stuff, as always. Anytime you can fit Weird Al into your day, even in a supporting role, that's a win as far as I'm concerned.
Thanks, Patrick! Happy to share kudos with the mighty Andrew Smith of "Goatfury Writes"! Check out this, his latest piece on young Master Yankovic: https://goatfury.substack.com/p/weird-al
Yes! I got my article updated with a link to this one. Perfect timing.
I don't know about apples or oranges, but we, apparently, make a great pear!🍐
Doh! Al would be proud.
Or maybe our dads would.
Just got your link up on the piece!
Don't encourage him....:)
Sadly, I have entered the real of dog-daddom, and I've brought all the dad jokes with me. We also have all sorts of dad-ish nicknames for our little furbabies.
WoW!! I could never have imagined there was a Barry Hansen before there was a Dr. Demento!! I recorded his show religiously every Sunday night and possibly have those cassette tapes still in a giant Campbell soup tin somewhere. (I called it « Cream of Tapes! »-I must have written about that some where’s on the ‘Stack!!)
Favorites from those tapes
Another One Rides the Bus
PacMan Fever
Ode to Billy Joel (I still know all the words)
I don’t wanna get drafted-Zappa
Dead Puppies
My Ding-a-ling
Take off (To the White North)
Theme from Dr. Who
Where did Robinson Crusoe go (With Friday on Saturday Night
Any Spike Jones (I CAN take the way he sings AND I love to hear him talk!!!)
The Punk Polka
There are so many more. I also once got my whole 2nd grade class to sign a petition to get “Another One Rides the Bus” onto The Funny Five. I think it worked!!!
Wow, great stuff, Britta! I think most of us remember those Dr. D classics! Another of the it's-not-on-Google, I-know-it-'cause-I-lived-it things that I'm driven to empty my head out onto the 'Stack before I'm called away to the Great Beyond (gee, hope they have a gift shop)!
I thank Andrew Smith for reminding/asking/cajoling me to, really, complete his Weird Al matching-set of Barry'n'Al! I love how we coordinated our pub dates to, then, add the other's link to our articles! Make sure you give the Goat-master🐐 a bleat of thanks, Britta, and thank you again!
I know I had a copy of Schlagers and one or two others, but I never made the Hansen connection.
At the time, it was a well-kept secret....not that it needed to be. He was just doing a job, and the suits thought little of giving Barry proper or regular credit. It had nothing to do with his new-found emergence as a radio personality (nothing was ever quite that subversive back in that day!).
Now, it's just the 2-fers that are confirmed online (his Wiki), while his "Circular" output seems to still be, largely, an internet secret (which is why I'm delighted I had a rare "front-row seat" to that promo piece for several years)!
To join with an occasional credited "Circular" piece (like the one I featured in the article), I'm really only drawing an inference that his writing gig for WB didn't merely stop at liner notes for the "Loss Leaders" line! After a while, it became easy to align the two, simply because of his unique writing style! He was, quite literally, the very print voice for Warner Bros. Records in the early- to mid-'70s!
That singular influence (coupled with his eventual on-air spread and popularity) shouldn't be overlooked or minimized from an early rock-history influence POV! Now, if only someone (I'll be happy to!) sit down and quiz the man, directly, on his "Circular" involvement! I'm convinced, though.
You had me at ethnomusicology . . .
Seriously, this is fantastic history; thank you for writing this. The "loss leaders" ads are amazing (I may have mentioned I ended up building a big chunk of my music collection from BMG).
Thanks, Nick! This was one of a few things I lived through and experienced that simply can’t be replicated through Google! When I noticed Dr. D’s Wiki mentioned his Loss Leaders involvement, I didn’t want to read it….and, I didn’t. I just wanted to empty my head of my personal memories of the two-fers as I experienced them in real time!
In fact, there’s nowhere else I’m aware of that has even a whisper of his writing and involvement in WB’s Circular! So, I’m happy to be the lone font of knowledge and awareness of that little rock history factoid anywhere on the ‘net (apparently)!
And, by “BMG,” I take it you’re referring to the record club? BTW, I’m glad you’re in our corner, Nick! It’s cool to have your knowledgeable input!
Yes, BMG record club. It always strikes me as a little bit funny because my first club experience was with a book club (I was maybe 12) and I had the classic bad experience-- I didn't stay on top of it, got sent a club selection I didn't want and generally got bad value from it.
But BMG ended up being quite good. I bought a lot of CDs from them and averaged around $5 a disk (the good price was $1.99 a CD plus $2.79 shipping and handling. Funny that I still remember). A different business model than the loss leaders, but both offered good prices for the back catalog.
I think I had several forays into the Columbia House land of penny discs, both vinyl and CD! Even in the '70s, when promos were flowing fast and free! Such the vinyl freak I was, I guess I felt I had to dip my toe into that water, too!
In fact, the BMG Club used to be dubbed the RCA Record Club, as the German outfit, Bertelsmann Music Group always (for a long time, anyway) owned RCA. So, at some point, they switched names of the Record Club from RCA to BMG, always, of course a Columbia Record Club competitor.
I've always found it fascinating (as those names have come up!) that Columbia Records and RCA Records (in the retail record biz we usually think of '70s thru '90s, non-Club) were separate and bitter competitors! For a couple decades, now, CBS Records and RCA Records have merged to form BMG! Blows my mind (CBS actually bought BMG earlier this century, and they are sometimes referred to as Sony BMG).
And, you're right, of course, Loss Leaders and the record clubs were vastly different animals! What I should also write about is the CBS Records "Playback" series in the early '70s. I even had one of the Columbia Records artists buy one of her "Playback" discs (7", 33 1/3rpm with info booklet) from me on eBay at the turn of the century! I guess she didn't have a copy! Ms. Allee Willis....a massively successful hit songwriter, she had a single solo album on Columbia around 1971 or '72. Worth looking up...her songwriting career since then, if nothing else!
This is so cool! Am I the only one who finds the WB promo career more interesting than Dr. Demento?? As for the loss leaders, the only one I got was Troublemakers, which was near the end of the program, if not the end - a foray into punk and new wave that had an excerpt of the famous final performance of the Sex Pistols, including Johnny Rotten's classic line: "Did you ever get the feeling you've been cheated?"
I think we're the only two! The most I found his radio career was interesting....of course, it was cool what he'd unearth, and the opportunities he provided for the Weird one, and so many others, but a casual observer of his was all I ever was (of course, through it all, like you, I was kinda like, "I know something you don't know!" around my friends when we'd listen together!
Yes, I remember Troublemakers.....rarely did WB use the 2-fers as a vehicle for the rare or collectible (like they did with the Pistols track). What I loved, though....on so many of them, they plundered the vast vaults of the Warner Bros. studio's music and film library to include little interstitials between songs....like a minute-snippet of Liz and Richard from "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?". They also had some Bette Davis clips from her "Beyond the Forest": "What a dump. Hey, what's that from? 'What a dump!"
With those clips being on vinyl, I'd be free, then, to play them on the radio during some of my stints at various stations! Which, of course, I did!
Speaking of the Pistols, did you catch my article on seeing their San Antonio, TX show in Jan '78? It's here: https://bradkyle.substack.com/p/sid-johnny-and-me-live-and-up-close
That's awesome - thanks for bringing it to my attention!
Glad you like, Jeremy! The Vault is deep....feel free to root around!😁🎶
How true about the bonding with my brother, too. A slight digress, I was working at ‘Melodyland’ (record store) and the guy that I worked with could recite and DID recite the entire script to... ‘The Further Adventures Of Nick Danger 3rd eye. It was amusing the first time but by the 11th time in two weeks, it wore off its novelty.
Loved your pick of topics!
Btw, my favorite sampler was (I may get this close) ‘The Garden of Eden’ and it was released by Electra.
I don't recall that sampler, although I can't really recall many Elektra samplers (they were likely single albums, though; few, if any, could keep up with the Warners 2-fers!). "Nick Danger," I'm sure, was a fave one to memorize for my bro and me. I know I put onto a cart the "More on music" chorus sting on the Gap album for my pre-taped, half-hour show on the N. Texas State KNTU-FM campus station, school year '74-'75! I'm glad you love my pick of topics! I love writing about my pick of topics!✏📝
I think we all memorized Nick Danger. I could probably recite most of it now. But I won’t.
Yep, I had that one down, as well as George Carlin's "Hair" routine! How I ever had friends in high school!!!😁
What an unsuspected exprise!! I was not a Demento listener but I knew many who were, for syndicated shows I listened to ‘The King Biscuit Flower Hour’ mainly because it came on the radio at a favorable time. I still have 5 Sampler albums 1 Harvest 4 Warner Brothers and they fun to listen to as a full album.
OK, Mr. Pyramid....you just outed yourself as an (at least) one-time owner of the Credibility Gap's 1973 album, "A Great Gift Idea" (and of course, on Warner/Reprise)! My brother and I couldn't get enough of that album (your "unsuspected exprise," and my brother and I bonding, for once, over classic bits like Denver Devereux, Jr., "Well, that was exciting, won't we?", "goes anywhere you take it!", and of course, that Carson parody)!
For the uninitiated, the Gap had members who later turned up as Lenny & Squiggy and Spinal Tap....do your homework (if you're unaware of these folks' careers!), or do I have to write an article? The Inverted one is exempt from tonight's homework! If I can find any clips online, I may just be moved to write about the Gap, after all!
Great comment, IP! One of the many "sideline" things I collected in my 2,000 LP collection, was virtually any label's sampler/compilation album. I probably had that EMI/Harvest one, as well as my 2 dozen Loss Leaders, and a lot more. As for the Loss Leaders, in particular, you're right....as a singular listening experience, it was more than just a bunch of tracks...I mean, for the first and only time on a record, you would actually hear things like Joni follow Alice, or Zappa lead into James Taylor, etc! Amazing!
I heard him sometimes as his syndicated show did make it to Toronto (although I don't remember which station had him) but he was too weird for me. He was an institution and I had no idea of his "legit" background!
I think Barry, himself, would chuckle a bit at his Warner tenure being called "legit," although certainly with tongue planted firmly in cheek (it was nothing but legit, and an enviable resume add)!
I'd-a killed to have worked in what turned out to be (in about '74, I think) their 3300 Warner Blvd. address in The Valley! In fact, when I moved to L.A. from Houston in early '80, I dropped by to see if I could get hired....as anything!