gts179 “misshile”
The weather ain’t been the same since they started shootin’ up them rockets.
01-01 Tom Lehrer – That Was The Year That Was 206 – Wernher Von Braun (1965)
— desperately wanted a quiet academic career, but people kept demanding he play his funny songs. Eventually opened an office in New York where he sold records on his own, after a while he had to hire a girl to help him. Lived to the age of 97, until 2025.
01-02 Allen Bradley Quintet – Okeh 4-7100 – Space Race (1958)
— the only release by this band, with “Slow Rock” on the B-side. Nobody knows anything about him, not Wiki, not Goog, not 45Cat, not Discogs. In fact the “AI” on Goog-fail’s website, it just flat-out lied to me. Try it yourself: search on the bandname above, and you’ll be told you’ve mis-spelled “Allan”. Then search on the spelling the bot scolds you with, and you’ll be scolded again, telling you that it’s “Allen” and you are a stupid human. Really now, AI is killing off human history, to make you feel smaller than it. You are not. Don’t forget.
01-03 Rush – Signals 204 – Countdown (1982)
— the album closer on the disc which marked the band’s beginning of decline from power-prog into synth-pop, as evidenced by the abandonment of their “vitruvian man” logo for a snazzy script logo and a pic of a dog about to dampen a fireplug.
01-04 Geoff Love’s Big Disco Sound – You Should Be Dancing Vol2 206 – Lift Off (1977)
— also formed Geoff Love’s Banjo Band, and if you’ve heard of Manuel And His Music Of The Mountains, that’s also Geoff Love. Made a career out of turning other people’s songs into ‘elevator music’, but this appears to be an original song of his, songwriting credits go to his own publishing outfit, and another late-70s disco tune called “Lift Off” out of South Africa is a different song.
01-05 The Hamsters – Route 666 02 – Rocket In My Pocket (1995)
— released on, yes, Rockin’ Rodent Records. The bass player goes by the name Ms Zsa Zsa Poltergeist. Real name Andy Billups, he had to quit the band in ’92 after developing focal dystonia, which causes Parkinson’s-like tremors. With the help of a custom-designed thumb pick, he was able to rejoin the band 2 years later.
02-01 Kathy McCarty – Dead Dog’s Eyeball (Songs Of Daniel Johnston) 03 – Rocket Ship (1994)
— the CD was re-released in 2020 on vinyl as an expanded double-LP, and though Kathy’s website insists it was released in 1996, everywhere else on the web is certain that it was 1994.
02-02 Country Joe McDonald – 1969-08-16 Woodstock NY 08 – I Seen A Rocket (1969)
— the seminal 1970 album of Woodstock songs only had 2 songs by Country Joe And The Fish, the lead-in to “The Fish Cheer” is the lead-out of this song. On day 2 of the fest, he got a half hour in the afternoon, sandwiched between Quill (who nobody remembers) and Santana (who did pretty well later on).
02-03 Amin Bhatia – The Interstellar Suite 103 – LAUNCH: Mission Control And Liftoff/Jumping To The Speed Of Light (1987)
— later did work on film soundtracks, you can hear that here on this archetype of the ‘concept album’. In an economy where supply balances demand, you can pick this up for five bucks.
02-04 Billy Preston – Everybody Likes Some Kind Of Music 202 – Space Race (1973)
— one of approximately nine people referred to as “the fifth Beatle”.
02-05 Six Finger Satellite – Law Of Ruins 01 – Race Against Space (1998)
— a lesser-known act from powerful 1990’s grunge label Sub Pop, who built most of their house on Sebadoh, Nirvana, and Mudhoney.
03-01 Me First And The Gimme Gimmes – 2006-08-24 Pittsburgh PA – Rocket Man (2006)
— highly respected purveyors of punked-up versions of other people’s songs, here live at the Skyblast Festival in 2006.
02-02 Hipbone Slim & The Kneetremblers – Square Guitar 14 – King Of The Rocket Men (2011)
— on the vinyl version out of France, this closes out the album, but on the UK CD released a month later, there are 3 more tunes. In either case, the song before this is “Why Ain’t Bo On My TV?”, which explains the album’s title.
03-03 Hank Snow – RCA Victor 20-5155 – Honeymoon On A Rocket Ship (1953)
— credited as “The Singing Ranger And The Rainbow Ranch Boys” on this one, which came right at the sweet spot when it could be released on both 78rpm and 45rpm discs. One of the famous Three Hanks of country music (with Williams and Penny), Snow is in the Canadian Music Hall Of Fame.
03-04 Sigue Sigue Sputnick – Parlophone 12 SSSX1 – Love Missile F1-11 (1986)
— in Russian, this English band’s name means “burn, burn satellite”, calling out a Moscow street gang. This hit was produced by legendary Giorgio Moroder.
03-05 The Dave & Deke Combo – There’s Nothing Like An Old Hillbilly 17 – Real Cool Rocket
— they are are Dave Stuckey and Deke Dickerson out of Los Angeles, this compilation spans 1991 to 2005, so unsure of the recording year.
03-06 The Kinks – Everybody’s In Showbiz 203 – Supersonic Rocket Ship (1972)
— from when The Kinks discovered steel drums, on this show we’ve earlier heard “Celluloid Heroes” and “Alcohol” off this double-LP.
04-01 Skip Stanley – Satellite SX-92 – Satellite Baby (1957)
— also released on 78rpm shellac by Spotlight Records, which claims to be from 1956, although we have some concerns about the provenance there. A rare example of being able to split hairs due to current events, this would be suspiciously remarkable if it were released in 1956. In any case, appreciate him rhyming ‘asteroid’ with ‘planetoid’.
04-02 Jimmie Haskell & Orchestra – Imperial X5480 – Rockin’ In The Orbit (Space Satellite) (1957)
— real name Sheridan Pearlman, although on this 45rpm his writing credit is under the name Big Jay Sputnik.
04-03 The Teen-Clefs – Dice 99 – Sputnik (1958)
— from the Mott Haven neighborhood in the Bronx NY.
04-04 Robert Johnson & The Punchdrunks – Fried On The Altar Of Good Taste 01 – Sputnik Monroe (2000)
— no, the OTHER Robert Johnson, surf guitar from Sweden. I was mistaken thinking this was a cover song; it’s credited to Johnson, Peter Ögren, Per Thorsell, and Jonas Rönnholm. Fun fact: the band’s debut album in 1995 is called “Beavershot” which means the same thing in Swedish as it does here.
04-05 Jerry Engler & The Four Ekkos – Brunswick 9-55037- Sputnik (Satellite Girl) (1958)
— out of Rochester NY, the band introduced Western Swing music to the Northeast. Engler was a friend of Buddy Holly.
04-06 Webb Wilder – It’s Live Time! 08 – Sputnik (2007)
—
04-07 Teresa Brewer – Coral 9-62057 – Satellite (1958)
— holy crap, my whole life I thought she was black! Also just learned that her real name was Theresa Veronica Breuer, and she was married to Bob Thiele, when he signed… Buddy Holly. Small world!
05-01 Robbie Thunder – Houston We Have Rock 01 – Houston We Have Rock (2023)
— self-described as “heir to the throne”, unclear which seat of power that is, but here the Aussie plays every instrument on the album. He did the art too, although, if you look at it…
05-02 Montrose – Montrose 103 – Space Station No. 5 (1973)
— Ronnie Montrose ran away from home in Colorado aged 16 to go to San Francisco. Thing is, he did it in 1963, years before that kind of thing became fashionable. Discovered by the legendary SF’er Bill Graham, Montrose was recruited by Van Morrison in 1971 for his “Tupelo Honey” era. That is Sammy Hagar on vocals here, and a couple years later, Ronnie appeared on Gary Wright’s album which was, some claim, the final nail in the coffin of the 1960’s music scene: “Dream Weaver”.
05-03 Dan Lacksman – Dan Lacksman 201 – Skylab (1973)
— surprised that his debut album was as early as ’73! An early adopter of the Moog synthesizer, Lacksman powered the band Telex through the ’80s, for whom the critic’s appellation “witty” is an understatement. In the 90’s, Lacksman produced the Deep Forest efforts, acclaimed for blending African chant music with Euro electronica.
06-01 The Tornados – Decca F 11494 – Telstar (1962)
— out of England, not to be confused with The Tornadoes of Hollywood, nor the Nu Tornadoes, from Philadelphia. First single crashed as a flop, this second single was a rocket up the charts, the only Brit band to hit #1 in the USA until… them Beatles.
06-02 Ray Sawyer – Sandy 1030 – Rockin’ Satellite (1960)
— famous “one-eyed drummer” long before the band Def Leppard hit fame with a one-armed drummer. Ray also did drummings, and vocals, for Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show.
06-03 Falco – Weiner Blut 106 – Satellite To Satellite (1988)
— stage name of Johann Hölzel, actually Austrian not German, whose 1981 “Der Kommissar” was a hit around the world, and 1985’s “Rock Me Amadeus” was the first song to hit #1 in the USA with vocals in German. Later efforts didn’t match that success, but he sold 20 million albums before untimely death aged 40.
06-04 Jesse Belvin And His Space Riders – Modern 1027 – My Satellite (1957)
— formerly the singer for The Shields, only three years later he and his wife Jo Ann were killed in an automobile crash in Arkansas.
06-05 Eurythmics – RCA EUC001 – Satellite Of Love (1983)
— cover of Lou Reed, this was claimed as “unreleased” on the 2005 expanded re-issue of Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This (orig 1983), but that was only disgusting marketer hype; it WAS actually released in 1983 on a 4-track cassette-only single.
07-01 Europe – Epic 7127 – The Final Countdown (1986)
— laughed at for being possibly the worst song of the 1980’s, although it reached #8 in the US and hit #1 in dozens of other countries.