gts185 “barshoom”
Don’t mind being a stranger, it’s the strange land what bugs me.
01-01 Artie Shaw – 1939-11-xx Café Rouge, Hotel Pennsylvania, NYC, NY – Man From Mars (1939)
— you got it, that’s Buddy Rich on drums.
01-02 Butch Paulson with The Motations – Virgelle 708 – Man From Mars (1961)
— not much info on Butch, later played with The Rovin’ Gamblers in the mid-1960’s. Virgelle Records was based in Seattle.
01-03 David Bowie – Hunky Dory 104 – Life On Mars (1971)
— his 4th album, just before breaking out with Ziggy Stardust. Mick Ronson plays the recorder here, and that’s Rick Wakeman on piano, shortly before he joined Yes.
01-04 Robbie Williams – Rudebox 02 – Viva Life On Mars (2006)
— produced by Mark Ronson, no relation to Mick! This album hit #1 around the world, gold/platinum all over the globe but… not in the USA.
01-05 The Misfits – Walk Among Us 102 – I Turned Into A Martian (1982)
— their “debut” album, although The Misfits had previously recorded two entire albums (in 1978 and 1980) which went unreleased. Keys and vocals here by Glenn Danzig, who later formed his own eponymous band.
01-06 Dick Robinson And His Makebelievers – MCI 1006 – The Boppin’ Martian Gibo Miban Gibo Go Man Go (1958)
— the final 45rpm released by MCI, out of Phoenix, Arizona.
02-01 Barrence Whitfield & The Savages – Soul Flowers Of Titan 07 – Let’s Go To Mars (2018)
— typical story, kid goes to college for journalism but got a side-job in a record store and ended up in music. Real name: Barry White, he changed it for obvious reasons. Picked “Whitfield” as a stage name in tribute to Norman Whitfield, legendary Motown producer who co-wrote “Papa Was A Rolling Stone”.
02-02 The Courtneys – The Courtneys II 09 – Mars Attacks (2017)
— roots in Calgary, Alberta Canada, their first band was named Puberty. This band named for guitarist Courtney Loove, which is her real name, because the other players acknowledge that Loove is the coolest person they’ve ever met.
02-03 Abunai! – Round-Wound 20 – Barsoom (2000)
— out of Boston, the band name is Japanese for “Look Out!” Of course, the title is the natives’ name for Mars in the Edgar Rice Burroughs book about John Carpenter.
02-04 Brownsville Station – Brownsville Station 205 – The Martian Boogie (1977)
— eponymous album was not their debut, this tune was a Dr. Demento favorite and actually hit #59 on Billboard, slightly better on Cashbox at #45. Warning to human musicians, when someone says “they’re Martian cigarettes, want one?” your next line will be: “about half an hour later…”
02-05 Gene Vincent – The Gene Vincent Box Set 526 – Spaceship To Mars (Takes 1 & 8) (1962)
— date above is an educated guess, here’s Gene having a bit of trouble with it. As far as I can tell, the finished single (Takes 31-34) was only released in France.
02-06 Man Or Astroman – Beyond The Black Hole 12 – Within A Martian Heart (2001)
— MOA is a staple for any show even remotely about space.
03-01 Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers – Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers 204 – Here Come The Martian Martians (1976)
— surprised this one was as early as 1976, but ’76 was the year of the Viking Mars Mission after all.
03-02 Garuda – Марсианские Хроники 01 – Martianized (2012)
— the funny lookin’ letters above say “Martian Chronicles”, title of this compilation album created to celebrate, for some reason, Ray Bradbury’s 92nd birthday.
03-03 UFO – No Heavy Petting 204 – Martian Landscape (1976)
— one of the greatest albums to ever have a monkey on the cover. From this comes the slang insult “monkey toucher”.
03-04 Hellbound Hayride – Sinner 03 – Hoot’N Nanny On Mars (1999)
— debut album from hayburners out of the real OC (Orange County, California).
04-01 Ambrose And His Orchestra – Decca F6556 – Message From Mars (1938)
— born Benjamin Baruch, the family changed surname to Ambrose upon fleeing Poland (then under Russian control) prior to WW1. In the 1911 London Census, his father was listed as a ‘Dealer In Rags’ and Benjamin was listed as “Barnett”, a violin student. Drafted into WW1 as “Bert Ambrose”, by postwar 1924 he was playing in New York. Marriage certificate names him “Bernard Ambrose”. Lots of effort expended to cover his Jewish roots, but them was the times!
04-02 Taff – Марсианские Хроники 04 – 3rd Trip To Mars (2012)
— album’s subtitle is Музыка к утерянному фильму (= “Lost Movie’s Soundtrack”). There is no such movie which was ‘lost’, but if there was, I’d watch it.
04-03 Buck Trail & Wayne Gray On Guitar – Trail Records 104 – Knocked Out Joint On Mars (1958)
— his own label, out of Miami, Florida, released only three 45rpm singles in 1958. Real name: Ronald B. Killette, he later wrote “Girl Watcher” which went gold in 1968, selling a million copies for The O’Kaysions.
04-04 R.M. Točak – PGP RTB 1520032 – Marš (1983)
— solo 45rpm from Radomir Mihailović Točak, a founding member of the Yugoslavian band Smak who we have heard here before, for good reason.
04-05 At The Drive In – Hell Paso 102 – Red Planet (1994)
— the only release from ATDI not owned in physical form, because it’s absurdly expensive today. A clear-vinyl 45rpm with 3 songs, this is the band which would later become The Mars Volta.
05-01 Alien Planetscapes – Strange Daze ’97 112 – Soft Martian (1997)
— a compiliation CD from what was billed as “America’s 1st SpaceRock Music Festival”. Held over Labor Day weekend in Sherman Oak, New York in 1997, and headlined by Hawkwind in their first festival appearance in the USA. Released on two CD’s, the second CD is notorious for being a royal screw-up, a reminder that one should never compile/master a CD until after your drugs have worn off.
05-02 Louisiana Red – Louisiana Red Sings The Blues 204 – Red’s New Dream (1972)
— real name: Iverson Minter, out of Bessemer, Alabama. When he was 5 years old, his father was lynched by the KKK. At 16, he lied about his age to enlist, to go fight in the Korean War. His second marriage was to Odetta, yes THAT Odetta.
05-03 Touch The Sound – BSM 069 – Barsoom (2022)
— House/Indie duo of Kosta & Dmitriy. Tough to tease out info about them, but their phone number is based in Indonesia.
06-01 Red Hot Chili Peppers – Stadium Arcadium 214 – Death Of A Martian (2006)
— the big hit from this RHCP album was “Hump de Bump”, which despite the utterly silly title, is a pretty good song. One tune on this album has Omar Rodriguez on guitar, who formerly played as half of the band At The Drive In, but not on this song.
06-02 Mandragora – Head First 102 – Martian Cortege (1991)
— out of the seaside resort town of Brighton, England, the lads formed a band because they all loved the music of Hawkwind.
06-03 Alice Cooper – Hey Stoopid 06 – Might As Well Be On Mars (1991)
— pining for his ex, but at a respectful distance, not stalking! This one written by Alice (real name Vincent Damon Furnier) but was simply too long to get airplay in ’91. Have to play it here, or it’ll be forgotten.
06-04 Buck-O-Nine – Barfly 04 – Teenagers From Mars (1995)
— all-time great cover art, this one is a cover-tune of The Misfits. Track 03 on the CD is the definitive cover of “Pass The Dutchie” by Musical Youth.
06-05 Frankie & Margie – Dee Jay Jamboree 132 – The Martian Boogie (1958)
— this acetate recording went unreleased, it would’ve been F&M’s second single on Warwick Records out of Cleveland, Ohio. Instead, it was finally released by Dee Jay Jamboree in West Germany.
… and a bonus track…
07-01 The Space Men featuring King Sol and His Space Horn – Campus 105 – Martian Chant (1959)
— their only release, and not even a whole 45rpm disc, this is a B-side to “Oriental Flip” by Rick Shaw And The Mandarins.