Time Machine co-ordinates VILXXXIX53641264

This episode of Time Machine will be a bit different, with two more serious spots amidst the usual chicanery.  That first one is when we reach our target date, April 12th, 1964.  Today Malcolm X gave a speech known as "The Ballot Or The Bullet." And I was quite frankly taken aback by some of the amazingly clear headed, and so pertinent to today, things he said.  I would like to share a handful of them.


Islam is my religion, but I believe my religion is my personal business. It governs my personal life, my personal morals. And my religious philosophy is personal between me and the God in whom I believe; just as the religious philosophy of these others is between them and the God in whom they believe. And this is best this way. Were we to come out here discussing religion, we’d have too many differences from the outstart and we could never get together...


This government has failed us; the government itself has failed us, and the white liberals who have been posing as our friends have failed us. And once we see that all these other sources to which we’ve turned have failed, we stop turning to them and turn to ourselves. We need a self-help program, a do-it-yourself philosophy, a do-it-right-now philosophy, a it’s-already-too-late philosophy. This is what you and I need to get with, and the only way we are going to solve our problem is with a self-help program. Before we can get a self-help program started we have to have a self-help philosophy...


Once you change your philosophy, you change your thought pattern. Once you change your thought pattern, you change your attitude. Once you change your attitude, it changes your behaviour pattern and then you go on into some action. As long as you got a sit-down philosophy, you’ll have a sit-down thought pattern, and as long as you think that old sit-down thought you’ll be in some kind of sit-down action.... 


You’re the one who sent Kennedy to Washington. You’re the one who put the present Democratic Administration in Washington DC. The whites were evenly divided. It was the fact that you threw 80% of your votes behind the Democrats that put the Democrats in the White House. When you see this, you can see that the Negro vote is the key factor. And despite the fact that you are in a position to be the determining factor, what do you get out of it? The Democrats have been in Washington DC only because of the Negro vote. They’ve been down there four years, and all other legislation they wanted to bring up they brought it up and gotten it out of the way, and now they bring up you. And now, they bring up you. You put them first, and they put you last, 'cause you’re a chump; a political chump.

Very powerful stuff.  And I selected just parts of it, the parts that apply to us still today.  I apologize if anyone thinks I'm cropping his message to make a point.  But there is a point, and it's this- He'd be saying the same things now, and nothing's changed.

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Anyway, this isn't a political post (usually), but there's going to be a bit more to things this time, so let's buckle up and get to our trip down musical memory lane- and into the teeth of the storm known as the Beatles.  And the first thing- sigh- is let's do another LIVE 6D!  To give you the impact of this deal this week, let me start by saying this- eight of our 16 Panel contestants are Beatles hits, and our 6D victim is one of THREE Beatles songs IN THE TOP TEN that the Panel IGNORED!

Now, this particular Beatles song was one of many early hits that they add in the falsetto "woooo" that they admit to cribbing from the Isley Brothers' original Twist And Shout.  That song was co-written by Phil Medley (no relation to the Righteous Bros' Bill) and 'Bert Russell', whose name is actually Bert Berns.  By his real name, he was also a co-write on hits like Hang On Sloopy and Piece Of My Heart, famously done by Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company.

But that song was originally recorded by Aretha Franklin's big sister Erma, who hit top ten R&B. Erma's next best claim to fame is backing vocals on little sister's big hit Respect- which itself was a cover of an Otis Redding original.  And just to loop us back, Otis charted in the UK with a cover of the Fab Four's Day Tripper.  And Day Tripper was 13 top tens in the future from the 6D victim that started this- She Loves You, #3 this week without a Panel vote.


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Okay, I'm going to insert the other serious thing here.  I- with some help from Laurie, that I finally ignored, shame on me- had a real decision with the song that finally was chosen to debut at #10 on the M10 this week.  It makes the list because it's a GOOD song.  Nothing wrong with it.  The video, though, I had a problem with.  Not the whole thing. The singer- a young lady from LA named Mara Connor- did nothing wrong in the video.  95% of the video was fine, and the end was really clever.  BUT... the 5% that sunk it was the placement in the obvious not-so-background of same-sex couples in situations that perhaps the director thought "subtle" but were anything but.

IDK about the singer's orientation- the only one she apparently looked at herself in the video was a guy- it's just that the two incidents were IMHO over the top and were artificial to the flow of the song (and the rest of the video).  Also in my opinion, you can do something tastefully and project your true self- for example, Vanessa Carlton on the Lonely Girls video.  And quite frankly, even if the singer lets some of that out in the song, I don't usually mind (witness the Pom Poms hitting #1 with Betty, or even The Japanese House).  I thought this was needless, in-your-face propaganda, presumably by the director.  Thus, you can go look up the official video if you choose.  I will leave the crap out and just give you the audio of a great song by Mara Connor, at #10 this week.





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Okay, serious stuff done, let's bring in the Chiffons'  Judy Craig!

That's me- second from left!

And a pleasure to have you here!  Are you okay with a Panel list that's half-Beatles?

Oh, yes.  We went on tour with them, kind of, back in the beginning...
We opened for them for the show they did at the Washington Coliseum , but we did not get to meet them that night.  It was so chaotic that night. Everyone would do their show and then get out.


We didn't get to meet them until London (in 1965). We got to meet them and the Rolling Stones and the different groups that were in England at the time.*

* This was cut from an interview with Mark Voger of NJ.com in 2015.


All right, then, here's the one vote wonder list:

Betty Everett got just the one vote for The Shoop Shoop Song, which was at #9...

And here's the Beatles with I Saw Her Standing There.... what's this about here?

Oh, just the curious note that, while Cashbox only charted this one for one week at #100, Billboard had it climb to #14.

Ah, okay.  Then you have... oh, this is a funny one, too.  Wanna do it?

You got it, girl!

All right, well, it seems Ray Peterson got a vote for Goodnight My Love... a song he peaked at #64 with almost 4 1/2 years ago, in December of 1959!  How does that happen?

Beats me.  We just call them 'didn't get the memo' votes.

Ha ha!  Also with just one vote is the Dave Clark Five with Bits And Pieces at #27...
Diane Renay's Navy Blue at #45 and climbing...
and a vote for a song the Beatles never even released called I Call Your Name.

Okay, here are the 'also receiving votes' group...

All but one of them got 2 votes... the Dave Clark Five again with Glad All Over, which was #8...

Mary Wells and My Guy, at #40 after just 2 weeks...

The Serendipity Singers with Don't Let The Rain Come Down (The Crooked Little Man) at #10...

Louis Armstrong with Helloooo, Dolly! at #5...

and two more Beatles, Roll Over Beethoven at #30, and PS I Love You, which won't even debut for another couple of weeks... another memo?

Lots of 'em.

And the one with 3 votes is... Terry Stafford and Suspicion, at #6.

And that brings us to the four finalists- and another not-even-close race.  Three of your choices got 6 votes each... the other one got 22!

Wow!  So the audience gets to choose from four Beatles songs- will it be All My Loving at #44, Can't Buy Me Love at #1, Do You Want To Know A Secret at #16, or Twist And Shout at #2?

Thanks, Judy!  While you decide, here's the second of three debuts- and the one Laurie would have booted.  But you know me and psychedelic, so here is the NY state band Maybird at #9...






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The Boys were in the top 100 12 times this week!  In addition to the Panelists and the 6D victim, they were also charting with I Want To Hold Your Hand (4), Please Please Me (7), From Me To You (49), Love Me Do (69), Thank You Girl (78) and You Can't Do That (84).  In other stat-packy news, the Impressions got the big mover with I'm So Proud (28 spots to #52);  the Four Seasons, who were second to the Beatles with three charting hits, debuted this week right on the #64 in '64 with Ronnie; the Ray Charles Singers held down the #101 slot with Love Me With All Your Heart- it would eventually get to #2.  Finally, the US and the UK shared the same #1- Can't Buy Me Love- and I knew 36 of ours and 11 of theirs.

Oh, and I just saw the note I made- the Beatles accounted for 75.4 % of the Panel votes...

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And our high debut at #8 is a great but somewhat unusual thing.  Alkonost's latest lp Octogram was released in its entirety in both vocal and instrumental versions.  And here they are with another instrumental- this one translating out to Dance Of The Flowering...







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The M10- with a little added bonus- for this week also includes:

#7 is a 3 notch climb for Telekinesis with Suburban Streetlight Drunk.

Weezer peaked at 3 last week, and falls to earth at #6 this time with High As A Kite.

The former #1 holds at 5 again- Anna Burch's St Adelbert.

The Japanese House, having spent 3 weeks at #2, falls to #4 with You Seemed So Happy.  And that got me curious about #2s that never got higher on the M10.

First, there were 40 of them.
Next, the most time at #2 (without hitting the top) is 3 weeks.  The Pom Poms' 1-2-3, Beach House's Chariot, Dent May's Picture On A Screen, Moon Taxi's Two High, the aforementioned Lonely Girls, and Eleanor Friedburger's Make Me A Song all did it... Two Door Cinema Club's Lavender is the only one to spend all 3 weeks blocked by the same #1 (Radiation City and Come And Go); Foster The People's Sit Next To Me is the only #1 to BLOCK 3 different songs (Cotton Mather's Girl With The Blue Guitar, Public Access TV's Monaco, and Quiet Hollers' Funny Ways).  But the winner, with 3 #2 weeks out of four, goes to Keane's Somewhere Only We Know.
Third, the 3-weekers did not dominate the top point-getter list!  The top five:  Agnes Obel's Golden Green, Funny Ways, Shilpa Ray's Shoot This Dying Horse, Nada Surf's Believe You're Mine, and Brooke Annibaele's Remind Me.

Okay, so back to the M10, where we see J Mascis pull in at #3 with See You At The Movies, Lily And Madeline pull into the runner up spot with Can't Help The Way I Feel in a tight battle- and another week at the top for-

Idlewild and Dream Variations!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


And who was it got all those votes for the Panel?  Well, duh, the Beatles, but did you choose the right song?  Of course you did...

...Can't Buy Me Love- first on CB, first in the UK, and first on the Panel!  And that may well be a first...

Whew, great show, everybody!  Come back next time for 1965- and whichever Beatle we can beg to show up here after the Great Bolgona Casserole Disaster of 2018!