We're all about the history of rock & roll at BoomtownAmerica.com!
Every week, we present “ROCK REMEMBERED,” a deep dive into the hidden history of rock & roll, the stories behind the artists and songs that changed the world. Join host, “Boomtown Bill” Cross each Wednesday at 7 pm (Eastern) with an encore broadcast on Saturday at noon (Eastern).
Join us this Saturday as we disxover seldom-heard rock songs from the Beach Boys, ELO, the Who & more in our "Lost & Found Department!"
Simplicity in itself, graham cracker, slab of chocolate, and a marshmallow: Toast lightly (usually over a campfire or grill) and enjoy! But who had the bright idea to combine these elements into a tasty treat and who came up with the name?
Alas, no one knows because s’mores have been around for over 100 years. As far back as we can trace it, there is a recipe for this confection, then known as a graham cracker sandwich in a Campfire Marshmallow cookbook from the early 1920s, but the cookbook doesn’t claim it to be an original recipe, meaning it had probably been around for a few years before.
It appears with the name “Some Mores” in a 1927 book, Tramping and Trailing with the Girl Scouts. By 1938, scouting books for both Boy and Girl Scouts had shortened the name to “s’mores.” But this confection really didn’t take off until the Baby Boomers reached scouting age in the 1950s. Scores of scouts, plus an explosion in summer camps for kids during those years resulted in the simple recipe for s’mores coming home to backyard barbecues across the U.S. and Canada.
Recipes for s’mores crossed over to mainstream cookbooks when Betty Crocker first included the recipe in their 1957 edition. This treat remained a homemade confection until Hershey’s introduced their S’more candy bar in 2003. But can you really compare any store-bought s’more to the glorious sticky, sweet experience of toasting your own?
BTW - mark your calendars because August 10th is National S’mores Day!
Of all the songs Janis Joplin recorded in her brief, but spectacular career, one of the best-known and most fondly remembered is “Mercedes Benz.”
Few remember now that Janis was also interested in poetry and often attended poetry readings. Her tongue-in-cheek paean to consumerism began as a quick poetry jam between her and songwriter Bob Neuwirth in a bar in Port Chester, NY. They built their short poem around a line written by poet Mike McClure.
About an hour after the poem was completed, she performed it live during her show that night at the Capitol Theater in Port Chester, inventing an acapella melody on the spot.
It was promptly forgotten until she had finished recording her second solo album, “Pearl.” With the pressure of the major session work behind her, Joplin stepped to a microphone while the tapes were still rolling and announced she was about to sing “a song of great social and political import.”
She quickly ran through her little “Mercedes Benz” performance. One take. She also recorded a quick birthday message to John Lennon that included her rendition of Roy Rogers’ theme song, “Happy Trails.” Those would be the last two songs she ever recorded.
Only three days later, she would be dead of a drug overdose.
When Columbia released “Pearl” posthumously, producer Paul A. Rothchild decided to include “Mercedes Benz.”
The song quickly caught the fancy of FM deejays. Radio listeners also fell in love with the tune.
Today it has been covered by more than 30 other recording acts.
(And yes, we know the car in the photo is a Porsche! It belonged to Janis. She did not own a Mercedes-Benz.")
As we age, most of us are aware that our vision ages right with us, making nighttime driving a bit more challenging than when we were young. The experts say there are a few easy ways to “lighten” the load of driving after dark.
1.) Reset the illumination levels of your dashboard and any in-car screens – You should lower these levels. The brighter the interior of your car, the harder it will be to see things outside your car.
2.) Keep your windshield and your headlights clean – Yeah, we know that should be obvious, but it should be mentioned.
3.) Don’t shut off the caffeine too early – The number of crashes that involve drowsy drivers is alarming, so maybe have that after-dinner cup of coffee after all.
4.) Put the brights on almost always – Except, of course, when there’s on-coming traffic. The more of the road you can see, the safer you’ll be.
If you’re in the market for a new vehicle, you can check out its safety ratings here at iihs.org/ratings. Be safe out there. We need all the listeners we can get!
Baby Boomers were not just the first generation to grow up with television, we were first to experience the magic of Saturday mornings. Back in those dark days of no cable and no home video, TV programming aimed at kids aired for only about one hour before school in the morning and maybe another hour after we came home from school.
But on Saturday mornings, there were at least 4 hours of uninterrupted programming aimed just at us! If you were fortunate to grow up in a big city, you had your choice of three network affiliates and at least 1 UHF station. In smaller towns, you had a minimum of one station that would dedicate its Saturday mornings to pleasing us kiddies.
Because made-for-TV cartoons were in their infancy, the networks were often broadcasting older (and better) theatrical cartoons like Bugs Bunny and Mighty Mouse. Local stations also broadcast theatrical fare like Popeye and the earlier black & white Looney Tunes. As there weren’t any reruns of older children’s shows, there was also a huge market for first-run syndicated kid-vid like The Adventures of Superman and Sgt. Preston of the Yukon.
Westerns had been popular with kids during the 1930s and 40s, so with the advent of television, most of the gun-totin’ he-men who rode the range of the Saturday matinee (and their trusty stallions) made the jump to TV including Roy Rogers, Gene Autry and Hopalong Cassidy. But those hombres all were outstripped by a buckaroo who came from radio to TV – the Lone Ranger. Starting in 1949 and running for years and years after, the Lone Ranger’s TV adventures helped ABC establish their Saturday morning line-up.
The rise of 24/7 children’s channels on cable TV along with home video and now, on-demand streaming content from the likes of Disney and others, have made the ritual of Saturday mornings a thing of the past.
But if you’re feeling nostalgic, next Saturday, get up at the crack of dawn, pour yourself a big bowl of Sugar Smacks or Cap’n Crunch, plop yourself down in front of your TV and pop in a DVD on any of your favorites of yesteryear – they’re nearly all available in some form or other.
Hi-Yo Silver, awaaaaaaaay!
