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 Wednesday as we play some surprsing "Original Versions of Songs That Became Classics!"
Gluten-Free is all the rage now, but doctors warn it might not be s healthy as you thought.
If you’ve been diagnosed with celiac disease or other symptoms of gluten sensitivity, then go the gluten-free route. But if you don’t, going gluten-free can actually raise the risk of heart disease.
As always, consult your doctor before you decide to drop glutens from your diet.
An album almost as famous for its cover as for the songs inside, Cheap Thrills, released in the summer after the Summer of Love (i.e. 1968) introduced America to perhaps the greatest white blues singer of all time – Ms. Janis Joplin.
But Cheap Thrills was not the band’s first album, nor was Joplin part of the group’s original line-up. Big Brother & the Holding Company was formed in 1966 by San Francisco-based guitarist, Peter Albin. He started informally jamming with another guitarist, Sam Andrews. The pair decided to form a band, adding James Gurley on guitar (Albin moving over to bass) and Chuck Jones on drums. Jones was soon replaced by David Getz and BB&THC became one the most popular bands in what was the emerging “psychedelic” scene blossoming in San Francisco.
The lads thought adding a girl vocalist to their line-up might help expand their repertoire as well as increase their popularity. The band’s manager, Chet Helms, knew of a young Texas singer who was considering moving to California. So, Helms invited Janis Joplin to move west and audition with the group. Unlike the movies, the band wasn’t that impressed with Joplin. And Joplin wasn’t that impressed with the band. Nevertheless, she decided to join, making her first appearance with the group at the Avalon Ballroom in June of ’66.
Gradually, singer and musicians found a way to work together. The group abandoned their improvisational free-form sound while Joplin learned how to sing with very loud musical accompanists. The group joined Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead, and Quicksilver Messenger Service as part of what became known as “the San Francisco sound.”
In September of the same year, the group found themselves stranded in Chicago when the money they got for a gig in the Windy City didn’t cover their fare to return home. So, they cut a deal with Chicago’s Mainstream Records and recorded the first four tunes in Chitown to earn enough to get back to California. They finished the album in L. A. Simply titled, Big Brother & the Holding Company, the album sold well enough in San Fran, but failed to make an impression anywhere else. The fact that Mainstream Records was a jazz label and BB&THC was their first rock act may have had something to do with it.
The band’s big break came a year later. Their appearance at the legendary Monterey Pop Festival was so strong that festival organizers asked the band to perform again on Sunday, following their initial set on Saturday afternoon. The buzz around this gig led Columbia Records to offer the group a new recording contract. However, it took some extensive negotiations to get the group out of their contract with Mainstream Records. That pushed off the recording of their second LP to the spring of 1968.
Those sessions led to the release of Cheap Thrills in August of ’68. The initial idea was to record the band live. However, those recordings proved less than satisfactory (except for “Ball and Chain,” which did make it onto the album). Instead, producer John Simon brought the group into the studio and simulated a live album by overdubbing crowd noises on the rest of the tracks and tacking on a recording of noted rock promoter Bill Graham introducing the group to open the album.
The group had asked noted underground cartoonist, Robert Crumb to provide art for the back cover, which would include a list of the songs on the album. Crumb refused payment for his art, saying he didn’t want any of Columbia’s “filthy lucre.” For the front cover, the group wanted to use a photo of the band lying nude in a very wide bed. Columbia Records didn’t like that idea at all. They also didn’t like the name for the LP that the band proposed: “Sex, Dope & Cheap Thrills.” Columbia cut the title down to just “Cheap Thrills” and moved R. Crumb’s artwork to the front of the LP, slapping a black and white photo of Janis on the back cover,
Both proved to be shrewd moves. Cheap Thrills became a runaway bestseller, vaulting into the #1 position on Billboard’s LP chart for an impressive 8 weeks. And Crumb’s artwork really helped the album stand out in the record stores of America.
“Piece of My Heart” became a hit on Top 40 radio, reaching #12 on the Hot 100. “Combination of the Two,” “Summertime” and “Ball and Chain” also received heavy airplay on the newly emerging string of “underground” FM rock stations springing up in markets across the U.S.
The end result of all this was to make Janis Joplin a superstar who had outgrown her backing band. Shortly after the success of the album, Joplin announced she was leaving Big Brother to launch her solo career. Her star burned bright, too bright. She performed at Woodstock and recorded two more studio LPs, but the alcohol and hard drugs took their toll. She died of an overdose in October of 1970.
Cheap Thrills remains one of the best examples of rock from that era. It’s consistently mentioned in “Greatest LPs of All Time Lists” and its cover, intended to be a back cover (!), is also frequently mentioned as one of the genre’s best.
Subsequent reissues of Cheap Thrills now include additional tracks recorded during those sessions that were initially left off the album.
It seems like a contradiction in terms: forgetting I Remember Mama, but only the heartiest of Baby Boomers are likely to remember this gentle sitcom from TV’s early days. Based on the book, Mama’s Bank Account, by Kathryn Forbes. It recounted her growing up in turn-of-the-century San Francisco as a first-generation American with Norwegian parents.
The first thing to note is that the TV series was not named “I Remember Mama.” Its official title was Mama. However, every episode began with a voiceover narration by the actress playing the eldest daughter Katrin Hansen. She always concluded the narration with the phrase, “…most of all, I remember Mama.” In addition, there was a Broadway play and feature film that preceded the TV series that WERE named I Remember Mama. So, most of us still called the show by the longer title.
Like the book, play, and movie, the show revolved around the day-to-day struggle of the family to both adapt to American culture and to make ends meet. Mama was played by veteran actress Peggy Wood. Papa was Judson Laird, Rosemary Rice was Katrin, and eldest son Nels was played by a young Dick Van Patten. (BTW - Rosemary Rice played Archie's girlfriend Betty - of "Betty & Veronica" fame - on the long-running Archie Andrews radio seies. Her resemblance to the comic book character is incredible considering a radio performer didn't need to look like her character!)
Mama’s first season was broadcast on CBS in 1949 and, like a lot of TV in those days, was broadcast live. For its first four seasons, the show consistently placed in the top 10 of the ratings. By the fifth season (1954-55), ratings had started to slip and by the end of its sixth season, CBS canceled the show. However, a mail campaign to save the show was launched. CBS received over 175,000 letters (quite a large sample in those days) and announced they would bring Mama back as a mid-season replacement in December 1956.
For the re-launch, they also decided to film the episodes rather than air them live. Unfortunately, by the time mid-season rolled around, there was no prime-time slot available on CBS. So, the network aired the show on Sunday afternoons at 5 pm. That was a disaster. The show generated almost no ratings and, although 26 episodes had been filmed, Mama was canceled by March 1957.
Those 26 filmed episodes were syndicated briefly in the late 50s and early 60s when there really weren’t that many reruns of prime-time series available, but with so few episodes and the fact they were all in black and white, Mama quickly vanished from TV land.
Today, a small handful of those later episodes can be found online or in DVD packages of early TV for those who still remember Mama.
The Origin of the Jitterbug
Like a great deal of American popular culture of the 20th Century, the jitterbug has its origins in black culture.
While the dance is quite frequently associated with the early days of rock ‘n’ roll, it actually got its start in the 1930’s. While the exact origins of the dance are lost to time, it’s believed to have evolved from the looser style of dancing that had begun in the Roaring 20’s.
The term “jitterbug” originally meant someone who had consumed too much alcohol. Gradually it came to mean someone who was a fan of swing music. Finally, it came to be associated with the style of dancing that was taking place at swing clubs.
The earliest reference to it in song is from a 1934 - Cab Calloway's tune, “Call of the Jitterbug.” Some also know that a song called “The Jitterbug” was written for the 1939 classic film Wizard of Oz. The song was recorded and shot, but was cut from the final film (although you still hear the Wicked Witch mention “a little bug she’s sent” ahead of the Flying Monkeys to take the fight out of Dorothy and her companions.) The footage has been lost to time, but a recording of the song still exists.
World War II help spread both American swing music and the jitterbug all over the globe.
It was still going strong when rock ‘n’ roll arrived on the scene in the mid-1950’s. It was easily adapted to the strong, fast beat of early rock hits and remained the teenager’s dance of choice until a little something called “The Twist” arrived on the scene in 1960.
But more about that later.