Don-O's Hour Of Crap

In our continuing strange efforts to educate the younger fortunate of the whim that was the seventies, we offer the latest textbook chapter of this decade on that Titanic-sized tidal wave that divided this era in half: DISCO! Actually, the mainstream success/exploitation of disco on the unsuspecting cultural landscape

There will be some good, some bad, but we will mainly focus on the more characteristic and unknown slices of the disco ball: interesting track from the Roller Boogie soundtrack and by Jacko, Root Boy Slim & The Sex Change Band with The Rootettes, Stargaurd; plus the questionable by the likes of Gordon Thomas and Galactic Symposium. Even Mad Magazine and National Lampoon get caught up in this whirlwind alongside Frank Zappa (kinda) and Jeff Lynne of ELO (the poor sap!).

Despite the warnings and wreckage, this episode is respectfully dedicated to Donna Summer, the singer of some of the finest disco/dance recordings ever and to whom I had a serious crush on.

Good luck with this one,
Don-O

P. S.: To increase YOUR more questionable disco collection, we encourage you to seek out ‘Disco Sickness’, an internet audio compilation from The 365 Days Project, originally brought to you by Otis Fodder and WFMU-FM. Google it and beware!

P. P. S.: I failed to mention in this podcast one of the aftershocks of original 1970’s disco dominance: All Disco Radio Stations!..and there were quite a few. Go to airchexx.com and search ‘disco’ on their web site and you’ll find some small audio snippets of this unique species. However, for a full blown unedited experience, archive.org has offered a two hour aircheck of actual disco radio madness from 1979: http://archive.org/details/cftp-wktu-1979-02-24

It’s another visit to Xanadu-land that's a long time coming. This time, we focus on the first two singles from the Xanadu soundtrack: Olivia Newton-John's no. 1 hit single ‘Magic’ and ELO first X side, ‘I’m Alive’. Covers and remixes are done by Stimulator, La Sound, Sun Flower Orchestra, Richie, DJ Dark Helmet, La Sound (again) and so forth.

We wrap it all up with some fine non-Xanadu tracks by The Tubes and, Mr. Musical himself, Gene Kelly!

Happy Xanadu whiplash!
Don-O

Just got back from New Orleans, so I need to get the rest of this smelly town out of my system, thus you’ll hear some spicy N. O. related music. Unfortunately, Huell Howser passed away soon after I got back, thus I’m sprinkling in some L. A. related tracks as a tribute to this local legend. AND while I’m at it, gonna give the great L.A. based suburb, the San Fernando Valley, a shout out as well. This will be an urban stew of people shouting about their sprawl: good, bad, warts and all!

Charles Bukowski, Bing Crosby, Sweet Dick Whittington, Kermit Ruffins, Tom Waits, Barry ‘The Lion’ Gordon and Tuff Muffin are among the proud shouters with some out-of-season leftover holiday cheer by James Andrews, The Bobs and Wayne Butane to throw everything into confusion! (Warning: the Butane track is slllllllightly NSFW!)

That’s all fer now and enjoy the armchair travelogue,
Don-O

One can easily do some serious lipjob on what the 1970’s were like: you can lean on irony, nostalgic deconstruction that made VH1 ‘Best Of’ series popular or, from old farts like yours truly, deny and make shit up to cover up the embarrassment. Unlike those old farts, I’m too old to give a crap anymore and am ready to just spill my guts until the old farts from the 90’s sets me on fire.

‘WFT 1970’s?!’ is the first part of a learner’s guide to this insane decade. A seriously abbreviated mix tape of bizarre top 40 hits, current covers of 70’s classics and old comedy bits satirizing what was going on around them at the time. Artists and tracks include: National Lampoon, George Carlin, The Pleasure Barons doing ‘Take A Letter, Maria’, Josie & The Pussycats doing The Carpenters, some rare Dickie Goodman, The Bran Flakes and too much more.

There will be further "lessons" about this decade to come, including a special ‘disco’ show. Thus, sit back and relax or set fire to the nearest nostalgic radio station. Get freakin’ ready for a slice of the 70’s that not even Rhino Records would touch.

Good damned luck,
Don-O