Podcast 18!!!!

Here is the latest podcast. It's entitled, "The Wolfman Jack Special". This is due to the fact that I have had the musical moments of the podcast finished and in the computer for about two or three months. I just haven't found the time to put together my little "DJ" parts into the mix. I solved the problem by not having those moments at all. Instead, I threw in some clips of the late, great Wolfman Jack to give it that great radio feel. You can hear the Wolfman in between some great songs by David Brookings, Freddy & The Dreamers, Mojo Nixon, Elvis, The Maggies, Hank III, Mrs. Miller, Chuck Berry, , Naked City, Billy Squier, Micky Dolenz and so much more. There's a special "LIVE IN CONCERT" section as well. I hope you enjoy it!

Dartman's Wacky Podcast #18

PS - Special thanks to Tom who supplied me with all of my past podcasts that were taken down from Rapidshare. I'll be reposting those soon for those of you who haven't heard them. Thanks!

Get Them While You Can

I know a lot of people out there have been waiting for me to say this so here it is, "Rapidshare Sucks!" If you have noticed, I have gradually switched over to Mediafire for my files. However, the thought of re-upping everything I have posted in the last 5 1/2 years is just way too overwhelming. That, combined with the fact that I seem to have lost a lot of the stuff myself, adds up to, quite simply, download everything you can while you can. Rapidshare has slowly but surely been deleting a lot of my files now that they have changed their "membership" rules. I started cleaning up all of the posts that have dead links and I've already deleted about 100 posts from the first three years! I will continue to clean up the past posts that no longer have working links as time permits. Until then, grab as much as you can. Actually, the more the shares get downloaded, the longer they will stay active. And while we are on the subject, I seem to have lost all of my past podcast files. Anyone have all of the podcasts saved and want to send them to me? I will make it worth your wild. Let me know in a comment. Thanks.

Pirates, Captain Flint! Pirates!

As a kid, I loved going to the library. I loved reading but I also loved checking out records. The library in the town I grew up in had an amazing record selection and my favorite section was the spoken word section. Not so much for the records where someone famous was reading some famous author's works but because this section housed all the old time radio records and story records. One record that I checked out repeatedly was the story record to the Disney classic, "Treasure Island". I had seen the film on "The Wonderful World of Disney" and fell in love with it. Since this was long before the DVD or even the VHS tape, the only way I could enjoy the film over and over again at my leisure was to check out this record whenever I wanted to relive the classic story of Treasure Island. For years I looked for the record and could not find hide or hair of it until I was in a really cool record store in Seattle a few years back. As with all things of this nature, I now see it everywhere. Of course, it doesn't matter now that I own it. I present it for you now. Here is "Treasure Island." Enjoy!

The Story of Disney's Treasure Island

Here In The West We're Singin' The Best

When my wife and I put up our Christmas tree, it has become a tradition to listen to "Christmas On The Ponderosa". It's a classic album that features the cast of Bonanza celebrating Christmas in a mix of spoken word and song. It's entertaining as can be and provides many laughs that we look forward to all year. The holiday record is great but it is the second album of its kind from that great western series. The first one came out a year earlier and was the same concept without the holiday theme. It was titled "Bonanza: Ponderosa Party Time". As with the Christmas album, it features a mix of songs, stories and spoken word moments that make you feel like you are at a party on the Ponderosa! Here it is for you now. Enjoy!

BONANZA: Ponderosa Party Time

Classic Television Episode of The Month: Danger Mouse

Enjoy!

Happy Fathers Day From The Love Daddy!

I was in a record store a while back and happened upon a children's record by Red Buttons. The first thing to hit me when I saw the cover was that it was titled, "Love Daddy". What made it even creepier was the fact that it had a picture of Red looking into a little girl's eyes. Upon further inspection, I realized that it was meant to say "Love, Daddy" as it was a collection of poems Red had written for his little girl. Why they left out the comma is beyond me. I know in 1974, when this was released, the term "Love Daddy" had no other connotations but over the years that has changed. Even the back cover reads "Red Buttons: Love Daddy". The next thing I noticed about the cover was the sub-text, which reads "Poems for my daughter and other little people." Again, in 1974, "little people" referred to children. However, 37 years later . . . you know what I'm getting at. Anyway, the album is actually a nice collection of silly rhymes set to corny music that tends to be quite entertaining. I'm waiting to play it for my "little person" but I strongly encourage you to play it for yours. Because of the way the album is set up, there really are no tracks so I ripped it as side one and side two. Here, for your listening pleasure, is "Red Buttons: Love Daddy".

Red Buttons - Love Daddy

A Head Full of Monkees

Friday night I was able to take in The Monkees 45th Anniversary Tour (or the 25th anniversary of the 20th anniversary tour) and loved seeing my buddy, Micky, having a ball with his old cohorts. I had thought that maybe it was going to be the same old same old that they have always done when they reunite but this show was truly great. It was a lot different watching a Monkees concert being a member of the "inner circle" and it was a great feeling to know I was watching friends up on stage. Anyway, I thought I would throw you a generous helping of Monkees stuff so here goes:
RHINO Handmade put out an amazing box set for HEAD last year that featured not only the original soundtrack in both MONO and STEREO but also had a bunch of great alternate mixes and unreleased items. It was great to get the "official" version of a lot of these items but there were still a lot that they left off. Two bootlegs that were released long before RHINO's box set contained not only the items released in the set but also a lot of others that didn't make the cut. Here are those tracks that didn't make the RHINO version from those two bootlegs. Here are "Head Shots" and "HEAD Deluxe". Enjoy!

The Monkees-HEAD Shots

The Monkees-HEAD Deluxe (part 1)
The Monkees-HEAD Deluxe (part 2)

Rock Around Le Clock

If you grew up in the 70s then you knew the song "Rock Around The Clock" and could probably sing it verbatim and even sing the guitar solo and the drum hits at the end. Of course, not everyone could sing "See You Later Alligator" or "Happy Baby". But I can. I love Bill Haley and the Comets. Unlike everyone else in my generation, I knew about them long before I ever saw Happy Days. They are credited with starting riots with Rock Around The Clock when it first was featured in the film, "Blackboard Jungle". It's hard to imagine that. It's also hard to imagine that they were a country and western band before jumping on the early rock and roll bandwagon. In 1966, the Comets made a trip to Paris. They would make the same trip again in 1974. Both trips yielded amateur recordings of the concerts. They are compiled into a nice bootleg called "Live In Paris". As an added bonus, you also get three tunes recorded off of Alan Freed's radio show as they were performed in Brooklyn in 1956. Here is "Bill Haley and The Comets: Live In Paris". Enjoy!

Bill Haley and The Comets-Live In Paris

Bobby Wheeler RIP

In case you haven't heard, Jeff Conaway passed away last week. The last half of his life was pretty sad with his descent into drug addiction and depression. I always loved him in TAXI and I loved the fact that he played the part of a struggling actor trying to get on Broadway. Of course, in real life he had success on the great white way before he even graduated from college. He landed a gig as the understudy for several roles in the 50s rock musical, Grease (including Danny Zuko, the lead). He eventually replaced Barry Bostwick as the lead and starred in the show as Danny for 2 1/2 years while his friend John Travolta played Doody. By the time the film version came about, there was no denying Travolta the lead since he was one of the biggest stars in the world at the time but (as we all know) Conaway was given the role of Kenickie. Of course, then came TAXI and the rest is history.
In 1979, at the height of his popularity, Jeff Conaway released a self titled album. What amazes me about this album is the fact that the person singing is a well respected singer from the Broadway stage but you would never know it by listening to this. In every song, he uses a brash, throaty sound that makes him sound like he can't sing at all. It's quite sad really. But in any event, I present it for you as my special tribute to his memory. Here is "Jeff Conaway". Enjoy!

Jeff Conaway

A Singing Couple's Work is Never Done

When I was a kid, my sister was the big Sonny and Cher fan. As I grew older I learned to love Sonny and Cher but most of that was on my own. I remember that my sister owned two Sonny and Cher recordings. She had the Live in Las Vegas album and a cassette that was, to me, the coolest looking tape ever made. It had a sort of a rainbow design on the tape itself. As I got older and got into their music more, I always remembered that tape. In the late 90s I found it in a box of old stuff at my parent's house and gave it a listen. It was pretty beat up and wore out but all of a sudden the memories came flowing back and songs that once permeated my childhood home were back in my head. The tape didn't make it to another play and it wasn't until about three or four years ago that I replaced it with an original vinyl copy of the album. It went up on the shelf and stayed there until about a week or so ago when I placed it on the turntable. The condition of the vinyl was about 1000 times better than that old tape that I found and it was like I was listening to it for the first time. I fell in love with it all over again. And the cover art is pretty darn cool as well. It depicts the couple in their greenhouse surrounded by empty road cases and a few flower pots. Basically, it's a picture of a pop duo who are married and letting us in on the fact that they are so busy entertaining you that they don't even have time to plant anything in their greenhouse. It was a brand new decade (the album was released in 1972) and the addition of a new producer (the legendary Tommy "Snuff" Garrett) and a new label seemed to give the couple a new license to remake their image into a harder edge. I like it. Judge for yourself when you take a listen to "All I Ever Need Is You". Enjoy!

Sonny & Cher - All I Ever Need Is You

Red, Dinah & Blues

I remember watching Dinah Shore when I was really young and it never occurred to me that she was a famous singer at one point. Even now, at age 40, I still have a hard time imagining that the same Dinah Shore I used to watch on television is the same Dinah Shore that I love to listen to on my record player. One of my favorite Dinah Shore albums has her teaming up with another of my favorites, Red Norvo. Red was an amazing mallet percussionist and to hear him play anything is amazing. (I have a great recording of him and Frank Sinatra that I posted last February that is out of this world) When he teams up with Dinah, it's a masterpiece. Here's Red Norvo and Dinah Shore singing the Blues! Enjoy!

Dinah Sings Some Blues With Red Norvo