Wednesday, August 15, 2018

WATTSTAX - "A Soulful Expression Of The Living Word" (1973)

It's pure and simple! I love good music, and tonight's Wednesday Concert is a film from 1973 about a 1972 concert in Watts, California to commemorate the 7 year anniversary of "The Watts Riots." The movie is called "Wattstax" and gives the viewer some rare historical insight into how the black community was feeling in 1972, good and bad.

So where was black music in the United States in 1972? "Wattstax" features only artists from the Memphis based Stax Label and it's affiliates, but there were also regional scenes happening all over the country!

 The "Wattstax" concert was held at The Coliseum in Los Angeles on a Sunday, August 20, 1972!
There was a bit of a problem, because there was an NFL football game the Saturday night before between Los Angeles and Oakland!

 So they couldn't get in to build the stage until after the game was over. They also only had a few hours to get the stadium all cleaned up after the football game. This was a concert that was going to happen come Hell or high water, and somehow they magically got it all done!


 Kim Weston sang "The Star Spangled Banner," and she was followed by the Reverend Jesse Jackson who gave an introduction and a speech! Now it was time to get it really going with The Staples Singers! Stax's The Staple Singers had a huge hit in 1972 with "I'll Take You There," and that was the last of the five songs they performed!

 Up next was the lesser known Jimmy Jones doing "Somebody Bigger than You and I."

 
 One of my all-time favorite singers is Rance Allen. I Think I still have three of his records. He's a big guy with a high voice that's powered by The Lord. Rance is just the best, and the song they chose for the film was called "Lying on the Truth," and it rocks!

 The shots of the 1972 crowd are always interesting!

 This show only ran from 2:38 in the afternoon until about 7:30 at night, but man, did they pack in a massive amount of entertainment in that small amount of time! Here, The Golden Thirteen perform "Old Time Religion." There is so much going on that when I first watched this movie, I thought this festival must have run for at least two days, not only five hours!

In between the musical segments, the makers of "Wattstax" decided to fill up the time with a bunch of interviews and commentary of mostly angry black men, and it's also injected with footage of a 32 year old Richard Pryor telling it like it is. He really was crazy, crazy like a fox! If you can't stand listening to people using the 'N' word, then you probably won't make it through this movie. It's kind of funny, the music is very spiritual, but the language would never be tolerated in church I'm sure! Kind of a strange juxtaposition! Just like the Film about the Monterey Pop Festival, I would have rather seen more music, maybe some of show that included Eddie Floyd or Little Sonny.

 The original Bar-Kays were also the backing band for Otis Redding, and four members also perished in the same plane crash that Otis died in.

 
 The trumpet player Ben Cauley was the only one to survive the crash, and the bassist James Alexander was on another plane. Together they reformed the band! The sax player with the white Afro is Harvey Henderson!

 The Bar-Kays had the great instrumental "Soul Finger," and here they perform "Son of Shaft" which is fitting since Issac Hayes is the headliner of the show! In 1978, The Bar-Kays released the classic "Shut The Funk Up!" Yeah!

 
The truly amazing Carla Thomas performs "Pick Up the Pieces!" 

 Stax Records were still firmly rooted in the blues, and the great Albert King performs "I'll Play The Blues For You!"

 Mr. "Walkin' The Dog" himself, Rufus Thomas puts on a fiery performance!!

 I could never do it, but Rufus can dress like this and still look cool, when I'd look like a fool! The very funky song he's performing is called "Breakdown!"

 I'm not sure what Rufus was thinking but during his performance of "Do The Funky Chicken" he tells everybody to come down on the field, something the promoters were trying to avoid, because they didn't want to do any damage to the grass on the field! So, Rufus calls everybody down, and when the song is over, he tells them to go back to their seats, which everybody isn't so agreeable to! Weird situation!

 Luther Ingram's big hit "(If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don't Want to Be Right" was on Koko Records, which was a Stax sub-label. They must have been on a very tight schedule, because I swear Luther is looking at this watch while he's singing!

 The show closes with a performance by the man known as Black Moses or Issac Hayes!

Issac does an incredible performance of "The Theme From Shaft" and "Soulsville!"

Thanx to Robert M. Lindsey for correcting me on my bonehead Aretha label error, and in the meantime I was able to locate my cassette tape of the soundtrack for "Wattstax" because I wanted you to see the Richard Pryor Warning sticker, and that they misspelled Jesse Jackson's name!
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The list of Rhythm and Blues #1 hits from 1972 starts with Al Green, whose home base was also Memphis, but on a completely different label called "Hi Records."
The Dramatics were from Detroit but recorded for the "Volt Label," a subsidiary of "Stax Records!"
"King Records" was based in Cincinnati and had The Godfather of Soul on their label, James Brown whose hit that year was "Talkin' Loud and Sayin' Nothing (Pt. 1)."
Joe Tex had a big hit called "I Gotcha" on "Dial Records" out of Nashville! 
Our hearts go out to "The Queen of Soul" Aretha Franklin who is very sick, and might not be with us much longer! Aretha had her hit "Day Dreaming" on "Atlantic Records" also in 1972!
The Chi-Lites from Chicago had a hit "Oh Girl" that was on the old school Brunswick Label.
And there were a bunch of Philadelphia artists that had hits in 1972, like The O'Jays with "Back Stabbers," Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes doing "If You Don't Know Me By Now, and Billy Paul and his huge hit "Me and Mrs. Jones!"
Detroit City's "Motown Label" only had a #1 hit by The Spinners in 1972, "I'll Be Around."
The list is rounded out by Bobby Womack (United Artists), Joe Simon (Spring), Bill Withers (Sussex), Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway (Atlantic,) and Billy Preston (A&M)
Sly and the Family Stone's hit "Family Affair" was on the "Epic" label, and they were from San Francisco! The whole Stax catalogue ended up being bought up by "Fantasy Records" from San Francisco, then sold to "Concord" and some albums have been licensed and are available today from "Rhino Records" in Los Angeles where "Wattstax" was recorded, so we've come full circle!
And remember, no matter who you are, "You are somebody!"

Monday, August 13, 2018

HORRIBLE HORROR With ZACHERLEY, The Cool Ghoul -

Today we have a special treat, originally released direct to video in the eighties. It's a compilation of clips from movies he showed back in the day with some occasional rude comments plus segments in his castle between the clips. So, hit the 'GO' button there next to the detonation device there on the right and get this road on the show!!..

Zacherely the Cool Ghoul starts the show with a monologue be sets on fire, then goes to his film vault to cue up some vintage horror movie clips for us!

As we're watching a clip from THE INDESTRUCTIBLE MAN, Zacherely responds to the ultra hot gal in the scene! Weird, I have the same reaction every time I watch that scene!

Here's a great shot of Sid Haig as he crawls out of the limo in SPIDER BABY.

Then, he electrocutes a little walking reptile just for the Hell of it...

We even get to see a clip of the massive Westinghouse robot, Elektro! He actually smokes a cigarette too, letting the kids see how cool smoking is!

In this behind the scenes shot, we can see a guy pulling the tail of a lizard to make him move for a dinosaur fight scene.

This is one of my favorite and funniest shots from BRIDE OF THE MONSTER... Check out the stunt man's elevator shoes, now, supposedly, Bela is a full 5 inches taller than Tor!!

Back to Zacherely's antics. He tests some brains to see if they are defective or not. Then, he gleefully operates on a big pile of gelatin and broccoli!

A little reminder of those crazed SHE-DEMONS in their bamboo cages.

Anyone that knows what horror flick this still is from watches way too many bad movies!

Eegah!! and I almost believed it when we saw THE BRAIN THAT WOULDN'T DIE way back in 1962, it was definitely a WTF?! moment in horror movie history!

Here's a flaming 13 from the trailer of 13 GHOSTS, what Eegah!! and I saw in 1960.

Freakin' dumb ass teenagers!!

A shot of Zacherley and his guest in his early days...

That's one of the crazy coolest claims ever in horror movies! From THE GIANT GILA MONSTER.

Check out that awesome lettering from the INVADERS FROM MARS trailer!

When you go back and check out this scene from I WAS A TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN, well, that leg is really hideous and super shocking for a fifties horror flick, seriously!

The tubes in this shot of Don Megowan from TALES OF FRANKENSTEIN look like plumbing!

A little comedy routine on the Abbott and Costello show, it's time to meet the Creature!

Zacherley ends the show with a monologue and a Transylvania banner, last words from the Cool Ghoul... Tune in Wednesday for more, from, the Dungeon Gang!

Saturday, August 11, 2018

LI SAN JIAO WEI ZHEN DI YU MEN - "The Dragon Lives Again" (1977)

 Tonight's Saturday Night Special is either one of the best movies I've ever seen, or one of the worst! I just can't make up my mind! One thing that is for sure is that they double downed on the weirdness factor, now whether that works or not depends on how intoxicated you are. That being said, let's get this party started! 

 The movie is presented as a dedication to Bruce Lee's fans, when it's actually an exploitation of Bruce Lee's popularity that steals freely from every known action film icon the producers could think of. It's really a quite incredibly amazing piece of shit,.....I mean work of art! It's called "Li San Jiao Wei Zhen Di Yu Men," and is sometimes referred to as "Deadly Hands Of Kung Fu," or "The Dragon Lives Again!"

 This wild child of a story finds Bruce Lee, as played by Siu Lung Leung (Bruce Leong), has died and gone to Hell! In this burning inferno he meets a very weird assortment of famous people good and bad! Bruce doesn't want to be dead, and since he's not sure how to get out, he opens a gym!


Take your pick! 
This guy is either The King, The Devil, The Boss, or just some horny pervert! It's kind of hard to take serious a guy who wears what looks like a pearl lampshade on his head!

 I'm not liking the looks of this menu, just bring me a glass of ice water please!

The bosses of the Bad Guy's Club are The Godfather and The Exorcist, who are joined by soft-pore corn star Emmanuelle (played by Jenny in her only known role!) For the record, just in case this looks like a kid's movie, it's not! There is no graphic violence, but there are a couple of sex scenes that go on for quite a while!

Why Clint Eastwood and James Bond are also on the evil side, I have no idea!

 As is Zatoichi, the blind swordsman hero of Japan who rounds out this team of scoundrels!

 It might seem like overwhelming odds against Bruce, but he gets some help from Popeye and Shaolin monk and martial-arts expert Caine of "Kung Fu" fame!!

 Pull it I say!!

 Just to make it even less comprehensible, sometimes Bruce shows up as Kato, the role he had on "The Green Hornet" TV show!

 Oh, I almost forgot, Dracula is also one of the bad guys!

 Drac takes one for The Gipper!!

 James Bond is almost too easily disposed of!

 Clint Eastwood wasn't much more difficult!

 The Exorcist and The Godfather put up a pretty formidable fight!

 Bur Bruce is too much for them so they have to call in the Hoppin' Mummies chorus line!

 One of the greatest fight scenes in Kung Fu history!

 I don't think he really needed them, but Caine, Popeye, and The One-Armed Swordsman jump into the fray!

 And Yes Virginia, Popeye even has the requisite can of spinach he'll dig into before this fight is over!

Well, there's so much more to the story, but in The End, Bruce is released to go back to the Earth, and as he's whisked away, everybody left behind gives him a fond farewell. Bruce wanted to take everybody back with him, but The Boss said no because if he did, "The Earth would be an even crazier place!" Some things just aren't worth arguing over!

Monster Music

Monster Music
AAARRGGHHH!!!! Ya'll Come On Back Now, Y'Hear??