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Music et al, Music of the 60s, Today in history

1965 Beatles Cartoon Series

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1965 Beatles Cartoon Series

September 25, 1965

1965 Beatles Cartoon Series

Beatles ’65

By September 1965 the Beatles were king of the media hill. They already had had four #1 singles for a total of 9 weeks (“I Feel Fine,” “Eight Days a Week,” “Ticket to Ride,” and “Help.”) and three #1 albums for a total of 31 weeks (Beatles 65, Beatles VI, and Help)!

Rubber Soul, the album that changed the direction of pop music like no other, was on the December horizon.

Odd as it may seem, those incredibly great numbers and three Grammy nominations resulted in no Grammy awards at the 1966 ceremony.

1965 Beatles Cartoon Series

The Beatles were a HOT commodity!

Do a search for Beatle memorabilia on E-Bay to get a taste of the enormous  number of novelty items still available. The ABC TV network jumped onto the Beatle band wagon because ABC recognized a golden egg when they saw one. Each Beatle was a golden goose and they were laying clutches of golden eggs.

1965 Beatles Cartoon Series

ABC

On September 25, 1965 ABC broadcast the first Beatles cartoon. No need to be clever, the network simply called the show The Beatles.

The Saturday 10:30 AM time slot showed what demographic ABC sought: young adolescents.

Each episode’s story line highlighted a Beatle song or two. For example, the first episode was called A Hard Day’s Night/I Want to Hold Your Hand. The Beatle characters were rehearsing at Transylvania Hilton, but fans keep getting in the way.

Ringo said he knew a place that was big and empty. Paul responded, “Sounds fine, but how do we all fit inside your head?”

Ba-dump-ba! And away we go.

1965 Beatles Cartoon Series

Paul Frees

The Beatles themselves were not part of the production. Al Brodax and Sylban Buck created the show and King Features Syndicate produced it. American actor Paul Frees did the John and George voices. You may not recognize his name, but chances are you do recognize one of his many voices!

1965 Beatles Cartoon Series

End

British actor Lance Percival did the Paul and Ringo voices.

The Beatles were not enthusiastic about the production at first, but later came to like the idea and the various episodes.

The series ended on September 7, 1969 after a total of 39 episodes. ABC moved the 1967 season to Saturdays at noon. The fourth “season” was re-runs shown Sunday mornings at 9:30.

MTV rebroadcast the series in 1986 and 1987 and the Disney Channel in 1989.

We can easily find the episodes now on YouTube

1965 Beatles Cartoon Series

BeatleToons

In 1999, Mitchell Axelrod wrote BeatleToons, The Real Story Behind The Cartoon Beatles. 1965 Beatles Cartoon Series

In 2015, Rolling Stone magazine had an article marking the 50th anniversary of the show.

1965 Beatles Cartoon Series

Yellow Submarine

1965 Beatles Cartoon Series

The Beatles weren’t too crazy about the idea of the Yellow Submarine movie either until they saw some outtakes from it. Al Brodax was a producer and co-writer of that film and the film’s director, George Dunning, had worked on the cartoon series. Voice actors performed the parts including Lance Percival (who did not do a Beatle voice).

To fulfill their contractual obligation with United Artists, they appeared  “live” at the end of the film and sang “All Together Now.”

1965 Beatles Cartoon Series
Music et al, Music of the 60s, Vietnam

1965 Sing-In For Peace

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1965 Sing-In For Peace

September 24, 19651965 Sing-In For Peace
1965 Sing-In For Peace

Protest the immoral

On Friday evening September 24, 1965 at 8:30 PM there was a Sing-In For Peace. The program stated that “The undersigned are gathered for one purpose: to protest the immoral, irrational and irresponsible act of war which are government carries out in Viet-Nam in our names. The folksinger, like the poet, artist, and writer everywhere must be in touch with what is human in himself as well as those around him. He responds to life, and expresses his dismay at death-ward motions of every kind…”where have all the flowers gone?” While he does not necessarily consider himself a political being, he asks serious questions…“what heave they done to the rain?” And while the government need not fear the musician and the poet when he raises his gentle weapons of sanity, it cannot deny his questions, for “the answer is blowing in the wind.”

Irwin Silber, editor of Sing Out!’ magazine, Barbara Dane, and Pete Seeger, and other folk musicians organized “Sing-In For Peace.”

Obviously the concert did not end the war. Or did it? What weighs more, a ton of feathers or a ton of steel. The answer, of course, is both weigh the same and this concert was one of the many feathers that collectively helped educate other Americans to the the horrors and immorality of the Vietnam.

1965 Sing-In For Peace
Concert Across America to End Gun Violence

Sing-In For Peace

In 2007, Congress designated September 25 as a day of remembrance for murder victims. September 25, 2016, marked the Concert Across America to End Gun Violence. Across the United States  in more than 300 venues hundreds of musicians will perform for a cause: end gun violence.

While American soldiers are today still stationed across the world and many in harms way, another war is happening. A war on ourselves. Data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control show that on an average day, 91 Americans are killed with guns. There are nearly 12,000 gun murders a year in the U.S. – and despite falling crime rates, that number has barely changed since the late 1990s.

If the media’s enthusiastic and over-the-top coverage of the far less lethal zika virus was as intense regarding gun violence, perhaps we’d realize that gun violence is far more dangerous to Americans than any mosquito.

The Concert Across America to End Gun Violence may only be a feather, but it will, like the Sing-In for Peace, be part of an increasing activism on the part of all citizens to stop the madness.

1965 Sing-In For Peace
Birthdays, Woodstock Music and Art Fair

Remembering Brother Gene Dinwiddie

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Remembering Brother Gene Dinwiddie

“Take This Winter Out of My Mind” by Full Moon (1972)

Remembering Brother Gene Dinwiddie

September 19, 1936 –  January 11, 2002

I was one of those white suburban kids growing up in a very white suburban neighborhood that I didn’t realize was whites-only because no real estate agencies and owners would rent or sell to non-whites. Segregation northern style. Quiet but omnipresent.

We white suburban kids did not realize we were listening to our own American blues when we heard Eric Burdon sing “House of the Rising Sun” or Mick Jagger sing “You Better Move On.”

British bands like the Animals and Rolling Stones reinterpreted American blues, but bands like the Paul Butterfield Blues Band were revitalizing or simply continuing the blues tradition.

Remembering Brother Gene Dinwiddie

Gene Dinwiddie

Gene Dinwiddie, or Brother Gene Dinwiddie as he was often known, was part of that tradition.

He had already been playing in bands for 10 years when he joined Butterfield which presented him the opportunity to record. The American music scene was typically as segregated as my home town. Whether it be exclusionary tactics by record companies, recording studios, publishers, or venues, black musicians faced barriers at each entry. I certainly cannot speak for Gene Dinwiddie or any black musician, but I could understand the inclination of joining a band led by a white musician with hopes that the white musician would have access that he did not.

Remembering Brother Gene Dinwiddie

Paul Butterfield Blues Band

He joined Paul Butterfield Blues Band in mid-1967 in time for the group’s appearance at the Monterey Pop Festival.

“Love March” became the band’s best known song because of its inclusion on the Woodstock album. It was Dinwiddie and drummer Phillip Wilson who lead on that song.

The longer Dinwiddie was in the band, the more he influenced its sound. The band ended in 1971, but a few of its members including Dinwiddie formed Full Moon.

Brother Gene Dinwiddie also played as a session musician with BB King, Melissa Manchester, Jackie Lomax, and Gregg Allman.

His most visible appearance on record in the 1990s was playing tenor sax on Etta James’ album Stickin’ to My Guns.

Remembering Brother Gene Dinwiddie