OLD SCHOOL Redux 4 (Episodes 11,12,13,14)

About once a year when Professor Mikey gets overloaded by projects and time tripping (human flight is possible, you must focus on the negative spaces) we revisit the early sessions of Old School when each episode included around four songs and ran about 15 min. Now that I’m told by the experts that podcast attention spans run about 45 secs I should be seeing the errors of my ways. Still, I hang on to the fantasy that listeners and audio explorers alike enjoy hearing whole songs, even though every Top 40 hit or Underground classic may hit the three minute mark, or even stretch into the unknown that comes with 7-minute tunes. Remember Alan Shepard’s first space flight was just 15 minutes, 22 seconds, two minutes shorter than Iron Butterfly’s “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida.”The original texts that accompanied these early episodes are included below and you can find those shows online at professormikey.substack.com. I think you will enjoy this foursome that includes LA garage, London prog rock, Memphis soul, original blues that inspired Led Zeppelin, excursions into the unknown, and the banshee bop from a St. Patrick’s Day jukebox.That’s the long and short of Professor Mikey’s preschool in the Old School episodes Eleven through Fourteen, where the Past is a Blast!SOMETIMES GOOD GUYS DON’T WEAR WHITE The StandellsThe Standells from Los Angeles will always be remembered for taking their garage sound all the way to number 11 on the pop charts with their ode to Boston “Dirty Water.” Lead singer/drummer Dick Dodd had been a Mousketeer on the Mickey Mouse Club. Larry Tamblyn, on the keyboards, was the brother of Russ Tamblyn who had starred in West Side Story. Tony Valentino had left Italy to go to Hollywood, and Gary Leeds eventually found himself in the Walker Brothers. They are caught on film in “Get Yourself a College Girl,” and “Riot on Sunset Strip” and even appeared in the TV sitcom The Munsters. As far as bands go, they have a great gritty sound and they really capture the summer of ’66, in that precious time after the British Invasion and before psychedelics. Here’s the Standells from their first album and Some Times Good Guys Don’t Wear White…BACK STREET LUV Curved AirCurved Air emerged on the prog rock scene in London in 1969 when members of the band Sisyphus added female singer Sonja Kristina Linwood. They took their name from a Terry Riley composition, “A Rainbow in Curved Air.” The vocals were the last step in their puzzle, but a very big part of their sounds were the sonic violin antics of Darryl Way. The band lasted from 1970 to 76, but time has not been particularly kind to this band. One of the reasons could be sloppy remasters of their CDs. With that in mind, we go back to the original vinyl and hear a forgotten masterpiece.SON OF SHAFT The Bar-KaysThe Bar-Kays were a Memphis soul ensemble that began life as an instrumental group, then faced the solemn task of rebuilding after major tragedy. Four members of the original group died in the plane crash that also claimed the life of Otis Redding in December of 1967. Trumpeter Ben Cauley survived the crash, bassist James Alexander had missed the flight. The group they assembled would back Isaac Hayes on his album Hot Buttered Soul. Cauley and his new guitarist Michael Toles also played on the Shaft soundtrack, which brings us to this cut, recorded Christmas Day 1971 with singer Larry Dodson.OLD SCHOOL #12 Led Zeppelin UncoveredThe Plebs 1964, Otis Rush 1956, Muddy Waters 1962Led Zeppelin is one of the most litigated bands in history. Like The Beatles, it is a big payday for any artist when a jury of their peers finds even a snippet of a song may originated elsewhere. Forget that Jimmy Page, John Bonham, Robert Plant, and John Paul Jones (the bassist who stole his name from a famous navy admiral), might have improved the original. Bottom line, when an artist sells nearly 300 million albums, there is a significant bottom line.The band maintains all titles were researched for proper accreditations. Memphis Minnie was listed as a songwriter for “When the Levee Breaks,” updated by Led Zep 1971, and received healthy residuals. Randy California of Spirit sued over “Stairway to Heaven,” claiming the opening notes were way to close to his instrumental composition “Taurus” from 1968. His heirs were still in court when California passed in 1997. The dispute ended in Zeppelin’s favor in 2020.For a good legal brief on Led Zeppelin in court, check out this testimonial from Rolling Stone.Today we hear three tunes from the first Zeppelin LP that were mostly controversy free. “Babe I’m Going to Leave You” came from a Joan Baez recording of a song written in the Fifties by Anne Breton. Here we get it from the pop prep rambling Plebs. Willie Dixon was correctly identified as the composer of the other two songs, as we hear pre-Zep versions of “I Can’t Quit You’ from Otis Rush and Muddy Waters on “You Shook Me....