Professor Mikey’s OLD SCHOOL

By: Professor Mikey
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  • Summary

  • The past is a blast on Old School, the educational underground pirate radio podcast. DJ Professor Mikey curates vintage vinyl, recalls dope details and fills the air with audio archives from a half-century plus treasure pleasure of singles, albums, reel to reels, 8-tracks, cassettes, CDs, and audio memorabilia.

    professormikey.substack.com
    Mike Flanagan
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Episodes
  • OS#72 Side Trips

    OS#72 Side Trips
    Sep 17 2024
    Professor Mikey here. Thanks for marking the attendance sheet today on Old School. 🏫 Something you notice when you transcend from being a young punk disc jockey into being an old professorial spinner of the tunes, part gasbag, part profound, is …well…how you pick your music. Don’t get me wrong. There are lots of good golden oldie shows out there. And most of them are based on the number of listens that get piled up over 40 to 60 years. It’s like they are working for out of focus groups. If they say Eagles, the machine says Hotel California. If they say Fleetwood Mac the machine goes for Rhiannon. In the process, a lot of great tunes get forgotten or never heard by the new cool kids on the block.That’s were the vintage wine of the ones and twos kick in. Old DJs remember every song they ever played, as well as the people who dug the sounds that were going down.Human programmers can do something that never occurred to Algo and the Rhythms. They can take sidetrips that lead to who knows where. The destinations appear to them in visions about halfway through the current song thats being heard.Funny, that’s the theme of this edition of Old School. These are all destination songs, but not exactly road trip songs. These are all great places to go, but they might give Waze and Google Maps an error code, even if the kickoff tune started in New York City.Stay with me on this. The longer you listen the longer the tracking machines like it. There is one podcast for every three people on the planet now, so Old School needs all the help it can get. Hit subscribe and I’ll take you there.We have much ground to cover, so let’s get started. With the hard rock Beatle, John Lennon no less. And our first song is not Imagine. Or Strawberry Fields.Thanks for listening. This is Old School number 72. Buckle you seat belts. The destinations are all Side Trips! NEW YORK CITY John Lennon & Yoko Ono 197250,000 MILES BENEATH MY BRAIN Ten Years After 1970JOURNEY TO TYME Kenny and the Casuals 1965PRIMROSE HILL John and Beverly Martin 1970ONE WAY STREET Nine Below Zero 1971 SHAMBALA B. W. Stevenson 1973HITCHHIKE Marvin Gaye 1962STRANGER IN TOWN Del Shannon 1965CHELSEA Elvis Costello 1978BERLIN Lou Reed 1973SECRET LIFE OF ARABIA David Bowie 1977OKLAHOMA USA The Kinks 1971BILOXI Jessi Winchester 1970DEBRIS Faces 1971THE GIRL FROM MILL VALLEY Jeff Beck Group feat. Nicky Hopkins 1969PROMISED LAND Chuck Berry 1964A side trip is a wonderful thing in music when you are a disc jockey, free as a bird, without a corporate playlist or strict directions delivered by someone who doesn’t like music. Traditionally it means you are in the midst of a trip when you realize you wouldn’t have to go far out of your way to experience a completely different destination. You are at Disneyland, and find out Knott’s Berry Farm is just 7 miles away.In free form radio it means you have 3 or 4 minutes to find another record that will sound good after the one you are playing.For this episode #72 we chose from a number of possible musical destinations that were generated by musicians who may have been planning to do something else. You never know with these guys and girls.Twice we have pondered rock and roll destinations on Old School. I’ll put the links at the bottom of the newsletter page, which you can get to for free at professormikey.substack.com. They will get you to Episode 25, Omaha Shout, a theme show about place names that may or may not have come from Peyton Manning while trying to throw the defense into confusion. It featured powerful yet easy to understand directions from Moby Grape, Nina Simone, and the Dead Kennedys. Great city songs from Episode 21, “Location Location Location” worked a real estate vibe with classic recordings from The Runaways, The Jam, Porter Wagoner, and T Rex.As always Professor Mikey hopes Old School is becoming your jam. If you hear this on Spotify, just a comment or any kind of signal that the the Spotify empire in Stockholm might see or hear. Old School is produced for educational purposes, with whole songs coming from the public domain, with encouragement from labels from years gone by, or are used within the guidelines of fair use stipulated in Section 107 of the copyright act of 1967. It was a very good year.Thanks again for listening, avoid dead air, and I’ll be back very soon with another edition of Old School. The past is a blast!Links to similar side trips This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit professormikey.substack.com/subscribe
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    1 hr and 3 mins
  • OS#70 Monsters of the Surf Guitar #2 [1 more time]

    OS#70 Monsters of the Surf Guitar #2 [1 more time]
    Sep 8 2024

    *Show note: Old School GT students. Don’t be confused. This is the same show as the original #2. My apologies for sending again, there’s been a rogue wave that knocked some episodes out of Spotify. So we can sit in the sand and hope things work out, or we can just grab our guitars, hop on our boards, and ride the reptilian surf one more time!

    A few episodes back we heard from the Monsters of the Surf Guitar, them rocking reptiles and low-fi lizards that hit the beach with us just as things were warming up.

    As the summer went by, too fast as always, a lot of you made it evident you were craving more surf guitar, that twangy genre that ruled the charts in the early 60s just ahead of the British Invasion. If you haven't heard that episode, it has lots of gila monster history, ferocious feedback, and reptilian reverberation. Odds are pretty good if you dial back a few episodes to Old School Number 66, you’ll find it. But you don’t have to have heard that one to paddle out for this one.

    I was even thinking of making this a sleep tape. Could people really nod off to dreamland while rocking to the memories of surf, sleep, and Stratocasters?

    Most of these artists surfed the waves at Oblivion Beach, where their reputations came and went like the great waves at Wiamea bay. Can you dig it?

    We’ve got guitars that scream like a shark on a spree,

    And lizards that strum with wild jubilee.

    The crocs and the gators are ready to jam,

    With riffs so hot, they could fry a clam!

    So slide on your shades and hang ten with the best,

    Where the surf meets the scales and Black Lagoon Creature don’t rest.

    It’s a wild, wacky ride and its just ahead

    With monsters and Fenders and creatures who shred

    Can you hang ten with the toes and the flying fins and fingers of the larapin lizards of the lost legends of the surfside sidewinders and their dreamy dinosaur dramas?

    I thought you could.

    The Original Surfaris start of this last set of the Old School Endless Summer with a track called EXOTIC. It’s the return of the Monsters of the Surf Guitar. Number Two. Just for you.

    MONSTER PLAYLIST🦖

    Exotic THE ORIGINAL SURFARIS

    Gear DAVE MYERS & THE SURFTONES

    The Breeze and I STEVE AND THE EMPERORS

    Ishamatsu THE CENTURIONS

    El Gato THE CHANDELLES

    Pressure THE PYRAMIDS

    Surf Rider THE LIVELY ONES

    Midnight Surfer JERRY COLE & HIS SPACEMEN

    Fugitive JAN DAVIS

    Dance of the Ants THE STRANGERS

    Bongo Shutdown NEW DIMENSIONS

    Ram Charger THE DELVETTS

    Yep THE SURFARIS

    Scorpion THE VIBRANTS

    The Gremmie Part 1 THE TORNADOES

    Rampage THE CHALLENGERS

    Cheater Stomp THE FABULOUS PLAYBOYS

    Moon Shot KENNY & THE FRIENDS

    Surf Medley THE VENTURES

    Travelers SPANISH MOON

    Professor Mikey's OLD SCHOOL is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and keep the dust off the vintage wax, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

    “The past is a blast.”



    This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit professormikey.substack.com/subscribe
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    51 mins
  • OS#73 Alan Freed's "Memory Lane"

    OS#73 Alan Freed's "Memory Lane"
    Sep 6 2024
    Today I’m turning the dials over to one of the original architects of rock and roll, the late great cooler than cool master of the microphone, Hercules of the hits, the original Daddy O with stacks of wacks, and the answer to the question who put the bomp in the bomp shu wamp. Alan Freed.Freed was the original radio hustler. He knew he had stumbled on lightning in a bottle. He just wasn’t quite sure how to monetize it. In a buttoned up post war world where the fuse for the coming teenage rebellion had been lit, how the explosion was going to play was still a bit of a mystery. Like Robert Oppenheimer, Alan Freed just knew things were going to be different.Alan Freed came up with the term rock ‘n’ roll as it applies to music in 1951, at least four years before anyone heard of Elvis. The phrase had been batted around for years in the blues culture as a synonym for, well, getting down and dirty and bumping to the music. Had the parents of squeaky clean Make Room for Daddy music fans known that, it would have been banned in Boston and everywhere else.Freed brought his act to radio, to live audiences, to television, to movies and to congressional hearings. He introduced legends including Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Richie Valens and many more. He was controversial and raised eyebrows because he thought this great music was for everyone. His shows featured black artists as well as white, and his audiences all rocked out together, regardless of race, color, or creed. That may seem tame, but in the changing world that birthed this controversial soundtrack, it was a very big deal.The show we will hear reflects the diversity of the product to which Alan Freed dedicated his short life. On the surface it may not sound like a revolution. It’s a little square and presentational. Freed isn’t lighting any fires here, no auditorium seats were harmed during this recording. The guy who changed radio forever sounds pretty laid back. He’s wrapped up in the nostalgia of some music that was less than ten years old. There was no such thing as classic rock, and if there was Alan Freed would never have played songs for 50 years straight.This was one of the first compilation albums, so exactly how to pull it off had not been worked out. Alan reverently introduces each song. Some of these songs had only been pressed on 45, so they were hard to find in a non digital world. Ginormous giants and the forever forgotten are crowded together in a cramped skipping and popping time machine. This was released in 1961, just four years before Alan Freed’s untimely death at the age of 43 in 1965. Its heavy on the doo-wop, and listening to it from another timespace, it was probably intended for sweet young makeout sessions. It features early performances from The Dells, The Flamingos, The Five Satins, Little Anthony and the Imperials, and many more. Let’s let the boss tell you the rest. Rock, roll, and remember. This is Old School #73, Alan Freed’s Memory Lane.I hope you enjoyed that. If you are a doo wop fan I’m pretty sure it was a breath of fresh air from the distant past. If you have never encountered this music before, you are probably already searching for box sets. And who better to take us down the romantic Memory Lane than the late great Alan Freed. In addition to his work as the original pioneer of rock and roll, Alan left some fun movies that you should check out when you can, including “Don’t Knock the Rock,” “Mr. Rock and Roll,” and “Go Johnny Go.” The plots are cornier than movie buttered popcorn, but they all include state of the art filmed performances of early rock stars in their dawn of time genius modes.More info on Alan Freed’s Memory Lane can be found on my free newsletter that you can click on anytime at professormikey.substack.com. The podcast is there, and anywhere else you find your podcasts. Subscribes and likes are the bitcoin of the new audio communication, and are always appreciated.Professor Mikey’s Old School is produced solely for educational purposes, and any dancing or kissing that may result is the sole proprietary responsibility of the listener. Any and all music heard resides within the public domain or is used within the guidelines of fair use provided for in Section 107 of the copyright act of 1976. I’m Professor Mikey, thanks for listening, join me next time on Old School where the past is always a blast!* Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/1169/alan-freed: memorial page for Alan Freed (15 Dec 1921–20 Jan 1965), Find a Grave Memorial ID 1169, citing Ferncliff Cemetery and Mausoleum, Hartsdale, Westchester County, New York, USA; Maintained by Find a Grave. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit professormikey.substack.com/subscribe
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    50 mins

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