I would take that as a definite sign… run, man! I hated when folks or relatives would tell me to cut my hair (still do and yes it’s too damn long for my age…). TV time for Plan 9! Some excitement is about to happen as Bud and the gang meet the Director and his Assistant. Some 1977 TV actor cameos too!
Network Executives hand down note cards to the Producers of TV shows on content to cut or change. The “suits” as they’re referred to are hated by the creative folks as they water down a lot of funny stuff to make TV “middle of the road” so they offend the least amount of people.
TV shows are also programmed by the “LOP” theory, as I was taught back in my Broadcasting day. L.O.P. stands for Least Objectionable Programming. Meaning, you poor slobs will watch SOMETHING, even if it’s bad, rather then turn off the TV. Once I learned this, it ruined TV for me. I hardly watch any TV. Some shows, sure, but most I skip just for that reason. I’d rather turn on a good rock album then watch “Dancing with the Star”… but that’s me!
The Five Man Electrical Band had TWO hits… of course everyone knows “Signs” but do you remember their second hit? “Absolutely Right” was actually a fun pop song and I have the single. Finally got it on CD when their “hits” CD was released a few years back. Both are great songs, and Signs fits today’s comic nicely! BTW… this was covered by Tesla a few years back… they did not write it… just so you youngsters know!
🙂
**************
damned long-haired freaky people.
oh wait.
i AM one o’ them long-haired freaky people.
–dee!
And don’t ever change… 🙂
Sounds like an editor at a syndicate
He’s ANY corporate suit in charge of any type of medium… print, web, broadcast, film… they’re all jerk wads who have egos bigger than Texas, pockets lined with gold and attitudes to match. The are not interested in art, they’re only concerned with “product”. One of the things that turned me off in the music industry was referring to creative works at “product”. Like it was a can of beans. Someone put their heart and soul into this song and you call it “product”? They reshape it, bend it, twist it until it’s fits “their” vision, not the artist’s. The problem being, it’s THEIR money paying for the recording, distribution, etc. So, once you sign with “the Devil” you’re stuck.
As is Bud… or is he? Hmmmm….
🙂
Would the suits have actually worn a pony tail back in 1977? Most of the pictures of execs from the time, like Fred Silverman, Don Taffner and Brandon Tartikoff, showed that they didn’t let their hair grow below the collar back then.
Of course, if this guy was the one responsible for A YEAR AT THE TOP and knew that his career was just about over, he’d probably have said, “Aw the hell with it,” and let it go to hell, so to speak…
You’re on the right path… he’s not your typical suit for the 70s. Maybe he’s trying something different… after all, he is working with the Devil too…
🙂
LOL! I think you subconsciously based your show exec on the look of The Babys (specifically John Waite and Michael Corby), one of the mostly harmless but definitely over-hyped bands who hit the scene in – wait for it – 1977 😀
Of course, no-one remembers The Babys now. They had a couple of hits and then disappeared…hmm, must mean Judy got their contract right and they couldn’t get out of it, so now they’re entertaining the troops Down Below 😛 😛 😛
Oh, come now, I’m better than that! The Babys’ had two hits… “Isn’t It Time” & “Every Time I Think Of You” John Waite went solo and had a big hit with “Missing You”. The second line-up of the Babys had keyboardist Jonathan Cain who would later replace Greg Rolie in Journey, when Journey went on their big 80s rock/ballad kick. I know some rock trivia and the Babys is right in there!
PS: Knew this without going to Google. Cain is from Chicago, so that helps. 🙂
LOL! I *did* say ‘a couple of hits’ 🙂 I hadn’t mentioned Waite’s later career because I didn’t know if you were into pop-rock-ish stuff, but I have loved Missing You since the moment I first heard it.
Mike Corby OTOH was (and for all I know still is) an odd chap with a lot of er um Issues. I did a very weird gig with him back in the early ’80s…
I am married to a long haired freaky person. Thank god he is a freelancer. None of that “cut your hair” crap. Also, still loving the song widgets. So cool to have theme music.
Hey, what a coincidence! I am married to a long-haired freaky person too!
You’re both freaky goodness! 🙂
Aaaaah! The joy of being incorportated! 😛
Signs.. Good song man, and I didn’t know this Canadian band crossed the border! 😛
You should come down “south of the border” a bit more often… Canadian music is big down here… we just don’t know it’s from Canada!
BTO, Gordon Lightfoot, Bryan Adams, Sebastian Bach, Neil Young, Anne Murray (Snowbird!), The Guess Who, and tons more man! I know my Canadian neighbors, and they rock… well, not Anne Murray, but you get my point…
🙂
lol.. Anne Murray… haven’t heard that in a while. Don’t forget Corey Hart… NOOOOOOT!
I actually prefer my hair shorter but I get yelled at when I get a haircut.
I am the biggest dork on the block with short hair… nothing against folks that can wear it short, but man, I look terrible. Must be the ears…
🙂
I’m so stuck in the future. All I could think was “where is his blue tooth ear piece?” hahaha.
I did modernize him a tad with the ponytail… not typical of the time. But I had to make him different for a reason. You’ll see!
🙂
The Network Exec looks a bit like an 80’s exec, but who am I to say I was only 2 years old when this was happening. 🙂
Wow, let the compromising begin…hopefully not. In life we all run into spots where people want us to change to fit an image, and I guess as we get older we all find ourselves doing that to some degree or another. I feel for Bud, to want to do something and immediately be asked to change. I’m sure this is all part of Judy’s ploy, get one compromise and it’s easier to get another, and before long she’ll own ever part of who Bud Chambers really is.
Man! You’re one smart “dude” and read a lot more into this then I could have!
Yes, Bud is being pushed to change. It’s all part of the process. You come in one person and leave another. Now, will he do it? That’s the thing. If you know me (and Bud is me) you’ll know that answer. No big secret… he’s gonna fight the change. And that’s the fun part which is just about to “explode”.
Thanks for your insights! It comforting to know people are pulling something from the story! That’s cool!
🙂
Have Bud cut his hair? Silly corporate suit man! You want to preserve the FORMS of youth counterculture while stripping it of all CONTENT in order to bring in the young spendy teen demographic while not scaring off the advertisers.
Yeah, they’re gonna want to make them all over to fit into the “corporate” image of what they think is a “cool” rock band.
I am basing this off a summer replacement show back in the 70s… cannot begin to remember what the name of that horrible show was (maybe some of you who did not drink away your brain cells in the 70s will remember it…)… but it had this three man “rock band” and they had this “variety” type show. They’d come out and poorly lip sync some damn corporate produced “rock” song. It was painfully obvious these guys could not play instruments or sing. They were made up to look “cool” with “long” hair and goofy mustaches, but in the end they just sucked. They’d have on guests like Captain and Tennille or Donnie & Marie (real rockers for sure). It made me sick to watch it, but someone got paid to produce the show, the actors got paid to be on set and the studio musicians got paid to record this God-awful “rock” songs for the show. So, there was an up side to it after all…
And that is decision our gang has to make. Take the money or stand by your guns. Hard to say, they have already taken the money!
🙂
My hair is too long too, but then so is my beard. I’m caught in the middle.
Seeing the “suit,” I’m immidiately reminded of all the business dudes in “Boogie Nights.”
Believe it or not… never saw “Boogie Nights” Not casting any opinions on the movie or the content, just never got around to seeing it.
Having three sons aged from 23 to 12, I have spent the past 20 some odd years seeing only movies like “Land Before Time” to “Wall-E”. Not that I don’t enjoy those films, it would be nice to see film made for people my age…
🙂
The comment about Tesla strikes home. Nobody remembers the original artists anymore. I can’t count the number of times I’ve corrected people on Cum On Feel The Noize and told them Quiet Riot are a weak bunch of posers compared with Slade (who were a hard bunch of deliberately-posing musicians). Quiet Riot’s version was music to dance to; Slade’s original was, as was said at the time, “Music to wreck concert halls to.”
Had some young employees in the 90s who thought “Bang A Gong (Get It On)” was a Power Station original… WHAT?! Holy crap! T-Rex and Marc Bolan for frak’s sake! Same thing here a few months back when I put up a comic titled “She’s Not There” which most people thought was a Santana song… WHAT?!… I could go on…
I try to respect the originals… few “covers” impress me, but there are some that much better than the original. Now, I’m gonna get things tossed at me but I think Frijid Pink’s “House of the Risin’ Sun” is SOOOO much better than the Animals’ version… but then I’m a rocker at heart.
🙂
The song’s title was “Get It On” (I , for my sins, have the period 7″ to prove it, B side is “There was a Time/Raw Ramp” for the doubters). It was considered “too racy” for the radio stations to announce it by in the USA and changed for that market. You won’t find it by that title anywhere else. Raw Ramp was a better song anyway.
Ironic, really, that the comments should veer onto that song the day after people were bitching how changing ONE WORD in Lola to get round the BBC’s “no advertising” rules (actually, force of law in the UK at the time) ruined the entire song.
The strip is rockin’, though. Looking forward to how it all falls out.
Hmmm… Now my memory of “(Bang a Gong) Get It On” was that a group here in the USA called Chase (not the damn bank) had a big hit called “Get It On” (I played that damn song in high school Pep Band) and thus they did not want to confuse us silly Americans with two songs of the same title so the “bang a gong” part was added to the title.
Now, my questions is, did the song ALWAYS have the line “bang a gong” in it? If it did, then not much was changed except how the title was stated on the single here in the USA.
yep. it always had that line in it. the demo / wip version on the 30th anniversary edition of “Electric Warrior” has the line “bang a gong” in it, and is introduced by the engineer as “get it on” at the very beginning of the take. by the by, if you haven’t heard that version, i highly recommend it. very cool to hear the song in an infant stage and hear how solid it was despite being so embryonic… the drum sound on the demo is also way cool — raw and in yer face. bass is also way clearer on the demo (something you’ll appreciate, byron). superior to the ‘proper’ version imho. the f-up by the rhythm section is also classic. 😀
“electric warrior” and “the slider” were two of the best records ever made. classics.
–dee!
Now then, this is fascinating! I’m an oldskooler from waaay back and I detest inferior covers (FFS after all these years I *still* foam at the mouth just thinking about that horrible horrible horrible disco mutilation of Knock on Wood by Aimii Stewart), but I think Quiet Riot’s cover of Cum On Feel the Noize was a win – mostly because they got the same things right that Slade did, but added some fine smokin lead guitar (which Slade could never even dream about on their best days, bless ’em…and as you know, that’s not just a ~cough cough~ fan opinion, muhahahaha).
Having paid $160 last week to watch Seal mutilate a host of classic ’60s soul hits (AND several of his own songs, FWIW), I’m particularly sensitive about this subject right now 😀
I never knew the original of Signs – maybe it just didn’t fall within my orbit? – and have never heard the cover, so I can’t comment. I will say that Australia seems to be a major offender when it comes to naff – no, let’s be honest, downright shite – covers that get to be ‘hits’ here (easy enough, as one only needs to sell, oh, about 200 albums to top the Aussie charts).
Oh, and re Canadian bands from back then – don’t forget Klaatu, whose whimsical little gem Calling Occupants was covered by the unspeakable Karen !@@#@W#&^&%###@ Carpenter and her unspeakable brother, who turned said whimsical little gem into a bloated, ear-stabbing, brain-melting abomination. Just saying 😛
Stay tooned… Robyn is going to have a chance encounter with Karen Carpenter here pretty soon… it will not be pretty as the two female drummers match wits and sticks.
🙂
So that’s one drummerlady with wits, and one with…er…half wits…
😀
Well,
I was one of the long haired hippy freaks but saddly that patterned baldness crap just sucks and I didnt want to run around life as a guy with a toilet bowl head – completely bald now. Going bald gracefully? screw it! just get it over with. /sigh. Much sorrow for the hair man, down to the belt. Anyway yeah, i hated that too. 🙂
My oldest son inherited male pattern baldness from his Mom’s side of the family. For a couple years he did the “long hair” thing, then one day just buzzed it off and he looks so much better with a nice tight haircut then Gallagher look. Helps he can grow a beard too, the little bastard!
Being a tad on the “fair” side, my beard looks like crap. 🙂
hmmm.. this one looks vaguely familiar… as familiar as Byron’s reiterated stories. *grins*
Sorry, inside joke for Byron there.
Still get a kick out of the expressions.
Stories… let me tell you… 🙂
My hair is down my back. When it got to shoulder level in 11th grade, I kept being told to get a haircut. Now I see that long hair is making a comeback. I’m a trendsetter! Or…a trend re-setter.