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mittelstadt
mittelstadt
14 April 2008 @ 08:27 pm
songs3: Another Challenge for the Green Hornet  
I just remembered this one, which I have been listening to (via reruns on the American Life cable TV channel) since December: The "Flight-of-the Bumblebee" theme tune, orchestrated by Billy May and played by trumpeter Al Hirt, for the old "Green Hornet" TV show starring Van Williams and Bruce Lee (as Kato).


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1Zm54tGCHo

I was going to mention to this to Steve Whitaker in our next conversation, which sadly was not to happen. I somehow missed the Green Hornet in its original airings (maybe it wasn't shown in the UK, where I then lived; anyone?) Anyway, its similarities to Batman (by the same people) are apparent, but I'm glad they played it as a straightforward (if low-budget) action series and not "Pow-Zap"-style.

Martin: So far this has been fun; never thought of it as a chore at all. It's an interesting springboard for more blog material and it gets me thinking about my musical tastes (which have been dormant of late). Sorry that so far I haven't listed anything I own on CD, record or cassette, though. Will get to some of those soon.

My musical tastes are a bit off the wall (PTHEGHH!) Maybe that's why they taste like wallpaper paste.

More later.
 
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worldofagwu[info]worldofagwu on April 18th, 2008 07:42 pm (UTC)
ta for doing the seven songs thingy - sharing tastes = a goob way to get to know each other - & as you say, a springboard for more blog material ( - or just general yakking )

( i only saw the green hornet & kato when they guest starred in an episode of the batman tv show - dunno if their tv prog "proper" made it over here ) ( - tho w/all the interest in bruce lee in uk, i would've thort so )
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mittelstadt[info]mittelstadt on April 18th, 2008 08:18 pm (UTC)
I'd like to see that Batman episode sometime. (A couple of the Green Hornet episodes I've seen have in-jokes in brief scenes where the bad guys are watching the Batman TV show.)

I read online somewhere that the crossover episode of Batman was a bit ridiculous in the aspect of a fight between Robin and Kato. The writers originally wanted Robin to win, but Lee was already a real-life martial arts (gung-fu, later called kung-fu) champion by then and that outcome would have been ludicrous to fans, so they made the fight a draw, which was still silly.

More about songs later. Sorry to be listing them one at a time. Music hasn't been a priority of mine of late, but it's nice to think about it again.

A couple of my cassettes are 1979 comp tapes of sorts, compiled by Steve by simply playing records and holding the cassette recorder's mike to the record player's speaker. Very low-tech and definitely mono.

Even back then he was listening to Richman and the Modern Lovers (whom I hadn't heard of before I met him. "Rockin' Leprechauns" was my favorite.) I had no idea where he discovered all the stuff he listened to. The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, Ian Drury, Nick Lowe...much of it is on the two Transatlantapes, which are basically comp tapes with chat. It would be too weird, too soon, to hear his voice again, tho, so I won't go there yet.

When we first met at Mander we shared an interest in 1950s rock and roll (I had recently received the American Grafitti soundtrack album for Christmas, having seen the movie a couple of years earlier).

To be lazy on the 7 songs I could have just linked to my Jellytown post of Steve's drawings of inanimate-object doo-wop singers (Fats the domino, Buddy the holly leaf, etc.) and said, "there you are." But that would have been cheating.

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