Are You Ready for Life in Inner Space?

Well... are you? This is the question raised by this ten-inch LP, which I found in a thrift store a few years back:

















Specifically, the question shows up on the cover and on the record label. And I think it appears, in echo-backed form, in the recording itself. Not sure. I do know that Are You Ready for Life in Inner Space? is the kind of stupid but entertaining record I die to find. Well, actually, that I live to find. But this is Halloween....

I also know that writer-narrator-director Bert Tenzer produced, wrote, and directed the 1969 move Two Thousand Years Later, which, according to New York Times critic Howard Thompson, "simply isn't funny." The movie starred Terry-Thomas, Edward Everett Horton, and Pat Harrington.

Inner Space isn't that hot, either. But, considering the subject matter, maybe that was the intention. Oh, and "Every listener of this record receives a free prize!" promises the back cover. ("Every listener of?") However, I haven't gotten mine yet, and, as I noted, it's been maybe three years. So don't hold your breath. (Breath--another record-topic clue!)

Anyway, get ready for LIFE IN INNER (add echo) SPACE (space... space... space....).

Are You Ready for Life in Inner Space? Written, produced, and directed by Bert Tenzer, 1964. "A Production with Full Cast and Orchestration."

How long did it take you to guess the gist of this thing? As far as "orchestration" is concerned, it sounds to me as if Bert used a bunch of vinyl sound bytes, including Gustav Holst's Mars, the Bringer of War, which, um, er, inspired some of John Williams' Star Wars cues. I think that's the polite way of putting it....

Lee

"I didn't get on that bus to get arrested. I got on that bus to go home."

Rosa Parks was one my main heroines. No, that's not true--she topped the list. And so I thought hard about what I might present as the least unworthy tribute to her courage. We Shall Not Be Moved came to mind, of course, but I wanted something less title-specific to her act and its enduring impact. And, of course, I wanted something you possibly won't hear everywhere else, i.e. something special. I found that tune and recording--I Want to Be Like Jesus, the favorite hymn of Martin Luther King and presented here in a version by the Tuskegee Quartet of Tuskegee, Alabama, Rosa's birthplace. She was fourteen when these marvelous singers made this for Victor in 1927:

I Want to Be Like Jesus, Tuskegee Quartet, 1927.

And, I hope, we all want to be like Rosa.

R.I.P., Mrs. Parks.


Lee

Drac is Back

I'll try to get this up quick, here. For Marcia and Rich, especially, we have Drac the Knife, with at three more Gene Moss tracks to come....

Drac the Knife, Dracula (Gene Moss), 1964.

Was that a howl, or what? I mean, hoot?



Lee

Hi, everyone

This blog will be back in action soon. I'm getting over a cold (or flu bug?), and lots of stuff has been happening, besides. Sick and busy--what a combination.

But I sure don't want to miss the last blogging week (bw) before Halloween. Or is it the last week OF Halloween? It's all in how you look at it, I reckon.

Halloween has become an all-month holiday, just about.

Dracula will return, and Joe South, of all people, will pay a visit, too.














Pete and Tucker, all excited over the Halloween mp3s to come....

Lee