A continuation of my "Rose Tinted TV" retrospective - 1962

As I keep saying, some of the linked material isn't mine and some of the links may not work. Although the links are to open, accessible sites, sometimes the material is copyrighted and the owners pull it or have it pulled. You can, of course, go looking on YouTube, or its foreign variants, for copies. I'm sure you know how.

We are in the early 1960s with this bit of blog. 1962 to be precise.

The TV series I am about to point you to was originally broadcast back then by ATV in the U.K. It is easily recognisable as a very heavily US influenced show. From the opening credits it has the look and feel of all sorts of stuff from across the ocean.

I didn't see it when it first came out because we had no TV and back in the '62 I would have been barely 3 years old. Also, if you didn't catch it when it was shown there were no video recorders, no DVDs, no box sets to binge and you had to hope it would be repeated. When it was repeated it was usually hit and miss. No 24 hr TV channels back then.

Living where we did, we did have access to two ITV channels (Grampian and STV) so there was a slim chance that a repeat showing would be offered at some point. There was also the moot point that an under 5 wouldn't have had much say in what was watched on the box!

Before we get to the serious bit of blog, here's an odd musical intro for you :

I do like a bit of music, as you will have picked up if you've bothered to read any other bit of this blog, and I think that this piece will be familiar to some of you. The music is by Henry Mancini and is for the TV series Peter Gunn.

And? I hear some of you impatient lot.

Well Peter Gunn was an American PI show from the late 50s/early 60s and it starred Craig Stevens as our eponymous dashing lead.

He was reborn, also as a lead, as Michael Strait in another series, "Man of the World."

This new series was another from the ITC fold. The company that would bring us classics such as The Saint, Danger Man, Gideon's Way, The Champions and others as well as the children's shows, Thunderbirds, Joe90 and Captain Scarlet.

As an ITC show there is a whole raft of supporting actors that are easily recognisable from the early days of black and white television - Warren Mitchell, Patrick Troughton, Burt Kwouk, John Laurie and others.

Back to the meat and potatoes : Man of the World gets the title from the premise of the show. Michael Strait is a world-renowned photographer who carries out assignments in all corners of the globe. So, he gets about a bit and he knows his way around.

No Superheroes needed, this is just an ordinary guy doing an ordinary job and as an aside takes on the baddies. He doesn't have a employer like John Drake and NATO/MI9. Being a "world renowned" photojournalist also gets us 60s folk out of the country into all sorts of foreign locales (well, at least the Elstree Studios back-lot!) It's amazing that back then all it took to be on the Med was some stock footage of an airliner, a guy in a dodgy 'tasche and a sign saying Sangria! above a shop.

A bit of spy action, a bit of social commentary and all scattered over a limited 2 series set.

The eagle-eyed amongst you will note the B&W cover above. The pilot episode was filmed in colour but as you may be aware, colour TV wasn't introduced in the UK until late 1969, so the rest of the DVD is, indeed, in good old monochrome.

Sadly, the company that released this DVD above went out of business but there is talk amongst the internet chatterers that another company may buy up the rights to re-distribute/re-brand or upgrade to BluRay or whatever comes along.

More info can be found on Wiki  and a quick search on Youtube might bring up a wealth of stuff to watch. Other internet searches amongst the Podcasts for ITC might also find ones that is well worth a listen. And the Blogosphere has some worthwhile finds too.

Catch Up.

"Good Grief!" is what I say when there are children and animals about.

Just had a look at what I have bought to listen to, read or watch but never got around to it.

There is a stack of books in various states of "un-readness".

This stack is matched by a pile of cds that I've copied onto my iPod and listened to bits and pieces of.

This stack is matched by a pile of DVDs that I've accumulated but not got around to watching.

I have a plan - download is the way to go. No more buying/building extensions to the house to accommodate the ever growing pile of stuff. No more trips to IKEA to buy yet another storage unit/bookcase, no more sagging roofs due to the weight of paper up in the loft.

I now have a plan to buy an e-reader and stop "popping in" to Waterstones just for a look. No more being taken in by those 3 for 2 offers. No more buying stuff reduced to a fiver because it is too good to let it pass.

Now I have to be a super-critical buyer and only buy what I really will read there and then.

Apart from holiday reading, of course.

I've just realised that there is loads of stuff I have bought over the years that I have watched only once and am unlikely ever to watch again. Not everything falls into the "Das Boot" or "Where Eagles Dare" category. Most of the books I own have been read only once and then carted off to go on display somewhere. The only stuff I use more than once is probably the music collection. No doubt in the 10,000+ tracks, there is some lonesome song that I have heard only once and as I have not tagged it as a favourite it'll need to take its chances in the random playlist.

Now on-line, there is plenty of option of watching "catch-up" TV - even the foreign stuff is there, if you know where to look. There is a pile of stuff on Youtube that you can watch - all for the cost of your internet connection.

And it all sits on a desk taking up the space of half a dozen hardbacks.

Ötzi the Iceman

Who hasn't been fascinated by mummies?

Well, I caught a documentary on TV all about a Copper Age mummy discovered in the Alps between Austria and Italy.

I remember watching it and thinking, "Who are these people, hacking away at a body in the ice?" I mean, don't they watch any crime stuff on TV?

Anyway, I watched it and was truly amazed at the application of science to the investigation of the body in the ice.

As well as determining the who and the why, there was also the where? Where exactly was this mummy found. In the Alps I hear you call. Yes but where? - it's not as if there are border police up there with a customs post.

In the end, although it was thought he was lying in Austria, he was actually in the South Tirol and that is where he is now. Just do not go saying that is Italy. The body and his belongings are displayed in the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bozen, northern Italy (Southern Tyrol).

The museum is well worth a visit. I did it on a day out from my base in the Tirol, Austria. A short drive south of Innsbruck, over the Brenner Pass into the South Tirol. There is an official website : http://www.iceman.it/

My Musical Alphabet : U

As I keep saying, this stuff isn't mine and may very well be pulled for breach of copyright. You can, of course, go looking on YouTube, or its variants, for other copies. I'm sure you know how, but I have to emphasise - I'm not asking you to do anything wrong, ethically or lawfully. Just need to make that clear.

NB!: Why not try this yourself. A bit like music for life. 

There is an understanding that this is a bit like a memory wall. You know, you have a largish picture frame with photos that mean something to you. Might be a type of toffee you had as a favourite as a child. A picture of the brand of tea you were brought up drinking. A holiday photograph from your childhood. Things like that.These are things that might help stave off dementia. 

Something similar may happen with music it has been suggested. These songs and tunes I have linked to all mean something to me from sometime in my 60 odd years on this planet.

Last few letters, symbols and numbers to cover before I move to pastures new. Blog-wise, I hasten to add.

I am on to the letter U and I did think that this would be a difficult one to cover but when I sat down and thought it over, there were enough to give a selection into double figures. So without further ado, I'll start with an electronic band that go by the name of U-96. Now, for those that don't know it yet, I have a keen interest in U-boats. One of the better, if not the best, war/anti war movies is Das Boot. The boat in the book was U-A but was based on the author's experiences on the boat U-96 hence the link for this piece with the rest of the blog. The song I have chosen is a thumping tune Mr. DJ Put On The Red Light and is by U-96 Feat. Das Bo:

Switching languages and genres, next up in a cover of a CCR song, Up Around The Bend by Hanoi Rocks. I think this Finnish GlamRock band were brought to my attention by my little sister again. So many thanks should go to her.

Back to German with Udo Lindenberg. Yet again, this guy links with other stuff I'm keen on. He worked with Klaus Doldinger - he who wrote the music to my favourite U-boot movie. Udo played drums on the original soundtrack to a German TV krimi - Tatort. More of German Krimis at a later date. All very spooky, or very inbred. Whatever the case my Udo track is titled "unterm säufermond". I picked up the album Gustav when I was on holiday in Germany. You know some people visit "shite-shops" for holiday nick-nacks. Well I visit record stores. Very rarely do I come away with shite. When I stuck the disc into the player, after a few tracks, a familiar tune was heard, ears pricking up further when the sound of asdic came in. Another weirdness is that the tune was familiar. Although I recognised Windmills of my Mind, I'd never seen the Steve McQueen film, The Thomas Crown Affair. So maybe it goes back to the late 60s and Dusty Springfield, who knows?

Staying in the German I now give you Udo Jürgens. He first came to light in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1964 but I have to admit that I probably can't remember that. I do remember his winning entry for Austria though and I give you in one of the recordings below featuring Helene Fischer. She is singing it to Udo. This was made shortly before he died. 

The second offering is a favourite of mine, Liebe ohne Leiden.

I might have mentioned Matt Munro on another part of this blog. He is a well known singer in my family back with my dad's brothers and sisters in that his songs were often a party piece at Hogmanay and he links to this next fella - Nat King Cole. My dad had a couple of singers that he liked, the other being Perry Como. So, raising a hat to my dear, long departed dad I will share this song, Unforgettable with you.

Let's heavy things up with a bit of metal, a nice by of rhythm guitar, a nice bit of UFO. Metal is one of the lighter shelves in my library (ha ha ha), in fact most of the metal is on compilation albums. This might be having a liking for a nice bit of rhythm, a nice tune. A guitarist who can hit every note on a fretboard in five seconds just doesn't do anything for me. Even someone playing Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D min on guitar at a hundred miles an hour. I really do prefer a nice tune. So here we have Doctor Doctor:

In the mid 70's there appeared a hiatus. Glam, Pop, Prog, Metal, Rock & etc were all given a kick up the arse by punk/New Wave. Given a bad press by the pearl set, we were given a host of classy bands: The New York Dolls and Ramones from over the pond to The Damned, Sham 69 closer to home and for the U's is a track called Alternative Ulster by Stiff Little Fingers.

Back to the B&W 60's for this next track. I like Engelbert Humperdinck. I also like his main rival from then - Tom Jones. It's a track from him that I have shared here. To fit in with the U theme, I have picked It's not unusual, not to get away from those that would be offended by Delilah but just because I'm at the U's.

If you've made it this far, I have a little surprise for you. I do like a jodel. Now these come in all flavours and I have no skin in this game. I like pop jodels, cowboy jodels, schlager jodels, volks jodels, the whole kit and caboodle. I also like this: Now, some would say that this is the only true jodel. This is De Bärge zue by Jakob Ummel - performed by Jodelduo Daniela & Marco Bühler, Peter Rymann

This last track is a bit sneaky, I have to admit. The link to U is tenuous. U96-Das Boot soundtrack - Erinnerung.

Forgive me, but I had to get this one in whilst I remembered about it. There is a quote attributed to Chopin:

“Nothing is more beautiful than a guitar, except, possibly two.”

I'll leave you with Darko Nikcevic and Srdjan Bulatovic.

As usual, feel free to add your thoughts, whether you agree with me or not. It would be helpful to know what you think and if you want this to take any particular direction.