Cruisin' Broad Again

Here are a few scenes from Saturday night's Broad Street Cruise.
If you're wondering if I found my Lynn View girl...yes I did. Better still, a Lynn View cheerleader: Wanda Gilliam Addington, Lynn View '57. And that is her original cheerleader outfit!

50 Worst Albums of All Time

Here is the list of the 50 worst albums ever made as compiled by Q Magazine.
50. Beck – Midnight Vultures
49. Neil Young And The Shocking Pinks – Everybody’s Rocking
48. Milli Vanilli – All Or Nothing
47. Ozzy Osbourne – Under Cover
46. Oasis – Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants
45. William Shatner – The Transformed Man
44. Kiss – Music From The Elder
43. The Travelling Wilburys – Vol 3
42. Babylon Zoo – The Boy With The X-Ray Eyes
41. Paul Simon – Songs From The Capeman OST
40. The Others – The Others
39. Big Country – Undercover
38. Chris Rea – The Road To Hell Pt2
37. Shania Twain – Come On Over
36. Kula Shaker – Peanuts, Pigs & Astronauts
35. Puff Daddy – Forever
34. Fishspooner - #1
33. Billy Ray Cyrus – Some Gave All
32. Ace Of Bass – The Sign
31. Stevie Wonder – Woman In Red
30. Michael Jackson – Invincible
29. Various – Christmas In The Stars: Star Wars Christmas Album
28. The Rolling Stones – Dirty Work
27. Destiny’s Child – Destiny Fulfilled
26. Vanilla Ice – Hard To Swallow
25. The Cranberries – To The Faithful Departed
24. Lauryn Hill – MTV Unpugged 2.0
23. Alanis Morissette – Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie
22. Robson & Jerome – Robson & Jerome
21. The Clash – Cut The Crap
20. Mariah Cary – Glitter Original Sound Track
19. Goldie – Saturnz Return
18. Crazy Frog – Crazy Hits
17. Bob Dylan & The Grateful Dead – Dylan And The Dead
16. Spice Girls – Forever
15. Various – Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band – Original Sound Track
14. Terence Trent Diabolical – Neither Fish Nor Flesh
13. Bruce Willis – The Return Of Bruno
12. Tom Jones – Mr Jones
11. Limp Bizkit – Chocolate Starfish And The Hot Dog Flavored Water
10. Tim Machine – Tin Machine Ii
9. Westlife – Allow Us To Be Frank
8. Mick Jagger – Primitive Cool
7. Kevin Rowland – My Beauty
6. Naomi Campbell – Babywoman
5. Billy Idol – Cyberpunk
4. Lou Reed – Metal Machine Music
3. Various – Urban Renewal: The Songs Of Phil Collins
2. Spice Girls – All Their Solo Albums!
1. Duran Duran – Thank You
I find the list a bit too contemporary. I’m sure the sixties and seventies had more bad albums than show up here.
A major omission is “Philosophy of the Word,” a 1969 album by the group widely credited as the worst group ever to record, The Shaggs. Susan Orlean profiled the group in the New Yorker a few years back and wrote about the recording session that produced that one album: “In March, 1969, (their father) took the girls to Fleetwood Studios, outside Boston, to make a record. According to the magazine Cool and Strange Music!, the studio engineer listened to the Shaggs rehearse and suggested that they weren't quite ready to record. But Austin insisted on going forward, reportedly telling the engineer, ‘I want to get them while they're hot.’”
You can sample their dreadful music on amazon.com.
Bill Shatner is on the list. But what about other TV stars who made awful albums? Leonard Nimoy? Jack Webb? David Soul? Where are they?

I’ve found a few jingles from my favorite out of town rock stations, the ones I listened to in the sixties.
Where are a number of jingles from WLS in Chicago. Don’t miss the famous “radar weather eye” jingle.
Here is a long jingle for WOWO, Fort Wayne.
Another popular distant station was Chicago's WCFL, the Voice of Labor. This is a 1965 jingle.
Here’s a spot for Ernies Record Mart, the legendary advertiser on WLAC’s John R Show.
I’ve also located almost an hour of John R's show.

I'll Have a Jelly Roll with Fenders

No, that's not something you say at the bakery. That's something a teenaged boy might have said to his barber in the fifties. The Jelly Roll was a wonderfully elaborate haircut, hair piled up and combed back. Highland barber Claude Russell had one. That's his picture, the one you don't recognize. The others you should know: Fabian, Bobby Rydell, Tony Dow (Wally Cleaver).

Kingsport 1918

Here are photos from Kathy's Korner at the corner of Market and Cherokee. Kathy has hung a six foot wide photo mural of Kingsport's Main Street in 1918, just as the city was born.

Legend to the post it notes:
Note right above bank identifies Strand Theater, above and to left of the note is ID for First Baptist Church. To right of that is ID for Broad Street Methodist Church. Just below that is Kingsport Inn, under construction.
Note at bottom in front of what I think is the old Fire Hall reads Main Street.
Now to the east: just to the right of the photo break says Five Points. To the right of that are two notes, one above the other. The lower one is for Kathy's Korner. Above it is for Ole Time Auction. Between and to the right of those notes is Ford Systems. Up top the far right note is for Watauga Street. And the bottom right note IDs CC&O Depot.

Elvis For Sale

Elvis' first home, the first one he bought, is for sale. It's located at 1034 Audubon Drive in Memphis and the current owners have listed it on eBay.

It is the ultimate Elvis souvenir.

A Letter from Mayberry

Good Times at the Kingsport Press

Mildred Davidson Smith sent me these photos from her time at The Press. She writes, "I went to work there in July 1946 at the age of 17 and at the big wage of 50 cents an hour with a bonus of 5 cents for working 2nd shift. My first job was cutting books at one of the large Singer Sewing machines and Phil Ernst kept my fingers taped after the blisters started. The 2nd shift Sheetroom crew was a family. We were friends and cared for each other and we had some good times, esp. on the Saturday nights when we brought in our covered dishes, made a table out of a gathering machine and dined all night...It is hard to lose an old friend and this friend has stood the test of times."

The State Theater - The Way It Was

Kenny Stallard has a half dozen vintage photos of the State Theater on his Kingsport Memories website.

The State Theater Revival

Jerry Ervin, Bobby Baker and I toured the State Theater with new owner Doug Beatty who plans to return the place to its former glory. He found the original 1936 blueprints in a closed up room upstairs and intends to use them as his guide.
Here are pictures of the blueprints. Click on them, then click again and you can actually "read" the blueprints.

Up Close and Personal with the Blue Heron

Danny Shupe, who lives on the property near Hammond Bridge where the blue heron are nesting, sent me a couple of nice close up photos of our feathered friends. For the bird watcher in us all, here are those photos. Click to enlarge.

I Promised Party Pictures

I've had trouble downloading the pictures from Tony Wampler's 60th birthday. But I have a party picture of Tony. Along with me and the rest of the neighborhood gang.

It's from the summer of 1959 and it was our first boy-girl party. It was held at my house and we danced to 45 records!

The top picture features me dancing with Cindy Ketron. My hand is obscuring my face but it's not as bad as the second picture where I am - I hope - scratching my nose. Tony is dancing with an unknown partner in the top picture. The group picture is, left to right, top row, Tony Wampler, Johnny Murray, Lance Harris, Jerry Woods (from Bristol) and me. Middle row, left to right, is Martha McCoy, Phil Ketron, Marcie Harris and Sara Jane Woods (also from Bristol). Mostly obscured behind Jane is Tony's brother Mike Wampler. Front row, left to right, are Cindy Ketron, Sharon Jones and Mary McCoy.

Tony Wampler at 6, er, 60

My childhood pal Tony Wampler turned 60 last Sunday and abut 30 of us helped him celebrate the momentous occasion. I offered a few embarrassing stories and a few embarrassing pictures from our childhood. That's Tony and his little brother Mike on their bikes. My house is in the background. Tony and I raced around my house and met head on, leaving both of us on the ground and bleeding.

The school picture of Tony is when he really was 6. I'm still waiting on party pictures to post.