Monday, October 4, 2021

Fred Flintstone, The Beau Brummels, and Jimmy O'Neill! - The Hippie Love Turbo Radio Show - Code Word "Leek"

On this episode of Hippie Love Turbo, on KUCR 88.3 FM I didn't have much to talk about because most of the bands I played on this episode were fairly obscure. When you start to dive into the history of a lot of these bands, especially if you've pulled the tracks from various compilations, you begin to see patterns. Sometimes they only released one single or the "band" was actually just a bunch of studio musicians, for some reason the musicians worked under a pseudonym or maybe their name was so generic they got lost among all the other generically named bands, or they were simply a regional group that self-released and didn't get any national recognition. Regardless, a lot of these artists either don't really care anymore about a small band from their teens, they have no real presence on the internet, or frankly, they've died. Such is life. 

However, that's not to say everything I played on this episode was obscure. For example, you heard a song by The Critters and they had a few top hits during the late '60s including their most famous song Mr. Dieingly Sad. Later on, we ended the episode with The Jarmels' hit A Little Bit of Soap which was so popular that several cover versions also charted well. Garnet Mimms' version peaked at #95 on the Billboard charts, Paul Davis reached #52, and Nigel Olsson broke the top ten at #9. Of course, the version which most appeals to me the most is Daniel Johnston's Lo-Fi take on his album Respect

But if we're talking about popularity, you can't get much more popular than The Flintstones were in 1965. On episode 16 of season 6, Shinrock-A-Go-Go, you might recognize a tune by The Beau Brummels... (or should I say The Beau Brummelstones) Laugh Laugh. An animated version of the band plays the song several times on a parody version of the musical variety show Shindig! named Shinrock

The episode's main story line revolves around Fred Flintstone inadvertently creating several popular dance crazes including the "Flintstone Flop". However, what's most interesting about the episode is the lighthearted parodies of rock and roll tropes and the popular teen culture of the time with Shinrock's host, Jimmy O'Neillstone, who was voiced by the actual host of Shindig!, Jimmy O'Neill (clever?). The episode is worth checking out if you are a fan of music variety shows from that time period and as of writing this you can find the episode streaming for free on Tubi. Just watch out for Jimmy O'Neillstone's bizarre face which is too realistic for the Flintstones' aesthetic.

Yikes.

 

This episode's playlist can be found below:


 

Psycho - You Need Me
Crucibles - You Know I Do
Motion - The Thief
The Critters - No One But You

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