Captain Holojoy's Space Diner was a Man or Astro-man? 7" EP released on Lucky Records in 1993 (LKY 009). The cover was made from thin, glossy paper and had printing both inside and out. The record came on opaque pink vinyl (200) and black vinyl (800). There were also three possible inserts. The first was a large, card stock square with a photo of a band member (Dr. Deleto?) on one side and (mostly) fictitious song lyrics on the other. The other two were postcards. One was a picture showing the Astromen eating in a diner (from Lucky Records) and the other was an Estrus Records promotion card for the forthcoming LP Destroy All Astro-Men!.
Here is a scan of the inside cover:
From what I can tell, all of the copies came with the larger insert. Most early copies also came with one of the two postcards. Some copies, especially the black vinyl copies, were missing the postcard alltogether. It seems to me like the copies sold in the UK tended to favor the Estrus postcard more than the Lucky one. Here is a scan of both sides of the big insert and the Lucky card:
And here's a shot of the Estrus promo card:
And of course, side A and side B of the records:
Notice that the center label indicates that the records spin at 45 rpm. This was wrong. They were mastered at 33 1/3 rpm. This was correct on the back cover. To make sure people knew the speed, which can be tricky when dealing with instrumental music, later copies had the following sticker affixed to the front cover:
Actually the lyrics to Space Potatoes were real.It would be interesting to hear vocal versions to the other songs though.
ReplyDeleteSpace Potatoes was really just a cover of the old standard "Hot Pastrami.". The original song has the odd distinction of being one of the few Ventures songs to have lyrics.
ReplyDelete"Space Potatoes" has bugged me for years now, just trying to find information about the Rozier fellow who's credited with penning it.
ReplyDeleteHere's what I found out today, via wikipedia and some youtubing:
""(Do The) Mashed Potatoes" was recorded with Brown playing the piano and shouting the song's title. To prevent Brown's voice from being recognized, Stone overdubbed shouted vocals by Carlton "King" Coleman, a local radio DJ, onto the recording, though Brown's voice remains audible in the background. Leadership of the band was officially credited to Nat Kendrick, who was Brown's drummer at the time, while the writing was credited to "Dessie Rozier", a pseudonym for Brown. A simple twelve bar blues tune, "(Do The) Mashed Potatoes" became a Top Ten R&B hit in 1960 and fed what would eventually grow into a national dance craze."
Listen to it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjqq8Q5gKMA
The Dartells (also known as The Casuals)hastily recorded their own version of the song which was released by the label without their consent in '62, retitled "Hot Pastrami" after their lyrical embellishments. This was the "hit" version for white America, mistakenly credited to the vocalist of the Dartells, Doug Phillips: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50wYkq8DaVQ&feature=related
The Ventures included their version of the Dartells' hit single the following year, on their "Let's Go!" LP. The LP label repeats the error of crediting the song to Doug Phillips.
Interesting then, that the Astromen accurately credit Rozier, and not Phillips, on their own interpretation. Also, the title "Space Potatoes" is also more in keeping in line with the original version. Birdstuff is pretty fond of James Brown, so perhaps this was a rare occasion where they drew their inspiration from the original and not the Ventures interpretation of it.
A bit of info on the insert...The Neon Waitress photo, as well as the photo of MOAM? eating at the bar were taken at Gabby's Diner in Auburn, AL. It was right beside the railroad tracks on College Street. It later became a Bandito Burrito and is now a Mike and Ed's BBQ(Heavily remodeled).
ReplyDeleteThanks for that information. I've wondered where the real-life location of Cpt. Holojoy's was. (googlemaps: 307 N College St Auburn, AL 36830)
ReplyDeleteI could go on and on about how sad it is that neon signage is seriously endangered as an artform. There's going to come a time when we will regret having discarded such eye-catching relics of mid-century Americana.
At any rate, I wonder if Mike & Ed's knows anything about getting good riblets on Earth...