Rest in Peace, Tom Petty

In the shadow of one of the worst shootings in American history, in between the news network full coverage, and the madness that follows such things, we have lost one of our great musical lights. Tom Petty was found unconscious yesterday morning, and finally, after much heartache and misinformation, pronounced dead of cardiac arrest at the age of 66, early last night.

The first time I saw or heard Tom Petty, or Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, was in the movie FM, friends had referred to him as the new Mick Jagger. I don't know how accurate that is or was, but it was memorable. His music was the sound of my teens, my twenties, and so on, it truly mapped the 1970s, the 1980s, and 1990s for me. Hard Promises was one of three albums I bought with my very first paycheck. The great thing about Petty albums consistently is that you not only got the hits like "A Woman in Love (It's Not Me)" and "The Waiting," you also got AOR tunes and hidden gems like "A Thing About You," "Kings Road," and "The Criminal Kind." Yeah, I wore those grooves out.

I can remember having two, not just one, cassettes of Tom Petty's songs recorded from the radio when I first got a cassette recorder. He was an FM rock favorite and almost all of his music got airplay. Even before I graduated high school in 1982 (and Petty was white suburban FM rock and roll then) he had a catalog that included some of the best of the time, from "American Girl" and "Breakdown" to "Listen to Her Heart" and "I Need to Know." He was not a favorite, like Bowie or Prince, but man, he was always there, and always rocking. Yeah, he was a favorite, I just didn't know it.

Later favorite albums would include Long After Dark, which holds a special place in my heart for getting me my first date with a college girlfriend. She was a Petty fan, and my inside knowledge of when the album was coming out (easily found in Billboard magazine which I read obsessively when I worked at the college radio station) dazzled her enough to date me. This album also included Petty's move into the MTV era from that of FM AOR. I remember loving the post-apocalyptic music video for "You Got Lucky," the red vinyl single for "Change of Heart," and my favorite tune off the album, the B-side "Between Two Worlds."

My favorite Petty song comes from the next album Southern Accents, an album full of oddities mixed into the usual southern rock and roll highlights. This one had the hilarious country ditty "Spike" about a punk rocker, as well as the hit single with acid trip video, "Don't Come Around Here No More," coolly co-written by genius co-producer Dave Stewart from Eurythmics. But it was the weird dance vibe of "It Ain't Nothin' to Me," also with Stewart, that still blows me away. I don't know why, but I love this song even today and turn it up whenever I hear it.

Later Tom Petty, already a superstar in his own right, would officially go solo from the Heartbreakers, and also join with Bob Dylan, Jeff Lynne, Roy Obrbison, and George Harrison to form the supergroup the Traveling Wilburys. Petty, with and without the Heartbreakers, would continue to release albums and singles through to 2014. He was always producing and always innovating. We have lost another legend, a man who filled my life with music, creating a soundtrack of memories. We will all miss Tom Petty. Rest in peace, man.

Podcasting This Week

Here's a quick update, I have three new podcast episodes available this week that I want folks to be aware of.

First up is The GAR! Podcast, co-hosted with friend and partner Ray Cornwall. The GAR! Podcast is the Glenn Walker and Ray Cornwall weekly podcast where they talk unrehearsed about whatever happens to come to mind. It’s an audio-zine for your mind, a nerd exploration of a nerd world, coming to you from the suburbs of New Jersey and the sunny lakes of Florida via Skype.

In the latest episode, Prince Underground, we discuss our favorite performer, the late Prince, Purple Rain Deluxe, The Revolution, Susan Rogers, fandom, bootlegs, the Prince estate, The Black Album, drugs, baseball umbrellas, high price paraphernalia, listener feedback, Keith Pollard and Ron Wilson, and AI Alexa.



Then there's The Make Mine Magic Podcast, which I co-host with The Bride. The Make Mine Magic Podcast features Jenn and Glenn Walker talking about Disney, parks, movies, travel advice, characters, Marvel, Star Wars, Studio Ghibli, etc., if it’s Disney, it’s fair game.

This week’s episode includes discussion of "The Lion Guard," including the show, the characters, the origins, the actors, the music, crocodiles, zuka zama, lion super powers, Return of the Roar, "It’s Unbungalievable," the circle of life, and being a kid again. You can hear it right here.

Finally, there is the Nerdfect Strangers podcast that I co-host with partners Bobby Fisher and Jerry Whitworth Nerdfect Strangers is hosted by Bobby Fisher, who started it in August 2014 with original co-host and all-around nice guy/rock star, Jonathan Rodriguez. Since March 2015 the show has been hosted by Bobby and cool comics blogger, Jerry Whitworth, and, as of September 2015, Glenn Walker, who is also a real class act. We talk about all things nerdy and geeky including but not limited to: comics, wrestling, video games, nerd news, movies and TV.

In the latest episode, Exploding Windup Penguins, we talk about some of the San Diego Comic Con news, Glenn's distaste for blue M&Ms, and that snake, Randy "Macho Man" Savage turning heel and joining the dastardly NOW. We also talk about the disaster that was the main event of WWE Great Balls of Fire, and promote Noah Houlihan's Game the Gamer Kickstarter.

More Prince, and Coast to Coast AM

I was numb all day yesterday. I just couldn't believe it was true. I did my duty though. I wrote about it here, and I wrote about it on Biff Bam Pop! right here, and even did a short episode of The GAR! Podcast on it found here and here. I had to leave the South Jersey Writers' Group's Open House last night early because I was just worn out, and who knows, just maybe a bit depressed as well. When I got home, MTV was playing Prince videos, and then Purple Rain, still I was devastated, but unfeeling really. But it didn't really hit me that Prince was gone, until I was in bed listening to my nighttime nemesis Coast to Coast AM.

I had tuned in to the later half of the program, which sometimes, if we're lucky, will have some content of what Coast to Coast AM used to be known for. Otherwise it's typical radio drivel, the same old same old. Coast used to be unique, now for the most part, it's boring. But every once in a while, we old fans will get a scrap of what used to be. The guest last night was rock historian R. Gary Patterson. And of course the king of no-research, host George Noory.

Now I don't blame Patterson for saying it was Vanity was in Purple Rain instead of Apollonia, that's an easy mistake, especially for someone who admittedly had only a passing knowledge of Prince. He was a bit after the man's time, and Patterson does know his stuff when it comes to older rock stars and their mysterious deaths - I bow to him in that area.

It was George that infuriated. I can understand if he didn't do any show prep. Noory never does any show prep, no matter what he says. He comes in to interviews as empty-headed as he leaves, as if his mind was a sieve. Perhaps that's why details of Prince's life, that had to have been all over the news all freaking day, somehow eluded him. Yeah, he asked all the stupid questions that that seemingly unique person who had never heard of Prince would ask.

I was embarrassed for the guest, I was angry at Noory, and that's when it hit me, that's when the tears came. We've lost Prince, as surely as we've lost Coast to Coast AM, and David Bowie… Prince is gone. And when people stop talking, and when the radio and TV stop playing, he will still be gone. And, anger at a lousy dying radio show aside, I will still be mourning.

RIP Prince

This is devastating. Everyone has those artists who they love, that whenever they come out with an album or any project, you simply, blindly, faithfully just buy without having heard it - because you know it's going to be great. This year, barely five months in, I have lost two of them. David Bowie, and now Prince. It's no longer a joke or a meme, 2016 has truly been a soul crusher for music.

I first discovered Prince waaay back in late 1981 or early 1982, the first time I heard the song "Controversy," on WYSP in Philadelphia, a mainstream rock station. That's one of the things I loved about Prince, he crossed genres. To look at him, an African-American male with R&B airplay in his past getting time on a station that regularly pumped out AC/DC and Yes made an impression on me. Prince was something special.

I further explored his work by buying that album, loving it, and Dirty Mind, the one before it, and the two lesser liked ones that preceded them. Just because I didn't dig them as much, doesn't mean there weren't gems in there, or that I didn't respect the genius there. Anyway, by the time everyone else caught up when 1999 came out, I was already a life long fan. It may be hard for kids today to appreciate, but I played those cassettes so much, I wore them out, and had to buy new ones.

With each album, each fashion, each incarnation, and transformation (something else that Prince had in common with Bowie) I followed. I loved the man, I loved his music, his videos, his movies, his smirk, his sense of humor, his defiance. The man was fierce, and a fiery performer.

I'm still numb. I don't know what else to say. I love you, man. And I miss you already.


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A slightly different version of this appears at Biff Bam Pop!. Please pop over there for more remembrances of Prince by the staff there.

The Make Mine Magic Podcast

Many of you know that I do a weekly podcast with my buddy Ray Cornwall, that is also featured at Biff Bam Pop!, called The GAR! Podcast. It's a nerd exploration of a nerd world, completely unrehearsed, and we end up talking about anything under the sun, but usually it includes comics, wrestling, French fries, Prince, and "Breaking Bad."

But did you know I also do a podcast with The Bride as well? Every week we take on one or more topics dealing with one of our favorite obsessions - Disney! Sometimes we're talking about attractions at the parks, movies coming out, travel advice, or favorite characters. As long as it's Disney, it's fair game.

Recent episodes include topics like the American Idol Experience, Disney Villains, more villains, and Figment! You can find The Make Mine Magic Podcast here, and it's also on iTunes and Facebook. You can contact Jennifer on Twitter here, and me here. Enjoy, and Make Mine Magic!

Adventures in Podcasting

While I have been podcasting for quite a while, dating back to The All Things Fun! Podcast, and its crazed video child, The All Things Fun! New Comics Vidcast, and for Biff Bam Pop!, I was also a regular contributor to The Biff Bam Popcast. This year I dived into the podcast arena for myself, rather than for other folks. In April of 2013 my friend Ray Cornwall and I started our own podcast, The GAR! Podcast. We jumped in head first with really no idea what we were doing.

GAR! (Glenn and Ray) was an old idea that had finally been birthed. It started with our weird stream of consciousness conversations during dinner and talking on the phone while driving. Always the idea manifested - we should record this and make a podcast. That was the not-so-secret origin. After fooling around with GarageBand and finally taking the advice of longtime online friend and inspiration Derrick Ferguson, I submitted to just-do-it-ism. And we just did it.

We had no idea what we were doing of course, outside of just talking about stuff we liked, loved, and didn't like - just like the conversations we had always had. Eventually we figured out what it was we were doing, and thought we knew how to package it. Essentially we were two nerds, two big grown up kids who had refused to grow up, talking about stuff we loved - comics, games, television, books, movies, music, writing, sports, and somehow we always ended up talking about Prince and "Breaking Bad." Circle of life stuff, really.

I strived to be like the folks I admired who were already doing podcasts that I loved, and I wanted to acknowledge them here. The aforementioned Derrick Ferguson and his partner Thomas Deja continue to dazzle me every week with Better in the Dark, where they talk about movies and television. The class and professionalism of Barry Reese on The Shadow Fan's Podcast has been an equal inspiration. GAR! is nowhere near the league of these guys, but we want to be, and we're trying.

Seeing how 'easy' it was, a few months back, The Bride determined to do a podcast as well, one about one of her favorite topics, Disney. Thus, The Make Mine Magic Podcast was born. Inspiration there came from several other Disney-related podcasts like The DIS Unplugged, and a few others.

Here's to everyone who has helped, inspired, or even listened - thank you. And just for the record, don't forget to check out both The Make Mine Magic Podcast and The GAR! Podcast. Thanks again!

PrinceLess on The GAR! Podcast

The latest episode (#21) of The GAR! Podcast features a special interview with writer Jeremy Whitley and artist Emily C. Martin of the awarding winning comic PrinceLess from Action Lab Comics.

In the episode we discuss PrinceLess, inspirations, publishing, art styles, teaching, Breaking Bad, Death, Prince, Batman, and the upcoming releases from Action Lab Comics - all that and more!

Check out the podcast here, and you buy PrinceLess online here, in the South Jersey/Philadelphia area at All Things Fun!, or at your local comics shop.

Alyas Batman en Robin

Alyas Batman en Robin ~ This film, made in the Philippines in the early 1990s, is hard to describe. On one hand it is the stuff of legend, like Andy Warhol's Batman, or the also Filipino Alyas Batman at Robin from 1963, something few people in the United States have even ever seen. On the other it's just bizarre. Though made in the Philippines it has many of the hallmarks of a Bollywood film - comedy, drama, romance, and people spontaneously breaking into song and dance.

The plot has criminals taking on the identities of their idols - the Penguin, and the Joker, among others - to rob banks. To counteract this, two men, I am unsure if they are brothers or father and son, dress up like Batman and Robin, and have their car souped up to look like the Batmobile. Hilarity, romance, as well as song and dance numbers ensue, as one would expect.

For an unauthorized film using DC Comics characters, some of it looks good, not great, but some is better than that prime time NBC "Challenge of the Superheroes." The costumes are plays on the 1966 TV series rather than the Tim Burton films of the time. Comedian Rene Requiestas as the Joker reminds me of Prince's alter-ego Gemini, and not in a good way.

All in all this is probably worth a look for the curious. If you watch it in the wrong mood, you'll be horrified, but if you watch it with the right attitude, you'll be satisfactorily entertained.

Don Kirshner 1934-2011

One of America's greatest music producers, and a driving force in popular music for decades, Don Kirshner, passed away yesterday from heart failure in Boca Raton, Florida. He was 76.

I think it's sad that there are probably generations who don't even know his name, or if they do, it's because of late night infomercials, or they think he's a character Paul Shaeffer played on "Saturday Night Live." Of course they are other generations, before the advent of MTV, who know the man and his contributions.

Kirshner was instrumental in starting the careers of numerous songwriters in the 1960s with his "Brill Building" school, where friend and producer Phil Specter also worked. 'Graduates' included Carole King, Neil Sedaka, Neil Diamond, Howard Greenfield, and Gerry Goffin. Together they scored dozens and dozens of hits, before they went on to have careers of their own, while Kirshner himself started several record labels and moved on into television. Known as "The Man with the Golden Ear," he was one of the folks who created the Monkees, as well as the cartoon Archies, both groups prefabricated, and he also discovered many 'real' music acts as well like Bobby Darin and Kansas.

Kirshner was also a 1970s fixture on Sunday late nights with his legendary "Don Kirshner's Rock Concert." There he introduced many acts to America for the first time like Prince, Blue Oyster Cult, Earth Wind and Fire, Parliament Funkadelic, the Sex Pistols, Alice Cooper, Rush, Linda Ronstadt, KISS, Ted Nugent, David Bowie, and the Ramones, just to name a few of the hundreds who appeared on the program. The series, which ran from 1973-1981, was notable for being live and not allowing acts to lipsync, a widespread curse of the 1970s. We didn't have MTV, we had Don.

We have lost one of the true geniuses of the music industry, he will be missed.

Lost Hits of the New Wave #3

"Controversy" by Prince.

Prince is one of my three favorite artists, along with Kate Bush and Nine Inch Nails, and this song, from the 1981 album of the same name, was probably the first one I ever heard by His Purple Badness. I heard it on WYSP, believe it or not. Long before he was pop or R&B, music programmers thought of Prince, and this first real crossover song as rock or new wave.

The video itself is like most of the early pre-Purple Rain videos in that it's a performance, and it also spotlights the Revolution, before he (they) actually became known as Prince and the Revolution. Great song, love it, and him.

Chuck

McG comes to TV with surprising results in "Chuck" which debuts tomorrow night as a lead-in to the much-anticipated second season of "Heroes." Definitely tune in early to check out "Chuck" because the way NBC is advertising it (or not advertising it), it'll be gone shortly. And that's a shame.

The series rests on an annoying and unbelievable premise that should best be accepted - that lead character Chuck has all the secret intel from two government organizations in his head. Just accept it and move on, then you can enjoy the show.

Other than that this is a great little show that reminded me quaintly of both "Spaced" and Free Enterprise. It's geek chic, and it rocks. The segment of the population that will get all the jokes in this one will love it. Those that scratch their head and go "Wha?" - - well, who needs 'em? Those latter folks however might be what dooms this show before it gets a fair chance, so see it while you can!

Chuck, you had me at "Vicki Vale." ;-)

Under the Cherry Moon

KILLING A ROLL

A Video Review of "Under the Cherry Moon"

Copyright 2002 Glenn Walker  

Under the Cherry Moon is horrible. Keep in mind that I love Prince. I have all his albums and have almost seen him in concert a few times. He is the sugar. But he made a horrible second film. It's about a gigolo played by the purple one trying to romance a woman in France who wants nothing to do with him.

Prince is surrounded by his usual entourage including his back-up band the Revolution. While the music is superior and the non-soundtrack (he released an album at the same time that included songs from Under the Cherry Moon) that accompanied the film is dazzling the flick itself is abominable.

The one thing that stands out above all other terrors in this mess is, to borrow a phrase from Prince's proteges The Time, what time is it? When does this film take place? It appears to be turn of the century France but includes rock and roll and other modern references. It stinks of Moulin Rouge but somehow isn't quite that bad.

In 1984 Prince was on a roll. He had a hit movie and a hit album with Purple Rain and its soundtrack. The purple one was riding high and perhaps he didn't like it. You could blame it on him being a misunderstood artistic genius but I think it goes deeper. I think he was subconsciously afraid of success, especially mainstream success. If you know any tortured artist types you know exactly what I'm talking about. They will do anything to avoid mainstream success even if it means sabotaging their career.

Witness Under the Cherry Moon. How do you end a roll? Here's a quick guide, courtesy of Prince. Believe that you know what the public wants and what is good for it. Make an art film. Use black and white film. Fill it so full of your own personal philosophy that everyone else will choke on it. Call it Under the Cherry Moon. Yep, that will kill a roll.

Hell, it might just kill a movie career. Good move, Prince, nice knowing you.