Thursday, May 15, 2008
13 comments:
Thanks for commenting. I moderate comments, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. You might enjoy my book about Flint called "Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City," a Michigan Notable Book for 2014 and a finalist for the 33rd Annual Northern California Book Award for Creative NonFiction. Filmmaker Michael Moore described Teardown as "a brilliant chronicle of the Mad Maxization of a once-great American city." More information about Teardown is available at www.teardownbook.com.
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Good for discount movies at Showcase Cinema and not much more.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, 105 Rock Cards were not the backstage passes to rock n roll debauchery that they appeared to be.
SPECIAL FLINT EXPATS LYRICS CONTEST:
Name the bands that sang these anti-105 FM related lyrics and win a... um, well... I'll let you know when I figure it out.
"You can fuck your 105 / I need hardcore to stay alive"
"Now me and the boys are feeling so alive / we got the radio cranked up to 105"
"Journey, Boston, Styx on 105 / I wanna die / So this is rock n roll"
"Cool Guys / Metal Dicks / Me Big Truck / Tires Six Feet Tall / OOOOOHHHH BOOOYYYYY it feels good / Engine Big Ass / 105 Stickers / Bad Truck Power"
Anybody got a transcript of "The Great Rock N Roll Debate"? Punk vs. the WWCK Cock Rock establishment...
Although I think this 105 card is cool, I always hated that station. I was more partial to WDZZ. Anything but Live 105.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'll help out with the contest...first person to guess gets a lightly used Semi-Pro headband. I'll mail it to you.
I'm with Gordie! WDZZ was the preferred station while getting ready for school in the morning. While I can't help with the lyrics to 105 promos (which, I will agree was the better station to listen to while "laying out" slathered in baby oil in 60 degree weather - a little Bob Segar please!) I can remember most of the lyrics (such as they were) to Atomic Dog and Electric Avenue. Remember the birthday announcements they would make in the mornings on WDZZ? I was always mad that my birthday was in the summer.
ReplyDeleteOk, time to show my age. Long before this era of 105fm...the rockin' station in Flint was the Big 6 WTAC AM....you had to love that static and the "Hit List" they printed and was available where you bought your "records"...at this time FM offered classical music and dental or elevator music....then magically around 71 or so emerged WWCK 105 FM album rock with no static at all ( ala Steely Dan )they were playing what we now know as Classic Rock....and the songs were long without a lot of bull from the DJ fewer commercials....then as all good things come to an end Jan 1, 1980 the day the music died ( ala Don McLane ) they changed the format to what it is today....a sad day for the rockers in Flint....now we finally have a classic rock station again.
ReplyDeleteFirst, the song lyrics. I don't remember all, but here's what I remember:
ReplyDelete"Radio Cranked up to 105" was by the Guilty Bystanders.
"I Wanna Die" by Generic Society (off "I Expected More." "Darth Vader Lived in Flint" was a better song on the same subject.)
As for WTAC, probably the one thing every Flintoid older than a certain age remembers is that WTAC would occasionally come on the air with an announcement like this: Would Terry Schivo please call your parents? Terry Schivo, please call your parents. WTAC Cares.
You don't hear that anymore. It's one thing I miss.
godozo: Congratulations! You win the Semi-Pro headband. Just email your mailing address and I'll get it in the mail. I know you can't wait.
ReplyDeleteAnd do me a favor...send me the lyrics to Darth Vader Lived in Flint. Or an mp3 of it. I must hear it.
Congrats godozo. The other two are- "Hardcore Is The Answer" by Johnny Slaughter and the Meat Patrol / Smiling Sacrifice and "Bad Truck Power" by Process.
ReplyDeleteConfidential to godozo: I must know you- grew up not too far away. Funny, I clicked on your name and discovered I've bookmarked some of the same links as you: Strange Maps, KBD. You used to be able to buy the early Killed By Death bootlegs at Wyatt Earp as a matter of fact.
WWCK's Buffalo Dick's Radio Ranch. Yeesh. That shit was HI-larious when I was a kid. Super popular too. Apparently 2000 people showed up to a live broadcast at the Russelville Ballroom back in 1981 to celebrate its national syndication. Jeff Lamb has a website where you can listen to some current podcasts. Quite painful to listen to actually.
ReplyDeleteTangent Time:
Hey Gordo, do you remember TV Pow on channel 25? This was perhaps the GREATEST local program ever on Flint television. If ANYBODY has footage of TV Pow I'd be forever indebted if you posted it. pow...pow...pow...POW...
POWPOWPOWPOWPOWPOWPOW!!
While I'm on a Flint / Saginaw media tangent, footage of the following would be FANTASTIC: Christopher Coffin, WJRT Polka Hour, Flint Generals early 80s televised games, Art Neill (Grand Salami BAYBEE!), the WNEM weather man who used to do the cartoon drawings, PM Magazine, Straight Bob news stories on WJRT... COMMERCIALS: Matt Rinks Tattoo Parlor, Al Bennett, Paramount Potato Chips, Applegate (baseball, hot dogs, Applegate and Chevrolet), the Godfather of South Saginaw St. auto infomercials...
Anonymous, just wondering, was the band Process a Flint band that was at one time called Splatter Process?
ReplyDeleteI don't think Process was Splatter Proces but I never actually heard Splatter Process. I think Process was Al Korth, Dan Russell and a drum machine. Say, do you got any Splatter Process demo tapes laying around?
ReplyDeleteAlso, DO NOT confuse Process with the horrible Vassar based white reggae band The Process. I think through the process of elimination most can figure out which Process is the best.
to Anonymous:
ReplyDeleteI left Flint in September of 1983 to go to MSU. Came back in the summer of 1985, found out about Wyatt Earp's at that time. Which would technically make me a Flint Expatriate by the time I found out about the record store.
I am shocked and happy to see the reference to Process/Splatter Process on this page.
ReplyDeleteIt was Steve Pace, not Dan Russell who made "Bad Truck Power" with Al Korth (yours truly).
Process, as it was in 1983, was a recording that was made by necessity. We did not have multitrack, it was made with three cassette decks, some Y-adapters, and a Mattel Synsonics drum machine.
Sound-on-sound recording was really hard you mixed the new part while recording, and you couldn't mix it later.
I made the layers of guitar and then Steve added the vocals.
"Bad Truck Power" was submitted on cassette to Ben Hamper and Jim McDonald, who played several pieces from the 30 minute tape on their "Take No Prisoners" radio program.
Steve and I formed Splatter Process in 1984, with Steve on vocals and me on bass and keyboards, adding Eric Williams (guitar), Mike Karas (drums), and finally Brian Kettler (keys).
My profile on MySpace, /alinvain, features music of Splatter Process, and I have been compelled to post the original Process tapes.
Thank you,
Al Korth
Check out the Flint Underground Music Archive!
ReplyDeleteAll those bands, video, mp3s, concerts, Ben Hamper interviews, Twin Peacks, and much much more!
Aaron Stengel who runs the archive and puts in the time should get a freakin' Peabody for this.
http://www.takenoprisoners.info/