Michael Winslow Show Notes

Talking Points:

Twitter handle  @Noizey_Man

Grew up on several Air Force bases

Moved around a lot as a kid.

Killed the boredom  by imitating the sounds of machinery around the military bases.

Including typewriters. Take this video for example…

32 Typewriters

32 Typewriters??? I couldn’t tell the difference between a Remington Noiseless Portable or a IBM Executive Model 42 or a Smith Corona Word processor

Books:

Whack to the Side of the Head

Kick to the Seat of the Pants

Lesson learned - there’s more than one right answer

Tik Tok

Jimi Hendrix

Comics stealing jokes.

Robin Williams

Multiple languages

Cheech and Chong no longer PC?

But what makes your impressions so unique are the facial expressions. You seem to be listening to the headphones, where i imagine someone is feeding you the recording for reference

The afterwards, you look at the two mics as if you’re trying to decide which one to eat first.

Did your parents ever try to discourage you/ I mean, making all those sounds around the house s a little kid, didn’t yell, Hey Mikey, cut it out, I’m trying to watch Star Trek here, and you’d be making laser gun sounds.  At what point did your mom or dad say, Hey now — THERE’S a career! Looks like you won’t be needing college, son.

List of noises:

’Scuse me while I kiss this guy - attribution. Michael was the first that I know of to use that line.

Matre D’ at the Great American and Poppy’s Star (along with Alan "Walk This Way" Feinman as Groucho, and Billy Scudder as Charlie Chaplain)

Dupars after Cheech and Chong’s Next Movie

Sky Trails Open Mic

My Sharona

Just What I Needed by the Cars

Michael Winslow and folk pop-musician Odd Nordstoga performed Whole Lotta Love on the Norwegian talkshow Senkveld - with Thomas og Harald

The Russia Story

Slight incident while filming Police Academy: Mission to Moscow in Russia

  Killing Hasselhoff

Completely unexpected. It was a total delight seeing you pop up in a cameo! My rating went up a star.

Mention on THE GOLDBERGS…

Dana: I don't get it. This is part 5. Shouldn't they have graduated the Academy after the first one?Adam: I think the problem is you're focusing on logic, not the lovable cast of characters. Dana: Okay, in what world would an officer of the law stop a jewel thief by making weird mouth noises?Adam: That's Michael Winslow. He's a national treasure.Dana: They're LAPD. They wouldn't have any jurisdiction in Miami.

Referenced on other shows: Ellen, Family Guy, Robot Chicken (Police Academy: X-Men)

You’ve done sound fx for many tv and movies. What are some of the things where we are actually hearing your voices? Do you have any favorites?

The very best of the 60s. 80s

Voice insured by Lloyd’s of London with Mary Hart’s legs

Eddie Van Halen and Michael jamming too loud at the Namm Show

Recently Live on Twitch

Sound Effects in Video games

Phasmaphoria

Among Us

Links

Michael Winslow Media

Michael Winslow Youtube Channel

Michael Winslow on Facebook

Michael Winslow on Instagram

Nico Is - Brazilian Rapper - Agua

Tales of the Road Warriors Website

Today my guest is Robert Smokey Miles...    

He knows Bob Dylan personally and even used to be his house sitter as a teenager

Around 1987 he began hosting open mics and acoustic music showcases at the Breakaway Gardens in Venice, CA, much like I did in the San Fernando Valley several years later. Although I had been to the Breakaway,  on many occasions before I left Venice, I don’t recall having ever met Smokey, although in retrospect, I must have. While editing this episode, I determined it would have been almost impossible for me not to have crossed paths wit this guy!

As Count Smokula, a quirky vampire sporting a fez and playing accordion,  he was a male counterpart to Elvira, MIstress of the Dark. Although Elvira had a more massive following, Smokula has a pretty fair cult following of his own. He continues to perform in the Annual Pasadena Doo Dah Parade with The Radioactive Chicken Heads.

He’s worked in some bizarre cult films such as “Magics”, about a very unique magician who entertains sick and injured Palestinian and Jewish kids thoughout Israel's pediatric hospitals. Original music performed by bob as Count Smokula on his accordion

Appears in several Troma Films from Troma Entertainment which is an independent film company that produces low-budget independent films. Mostly flicks that pay homage to the 1950’s horror films - lots of farcical parodies with gratuitous fake blood, guts and gore.

These include: Trasharella with Rena Riffel; and he even did a couple of songs with Ron Jeremy, the porn star for TromaDance Festival one year.

For links to my Smokey’s website and Youtube videos, go to www.talesoftheroadwarriors.com/smokey-miles where you’ll find them right under the show notes!

So yeah, Smokey’s done his fair share of hosting music showcases, playing his guitar and the accordion, doing sketch comedy in the persona of the immortal Count Smokula, and cameo appearances in movies and music videos with the likes of Bob Dylan, himself. So, ‘nuff said… Here he is to talk about it - Robert “Smokey” Miles!

Links to some of Smokey’s stuff (right under the Show Notes, where  I said they’d be):

Smokey Miles Official Website

The Social Distance Dance

Bob Dylan’s "Must Be Santa" Official VideoSmokey plays a smoking’ accordion solo in this vid!

ESSRA MOHAWK Pt. 1 Show Notes

Essra Mohawk has had a very long and storied career. To describe her music as eclectic is a gross understatement. Her songs run the gamut from pop to avant garden, and in between she covers a lot of bases including rock, folk, folk rock, motown, jazz, tv jingles, rhythm and blues, and beautiful, heartfelt ballads about love and lust.

Born Sandra Elayne Hurvitz, her earlier influences were her parents, Anne and Henry.  Through them she grew up listening to an eclectic list of artists such as Judy Garland, Nina Simone, The Coasters, Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, Little Anthony & the Imperials, Thelonius Monk, Erik Satie, Billy Holiday, Otis Redding, The Beatles, The Stones, Ravi Shankar among others/

In 1964 she released a single as Jamie Carter titled “The Boy With the Way” which I personally think is a really cool song. It pronbably could have been a hit hat it received proper publicity and marketing. Essra sounded a little peeved  talking about it. I don’t blame her, and it would turn  out not to be the first time here career hit a snag or detour.

Essra was also the first female member of the Mothers of Invention. In fact, she spent about a year in a relationship with Frank Zappa who thanks to band member Ray Collins suggestion  for a rock star name, dubbed her, Uncle Meat.  When I first met Uncle Meat, she was in Philly on hiatus, and I had no idea who Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention were at the time. I would shortly discover them through Philadelphia DJ Michael Tearson, and eventually make the connection. But, I was happy to finally talk to her again so I could tell her the story of my first Essra Mohawk encounter. At this point, I should probably apologize for hijacking the conversation, for which I was duly busted by Essra.

As I mentioned, her career is multifaceted, so the Show Notes page at talesoftheroadwarriors-slash-Essra-Mohawk includes some Essra Mohawk Career Highlights, discography ands links to some of the songs we talked about in this conversation. In my conversation, BTW, I barely scratched the surface of her career, so this is really just a little slice of life in which I hopefully captured some of her essence and got a couple pretty good stories from her.

Due to technical  difficulties, I just couldn’t get good enough audio, so I’ll just tell you some things that were to garbled to include in the podcast.

I did manage to capture a little about her “crazy courage” as a Philly girl, and her propensity to stick up for others against bullies - and her mom.

The main story I was hoping to have her retell was how she was scheduled to be one of the performers  at Woodstock, but her manager missed the turn, causing Essra to miss her debut  on the most well known world stage of all time.

LINKS:

Essra’s Facebook Page

ESSRA MOHAWK MUSIC VIDEOS

Essra Mohawk as Jamie Carter “The Boy With The Way"

Raindance

I Am The Breeze (from Primordial Lovers album)

19th Amendment School House Rock

From Hemifran MusicWebsite:

DISCOGRAPHY Though you can stream most of Essra's Music on Spotify, iTunes, PAndora, etc., it is important to support your favorite artists as often as you can - by purchasing their albums. Purchase Essra Mohawk albums directly from her using this PDF.

You can also order some from the Tales of the Road Warriors website by clicking on one of my affiliate links. Buying through these links will help keep the site AND Essra healthy!

•1968 Sandy’s Album is Here at Last (as Sandy Hurvitz) produced by Frank Zappa

•1970 Primordial Lovers

•1974 Essra Mohawk

•1976 Essra

•1982 Burnin’ Shinin’ (released without knowledge of the artist)

•1985 E-Turn

•1995 Raindance

•1999 Essie Mae Hawk Meets the KillerGrooveBand  (My personal favorite. Killer band and killer grooves. This album was appropriately named!)

•2003 You’re Not Alone

•2006 Love is Still The Answer

•2007 Revelations of the Secret Diva

Info below from Essra’s bio both Hemifran Website

Her 1st record release was a single “The Boy With the Way” /b-side “Memory of Your Voice” on Liberty records in 1964.

“Newcomer Pick” in Cashbox, it was produced by Hutch Davie (He produced Shirley Ellis “Name Game”).

A year later Shadow Morton who produced both the Shangri-Las and Vanilla Fudge, discovered her and her music and in1966 the Shangri-La’s recorded Essra’s song “I’ll Never Learn” .

Soon after that, her song, “The Spell That Comes After” was recorded by Vanilla Fudge on their “Renaissance” album.

In 1967, Essra was discovered once again. This time by Frank Zappa who, after hearing her play was so blown away, he immediately invited her to join his band, The Mothers of Invention, thus making her their first female member.

Within a year he signed her and released her first solo album on Verve. While performing with the Mothers, Essra also opened for Cream (their first time in New York), Procol Harum(Keith Reid’s lyrics to “Quite Rightly So” are about Essra), Albert King, Electric Flag, Grateful Dead (their first performance in N.Y.), and Jimi Hendrix.

By 1969 Essra was recording her second album in L.A. and S.F. for Reprise after Mo Ostin (then Vice President) discovered her singing at a club in N.Y. and asked her on the spot to come to the label. The result was “Primordial Lovers”, an LP that received a 5 star review in Downbeat, raves in Mix, and was stated as being “one of the best 25 albums ever made” in Rolling Stone magazine. Unfortunately, these reviews came over a year after the release of the album and new fans found it hard to secure the LP due to poor distribution and the sale of the Reprise label following the release. Nevertheless, this critically acclaimed musical work continues to generate a cult following for Essra.

In fall of 2000 it was released on CD by Rhino Handmade. She wrote most of the songs while living in Mendocino, California. While recording the album, Essra married her producer, Frazier Mohawk, and from that time on was known as Essra Mohawk. She also sang in a background vocal trio with Carole King.

Essra’s third album, released in 1974 on Elektra/Asylum, once again without proper promotion or distribution, led England’s music magazine, Melody Maker, to declare it, “the richest and most unheralded event in American music” that year.

After moving back to Philadelphia in the 70’s, Ms. Mohawk continued to sing as a session vocalist. She is especially known for singing on Schoolhouse Rock, the popular educational and musical cartoon series that continues to air on TV.

Essra’s vocals are on “Interjections”, “Sufferin’ Till Suffrage”, and “Mother Necessity”. After ABC Video released the cartoons on video in the 90’s, they received an upsurge of popularity and the troupe, led by music director, Bob Dorough, began performing live in the mid-90’s. A new album on which Essra sang wrote and produced a track entitled “Do You Wanna Party” about political parties in the U.S. was released on Rhino in Sept. ‘98 on an album called “Schoolhouse Rocks the Vote”.

Ms. Mohawk’s fourth album was released on Private Stock records in 1976. After the same lack of support that has kept Essra’s remarkable music in the shadows, she left the label and moved back to California in 1977. Paul Kantner wanted her to be the lead singer in Jefferson Starship after Grace Slick dropped out for a while but he couldn’t convince the rest of the band to use another female vocalist so they chose a male, Micky Thomas, instead.

In 1980-82 Essra performed as a background vocalist with the Jerry Garcia Band. During the same period she co-wrote “Haze” with Bobby Weir and his band “Bobby and the Midnights” for their Atlantic release. Also, Essra has collaborated with Al Jarreau, Bonnie Bramlett, Mark McEntee of the DiVinyls, Eric Bazilian, Al Stewart and Narada Michael Walden. She sang and recorded with John Mellencamp. (He’d seek her out wherever she lived for her advice and encouragement.)

Essra’s music and ideas inspired Joni Mitchell’s “Woodstock” (Essra was scheduled to play at the original Woodstock, but her manager missed a turn and they arrived too late. She finally played at the 25th Anniversary at Bethel.) ***David Crosby’s “Deja Vu” was inspired by Essra’s song “I Have Been Here Before”. David would ask her to play it for him whenever he saw her and then wrote “Deja Vu” as a result.

In 1982, Essra moved back to Philadelphia from L.A. and was brought into the McFadden & Whitehead pre-production sessions. She conjured up “Not With Me” overnight for the duo and they released it on their Capitol album that year. Essra recorded two more solo albums in the 80’s. Both were released independently and both were produced by her, then, husband Daoud Shaw (Van Morrison’s drummer for many years and original drummer for Saturday Night Live). They first met during those early days on Bleeker St. in New York’s Greenwich Village, where she jammed vocally with jazz greats: Mike Manieri, the Brecker Bros., Eddie Gomez and Jeremy Steig. As a result her vocal style developed more along the lines of a wind instrument than that of a typical pop singer. Being in the Mothers then also helped to propel the youth to such a creative and original stance as a vocalist.

Three of her early LPs were reissued on CDs in Japan in spring 2003, followed by her recent tours to California, the East Coast and Japan. Essra’s first album on CD

“Raindance” which was released on Schoolkids Records in ‘95 was reissued on Evidence Feb., 2005.

Her 1999 CD, “Essie Mae Hawk Meets the Killer Groove Band”, was remastered and reissued on Essra’s own label, MummyPump, in 2003. Essra’s been living in Nashville, TN since 1993 where she continues to write and record, playing her music on piano, mandolin and guitar.

Keb’ Mo’, Steve Cropper and Bonnie Bramlett are among the stellar performers who joined Essra on her 2003 Evidence CD “You’re Not Alone”. Her songs were used on the CBS series Joan of Arcadia in 2004 and 2005. The book, “Hotel California” is one of many books about music that mentions Essra.

Ben Vaughn Part 2 - Show Notes

Hey, howzit going everybody? Had enough of this lockdown yet? I know, I know, there’s nothing funny about it and you’re running out of ideas. Well, at least you have me to keep you entertained for a little while. I’m Hal in Philly and this is my podcast. Welcome to it. In case you forgot , it’s called… TALES OF THE ROAD WARRIORS!

If you listened to the last episode, my conversation with Ben Vaughn - Part 1 then you know I ended it wth a kind of a cliff hanger. Ben was telling me that his father would not allow him to have a guitar i the house if he couldn’t get his grades up in school. Well, Ben had a hard time getting better grades, Instead choosing to be a juvenile delinquent. A rebel with an axe to grind, but he couldn’t bring his axe home with him. So, in part two, Ben goes on to tell us how he got around the Vaughn house rules…

Talking Points

No guitar allowed…

E.J. Korvettes

Silvertone guitars

The Relay Shack

The Rambler Revisited

My Essra Mohawk story

The Hippie scene in Philly, 20th and Sansom Street, The Plain Dealer - free underground newspaper

Sugar Cane Harvest in Cuba

Venceremos Brigade

Songs we thought we had only imagined

Underground Radio, The Marconi Experiment with Dave Herman

John Sebastian was a bad influence on me

Ben and I preach against smoking (Sorry, smokers)

Norristown and the Zep

The Delaware Valley

More on The Geeter

The Mojave Desert

Santa Monica, Rent control, Ocean Park

The Blue Lagune Saloon

Kenn Kweder live shows on Facebook

Music scene in Philly - Past and present, the next generation

Charlie Gracie

World Cafe Live

Coronavirus effect on gigs

____________________________

TIP JAR

Ben Vaughn, rock and roll star and DJ.. known throughout Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware Tri-state area and parts of New York.  A fixture around these parts for a very long time. Listeners of NPR radio stations across the country can listen to his show, The Many Moods of Ben Vaughn”

Musical influences include Kenn Kweder and Jerry Blavat aka The Geeter with the Heater, the Big Boss with the Hot Sauce.

Hal in Philly talks with truck driver and podcaster, Dave Kanyan, host of Dumbing it Down With Dave, about driving a truck, podcasting at 85 mph, milk, comedy and some music.

Dave's PodcastDumbing it Down With Dave

Stream or Download - I'm Going For A Drive

Tales of the Road Warriors Coffee Mug

I'm Goin' For A Drive Travel Mug

Hal in Philly interviews Henry Phillips on Tales of the Road Warriors. He is a comedic singer/songwriter, actor and filmmaker. He has released comedy albums of his music, and has produced several series including The Loner for IFC, a cooking show on Patreon called Henry's Kitchen. Also on Patreon for 2020, a comedy series, The Highway Man.

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Talking Points

Sorry, wrong number

Discovering Henry - Music reviewer Jonathan Widran

Chimneysweep

Jerry’s Deli Stories - Marlon Brando

Saturday Night Live, Adam Sandler, Rob Schneider

John Ritter, Amy Yasbeck

Mark Cohen

The Devil and Donny Most

The Loser on IFC

Henry’s Kitchen

Jose Suicidio

Hecklers

New Show The Highway Man

Singer songwriter Eric Schwartz

Doug Stanhope

Misogonistic lyrics

John on Silicon Valley

Mike Judge

Links:

Henry Phillip’s Official Websitehttp://henryphillips.com/

Song: End of the World

Henry Phillips Youtube Channel

Henry’s Kitchen 

The Highway Man

_______________________________

The Devil and Donny Most https://easywhenyouknowhal.weebly.com/ep-22-devil-and-donny-most.html

Kendal Conrad is a country singer/songwriter/recording artist from outside of Philadelphia Pennsylvania.She has shared the stage and opened for the likes of Blake Shelton, Charlie Daniels Band, Chris Lane, Trace Adkins, Phil Vassar and many others and even sang a duet live onstage with Keith Urban. READ MORE

Philly's Andrea Nardello has been compared to Melissa Etheridge, Shawn Colvin, Sheryl Crow and Brandi Carlisle.

Influences in folk, rock & pop. Nardello recently won a contest and sang with Brandi Carlile at Carlile’s all women’s festival in Mexico. Also won Philadelphia Songwriter's Project Contest and the Tri-State Indie's "Acoustic Artist Of The Year."

She has toured extensively opening for Colbie Caillat, Brandi Carlile, Gabe Dixon, Emerson Hart of Tonic Fame, Toby Lightman, Tim Reynolds of The Dave Matthews Band and Ron Pope.

ANDREA NARDELLO FULL SHOW NOTES & LINKS

Today is the first of three episodes in a row featuring Women Road Warriors in honor of International Women’s Month on Tales of the Road Warriors. My guest is Toby Lightman. In our brief talk we touched on another problem men never experience, the struggle to have a child. Though a man can share some of the emotional weight of this struggle, we can never know the physical and internal anguish that a woman experiences. Toby recently captured this in her song ‘Begin Again”. I had no idea what the song was about going into this conversation, so you’ll hear me getting woke in real time.

Go To Show Notes Page

Talking Points

Band history and foundation of Strawberry Alarm Clock

How they arrived at the name.

Oingo Boingo connection

Venice Beach

Writers of Incense and Peppermints getting “jacked”

Bad practices in the music businesses by music biz types.

More personnel swaps and other Alarm Clock stories

Similarity to the Doors. Ray Manzarek and Robbie Krieger.

Comparisons with other bands.

Other songs - Curse of the Witches and World on Fire

The Unjust Drug Bust

Ontario Motor Speedway gig with Ben Balloon

Other names that came up: Frankie Avalon,Connie Stevens, John Walmsley, Richard Marx and  Madonna.

Remaking Incense and Peppermints, Licensing woes

Roger Ebert, Valley of the Dolls

The Seeds Tribute to Sky Saxon

Playing unplugged

Links to Strawberry Alarm Clock Website, Videos and Other Resources

Full Transcripts (Scroll down some)