Remember Commander Cody

Subject: Remember Commander Cody
From: Bluesmike
Date: 21 Nov 02 - 02:42 AM

Years ago- probably 30, someone pulled out an LP with lots of pictures of old trucks on the cover.
I vaguely remember 'I'm looking at the world through a windshield' and 'Momma hated diesel so bad.'
I have tried record stores and old catalogues and no-one has ever heard of such an album.
Is it real or am I going senile and making up stuff?
I'm pretty sure it was a Commander Cody album- He was kinda the Frank Zappa of country music
Many thanks in advance
Michael

Subject: RE: Remember Commander Cody
From: alanabit
Date: 21 Nov 02 - 02:51 AM

Was it Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen? My memory plays tricks on me too!

Subject: RE: Remember Commander Cody
From: alanabit
Date: 21 Nov 02 - 02:53 AM

Hooray - my memory was not playing tricks! Read about him at:
http://www.commandercody.com/Story.html

Subject: RE: Remember Commander Cody
From: Bullfrog Jones
Date: 21 Nov 02 - 04:32 AM

Yessss -- Hot Licks, Cold Steel & Truckers' Favourites -- one of the old vinyls that still gets played regularly.

BJ

Subject: RE: Remember Commander Cody
From: GUEST,fat B****rd
Date: 21 Nov 02 - 05:17 AM

..and I'm down to seeds and stems again too...

Subject: RE: Remember Commander Cody
From: Skipjack K8
Date: 21 Nov 02 - 07:15 AM

Saw Commander Cody at Knebworth 79, Led Zep's unplanned swansong. Cody did songs about food, with a side order of fries, as I remember. But I was pretty shitfaced at the time...........

Subject: RE: Remember Commander Cody
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 21 Nov 02 - 08:17 AM

Well they may have been the Zappa of country, but they had a pretty big crossover hit with their cover of "Hot Rod Lincoln", which is the only song of theirs I've heard.

Subject: RE: Remember Commander Cody
From: Scabby Douglas
Date: 21 Nov 02 - 08:22 AM

I have the double live album on vinyl...
And I've seen at least one compilation on a supermarket Budget CD recently..

Cheers

Steven

Subject: RE: Remember Commander Cody
From: Bobert
Date: 21 Nov 02 - 08:24 AM

Go to ebay.com and I'm sure you can find all the Commander Cody you want... and in vynal with the cool album covers. Yeah, I've still got a couple Commander Cody LP's in my collection. Them boys had a lot of fun playing and didn't take too much of the music scene too serious.

Bobert

Subject: RE: Remember Commander Cody
From: Jeri
Date: 21 Nov 02 - 09:57 AM

They seemed to have loads of fun and were GOOD. I never saw them play live, but (whoopee) I have their live album - from Armadillo World Headquarters. I was living in Austin TX at the time and could have been there. (But wasn't.) The first I heard them or OF them was that album. Seeds and Stems, Rt 66, Miles & Miles of Texas, Choo-Choo-Choo Boogie...gotta find the album (and the other one I have too).

I swear Frank Zappa came out with an album with live tracks recorded somewhere else in Austin on the same night. Could be wrong. Too bad Armadillo WH is gone. I saw the Earl Scruggs Review there in 1978 or '9.

Subject: RE: Remember Commander Cody
From: DonMeixner
Date: 21 Nov 02 - 05:34 PM

I see Commander Cody quite often. He lives in central New York and still does some unbelieveable shows. His band is again first rate and the music is an pretty solid mix of old and new. Catch him when ever you can.

Don

Subject: RE: Remember Commander Cody
From: Bobert
Date: 21 Nov 02 - 06:01 PM

I almost forget the Commander until you brought him up, Michael, but now I've been thinking more and more about him and that type of music and well, there was a flurry of country rock groups that came out around the same time. Like Flying Burreto Brothers, New Riders and the Purple Sage (one of my favorites...) Poco (another of my favorites), the Byrds ("Sweetheart of the Rodeo" LP), Dylan ("Nashville Skyline"), The Stones ("Sticky Fingers"), James Lee Satnley, Cowboy, early Grateful Dead, et al. That was some fun music and real easy to play...

Bobert

Subject: RE: Remember Commander Cody
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 21 Nov 02 - 06:23 PM

Bobert, you forgot Country Gazette, and Pure Prairie League ....

Murray

Subject: RE: Remember Commander Cody
From: John Hardly
Date: 21 Nov 02 - 06:36 PM

If you get a chance to see Bill Kirchen in person RUN, don't walk to get to the concert. The man and his band are a scream.

...calls his music "dieselbilly". Seriously, one of the best electric guitarists I've had the pleasure of hearing see in person.

Subject: RE: Remember Commander Cody
From: GUEST,Bman
Date: 21 Nov 02 - 07:56 PM

I saw Commander Cody more times than I can count. Their shows were always enjoyable. His lead guitarist (Bill Kirchen, see above) was from my home town, and the band spent a lot of time around there. They often played at the free concerts held every Sunday in the summertime, and would play second bill to anyone who came to town, seemed like. I payed to see them as headliners a time or two, as well; they were well worth it. Their fine fiddle player, Andy Stein (who doubled on sax sometimes), now plays in Garrison Keillor's house band on the Prairie Home Companion, I believe. The lead singer, Billy C. Farlow, played a wrecked old electric guitar which was never plugged in, and, if memory serves, wasn't completely strung either. They introduced the Ann Arbor area to rockabilly, and, I'm sure, in some part prefigured or brought on the rockabilly revival personified by the Stray Cats and such groups. I have their first album, and it still sounds as great to me today as the day I got it. Wish I had more. Commander Cody's real name is George Freyn (sp?), by the way. It's wonderful to read in Don Meixner's post above that he's still active and making great music, just as he used to do. regards, Bman

Subject: RE: Remember Commander Cody
From: Bluesmike
Date: 22 Nov 02 - 06:02 AM

OOOhh all the above posts just tickle me- I don't believe they ever came to Australia otherwise I would have mugged old ladies to see them.
A friend bought me Stuck in the Ozone for my last birthday and it is still fresh after 30 years.
Thanx for the advice about eBAY

Subject: RE: Remember Commander Cody
From: Bluesmike
Date: 22 Nov 02 - 06:05 AM

If any of you happen to run into any of them please say Hi from a 47 year old groupy in Australia who should know better.
Anyone who has only heard Hot Rod Lincoln just go and get yerself Codied you won't regret it.
Kind thoughts
Michael

Subject: RE: Remember Commander Cody
From: GUEST,lamarca
Date: 22 Nov 02 - 12:17 PM

Bill Kirchen is local to the DC area now, and he and his band, "Too Much Fun", play here a lot. He's great - a brilliant guitarist and nice guy to boot. He told a story on himself the last time I heard him - seems that he and Iggy Pop were in a band together in high school. When Iggy Pop came to play a club recently in DC, Bill took his teenage son to meet him -he said that it was the first time his kid was even vaguely impressed with his dad's musical career! Oh, well, a prophet gets no honour in his own country...

Commander Cody and Bill and Andy Stein (and maybe more of the old band) all performed together on Prairie Home Companion sometime in the past year.

Subject: RE: Remember Commander Cody
From: beadie
Date: 22 Nov 02 - 12:24 PM

I seem to recall seeing some of the band playing with Ray Benson and Asleep at the Wheel a while back. I know AATW does covers of the Commander's music every now and then in their live performances.

Subject: RE: Remember Commander Cody
From: Rustic Rebel
Date: 22 Nov 02 - 12:54 PM

I saw them at a 'smoke-in' at Golden Gate park, Frisco in the late 70's, a free concert and a NORMAL smoke-in. A few other times in Mpls, MN. in the earlier 70's. Always a good time with that band.
Rustic

Subject: RE: Remember Commander Cody
From: PaulBobbyBuzz
Date: 22 Nov 02 - 01:34 PM

How can ya not love a guy who says,    "...there's a whole lotta things that I never done, but-I ain't never had too much fun" Words to live by. pbb

Subject: RE: Remember Commander Cody
From: Bobert
Date: 22 Nov 02 - 02:51 PM

Murray:

Yeap, and I probably left out a few others. Speakin' of Pure Prarie League, their lead vocalist, Craig Fuller, hooked up with Little Feat after Lowell Goerge died and may still be with LF. Man, them boys could falt out harmonize. Speaking of harmonizin', I also forgot Dr. Hook. They could blend some voices purdy good themselves.

Bobert

Subject: RE: Remember Commander Cody
From: Socorro
Date: 22 Nov 02 - 11:08 PM

Don't forget Dan Hicks & the Hot Licks

Subject: RE: Remember Commander Cody
From: Bluesmike
Date: 22 Nov 02 - 11:24 PM

Years ago I lived in a little self built shack in the Huon Valley in Southern Tasmania. We carted our own water in plastic drums and cooked on an iron pot bellied stove while we lit the place with kerosene lamps.
Every saturday night I would go get the battery out of the car and carry it up to the house. A self tapping screw half way along the battery gave me 6 volts. Set up with some wine and the fire glowing we would listen in rapture to a Prairie Home Companion.
Sadly our national network no longer takes the show but I'm so pleased that it still seems to be going. I have a tape of Garrison Keilor live in New York so I thought he had become a yuppie.
How good to have a former Codyite playing with him now -
How well does life unfold just as it should- always perfect.
Lifes good
Michael

Subject: RE: Remember Commander Cody
From: GUEST,M.X. Cronin
Date: 26 May 10 - 03:24 PM

You can check out an appreciation of Mama Hated Diesels at the blog Nightly Song: http://nightlysong.com

Subject: RE: Remember Commander Cody
From: Willie-O
Date: 26 May 10 - 05:45 PM

Garrison Keillor is too old and Minnesotan to be a yuppie. Always has been.

w-o

the movie prairie home companion was pretty good too--look it up!

Subject: RE: Remember Commander Cody
From: BobKnight
Date: 26 May 10 - 06:15 PM

Used to do one of the songs from that album:

"Take me back to those old Kentucky Hills of Tennessee.
Where the mockin' bird is singin' high up in the laurel tree,
Let the Alabama moon shine it's light on me,
Way back in those old Kentucky hills of Tennessee."

Best song on the album was "My Semi-Truck Won't Start."

Well here I sit,
all alone with a broken heart,
I dropped two or three bennies,
And my semi-truck won't start.

Mind you, he did a great version of "Truck Driving Man," as well.

Subject: RE: Remember Commander Cody
From: Cool Beans
Date: 26 May 10 - 06:48 PM

My brother-in-law played piano for Commander Cody when they were in Ann Arbor, before they went dormant,regrouped and made it big. He's done fine for himself (not in the music business) and he's stayed friends with Bill Kirchen.

Subject: RE: Remember Commander Cody
From: clueless don
Date: 27 May 10 - 08:45 AM

I saw them in Ithaca NY back in the early 1970s. I still have their album "Lost in the Ozone", their first I believe. Has the title track, Hot Rod Lincoln, and my favorite track, Beat Me Daddy, Eight to the Bar.

Don

Subject: RE: Remember Commander Cody
From: Severn
Date: 27 May 10 - 11:59 AM

All who ever liked Cody and the Airmen, as well as anyone else who's interested in the history of the record business, should seek out a copy by any means and at any cost of Geoffrey Stokes book "Starmaking Machinery-Inside The Business Of Rock And Roll", (Bobbs-Mellil 1976 in hardback, Vintage Books 1977 in paperback which chronicles the life of the original band and the process of trying to market a 45 "single", in this case, their cover of "Don't Let Go" and trying to get it, as well as the self-titled, John Boylan produced Warner Bros. album (BS 2847)"Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen" to be a big selling chart hit, an effort that regretfully failed.

It takes you through the lives of the band members, the recording process from start to finish, the process of marketing a single across the country, touring behind it and the workings of Warner Bros. Records in their enlightened glory years when they had a history or nurturing artists of merit over time just because the music was good. This was a time when the LP was still king, and radio was a bit more free-form and free-flowing than it is now.

It is set up as a cultural study, and was called at the time called "Simply the best book there is about the business of pop music." by Robert Christgau and "The best analysis of the music business I ever read." by Dave Marsh. The business might have changed with the advent of CDs, new developments in music and various corporate reshuffling in all areas of media, but it still holds up as a wonderful read and a valuable piece of history for fans or participants of music of that, or any era.

I highly recommend it as a classic in music writing.

Subject: RE: Remember Commander Cody
From: pdq
Date: 27 May 10 - 12:42 PM

A perfect mate to "Live From Deep In The Heart Of Texas " is called "Sleazy Roadside Stories", a retro-release by Relix, 1988. It was recorded about the same time, has no duplicates, and has a (live) version of "Hot Rod Lincoln".

There is also a rare Australian release under another title. Look for a CD that starts with "Blue Suede Shoes".

Toni Brown, I believe, was part of Relix management. Relix also offered lots of un-released recordings of Hot Tuna, New Rider of the Purple Sage and Kingfish.

Subject: RE: Remember Commander Cody
From: GUEST,Songbob
Date: 27 May 10 - 01:10 PM

I recall a double-bill in a Georgetown, DC club with Commander Cody and Kaleidoscope (I think). Jon Eberhart went backstage to introduce himself between sets, and ended up on piano for the second set. I went because I was a Kaleidoscope fan, but came away a fan of both bands. I have a couple of their LPs, if I can still find 'em (don't ask about the condition of the room with the LPs in it -- it also has my other instruments when they're not being used, so getting to the shelves of LPs is not an easy task), but didn't follow them as much as I did some other groups.

And Bill Kirchner is a gentleman of the first water, for true. He ran an open mike at a local club, and put up with a lot of people I wouldn't have, including me.

Bob

Subject: RE: Remember Commander Cody
From: clueless don
Date: 28 May 10 - 08:56 AM

Severn, it is possible (though I don't know) that that book to which you refer (i.e. the Geoffrey Stokes book) contains a great quote that I believe I heard attributed to one of the band members of Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen. The quote (at least approximately):

It's a shame to sell out and not get bought.


Don