The ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour (123)

Thank you for joining us today.

Before our feature presentation, ACME would like to start the evening with another Bugs Bunny Looney Tunes cartoon, the 1944 Friz Freleng directed, Little Red Riding Rabbit (This is the first that Mel Blanc received a voice credit in a Looney Tunes title.):



Billy Bletcher also voiced the Big Bad Wolf in the Disney's Three Little Pigs cartoons.


June 1, 1967 -
It was 52 years ago today, Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play (although, upon further thought, it would actually be 72 years today; it was 20 years on the date the album was released.) The Beatles officially released their new album and was certified "gold" on the same day of release. Please join The ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour in celebrating this seminal album. First up, a 1992 BBC South Bank Show featuring Melvin Bragg about the making of the album.



Because of the perceived fading popularity of the group, the Beatles manager Brian Epstein and their label EMI put pressure on George Martin and the band to release a "can't-miss" hit single. Caving in to the pressure, two of the first three songs from the Sgt. Pepper sessions were released as a double A-side single: Strawberry Fields Forever and Penny Lane. As was the practice at the time with singles, those two classic songs weren't included on the album. Martin later said that listening to Epstein and EMI in this instance was "the biggest mistake" of his professional life.


I'm guess we could all use a break, right about know. So you can run into the kitchen and get a beverage refill or run into the bathroom and replenish the eco-system, while we watch another somewhat Red Riding Hood-related short, the 1945 Tex Avery directed (and produced by MGM,) Swing Shift Cinderella -



The musical number which Cinderella performs in the nightclub is billed in the episode as "Oh, Wolfie!" This is a spin-off of the popular song "Oh, Johnny! Oh Johnny! Oh!" by The Andrews Sisters with a slight alteration in some of the lyrics.


Welcome back to The ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour and as you remember we're celebrating the release of Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by watching some of documentaries about the making of the album. Next up, the The film was produced by the BBC and PBS for the 50th anniversary of the release of the album, Sgt Peppers Musical Revolution So sit back, relax and enjoy our second feature.



The album is as famous for its cover as its music. Following the concept of the first two songs, where The Beatles take the form of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Ringo sings With A Little Help From My Friends as Billy Shears, the striking collage shows the costumed group surrounded by likenesses of 58 different people, including Bob Dylan, Karl Marx and Marlon Brando. Pull out you album and look for Shirley Temple, three different times.


We're going to test your stamina with a third special in a moment. So once again you can run into the kitchen and get a beverage refill, run into the bathroom and replenish the eco-system, or smoke 'em if you got 'em, while we watch on of the classic Beatles references in cartoons -



The Beatles themselves reportedly did not care for the Beatles cartoon series. They were also less than enthusiastic about the idea of Brodax and Dunning doing a feature film. However, they changed their minds about the feature film when they began seeing completed footage from Yellow Submarine. (John Lennon later admitted that he "got a blast" out of watching reruns of the old cartoons.)


Sgt Pepper topped the charts all over the world, holding the number one slot in Britain for 27 weeks and for 19 in America. It received four Grammys including Best Album. Ok, if you're game for it we have one more thing to listen to - there have been a lot of tribute albums honoring this classic. We here at The ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour believe that one of the best is Easy Star's Lonely Hearts Dub Band. If you are familiar with the band you are in for a treat. Easy Star All Star is a reggae group that is known for creating fantastic tribute albums for bands as diverse as Radiohead and Pink Floyd. So join us in listening to this wonderful album.



As we've said before, the album is a strange mix of songs about drug use, contrasting personae of the songwriters, heroin injection, teenage runaways, circuses (yeah right, more drug use), deep introspection, aging, amorous traffic enforcement agents and the mundane things in life, among other things. So why not remix it as a reggae album.



Demand Euphoria!