OS#80 - The Real NITTY GRITTY

Hello again. Prof Mikey in the Old School. This is the place for the intro, and this show is no different. Most podcasters will use this time to show you how casual they are, introduce all their sidekicks, and reflect on a news story they saw on Entertainment Tonight. I’m fine with all that but this show is very different.

As regular listeners have figured out, I wandered in from the world of old radio. As a DJ I was told to keep it short, give an honest relate, introduce a song and shut up.

There are far fewer rules in podcasting than when you are on the radio. Radio is all about a target audience, podcasts are hoping someone on a desert island gets your mp3 in a bottle, then has something charged up so they can play it. Suppose all that happens with some shipwrecked soul in the middle of the Pacific.

The listener sits out there like Tom Hanks playing with his Wilson, and somehow they didn’t get the part about giving you a like. Or taking out a free subscription.

Dancing The Nitty Gritty on Ed Sullivan and year before the Beatles hit the stage.

No catch. No getting on some kind of nut list. No bother. No hasty pudding. You get an Old School email from Professor Mikey every couple of weeks. No come ons. No politics. No soliscitations. No Columbia Record club, although 12 records for 10 cents still seems like a pretty good deal.

Yeah, mmm, yeah
Do you know that some folks know about it, some don't
Some will learn to shout it, some won't
But sooner or later baby, here's a ditty
Say you're gonna have to get right down to the real nitty gritty
Now let's get right on down to the nitty gritty
Now one, two nitty gritty
Now yeah, mmm, nitty gritty now
Ooooowee, right down to the real nitty gritty
Ooooowee, can you feel it double beatin', I keep repeatin
Get right down to the real nitty gritty
Say it again double beatin'
Get on down, we gotta get right down to the real nitty gritty
Let's get, let's get right on down to the real nitty gritty
It's all right, it's all right
Get on down, get on down
Get right down to the real nitty gritty
Listen to me now
Oooowee, ooowee
Come on and let the good times roll
Let the music sink down in to your soul
Double beatin', keep repeatin'
You gotta get right down to the really nitty gritty
Get on down, get on down
Talkin' about the nitty gritty
Get on down, get on down

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Lincoln Chase

The Nitty Gritty lyrics © Music Sales Corporation

But enough about the good times. Old School is an educational experience, and as such we can slip some good stuff in.

Last week was big fun, diving into the just below the surface semi underground of 1955. Way too old for modern audiences, but for those collecting, or trying to figure out whether to buy vinyl or food, or people remembering their Boomer childhood that never ended.

Anyway that show had a ton of stories and took hours to research. Here I am this week, it’s time to put together another chapter of Old School. But instead of a concentrated theme, this is more of an evolutionary show that will take shape as we go along. Think of it as the freeform radio of the early past when the DJ had to do a Sunday afternoon shift, and just start pulling records. It not as haphazard as that, there is a theme, and that theme is to get right down to the real Nitty Gritty. We lead off with Shirley Ellis and a bit of a dance number from 1963, then try to follow it with music from all over the stacks. The only thing these songs have in common is that, at least to Professor Mikeys way of thinking, they get right down to the real nitty gritty. Or at least attempt to do so. Strip away the fluff, and contrived hooks, the sappy lyrics, but keep honesty and a good beat going. No charts, no ranking, mostly music that in its time could very well have been brought up on charges of telling the truth.

It is time for the chatting to start and the money to hit the jukebox. This is Old School episode number 80. The real Nitty Gritty.

Nitty Gritty - Shirley Ellis (1963)

The Jezebel Spirit - David Byrne & Brian Eno (1981)

Houses in Motion - Talking House (1980)

So houses represent a where, how, and what you live when establishing your own personal nitty gritty reality. A house, like your psyche, has a façade as well as an interior. The outside shows the world how you live, the inside is your own personal privacy., one corresponding to the public self and the other to the

private self. Forever Carl Jung, declared homemaking as the power metaphor for the integration of the personalites, “the way we attempt to bring our outer lives into harmony with our innermost desires.”

Talking Heads would fill Jung’s notebook, Rosey Clooney might have nailed down all metaphors, and Jimi was known for setting psychic guitars ablaze. Johnny Cash originated the line David Byrne was walking.

I Walk the Line - Johnny Cash & Snoop Dogg (2008)

This Old House - Rosemary Clooney (1954)

House Burning Down - The Jimi Hendrix Experience

The Friends of Mr. Cairo - Jon Anderson & Vangelis

Around the Dial- The Kinks

Reality - The Five Americans

Nobody But Me - The Human Beinz

Whatcha See is Whatcha Get - The Dramatics

Pure and Easy- Pete Townshend

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The past is a blast.

Mystery QR:

Dino is lost in a specific year. Help him find his way home!

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This podcast is produced for educational purposes. Any and all music heard in this program resides within the public domain, is licensed through the podcast carrier, or is used within the guidelines of fair use provided for in Section 107 of the copyright act of 1976.