5a) In Which More Cowbell is Needed...

4a1) SNL - More Cowbell

4a2a) ...and in which Will Farrell gives one of his great unhinged performances, Jimmy Fallon cracks up halfway through, Horatio Sanz gives his "I'm just lucky to be here" performance, and Cristopher Walken tries to keep the whole thing going.

4a2b) Which is all to say the skit itself is not that good. The concept is hilarious, especially to classic rock fans (see next item), but what saves it is that no one can really hold it together once things really get going. SNL often operates more on charm than actual comedic chops, and this is a prime example. One that never gets old. 

4a2c) And like a true music geek, I have to point out that Bruce Dickinson's (he, the lead singer of Iron Maiden, and fencer of Olympic medalists), first production credit was in 1984, nearly ten years after Blue Öyster Cult's "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" was released. Arguably putting them in the influence seat, not the other way around. But then, you knew that. And so did whomever wrote the script. 

4a) Daily Zen

4a1)  Lee Hazlewood and Suzi Jane Hokum "Sand" The Very Special World Of Lee Hazlewood (1966)

4a2) One of the better subtle sex songs. While the metaphors may not be subtle, the intertwining vocals, the backing vocal sighs, and the rhythmic strumming produce a hypnotic simulation within the style of the time. Just another example of Lee Hazlewood's unique genius. 

This version is better than the Hazlewood/Sinatra version, recorded later. The slower tempo of Hokum's version, and her far more seductive vocals round off the Spector-ish wall of sound pop of the Sinatra version. While I love a good sitar, it feels added on, and does little to make up for the sex-stoned atmosphere of the Hokum version. 

4a) Reprise

 

  4a1) Can "Vitamin C" Ege Bamyasi (1972)

 

4a2) 24-Carat Black "24-Carat Black (Theme)" Ghetto: Misfortune's Wealth (1973) 

4a3) In a bit of a who made who mystery, this is a stunning coincidence. It is unlikely that Can made it to Dale Warren's turntable as he was putting together Ghetto: Misfortune's Wealth. Was anyone outside of Europe listening to Ege Bamyasi in 1973? Even in the 70's, I would assume there was a crew of global heads that had knowledge, access, and the wherewithal to grab up the oddities coming out of Germany, and Europe at large. 

I don't know that anyone would know the "true" story. But the similarities between the two songs are enough that it would be an odd coincidence if both groups stumbled across a similar rhythm, and then built a song out of it. That is, unless there was something in the ether of a more nascent form.

4a4) DJ Food's loop of 24-Carat Black pointed me to the similarities when I mistook it for a Can sample. 

4aWTF?) Just in case someone needs a copyright defense.

3a) Daily Zen

3a) Yoshio Okada Surfer Girl (1974)

3a) Daily Zen

3a) Andreas Cellarius – Harmonia Macrocosmica

3a) Daily Zen

 

3a) Mother Mary Speaks to Me

4a) Daily Zen

5a) Daily Zen

5a1) Sean Connery in Zardoz (1974)

 

5a2) Zardoz (1974) Trailer, Director: John Boorman 

Zardoz is a 1974 Irish-American science fantasy film written, produced, and directed by John Boorman and starring Sean Connery and Charlotte Rampling, and featuring Sara Kestelman. The film, Connery's second post-James Bond role—after The Offence—was shot by cinematographer Geoffrey Unsworth on a budget of US$1.57 million as it depicts a future world where a stone image called "Zardoz" instructs the "Brutals" to kill each other for eternal life. 

 5a3) Zardoz forces us into a muted state of cognitive dissonance, a background hum of confusion and disbelief that intensifies the longer we watch. How did this thing ever get made? And yet it was made. It’s right there in front of us. The images are flickering over the screen: Connery’s ponytail sways across his back; a handlebar moustache frames his grinning mouth; the BDSM gear he’s wearing is very real. Was taking on this project some grotesque fit of hubris? A senseless cry for help? Or is the man a genius? 

Why you should watch “Zardoz” at Sci-fi-o-Rama

4a) Daily Zen

 

4a) Model 500 "Sound of Stereo" 1987

5a) Captain, I think I see somethi—!

4a) Daily Zen

4a1) Metal Fingers "Black Snake Root," Special Herbs Vol. 5 & 6

 

4a2) Boz Scaggs "Lowdown," Silk Degrees

5a) A Tale of Two Bills

 

5a1) Brain Dead (1990) trailer

5a2) Where else can you get two Bills for the price of one? Not to mention, Bud Cort and George Kennedy as a bonus gift! Although, by the end, you may have buyer's remorse. Caveat emptor!

3a) Daily Zen

3a1) The Eye of Silence Max Ernst (1943)

3a2) Ernst was one of the first artists to apply The Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud to investigate his deep psyche in order to explore the source of his own creativity. The pervading artistic strategy in Max Ernst's oeuvre is to recycle visual material and combine it into new imageries. While turning inwards unto himself, Ernst was also tapping into the universal unconscious with its common dream imagery.

www.max-ernst.com

5a) Daily Zen

5a) Kareem Abdul-Jabbar vs Bruce Lee, Game Of Death (1978)

5a) Hip to It, Daddy-O!

5a1) Vera-Ellen and Gene Kelly in Words and Music (1948)

 

5a2) Original Theatrical Trailer

5a3) Full Dance Sequence from Slaughter on 10th Avenue, Words and Music (1948)

3a) Daily Zensunni

3a) Edited, as found on Reddit

6a) Parents

 

6a1a) Peanuts – April 17, 1973

6a1b) Full context: Peanuts April 1973 at Fandom

6a2) Charlie Brown's [hapless] baseball team at Fandom

6a3) All I ever needed to know about life I read in a Peanuts strip. Well, until I watched Seinfeld. Two great existentialist comedies that reveal profound truths about the absurd condition of modern humans.

I suppose it is not entirely surprising that the final panel has stuck in my head since my first reading...um, quite a while ago. If human life is absurd, what could be more absurd to a child than parents? Worse even, a group of parents. 

Maybe it's stretching fault laying a bit to say the world's ills could be laid to a group of parents getting together. But as another Mother's Day has passed, and a Father's is in the offing, an act of of compassion in the awareness that children grow to be parents, grandparents, and if they are lucky, great-grandparents. 

Just one more absurdity in this experience of irony we call human life.  

6a) Daily Zen

5a1a) Jack Kirby – Silver Surfer

5a1b) Fantastic Four #50 (1961) at Marvel

5a1c) The Greatest Silver Surfer Stories Ever Told! at CBR

5a2) 100 by Jack Kirby at Biblioklept

3a) Savage