From the Couch Hole: When I’m Feeling Slow, You Gimme Rock ‘n Roll

Previously on FTCH, seasons come, seasons go for Marty Supreme during adolescence. It was time to get Shorty and some Skittles Gummies Fuego. This week started with the air conditioning on and ended with Fern dumping ice and snow on us for our bi-annual Winter Event here in Texas. It serves to remind me that slowing down to read and rest isn’t a terrible thing. This week I saw the Christmas invasion from the high window. I got the Brasher doubloon and time to kill for the cake bites. Remember, this episode of FTCH is made possible by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Pop Culture Ephemera

• Raymond Chandler – The High Window (1942) (Published by Alfred A. Knopf): “That would bother me like two per cent of nothing at all.” The third Phillip Marlowe novel finished my trilogy of Chandler hard-boiled detective novels for 2025. By 1942, Chandler was telling slightly less complicated stories but still peppered them with a complex set of characters. Marlowe is hired by the widow Murdock to find a rare coin, the Brasher Doubloon, that she says has been stolen by her son’s estranged wife. The story has Marlowe’s usual run-ins with the local police, and it’s not a case unless bodies start showing up around him. Chandler’s attention to describing scenes and people is as iconic as his unique metaphors. I almost feel like he adds locations and new characters just so he can stop the story for four pages to describe a room or the way a man holds his cigarette. I find his novels best read as a chapter at a time like a short story. This novel had a nice flow until it slows to a complete halt with Marlowe going on for pages to explain how it all fits together. I thought I needed that explanation, but yet in the experience of getting it, I wish the book had just left it to my imagination.

Buy The High Window

• Doctor Who – “The Christmas Invasion” (XMAS) (BBC) (2005): “From the day they arrive on the planet, blinking, step into the sun, there is more to see than can ever be seen, more to do than – no, hold on. Sorry, that’s The Lion King…” – The Doctor. This episode starts what will become a tradition of Christmas episodes. Other than Eccleston, the past few Doctors had suffered from some sickness as they regenerated. This non-numbered episode serves as a good bridge from the Ninth to Tenth Doctor. David Tennant was the Doctor who sent me down this hole. I was a fan growing up, I really started to develop an interest in following it weekly with Eccleston, and it was Tennant’s Doctor that put me on this path where I’m happy to have watched over 700 episodes with over a hundred to go.
  
  Sylvester McCoy and Paul McGann regenerated with amnesia. This regeneration is closer to Tom Baker’s who hit the ground already in character. David Tennant is out of commission for much of the episode, which lets Rose (Billie Piper) continue to shine as she has the past few episodes. Her emotional journey as a Companion has completely changed the show over the last 20 years. When Tennant is at full energy, he is charismatic and has a great sense of humor. Importantly, what we see here is a hint at his dark side when he turns on Harriet Jones. This is a great episode because it establishes that the Companion and Doctor will operate more as a team than superhero and sidekick. Just hearing Tennant’s accent filled me with new energy to go through the rest of the series.

Buy Doctor Who: The Complete David Tennant Collection

• Labi Siffre – “I Got The” (from Remember My Song) (1975): “All I have to do is get to you / And then I feel just fine.” Funk was on an upward trajectory in 1975 after a great year in 1974. Labi Siffre had been releasing albums since 1970, but they had been more in the soul, jazz, poetry vein. This is the first song on the first side of his 1975 release. It announces a funkier side of the man, but lyrically, it’s still that of a poet. This song disappeared for decades, until a famous sample (see below) and the usage of this version in shows like Better Call Saul. The famous breakbeat in the middle of the song is Chas Hodges on guitar and Dave Peacock on bass. The two would release albums in the U.K. and tour for years as Chas and Dave.

• Time to Kill (1942) (Directed by Herbert Leeds): “Well, business is really picking up when the worm comes to the early bird.” – Michael Shayne. This adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s The High Window (1942) takes the Phillip Marlowe book and brings it out as the seventh (and final) film in the Michael Shayne series at Fox starring Lloyd Nolan. The character would have five more films released with Hugh Beaumont as the Shayne character. Shayne is much more self deprecating in his humor and approach to solving the case. He takes the “hard” out of “hard-boiled detective.” The film is a classic B-movie, in that it runs just barely over an hour. Taking 240 pages of complex plot and fitting it into an hour is complicated. They necessarily drop characters and subplots. The one thing they kept was the film coming to a complete stop for Shayne to explain all the stuff they left out at the end of the film. I’m not sure I would have had any idea what was happening if I hadn’t read the book. I wouldn’t go out of your way to track this down, but I’m curious about watching more of the Shayne films with Nolan.

• The Brasher Doubloon (1947) (Directed by John Brahm): “You better go easy on that whiskey, Miss Davis. That sounded like a direct answer to a direct question.” – Phillip Marlowe. Five years later was the second adaptation of The High Window (1942). This time it’s actually Phillip Marlowe, with George Montgomery portraying him much closer to the book character. The story maintains more elements of the book, but it’s still a film that’s just barely over an hour. The complex story of the book is almost simplified to the point of being understandable. I said “almost.” It suffers the same fate as the previous adaptation in that it stops all the action to show a film (a film within a film takes the place of the photo in the book) and explain all the things they didn’t have time to show us. This is much better and I’d like to see a longer version with the George Montgomery version of Marlowe. They should have given him more of the great Marlowe lines from the book.
  

Buy The Brasher Doubloon

Best of the Rest

• In 1999, hip hop was finishing an incredible decade of blowing up from a genre that didn’t get airplay on radio and television to appearing all day on MTV, on pop radio stations, and all over film soundtracks and advertising. Eminem was releasing his second album, but the song “My Name Is” was his big coming-out party. The Dr. Dre interpolation of the Labi Siffre song “I Got The” sounded as fresh as it did in 1975. Including name checks of artists and stars known to the MTV audience made this, in many ways, the first album of the 2000’s.

• People forget that Labi Siffre’s “I Got The” made a sampling debut before Eminem’s “My Name Is.” Jay-Z sampled it on “Streets Is Watching” on his 1997 album In My Lifetime, Vol. 1. He doesn’t interpolate it like Eminem but uses a true sample of the song instead of the most famous break. Listening to this again, I’m always amazed that Jay-Z sort of carved out a huge career outside of whatever else was happening in the genre. That’s a thought for another day, but listen to this and think how it could just as easily be a single from 1993, 1997, 2007 or 2013. The video comes from his 1998 documentary The Streets Is Watching which is really more of a string of music videos that are linked by Jay-Z walking around the city from what I remember.

• The next best thing you can get to a “Coming Soon to FTCH” is seeing that there is an Agatha Christie miniseries on Netflix. Casting that includes Helena Bonham Carter and Martin Freeman is enough for me to watch this almost sight unseen. I allowed myself to watch the trailer, hoping it to be spoiler free. I will report back after watching it, but I’m as excited about this as any other release this January.

Sunday Morning Tuneage Flashback

• Sunday Morning Tuneage from 2/7/2010, it was Super Sunday. The boys had both won their basketball games; Caleb’s with just two seconds remaining. Super Bowl XLIV was my least anticipated, although I may have had some more of those since. The Saints would beat the Colts in a very forgettable game. I was unimpressed with the post-game show, Undercover Boss (CBS) and predicted the show would never last. That Friday would start the Winter Olympics Opening Ceremonies on NBC and my television would be glued to the NBC family of channels for a couple of weeks. My Top Ten of the Week is one that I’ve had plenty of time to reconsider since, including a full year in 2022 of listening to over 350 albums from 1972.
  
  My #77 Top TV Show of All-Time was Bakersfield P.D. (Fox) (1993-1994): I wouldn’t disqualify this show because there were only 17 episodes. It benefited from my fading memory of a show I had loved and not seen in 14 years at that point. A strong cast of Ron Eldard, Brian Doyle Murray, and Giancarlo Esposito made this a great cutting edge comedy. FOX never did know what to do with these shows. It suffered from terrible promotion and bad time slots. It would later air on TRIO and validate my love of the show. It deserves respect for laying the groundwork for shows like Arrested Development (FOX). I just don’t imagine that it would reclaim such a prime spot in the rankings if done today.
  
• TOP TEN ALBUMS RELEASED IN 1972 (2010)
  • 10. The Rolling Stones – Exile on Main Street
  • 9. Van Morrison – Saint Dominic’s Preview
  • 8. Paul Simon – Paul Simon
  • 7. Steely Dan – Can’t Buy a Thrill
  • 6. Funkadelic – America Eats Its Young
  • 5. Neil Young – Harvest
  • 4. James Brown – Get on the Good Foot
  • 3. Elton John – Honky Chateau
  • 2. Stevie Wonder – Talking Book
  • 1. David Bowie – Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars
    
• TOP TEN ALBUMS RELEASED IN 1972 (2025)
  • 10. Yes – Close to the Edge: They had their breakout with Fragile and the very end of 1971. Not content, they released one of the pinnacles of prog rock the very next year. This is one of the handful of albums you give to people who say “Why prog rock?”. Best song: “Close to the Edge.”
  • 9. Elton John – Honky Chateau: In retrospect, this is the first truly Elton-sounding Elton John album. The production, the piano, and the storytelling are all in place. Best song: “Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters.”
  • 8. Al Green – I’m Still in Love with You and Let’s Stay Together: Unlike the Stevie Wonder entries later on, these two albums probably make one very stellar album. I’m giving Al Green credit for continuing to put out quality albums at an amazing pace. His country music influence makes him singular in his corner of the soul genre. Best song: “Love and Happiness” and “Let’s Stay Together.”
  • 7. Funkadelic – America Eats Its Young: Bootsy Collins makes his P-Funk debut and everything would change again. Best song: “Loose Booty.”
  • 6. Black Sabbath – Vol. 4: The group is heavy in every definition of the word. This will always be a defining moment in the genre. You start here to learn the vocabulary of what it means to be heavy metal. Best song: “Under the Sun.”
  • 5. The Rolling Stones – Exile on Main St.: I can argue that it’s their best, and I can argue that the double album could be tightened up to one of the best single albums ever. It’s got a feel of an album by a group that is only concerned with making music they love instead of predictable hits. Best song: “Rocks Off.”
  • 4. Curtis Mayfield – Superfly Soundtrack: Mayfield’s third solo album finishes off an incredible journey in his post-Impressions career. Each album builds until this soundtrack shows off a mature vision of how soul, funk, and political commentary could all come together. A better soundtrack than film in quality and sales. Best song: “Pusherman.”
  • 3. Stevie Wonder – Music of My Mind and Talking Book: I’m going to cheat a little bit here again since both of these albums (released in March and October respectively) would make the Top Ten. Motown had given Stevie complete control of his albums and he proved that to be a brilliant move. Stevie was 22. Best song: “I Love Every Little Thing About You” and “Maybe Your Baby.”
  • 2. David Bowie – The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars: A cool title, a wonderful album cover, and it feels like you are dropped into the middle of a complex story. Each song is like a chapter of a book that you have been meaning to read. Ziggy and Bowie are one and the same. That’s until Ziggy’s dead, and Bowie becomes the Thin White Duke. Best song: “Moonage Daydream.”
  • 1. Neil Young – Harvest: It’s an album that I obsessed on through just about all of 1988 when I finally bought a copy. It was everywhere with me that year. It would give him his only #1 single ever with “Heart of Gold.” The ranking is questionable because there are a few low points (“A Man Needs a Maid”) but the high points are so good that I feel good about this ranking. Best song: “The Needle and the Damage Done.”

Buy Neil Young – Harvest 50th Anniversary

1976 in Review

• January – Superman #295 (DC Comics): Cover by Bob Oksner. Written by Elliott Magin. Art by Curt Swan. “But according to that time-screen, civilization will be destroyed by a mysterious natural disaster… About a century in the future!” – Superman. The villain, Father Time, is really a Green Lantern from the future. These time-travel things were best left to the other books. I probably didn’t buy this off the newsstand once I realized it was about the future.
• January 19 – Jimmy Carter, the governor of Georgia, won the Iowa Democratic Caucus. He doubled that of Birch Bayh, a Senator from Indiana. This might turn out to be a big year for the peanut farmer.
• January 27 – The ninth and final ABA All-Star game is held in Denver. Conveniently, the Denver Nuggets are in 1st place and they will play against the ABA All-Stars of the rest of the league. The Nuggets would win 144-138. David Thompson (DEN) would score 29 points as the game MVP. The game is noteworthy for the halftime dunk contest, the first of its kind. Dr. J (Julius Erving) would score 23 points in the game and win the dunk contest over Thompson, George Gervin, and Artis Gilmore. It would be until 1984 before the NBA brought it back. Pre-game entertainment was provided by Glen Campbell and Charlie Rich.

What the Hell Did I Put in My Mouth?

“Just a lonely soul slowly dying
I was smiling hard but I was lying
Then you sailed along with your sweet dream
When you stole my heart …I was living” – Labi Siffrie